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[archer]

On 11/6/2018 at 7:28 PM, Duke Bushido said:

To be fair, European Enemies was clearly a sellable product.

 

How many people here own it (besides me)?

 

 

(and yes; it was truly awful)

 

 

 

I own it, bought second hand as part of a bundle when I picked up about 25 HERO products together.

 

Note I specifically said, "a sellable product which wasn't notoriously bad" as opposed to an calling European Enemies "an unsellable product". There are notoriously bad movies which become cult classics and continue producing revenue for decades.

 

I often end up tinkering with characters from published products regardless because I find doing that enjoyable so European Enemies wasn't as much of a downside for me as it would be for many. But I would have liked the option of using the characters as written without there being a problem with their builds, a problem with the blatant national stereotypes, or both.

 

There certainly wasn't anything unsalvageable about the product.

[Duke Bushido]

There is always the art.

 

Copy the art and write up new characters to go with it. 

 

I've done that more than once.  Mostly because I can't draw.  Like not even water. 

[archer]

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

There is always the art.

 

Copy the art and write up new characters to go with it. 

 

I've done that more than once.  Mostly because I can't draw.  Like not even water. 

 

I sympathize with that. Drawing is one of those mysterious arts like making a decent pizza.

[Scott Ruggels]

40 minutes ago, archer said:

 

I sympathize with that. Drawing is one of those mysterious arts like making a decent pizza.

 

drawing is easy. Just do it 4 hours a day for 10 years solid.  Now, making money drawing.... that's kinda hard.

[Duke Bushido]

Did it for _years_, since I was a kid.  Drew in school; drew at home for a couple of hours each day.  Took drawing classes as electives when I had the chance: there was very little I wanted to be able to do more than I wanted to draw.  Even used to buy those accursed books; they were the _premiere_ birthday gift.  From the time I was in second grade, till I finally, _painfully_ gave up in my late thirties.  I never believed it, but there are some things that some people just aren't going to be able to do, ever.  For me, drawing was one of them.

 

To this day, even my stick figures are awful.   I can't even make a symmetrical ovoid.  Not even one of those valentine's hearts.  

 

I always sympathize with the kid when some I hear his father say "It's not that hard!  Just practice more!"

 

Writing?  Never practiced; never even studied.  Bending wrenches?  Same.  There are lots of things I _am_ good at.  And practice _does_ improve most things for most people-- typing is a great example from my life.  Wanted to learn to type so I could write more, and faster.   But it's not going to help everyone do anything.  For me, it was that thing I wanted most.  Wasted a huge chunk of my life learning that.

 

[dmjalund]

2 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

Bending wrenches?

for a moment I read this as bending wenches

 

[Duke Bushido]

I can take a survey, if that helps, but I'm pretty sure there are special skills there.  Just too expensive to practice.

[Ninja-Bear]

I’ve said this before but I don’t see the big issue with European Enemies  I say you doth protest too much about the stereotypes.

[Lord Liaden]

Well, there's the unimaginative, near-insulting stereotypes; the sloppily thought-out character stats and power designs; the rampant math errors, even worse than typical for 4E books; glaringly lazy mistakes like calling the German villain "Das Wall," which isn't even close to correct German.

 

If you want a breakdown of why and how European Enemies is bad, I recommend looking up Mike "Susano" Surbrook's "debugging" of it on his great website: http://surbrook.devermore.com/revisedhero/herorev.html

[Duke Bushido]

Okay, things are getting real.

 

I have brought my scanning project to the attention of "someone who could help get it out the right way" when it's complete.  It was suggested to me that I wait on 3e Star HERO (which is now completely sliced and partially scanned) until a particular date, and that I might want to focus on Western HERO and Horror HERO.  (Evidently there is already a PDF for Cyber HERO; didn't remember that.  Guess what I'm buying next? ).

 

Sent a couple of scans to my brother to see if he could help me clean them up.  I won't say there's pressure on, but there might be pressure on.

