Colored Champions Pics

[Acroyear II]

This question is for Steve Long:

Will Hero Games be offering those great new color pics of heroes and villains that are now appearing on this website (in the sidebars) as free downloads? I'm sure I'm not the only Champions fan who would love to download these great color pics.

Any chance of this happening?

Acroyear II

[Hermit]

I'd like to second that request.

:)

[Blue]

No good deed goes unpunished.
I wouldn't mind having these too :)

[Tim]

Add another to the requestees please.

[Kara Zor-El]

Originally posted by Tim
Add another to the requestees please.

Hoo Hah!! A bandwagon! Always wanted to jump on one! :D

*Ahem*

Yes, I agree with my esteemed colleagues in their desire to see downloadable files of the colored artwork made available. Please, add my name to the petition, as it were.

[winterhawk]

As long as there is a colored pic of Ankylosaur in the file, count me in.

[Enforcer84]

I am so counted in here!

[Captain Photon]

Count me in!

Please, Please, Please O Great And Mighty Mr Long!

[Scott Destroyer]

Hello!


Originally Posted by Acroyear II:
I'm sure I'm not the only Champions fan who would love to download these great color pics.

[David Spade]
It's called "Save Picture As"...look into it...
[/David Spade]

;)

Yeah, it'd be nice to have them full-sized, and all laid out so as not to depend on the luck of the "Refresh", but even in their current form they do look suitable for pasting onto the back of an index card with the character's stats summarized on the front...

And the coloring really is beautifully done, a VERY nice job. Dr. Silverback especially impresses me - somebody's definitely got the mad artistic skillz.

I was so hoping to get the Anubis one when I opened the "Egyptian Villains" thread, but, alas, I was denied...

And finally, there are a couple of the pics I don't recognize - a purple guy in a dark blue vest buttoned down his right side, with a staff in one hand and a holstered pistol lanyarded to his opposite wrist, and a cartoony-looking green dinosaur guy (who kinda resembles Son of Godzilla). Any help for me out there on these two?


Originally Posted by winterhawk:
As long as there is a colored pic of Ankylosaur in the file, count me in.

Haven't seen him yet, alas, but I may have just been unlucky with the Refreshes. There are some other nice classics you might like, though - Armadillo, Foxbat, Grond, Mechanon, Pulsar, and many more. And who knows who they may yet add to the mix? :) (I'm hoping to eventually see more of the Omega-class list myself.)

Again, excellent pictures! 'Bye!

[Bill_CCHKK]

Originally posted by Scott Destroyer
And finally, there are a couple of the pics I don't recognize - a purple guy in a dark blue vest buttoned down his right side, with a staff in one hand and a holstered pistol lanyarded to his opposite wrist, and a cartoony-looking green dinosaur guy (who kinda resembles Son of Godzilla). Any help for me out there on these two?

I'm not sure about the purple guy, but the 'Son of Godzilla' character is 'Leviathan' from Digital Hero #4.

While I'm here, I would also like to see the pictures downloadable from the website. Yes, you can do a 'Save As', but it puts part of a blue oval over the legs. Obviously, these guys were colored and then the oval composited over the legs to fit in with the website background. I'd like to see the original version.

IMHO, of course,

[JmOz]

The other guy I beleive is "Star*Guard" or what ever the GL clones are called (Both are from Digital Hero...and why don't you have a subscription yet?)

[Scott Destroyer]

Hi again,

Leviathan and Star*Guardian, eh? Cool; thanks for the 411. Gotta love fellow Hero fans! :)

Star*Guardian was actually my best guess for the purple guy (who's conveniently showed up in the sidebar of this reply page), what with the staff and all, but I'd read the current one is human, and this dude's purple. Also hadn't heard he was packing heat... :)

Hmm...little trip to the "Properties" dialog to grab the URL, and here's a link to the picture in question (http://www.herogames.com/images/sideart1019.jpg), in case it hasn't popped up in a window for you yet, and you were just working from my quick description above.

