Tips & Tricks On Taking A Good Character Reference Photo

Hello Kickstarter backers, and welcome to the invasion!

This tutorial details the first step in your transformation into “in-universe” character for the Clan
Invasion Kickstarter! This applies if you chose either the CANON CHARACTER add-on, or are a GALAXY
COMMANDER or above backer. In my experience, becoming part of the BattleTech universe can be one
of the most fun achievements any player can experience. This tutorial is directly targeted at one of the
most critical parts of the process – making your character look cool!

<…cue ominous music and dramatic lighting…>

I’ve got a fantastic lineup of veteran artists ready to bring your character to life, but it all starts with
getting a quality reference image. A low-resolution image of yourself from high school may leave you
wondering why the character doesn’t look like you. Likewise, a photo of a sunny, happy moment with
you smiling…is pretty much the opposite of what elite warriors on the battlefields of the Inner Sphere
would look like.

What I’m saying is that–as crazy as it sounds—the first step in getting yourself canonized into BattleTech
lore is this tutorial on taking a proper selfie.

As with most things, there are tricks to making the character look like the person being referenced. The
challenge when creating a character image is to capture the essence of the person being referenced,
make them visually interesting, and then make that combo belong within the universe of BattleTech.
Thankfully, there is an actual formula for crafting a kick-ass character image:

Expression + Resolution + Camera Angle + Lighting – Background = Awesomeness

Let’s start with some excellent examples of character art done by the legendary Alex Iglesias:
As you can tell, each character looks like they are thinking about something. We don’t need to know
what, but we do need to know these characters have minds, personalities and the internal fortitude to
withstand the crucible of warfare in the 31st century. We should be able to read that in their Expression.
So when you take your photo, try and channel your inner turmoil and get into the mind of a
MechWarrior who has seen the ravages of ’Mech-scale destruction and stands defiant in the face of the
enemy. You should look thoughtful and determined. At all costs, you avoid looking like a goober.

(Goober photo – definitely NOT a battle-hardened veteran MechWarrior)

No one wants to look like blank-faced cadet with a bland expression—or, Blake forbid, a happy, goofy
one.

Next up in the formula is Resolution. Nothing is worse that asking for reference images and getting
someone’s blurry, low-resolution high school yearbook picture. No one looks good in those (even
certifiable bad-asses) and the details in low resolution are terrible (see below for proof.)

Nicholas Cage Brad Pitt Chris Pratt

Thankfully, most phone cameras produce better quality photos than most cameras from our High School
eras, so go ahead and use your phones to take a character-portrait-worthy image of yourself.

Which brings us to the next secret ingredient to the mix: an interesting Camera Angle. The key to this is
the angle of the camera to your face. You don’t want your whole face to be looking straight at the
camera. Whether you choose to hold the camera at eye level and use your neck to look in a slightly
altered direction, or hold your head straight and put the camera slightly above or below and/or to the
side a bit, the effect you are going for is to simply avoid the face looking straight at the camera (like
Nicholas Cage’s image above.) If you look at Alex’s character images above, even the top middle
character has the camera at a slight low angle looking up at his face. Slight angles are good and easy to
achieve.

Last up in the mix is dramatic Lighting. The trick to creating dramatic lighting is to add shadows
(seriously.) Once you’ve got your smoldering not-blank expression, all it takes is a dose of harsh side-
lighting and suddenly you’re a moody, edgy, interesting character.

What I recommend is to take a camera and several flashlights into the bathroom (not a sentence I write
often), and then turn off the lights. Use anywhere from one to three flashlights held at side angles to
create interesting shadows across your face, then make an unhappy face of some kind and start taking
pictures in the mirror. Have fun with it, take a whole bunch, and experiment with holding the lights and
camera in different places to create a cool overall effect. Don’t worry about taking too many pics—these
are really just reference fodder for the artist to use in making a cool image so don’t worry about being
self-conscious. You’re just giving the artists something to work with.

As an example, here are the pics I took for my own character image as one of the Jade Falcon pilots for
MechWarrior Tactical Command:
Most are total crap, but they serve to show an artist what I actually look like, and there were a couple
which you could tell might actually work well for a character image.

From there I put the best image into Photoshop as an underpainting for the final character illustration
which was used in the game.
The last element of the equation is the thing we take away: the Background. You’ll see from the
reference images above that, after the first few, I hung a blank sheet behind me. This allowed me to
quickly and easily select the background (in Photoshop) and delete it (much like how green screens are
used in Hollywood special effects.) If you’ve got anything other than a blank wall behind you in your
bathroom reference photos, I recommend you do the same. For what it’s worth, I recommend against
using towels to cover the background because they have too much texture to easily select. Light-colored
blank sheets work better.

That completes the recipe for creating awesome character images!

If you want to go above and beyond and use props and costume elements to cosplay your character, by
all means, go for it. I’ve included a whole bunch of character images below from BattleTech’s past to
help inspire you.

Lastly, I recognize that some of you will wish us to create characters who are not you, or which
reference someone for whom you cannot provide the full photo reference as described above. In that
case, just go ahead and submit whatever photo reference you can find for a person who fits your vision
for the character. My artists are amazing and would be happy to bring your character to life for you,
even if that person is not you. Rest assured, we’ve got you covered. :0)

So that’s it. Welcome to the invasion, MechWarriors. And THANK YOU for joining us in bringing the Clan
Invasion Box set to life at last! I look forward to facing off against you on tabletop battlefields in the
future…

Thus shall it stand, until we all shall fall.

-Brent

Brent Evans
Senior Art Director & BattleTech Line Developer – Catalyst Game Labs

(Scroll down for more pilot character images from BattleTech’s past…)