 

Wish me luck!

 

 

[Brian Stanfield]

9 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

Okay, things are getting real.

 

I have brought my scanning project to the attention of "someone who could help get it out the right way" when it's complete.  It was suggested to me that I wait on 3e Star HERO (which is now completely sliced and partially scanned) until a particular date, and that I might want to focus on Western HERO and Horror HERO.  (Evidently there is already a PDF for Cyber HERO; didn't remember that.  Guess what I'm buying next? ).

 

Sent a couple of scans to my brother to see if he could help me clean them up.  I won't say there's pressure on, but there might be pressure on.

 

Wish me luck!

 

 

 

Here’s a suggestion, if you have the access: my friends run an institute where they scan books constantly. They found that, once the cover is cut of, it is quick, clean and efficient to use a band saw to cut the binding off. Clamps are of course necessary to keep the pages signed at the end of the cut, but it saves hours and hours of work. 

[Duke Bushido]

Thanks.  Wish I had known that a couple of books ago! 

 

Any idea what TPI or what feed raje and speed settings they recommend?  (band saws, I got) 

[Duke Bushido]

On 11/9/2018 at 4:50 AM, Lord Liaden said:

Well, there's the unimaginative, near-insulting stereotypes; the sloppily thought-out character stats and power designs; the rampant math errors, even worse than typical for 4E books; glaringly lazy mistakes like calling the German villain "Das Wall," which isn't even close to correct German.

 

I have absolutely no grounds on which to base this, but I swear the whole thing felt like it was composed of fan contributions:  you know, your typical us, playing our little games and making the occasional sloppy or joke villain that somehow becomes a player favorite at _our_ table, if only because we are usually a group of similarly-interested people who find the same things funny....  

 

"people will love this character!  Let's send it in!" 

How do we justify the power level?  I mean, she was just a villain, right? I haven't even really tracked experience or anything. 

"just throw on 288 points worth of Disadvantages; no one is going to care...." 

 

No; it probably didn't happen like that, but hang it all, it certainly feels like it. 

 

On 11/9/2018 at 4:50 AM, Lord Liaden said:

If you want a breakdown of why and how European Enemies is bad, I recommend looking up Mike "Susano" Surbrook's "debugging" of it on his great website: http://surbrook.devermore.com/revisedhero/herorev.html

 

Great stuff, except for the rework of Death Knell.  Well, the rework is great, actually; typical high-quality Aurbrook stuff.  But after complaining in the designers notes that many of the reworks were inspired by terrible or cliche names, he calls he Bell, Book, and Candle. 

 

Yeah: I get that in his rework she is somehow possessed by a bell, a book, and a candle, but _still_.... 

 

See?  

 

If someone who put in the effort that Surbrook puts into everything, we could have had a great book, and the only quibble at all would have been so minor, it could be fixed with a rename.  Murderers with bell_derived SFX..... 

 

I'm thinking "Death Knell...." 

 

 

(for the record, I have _almost_ used his rework of the scarecrow character.  That's meant way better than it sounds, since I don't use published characters as a rule, and try not to crib from other people's hard work and creativity.) 

[Duke Bushido]

Okay, I have contracted my brother to clean up the scans for me, and Western HERO will be completed and in the right hands hopefully before too much longer.

 

Unfortunately, it will not be by the 14th.

 

 

[Brian Stanfield]

On 11/10/2018 at 7:10 AM, Duke Bushido said:

Thanks.  Wish I had known that a couple of books ago! 

 

Any idea what TPI or what feed raje and speed settings they recommend?  (band saws, I got) 

 

No idea on this, but they are technologically impaired, so I can't imagine you could screw it up if they can't. I suspect a table saw with a good finish blade might work too, but it's just a hunch. But it should speed things up for you for sure if you have access!

[Duke Bushido]

First forty pages of Western HERO scanned.