And yeah, no denying that complete pictures would be nice, be even what we have now seems Pretty Darn Cool to me. Just think, one day we'll all be telling the grandkids, "Yes, I remember when Hero Games only had Defender's picture in their Web page sidebar - that was in the early days, years before they bought out WotC and Games Workshop..." :D


Posted by JmOz:
Both are from Digital Hero...and why don't you have a subscription yet?

I prefer the convenience of paper for my periodicals - old fashioned, I know, but it's just so portable.

Anyway, thanks again for the info! :)

[schir1964]

Ditto

[Monolith]

Well when you guys catch up to the 21st century, let us know. :)

There is a lot of good stuff in DH, and if you are interested in the HERO Universe it is the best source for getting additional characters.

[BoloOfEarth]

Originally posted by Scott Destroyer

I prefer the convenience of paper for my periodicals - old fashioned, I know, but it's just so portable.


I agree as to preferring a paper copy, but I just use my handy-dandy Hewlett Packard subsidy from work to get my Digital Hero fix. (Kinda like the older Xerox subsidy.) I bring in a ream of paper once in a while to cover the paper used. I've done enough work at home to feel guilt-free over toner use, since they certainly aren't paying anything toward my home computer.

At 64 pages an issue (not counting covers), and you only like or use about half of that, it still comes out over 300 pages for $30. A little more if you add in paper and toner, but still a good deal. Plus you get to see the playtest stuff, which is a nice bonus.

[Nato]

Originally posted by Scott Destroyer

And the coloring really is beautifully done, a VERY nice job. Dr. Silverback especially impresses me - somebody's definitely got the mad artistic skillz.

Don't forget to give props to Chris Stevens who drew Dr. Silverback. He's got mad skillz. I just colored it, trying to stay in the lines as best I could. Big ups to JamMaster Chriznis.

[Storn]

I would like to say though... if you are going to use one of my illos (like Thorn or whatever his name is) I would prefer that you use my color version (if there is one...some I did do in gray only).

Not a knock against anyone's coloring, but well... every pic I do is my baby. It is simply proprietary emotion.

[Nato]

OH dude, completely understandable. Thorn was someone i colored for my own personal game and sent to Ben to check out a long time ago. That's pretty much what all of these were anyway. In fact, I REALLY don't want to be offending any of my fellow artists. So If anyone is bothered, PLEASE e-mail me. In fact, I'm sure Ben would rather have the artists original colors if that is the case with some of the pics. So my apologies if I've stepped on anyone's toes. Not my intention at all.

[Ben Seeman]

Storn,

If you want to send in colored versions of your art to replace any that Nate has done, please do so. :)

[Storn]

Oh... I wasn't offended at all. I just want a chance to show my color too.

Ben, I'll take you up on that. Leave Thorn there.... I think that was colored just fine... I can get you all of Eurostar in color... that sound good?

[bryanb]

So Steve...What's the story? Will Hero Games make these available in the dowload section or do we have to keep Refreshing with our fingers crossed?

Thanks

PS - love the colour pics:)

[Monolith]

Originally posted by bryanb
So Steve...What's the story? Will Hero Games make these available in the dowload section or do we have to keep Refreshing with our fingers crossed?
It took me about 10 minutes to get all the pictures. I did not think that was too bad, but I had time to kill. :)

[Scott Destroyer]

Hello,


Originally Posted by Nato:
Don't forget to give props to Chris Stevens who drew Dr. Silverback. He's got mad skillz. I just colored it, trying to stay in the lines as best I could. Big ups to JamMaster Chriznis.

No doubt. It's just like the big-name hard-copy comic books - when the art is good, it's kudos all 'round to pencilers, inkers, and colorists... :)

And the art on the other pieces was fine as well - it was just the intricate detail of the Doc's clothing with its floral pattern and the light-and-shadows among the rumpling that caught me. Between that sort of thing, and all the colors available on a computer, seems like you'd really need a "Prestige Format" book to show most of these pieces in all their glory in a paper comic.

