Haven Walkur

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Re: Egyptoid's pic No picture, alas! When 'attachment' is clicked, all that appears is the following text: vBulletin Message Invalid Attachment specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Another pic of Prion, the undead/unalive former park ranger, courtesy of Fábrica de Heróis. And yes, the shorts and tee-shirt combo and mask (with work gloves, hiking boots and a leather jacket) is as close as she comes to having a costume thus far.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Here's another character image put together in HeroFactory, with some Paint Shop Pro post-work to combine elements from the application, like the gray overlay on the green skin. I also had to create the shorts from HF's skirt option, and get rid of the silly comic-book style title: The Startling Barky Stick. But this is Prion; once dead, now...not. Now living, but not really alive...anymore than a prion is alive. So why the stick? In life, Prion was a park ranger; the stick represents her former calling. (That, and I couldn't find a decent leaf emblem for her tee shirt.)

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

Re: Automaton Powers in 5th Ed Many thanks, Lucius. That's immensely helpful. Here's some "I Like Lucius" Rep in response.

Re: Automaton Powers in 5th Ed Thanks, Matt. Have some Rep in exchange.

Re: Automaton Powers in 5th Ed So you're basically posting to tell me that you're not going to tell me? Um, thanks, CC.

Help, please -- does anyone out there know how much the Automaton Powers 'Does Not Bleed' and 'Does Not Take STUN' cost back in Fifth Ed? (I think those were the Power names, buuuut....) And was there some sort of overall cost for even taking Automaton Powers in the first place?

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Say, rather, devastating! Talk about game-unbalancing.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine That's an intriguing thought...but the idea of "burning water"/acid seems to me as if it's at one move remove from the four classical elements than the para-elements I've come up with, sort of a PARA-para-element. With acid, there IS burning occurring -- in the sense of oxidation -- and there IS sometimes smoke being given off -- but usually not the smoke of combustion. Overall, the action of acids doesn't seem to me to involve as many of the qualities of FIRE as, say, steam...which is what results when you literally combine FIRE and WATER. Of course, this whole "para-elemental" speculation is a personal consideration and subjective as hell. Your mileage may vary, and most reasonably, too.

Re: in the spirit of christmas! Wow, that's breath-taking. Like an engraving, but coloured. Exquisite detail. So many images of grief, loss and mourning -- and in the pouring rain, no less -- it makes the tear-ducts burn just looking at it. What's the story behind the image?

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Thank-you Legatus, thanks Kahuna's Brother; I'm delighted you found the idea of the Para-Elementals appealing. Of course, the pics really help shape the concept...but all I did was mix 'n' match them, courtesy of Ammotu at deviantART. This Supers Creation "game" -- as he calls it -- is available in his account at deviantART.com, so please stop by and tell him you like his style. He puts these games together for his own amusement and posts them in his account for others to use...and he has more than just the Supers. Check out his "humanized versions of Transformers" game! And as for my Para-Elementals: here's the last and the team leader, Steam. He rises.... I found a 6-pointed star design in the game, and used a little cut-and-paste to add it to all six of the characters. I'll update the attachments to show it, but not just now. Now is time for sleeping, yes?

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine EARTH and AIR: that would be Sandstorm, the fifth of my Para-Elementals. Like Smoke, he's a flier; also like her, he would have been completely overshadowed by the huge angel wings available on Ammotu's Character Creator. So in both cases, I did something a bit different. No conventional wings on either character now, but I tried to keep the impression of flight. I think Sandstorm flies more like a dragonfly. A few minor touch-ups on Sandstorm, once I'd finished with Mudd. Bet you can't tell the difference. ;-)

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine And here's Mudd. I'm not really happy with her; though this was the best cape (especially the hem-line!), I didn't like the way it hung, and this time around the limited colour palette was a real problem. It was bothering me enough that I eventually took Mudd into PaintShop and changed the colour of her cape. The end result pleases me a lot more; I think that now the cape looks like a landslide, an earth-wave caught in mid-motion, and cresting above her head.... Or at least, that's my fond hope. In any case, it's better. ;-)