Sorry it's going so slowly, but as I noted, I am hand-laying and positioning each sheet until the text, charts, art, etc, are lined up correctly.

 

I _know_ you can do it with software, but honestly: you can tell!  You can see it every time it happens.  This is a labor of love that is now costing me actual money, so I'm going to do it right.

 

Oh, and Brian:

 

i can see why you quit following!    I just recently started following someone who isn't _nearly_ as prolific as I have been lately, and Dude!  It's a pain in the assassin!    All those notifications!  

 

Tell you what: if these scans are why you followed in the first place, I'll message you personally when they are done.  Deal?  

 

From this to this.

 

This is actually the one I'm least happy with (thus far), and it's still far beyond what I could do by myself.

 

I think he'll do us a great job.

 

(sorry about the file size.  I really did do the raw scans in 1200 dpi, to make sure there was enough granularity for cleaning every detail without loss of image quality)

[Duke Bushido]

You know, I might drop the "unfixed" image onto the fixed page.  That might make me happy.

 

 

[Scott Ruggels]

2 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

First forty pages of Western HERO scanned.

Sorry it's going so slowly, but as I noted, I am hand-laying and positioning each sheet until the text, charts, art, etc, are lined up correctly.

 

I _know_ you can do it with software, but honestly: you can tell!  You can see it every time it happens.  This is a labor of love that is now costing me actual money, so I'm going to do it right.

 

Oh, and Brian:

 

i can see why you quit following!    I just recently started following someone who isn't _nearly_ as prolific as I have been lately, and Dude!  It's a pain in the assassin!    All those notifications!  

 

Tell you what: if these scans are why you followed in the first place, I'll message you personally when they are done.  Deal?  

 

From this to this.

 

This is actually the one I'm least happy with (thus far), and it's still far beyond what I could do by myself.

 

I think he'll do us a great job.

 

(sorry about the file size.  I really did do the raw scans in 1200 dpi, to make sure there was enough granularity for cleaning every detail without loss of image quality)

 

The cleaned up image looks very professional. The fact that they used engravings for the illustrations is helpful for reproduction. Keep the 1200 DPI raw files, just in case, though.

There used to be a program called "Debabelizer Pro, for Windows. I don't know if it's still around, but in that program you could perform operations, similar to Photoshop (except draw, and apply filters)< and you could record the steps needed  to process and image, , and/crop it. That process could then be boiled down to a single command or button, and in the days of video game sprites, it was very helpful processing large numbers of animation files, and sprites.

[Duke Bushido]

Up to page 84.

 

I know: it's taking a while.  But part of it is the hand-laying of the individual images.  Like I said: you can always tell when a text image was straightened with software.  I can't hand-lay it perfectly, but I can get it close enough that some of it really doesn't need tweaking (i.e., if you print it, you're going to get more variation than this image already has), and even when it does still need tweaking, the less tweaking via software, the less obvious it is in the final result.

 

Page-- was it 69?  67?  Anyway, sixty-something-- that was a beast.

 

There's a 1/3 page full-width piece of art that's not square on the page.

 

There's a 1/3 page full-width section of text that's not square on the page.

 

There's a single line across the bottom of the page.  It's not square with the page.

 

And none of them is square with each other, either!  

 

Finally opted to do enough hand lays to get a straight shot of each section, composite them-- you know the rest.  Twenty-two scans for that one stinkin' page!  GAH!

 

 

 

The other reason it's such slow going I lay square on the feet of the HEROstani people.

 

If you people weren't so welcoming, and so interesting in general, I'd have a lot less distractions!   

 

 

 

 

 

Good night, Folks.

 

Duke

 

 

oh--

 

going to all that trouble for that page has convinced me to go ahead and correct the largest "typo" in HERO history:

 

 

There is a really nice, well-thought out adventure to help kick-off a starter campaign.  It can be excerpted, or run in full across _several_ session.

