8baller

First off, I actually have to thank "FrozenDeath" for his initial post about this here on the CoH forum. And I didn't want to hijack his thread so I'm posting this one.

Because I can't seem to NOT enter a contest, here's my entry to the ZBrush "Action Hero" contest. And surprisingly, probably more to me than anyone else, I went with a villain...

So odd.

Anyhow, here's a couple of links:
Vesuvious - on my DA site

Vesuvious progress updates on the ZBrush site

I REALLY wish I could have used a CoX character, but they official ruling was "no".

I can tell right now, this one's gonna be a time sink.

Hey all. This one took forever with the holidays and all the extra "stuff" that popped up during that time.

In any case I'm very happy to finally present "The New Patriots", War Patriot's hero group.

The New Patriots

It stars Patriette, US Atom, and War Patriot himself, and it's a bit of a follow up piece to the villain group shot I did for him last year "The Confederate States of America".

I hope ya'll enjoy.

Thanks,
Todd

I wonder if, "by the book" there are any legal restictions there? I mean, with that process you're actually using artwork/assets from the game to create the final image.

It's an interesting approach though.

Todd

Just got my CoX account. Thanks NCSoft

Todd

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Grats on finally receiving (most of the) prize, Todd. Still absolutely nothing on my end (my last couple of emails went entirely ignored).

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Man, that is...just...wow.

Wow.

I'm sorry to hear that. There's really no logical...

I'm not sure what time period you sent those emails but I do know that their entire company went on vacation a little before Christmas and they get back in the office...well...today. Jan 5.

At least, that's what I was told. For what it's worth.

Todd

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Well, as long as the games work, no biggy. I was actually expecting them to be leftovers from GameTrailers reviews.

Base cost? Eh? So how does this actually work? Do they essentially just hand you a coupon that says "X dollars off your next Toyota Matrix" where 'X' is the price of a Matrix with no options?

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We had a couple of lockups with Iron Man....but it wasn't an "every time" thing. I'm with you though, I figured they had a stack of games that were sent to them from publishers.

The base cost thing...well they reserved X amount for the price of the car. Problem is...X amount didn't actually cover the cost of any car, definately not the model/build that they advertised. So I had to negotiate the price down with the dealer and come up with the money to cover the rest. Which trading in my old car did thank goodness.

Todd

Dude I absolutely LOVE the lil folk!!! Brilliant.

Todd

It's funny, their comment is "It's a shame we don't see more CoX videos being made."

Wow, well I guess it would help if they actually looked on the CoX site huh? ;P

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*sigh* Yeah, someone out there hates me. The "Dropship Down" video done to Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" has just gotten yanked from YouTube.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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Dang that does suck. Sounds like someones picking on you. Ya know, I don't think YouTube cared so much about the legal stuff until...Yahoo or Google or whoever purchased them.

I think that made them a big ol' target.

You've got a site though correct? Can't you just post everything there?

Todd

Just an quick update (on why you haven't seen any pics of the 8 Ballermobile).

We got the 360, PS3 and DS lite at the beginning of December (yea!)

We got the games mid December, and they were cool enough to do a 2 for 1 swap for two games that we already had for a newer game. Interesting thing was...5 of the games were used and 2 of those 5 didn't have any box art or instructions. It looks like they went shopping at Gamestop. Even more special was that all the used games had been returned to Gamestop as defective. Then they send them to their warehouse, buff them, and resell them.

And we just finished up negotiating a deal with the local dealership for the Matrix. The sweet news is that I was able to find a black one. The bad news is I had to trade in my camero to cover tax/title and the rest of the base cost of the car. But I planned on trading in or selling that one anyway...so no big loss really. I'll just be glad to finally get the car. We've had reeeeeaaaalllly bad "carma" for the past month.

And still no City of Heroes subscription....

So. As soon as I get the car I'll take photos and share. I'm hopeful that will happen next week.

Fingers Crossed.

Todd

Interesting idea. Here's what I've got. Actually a couple of surprises here.