[Jeff T.]

I've been begging for this some 6-8 months now.

YES, YES!! COLOR, COLOR!! PLEASE, PLEASE!!!

[Jeff T.]

Originally posted by Nato
Don't forget to give props to Chris Stevens who drew Dr. Silverback. He's got mad skillz. I just colored it, trying to stay in the lines as best I could. Big ups to JamMaster Chriznis.

Yes, but I must also add that you've done an awesome job with coloring these Nato. This really helps bring the Champions Universe to life. At least for me it does. :cool:

Now if we could only get rid of the annoying blue oval across the bottom.

[Enforcer84]

I can ad a me too here as well. Nato, Storn, and all involved, good show!

[Vondy]

Originally posted by Storn
I would like to say though... if you are going to use one of my illos (like Thorn or whatever his name is) I would prefer that you use my color version (if there is one...some I did do in gray only).

Not a knock against anyone's coloring, but well... every pic I do is my baby. It is simply proprietary emotion.

Storn, baby, when I've used one of your pics for my game (never in a distributable format or online) I even put your name and website in a caption under it. And your color work and black and white work is really cool (I don't care for grayscale).

[Vondy]

AND!!!

I would point out the Dream Pod 9 site does this with a lot of their color work - puts it up on their site with a fair use policy right on the page.

Steve, add me to the list.

[TheQuestionMan]

I know you trying to say you and us money steve and crew , but the essence of the Superhero FOUR COLOR . Please count me in .

Thanks for the great games and memories .

[Ben Seeman]

Originally posted by Storn
Oh... I wasn't offended at all. I just want a chance to show my color too.

Ben, I'll take you up on that. Leave Thorn there.... I think that was colored just fine... I can get you all of Eurostar in color... that sound good?

Bring it on, Storn. The more the merrier. :)

[Storn]

sent five down the pike.... I'll send more tonight or tomorrow (Have to convert from large publishable files)

[Hermit]

I've seen some of them already, looking good.



=============

*Blinks* Okay, we now have Seeker circa 4th Edition. Wow, that guy is harder to kill than Jason!

[Jeff T.]

Originally posted by Ben Seeman
Bring it on, Storn. The more the merrier. :)

YIPPEE!

[sbarron]

HEY!!! I just saw Seeker! What's up with that? You guys shouldn't tease me. It's just cruel.

[Nato]

Heh. I'ts an homage to everyone's favorite Australian Ninja.

[Jeff T.]

Originally posted by Nato
Heh. I'ts an homage to everyone's favorite Australian Ninja.

Old school characters. Cool. :cool:

Any plans to do the CKC Master Villains? Or the other Crowns of Krim, Oh Almighty Colormeister?

[Jeff T.]

Another pesky question if I may, Nato.

Do you do these by hand or use some type of image manipulation program? If you use a program, which one is it? Also, do you know of any online tutorials that can give instruction on how to colorize art such as you have done?

Thanks

[Nato]

Sorry to take so long getting back to you Starlord.

I plan on coloring most of the guys in CKC in time. And actually, a master villains WALLPAPER would be extremely cool. Maybe I'll work on that when I get some time.

As far as coloring goes, I do it all in Photoshop - as do most comic colorists. Painter is also an option, especially if you want certain natural effects. Other programs you could use include PaintShop Pro, Corel PhotoPaint, and a free program called GIMP. Basically, any program that has support for layers will help you meet your goal.

A brief synopsis of how the digital coloring process goes...

1) Scanning the artwork. Make sure you have it as clean as possible from stray pencil marks or smudges. As close to true black and white as you can get. Depending on the intended use of the artwork you will scan it at a certain resolution - usually referred to as DPI (dots per inch). Other tutorials can help you determine the best resolution to use.