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Actually, Pariah, there are SIX of them; Magma and Smoke, then Steam (WATER/FIRE), Mudd (WATER/EARTH), Mist (WATER/AIR) and Sandstorm (EARTH/AIR). And I'm very glad you liked them; Ammotu's character-builder, though limited, is awesome in what it does do. And here's Mist, my favourite so far. I think it's the cape.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine I've found that playing with character design programs works a lot better when I have a sense of who it is I'm putting together, rather than just randomly combining things. That said, here are two members of my Para-Elementals: Smoke (FIRE/AIR) and Magma (FIRE/EARTH), designed using Ammotu's Super Character Creator, on the deviantART site. I thought about mirroring one of the images to keep them from being identical in pose, but neither one looked right flipped. In the wee small hours of this morning, I added some more of the Para-Elementals, and redid Smoke. I've redone and replaced Magma. I wanted to give her a cape that reflected her semi-fluid nature...like Mudd's.

Re: The November Nine Um, no. Not in the slightest. Incirinna's grin makes me want to grin back; Ellen's grin, with her projecting teeth, is a very horse-like thing, and makes me want to give her a sugar-lump. But that might just be me....

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Me too! And I'm still playing with HeroFactory...it seems to be addictive.

Re: When Demons Rule So this would be Ganesh's diabolical younger brother? ;-) I like this one a lot, Legatus. It's another of your creative, mischievous and beautifully-executed characters -- and I STILL cannot Rep you! We'll just have to hope that it really is the thought that counts.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine I recently re-discovered HeroFactory, and ended up spending an evening playing around with it...and it was FUN! Unfortunately, I couldn't get the system to give me the "comic-book cover" this time; HeroFactory now requires an "authorized user" name and password before it'll activate the FINISHED button. :-( So I made my own cover from a screen capture of the working screen.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

Re: The November Nine Thanks for the nudge, Dr. D; I hadn't realised you'd started on the pics yet. And there's Tasmin at #1. She's...remarkable. She looks real. I described her powers and personality, and gave a minimal physical description -- and you came up with the rest! It's almost an act of mind-reading; from her singlet-and-shorts combo to the messy touselled hair and big cheery grin, that's her to the life! You've managed to show her slap-dash nature and natural athleticism in the pic; she looks as if you caught her at a football match during half-time. She seems ready to rush off again at any minute...and for me, the tilted angle of the picture suggests arrested motion, rather than skewed reality -- though there's no reason it couldn't signify both. I particularly like the fact that there's no irony in her expression or body language. She looks cheerful and good-natured in every respect -- even down to the way she sits and the angle of her head -- and never mind the masses of black-and-scarlet tentacles writhing all around her, because she obviously doesn't. I thought it was interesting that one of the posters on the Board thought the tentacles were from a separate creature coming up behind her. That's the disconnect I was trying for with this character; an attractive, blond-haired, blue-eyed woman, cheerful and friendly and born of an unnatural union between man and a Thing that man was not meant to know (in any sense of the word, including Biblical). Incirrina (Tasmin Wright) is a monster without a monstrous point of view...and I think you caught that beautifully, Dr. D. She looks up from her nest of tentacles with a grin, devoid of malice and anything but good intentions. Oh, and by the bye, those tentacles are marvellous. I really like the cephalopod texture with the rows of suckers on the underside, and the sense of motion...yes, you can see that these things are writhing. The Elder Sign tattoo was a surprise, but I thought it was a laugh; small, uncoloured, almost inconsequential, it looks as if Tasmin picked it up as an afterthought...and probably with that same big grin on her face. I definitely don't have any problems with the tattoo; it's something I could see Tazzy doing (see previous remark about mind-reading). Since you're offering, yes, please, I'd love to have the hi-res file. This is an incredible piece, Dr. D; Incirrina looks out at me from this picture as if from a snapshot. Thank-you so very much.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine My word! That's rather different from the usual run of lantern-jawed heroes and bountifully-endowed heroines. Have some undead-mutant-with-a-parasitic-twin Rep.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Many thanks for the alternate executions, gentlemen. They like me, they really like me! Great attention to detail...though she didn't really end up looking very Chinese in the new apps.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine I was inspired by Legatus' King Screamer to give HeroFactory another chance! Here's the martial artist Kingfisher...and if my hunt-n-peck translation is anywhere near correct, her Chinese name would be "Zi Fei", or "Purple Jade Kingfisher". I'm actually quite pleased with her...but other comments are welcome.