 

Some of the pages were printed out of order.  Not just this book, either.  As you all know, this started because my original disappeared.  That was one.  Then I bought a spare.  That was two.  Then there was the donor copy I sliced for this project.  That was three.

 

All three of them, same pages.  Evidently it was the entire print run.

 

I'm going to go ahead and fix it.  Why not?

 

 

Duke.

 

 

[Scott Ruggels]

What is your process on this? 

[Duke Bushido]

Mornin', Scott. 

 

I'm not sure I understand the quesrion; I appologize. 

 

If you can clarify, I will try to answer it, though. 

[Scott Ruggels]

7 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

Mornin', Scott. 

 

I'm not sure I understand the quesrion; I appologize. 

 

If you can clarify, I will try to answer it, though. 

 How is this done? Your scanner model number, Ouput into what sort of files. Processing those files, and exporting them to PDF< What software, ect.  That is what I was asking about. Try8ing to figure out if I could help in terms of any sort of high end Photoshop processing. That's all.

[Duke Bushido]

Thanks, Scott, 

 

But I sort of have something worked out. 

 

The scanner is a cannon all in one thing that I am stuck with. When super scanner died, she  bought this as a surprise replacement, so I can't replace it until it's actually dead.  sadly, it has bee surprisingly hard to kill.  In fairness, it is ten times the scanner that is printer, so I can get decent images from it; it's just slow at higher resolution-- on the order of three minutes a page at 1200 dpi.

 

The hand alignment is just a personal thing.  I don't care how much you pay for software, if you have to twist text more than a degree or two, it looks wonky: there is just enough deformation that you think "oh; it's a scan.". Because the scanner driver only allows a small preview window (to make getting a preview much faster, I suppose), I can't aligh the text perfectly every time, but thus far I have gotten it close enough to avoid deformation. 

 

The spliced page I mentioned last night was done with some "fan made garbage for Mac". I found online that is roughly equivalent to MS Paint some time around Windows 3.4; I can't recommend against it highly enough.  But it did what I needed. 

 

I am scanning against a black blotter to "drown* all the smutz and garbage into a uniform color (for the most part).  That let's me do the bulk of the cleanup with the pack-in, limited options photo cleaning tools packed into the Mac and the scanner. 

 

It's a serious work-around, but for what I'm doing I really don't need much more.  

 

Anything too big to handle efficiently that way I send to my brother and let him do it.  I have mixed feelings about this:  I know he needs the money (animation company he worked for went under a while back, so he's freelancing stuff when he can),  but I also know I haven't got a whole lot of it myself. 

 

Honestly, Sir, the biggest hold up in the whole thing is the stupid slow upload time when I have to send a file or two to him. 

 

But thank you for the offer.   It is appreciated. 

 

Oh-   

 

Here's a thing ( if I can make my phone do this) 

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;url=https://sleel.artstation.com/projects/0EQze&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjTk_jzl9feAhUFY6wKHTuhAsIQFjAAegQIBhAB&amp;usg=AOvVaw0qA9slYvv_rUmPe_md7LFm

 

If I did that right, it's a character of mine from some years back he did up as a Christmas gift for me.  ( the "friend" he mentioned is me.  At the time, he was punching up his portfolio to sound "more professional.". He has since gotten over that, as you can see from the other entries and their descriptions :lol:) 

[Duke Bushido]

Scanning up to page 130.

 

I have made a small adjustment that's upped my output.  I noticed at work today that there is a tolerance for tilted text.  It's remarkably low, but it's there.  Stands to reason, I suppose.  I mean, I can't have read a whole lot of perfectly-printed mass-produced books, right?  So rather than "perfecting" each single page during the preview, I have decided if it falls within a _very_ tight margin, just scan it and let it ride.  So far, about ten have them have fallen within that margin, and it has saved me a _lot_ of time hand-adjusting them five or eight times.

 

 

[dmjalund]

couldn''t you use a low DPI scan as a preview for a high DPI scan?