2) Separating the line art. There are many ways to do this, but almost all of them include getting the line art to a separate layer and then coloring on a different layer. The easiest way for me is to use the multiply method. Multiply is a blending mode you can select that makes the lightest tones transparent and keeps the line in tact. The color layer is then set under the line layer and shows through under the line. Imagine drawing your lines on a sheet of acetate and then placing it on top of a paper that has color on it. There are more advanced applications of this method to be found in other tutorials, such as coloring the line to produce special effects.

3) Flat Coloring. Using a selection tool called the lasso or the magic wand, or the fill bucket, most colorists start by filling in areas with solid, flat colors. Those flat areas are then able to be selected easily for future steps

4) Rendering Shadows and Highlights. There are numerous methods or styles for this step. Some artists select a basic airbrush tool to apply shading and highlights. Others do strictly flat shading, also known as "cell shading" - similar in appearance to animation. Again others make selections or "cuts" with a lasso and then use the gradient to to transition from dark to light. Often the cuts overlap giving the shadows complexity and depth. Chris Stevens and many other professional comic coloring houes like Liquid use variations of this method.Many times all of the above techniques are combined. Oh, I've been using a lot of hard brushes with low transparency settings combined with gradients and airbrushing but that's a different story.

That's pretty much the essence of the process there. Some things I recommend picking up...

A graphic tablet, such as the Wacom Graphire or Intuos. www.wacom.com. This makes my life much easier, allowing me to color in a more natural manner. Don't know how anyone does any artwork digitally without one. Chris Stevens does his coloring via mouse. I'm not convinced that he isn't insane.

"Digital Prepress for Comic Books" - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0967542308/qid=1050961512/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-8455802-6773629?v=glance&s=books&n=507846. Addresses a lot of the nitty gritty regarding comic production (not art instruction) and has a nice section on digital coloring.

"Sketch" Magazine - http://www.bluelinepro.com/sketch.htm. Some nice art instruction specific to comics. Usually has a good article on coloring. Their online store has other books on digital coloring although I can't vouch for their quality.

Adobe Photoshop LE - If you can't afford the expensive professional version, Photoshop LE has a lot of the features you would need for basic coloring. $100 bucks by itself, but often comes with a scanner for free.

Links

Comic Colorists Unite! (http://www.comiccolors.com/index1.html)
Figma - Drawing Board (http://www.figma.com/howto/)
Polykarbon Tutorials (http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/index.htm)

Atarctic Press Online Store (http://www.antarctic-press.com/)

Prosthetic Aesthetic Tutorial (NICE!) (http://www.neoterranean.com/art/tutorial/coloring.html)

Learn some color theory! (http://www.epilogue.net/art/tech/socar_color/)

Hope that helps!

[Jeff T.]

Originally posted by Nato
Sorry to take so long getting back to you Starlord.

snip

Hope that helps!

Wow. You didn't have to go to so much trouble, but its certainly appreciated. :)

That should be a big help. Thanks bunches.

[Jeff T.]

Originally posted by Nato
I plan on coloring most of the guys in CKC in time. And actually, a master villains WALLPAPER would be extremely cool. Maybe I'll work on that when I get some time.


That would be awesome. I think including Kinetik in the Champions wallpaper would be neat, and coloring some more of the characters from CU and Champions as well, such as Talisman and Teleios.

Keep up the good work. :)

[Fry Daddy]

I have scanned and colored some of the pics (I just have MS Paint so the grayscale stuff I can;t do anything with). They aren't the quality of Nato or Storn's but they are better than nothing.



Nato or Storn: Is there something one could do with the paint program regarding the grayscale pics in the books? Just curious.

Thanks.

[Nato]

Greyscale is easily colored in Photoshop or any other program that uses layers and a similar blending mode to "Multiply." So MS Paint users are kinda outta luck there.

With greyscale art on a separate layer set to multiply you can just color underneath it. The thing to keep in mind is the darker the grey, the less color will show through. So lighter greyscale images work best. You can also paint over the top of the greyscale layer if you need color to show on a dark area.

[BarryB]

Originally posted by Nato
Greyscale is easily colored in Photoshop or any other program that uses layers and a similar blending mode to "Multiply."

<snip>

Oh my goodness! That's great! One of the problems I've had with the Character Templates that were put out by Hero Games a couple of years back was trying to color them in Paint Shop Pro. Now I know how to do it! Thanks, Nato!

[Nato]

Coolness, glad I could help!

[Tech]

Can't believe I missed this when I made my request in the Hero System Discussion section. That'd be the Sideart Constitution Request. Oh well. That's what I get for posting at work.

[Jeff T.]

Originally posted by Acroyear II
This question is for Steve Long:

Will Hero Games be offering those great new color pics of heroes and villains that are now appearing on this website (in the sidebars) as free downloads? I'm sure I'm not the only Champions fan who would love to download these great color pics.

Any chance of this happening?

Acroyear II

These pics are being discussed in about 3-4 different threads, but did this specific question actually get answered somewhere?

The full pics would be excellent.

[Enforcer84]

Not yet darnit.

[Monolith]

Originally posted by Enforcer84
Not yet darnit.
I do not think, at least at this point in time, that the official answer has changed from the last 2-3 times that Steve has answered the question about free artwork.

I do remember one of the news updates saying something about Ben working on a gallery, but that might just have been in regard to the side pictures we are seeing here. In any event, the fact that Steve or Darren has not answered any of the questions posed on all the artwork threads seems strange by itself. Steve is usually pretty quick to give you a definitive "yes" or "no."

[THE PATRIOT]

Originally posted by Nato
Greyscale is easily colored in Photoshop or any other program that uses layers and a similar blending mode to "Multiply." So MS Paint users are kinda outta luck there.

With greyscale art on a separate layer set to multiply you can just color underneath it. The thing to keep in mind is the darker the grey, the less color will show through. So lighter greyscale images work best. You can also paint over the top of the greyscale layer if you need color to show on a dark area.

NATO, as you can guess from other threads I've been basically teaching myself Photoshop. I started playing with the layers options and came up with this very technique you're talking about here. It's nice to know that I stumbled on a good method for coloring grey scaled artwork. I did one of Dr. Destroyer and the Armadillo drawings in CKC. I'm trying to find time to do the drawing of Dr. Destroyer from the FRED where his hand is touching keys from a holographic control panel. As much as I'm opposed to the grey scale artwork, once it's scanned into Photoshop and colored it does provide an interest texture to the colored artwork.

About this drawing tablet for your mac (you have a Mac right?) which one do you suggest? Yes, I've been mousing it for all this time. Yikes!

THE PATRIOT

[Nato]

Hey Patriot. Glad it's working out for you. Maybe you'll even come around to wonderful world of greyscale in time.

Heh. I'm a PC guy all the way. Mainly because of my gaming and hardware background. I like to build my own and stuff, which you can't really do with Macs. I've used Macs plenty but they're not my favorite thing to use, even for graphics. Plus, a high-end Pentium 4 with a nice 3D card like a GeForce 4 or a Radeon 97000 will easily hold it's own for graphics work. Whoops, I hope I didn't just spark a Mac vs. PC debate. :)

Man, just about any model of tablet by Wacom will do you good. The Graphire is a budget tablet, but I've been able to do anything I wanted to with it. At less than $100 it's a great deal. The Intous is the next model up. I've used the 12x12 size in school but it was too big for my tastes. You really have to move your arm around on that thing. With a smaller tablet you can flick your wrist and move across the screen instantly. But seriously, they ALL work great if they're by Wacom. Can't vouch for other brands.

[THE PATRIOT]

No Mac vs PC debate here. I just have a really good connection with somebody in a computer company that rhymes with Snapple who has set me up with all my goodies.

You mentioned about laying down two different tones of color and selecting the area they share and blending them together for tone. If I explained this correctly, could you explain where the blending tool or option is found?

Here's another interesting one question for Photoshop. Can you take scanned in line art and turn all the black outlines of the ink job and adjust them to another color...say red or something. I'm guessing Marvel must being doing something to this effect for the Human Torch, who has no artistic ink lines.

Thanks again,

THE PATRIOT

[Nato]

http://www.neoterranean.com/art/tutorial/coloring.html

The last page of that tutorial tells you exactly how to take the line art layer and color the lines like you ask about. It's pretty dang cool.

As far as your first question, I'm not sure I follow. You can change the layer belending mode (normal, multiply, screen, darken, lighten, saturation, etc...) in the layers pallete. Select the layer you want. At the top of the pallette you should see a drop down menu that lets you change the blending mode. By default it's at "normal."

Not sure that's what you want to know though. Perhaps we're misunderstanding each other. Photoshop is a hard thing to explain without pictures or someone at your computer showing you.

[schir1964]

Originally posted by THE PATRIOT
Here's another interesting one question for Photoshop. Can you take scanned in line art and turn all the black outlines of the ink job and adjust them to another color...say red or something. I'm guessing Marvel must being doing something to this effect for the Human Torch, who has no artistic ink lines.

Thanks again,

THE PATRIOT
Look in the Help files concerning the "Gradient Tool".

You can email me if you want to discuss some of the techniques I use.

- Christopher Mullins

[Tech]

Originally posted by Starlord
These pics are being discussed in about 3-4 different threads, but did this specific question actually get answered somewhere?

The full pics would be excellent.

On a different forum, Steve's answer was "We're looking into some options."

[Darren Watts]

We'll do something with these pictures. As yet, we haven't figured out what. We'll let you know, we promise. dw

[Hermit]

Thanks Darren. :) We wouldn't talk so much conjecture if we werent' so darn impressed by the artwork we see here.

[Lord Liaden]

Originally posted by Darren Watts
We'll do something with these pictures. As yet, we haven't figured out what. We'll let you know, we promise. dw

If you'd be interested in a suggestion: reducing them to a size that would be suitable for stand-up figures would be really handy. You might lay them out onto one or more sheets that we could download and have printed on cardboard. I'm sure that many of us would gladly pay for that. :)

[Jeff T.]

For those interested in character art, there's a new program in development that looks to improve on the old Heromachine concept. It can be found in the Software/Online Resources forum.

[THE PATRIOT]

Originally posted by schir1964
Look in the Help files concerning the "Gradient Tool".

You can email me if you want to discuss some of the techniques I use.

- Christopher Mullins

Christopher, thanks I really appreciate the help steering me into the right direction and the additional offer for help discussing the techniques you use. So you might be hearing from me soon. Thanks again.

THE PATRIOT
The GM Mac Daddy

[TheTemplar]

Not to drudge up posts that haven't been replied to since 2003... well..okay.. so that's what I'm doing.. but..

I was using the search utility in the Champions forum to see if there had ever been a compliation of colored art from the various Champions publications made anywhere when I stumbled across this tread. I was specifically looking for colored pics of the 5th ed incarnation Eurostar not found on Storn's awesome website (I've got Mentalla and Ultrasonique from there.. looking for Fiacho, Durak, Feuermacher or Scorpia) or any of the awesome colored illos shown in the sidebar to the L of the forums (where currently a beautifully colored shiny Mechanon glares at my imperfect organic typing) but prefereably minus the blue oval thingy by their feet if possible. I did see that Darren had responded earlier that "something" was going to be done w/ these pics, but since that was 2003 and I couldn't find anything else about it... thought I'd ask.

Thanks!

[Duke Bushido]

Color them! :)

Pencils are cheap.

Xerox, if you don't wan't to screw up your books.