* Most Faved: Larissa Cartoon - I guess I should pay closer attention to my stats since Larissa was one of the very few 'animated' pieces I'd done all year. But between you and me, I think it was the ice bra that did it.

* Most Commented:
Lego Statesman - This one was a bit of a surprise to me. I guess ol' States is a hotter topic than I first thought.

* Most Viewed - Lego 8 Baller - a little surprised that this ended up being my most viewed of 2008, but I have to admit I'm glad 8 made the list somewhere.

* Longest Piece to Create: - Confederate States of America - my first group piece and I still thank War Patriot for hanging in there throughout the process. Oddly enough, the piece I'm currently working on for his hero group may end up being the longest piece in 2009.

* Personal Favorite: Photo Chick - Yes, it's my wife's main toon, but honestly I really like the character concept and I'm pretty happy with how the sketch turned out.

Biggest Thing Learned from 2008 - It's a toss up between: "Apparently I need to do more animated characters." and "OMG group shots take much longer to create than individuals."

I hope everyone has a super '09.

Todd

Grats!

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Actually, the last I read in the contest thread they were allowing people to participate with licenses that belonged to their work.

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Oh my.....they changed the rules! I jumped over there the day you posted originally and it didn't have the "unless given permission by a company officer", thing, it actually something like "unless the individual is the owner of the company".

Shweeeeet. May have found my next contest to chase .

Thanks man.
Todd

p.s. ...I'm seriously going to need to learn how to work ZBrushes "transpose" feature better.

Nice start. You might want to check out articles on super hero preportions. Your head to body ratio looks like he's 12-16 years old.

You might want to start with Zbrush's default male model. "Super Male Model" or something like that if I remember right.

Yeah, I saw your post and was going to jump all over this one until I read the rules. I use ZBrush at work, which means it's licensed to work, which disqualifies me . It states the software must be licensed to the individual, unless you own the company the software is licensed to.

Very irratated. Oh well, maybe next time.

Todd

Happy B-day man!

Here's a little image of the event...hopefully it won't scar anyone for life

Cut the Cake

Have a good one.

Todd

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Gorgeous! Couldn't axe for more

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LOL, very nice.

Thanks,
Todd

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is...is she standing on Lady Liberty's torch?

That is freakin' awesome!!!

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Yes she is

Subtle I know, at least in B/W inks. I may get around to coloring her one day.

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Since there are times when I can't seem to draw a straight line, I guess (or hope), it's only fair when creating things comes much easier than other times.

I seem to be going through a spurt. Following up the almost NSFW PhotoChick I present the all-American...

Maiden 1776

She's all inked up for coloring if you so wish.

Todd

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damn man you're onna roll!!!!!

Rockin piece there! I love the axe!

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Thank you very much sir.

Can you believe I had to scrounge through the house to find an old quarter for reference :P

Since there are times when I can't seem to draw a straight line, I guess (or hope), it's only fair when creating things comes much easier than other times.

I seem to be going through a spurt. Following up the almost NSFW PhotoChick I present the all-American...

Maiden 1776

She's all inked up for coloring if you so wish.

Todd

Thanks a ton all! Now hopefully I won't screw it up on the colors.

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Sharp

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LOL nice. Thanks.

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What da' crap, the fast forward botton's not working!!!!!

I really love your style and line work, very clean.

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Thank you sir. So you think this should be a sequence of shots huh?

I hope I didn't mess it up by putting clothes on her

Todd

Thanks sir. Originally I just had a single flat tone on her, and that wasn't working so I did the quick shading which seemed to help out.

I'm glad you liked it.

Todd

May I introduce, PhotoChick. This one's personal to me, it's my wife's main character. She's a Katana scrapper.

WARNING: she's about .2 seconds from being NSFW.
PhotoChick sketch

Usually she's the one holding the camera, but in this case she's being photographed by her love interest Michael Angelo. And yes, for those who have followed the 8 Baller story...he's blind. Ain't irony grand.

Her story (which I think is pretty sweet), is as follows (summarized).

Emma Eastman, a young art photographer, was doing an outdoor photoshoot when she accidentally photographed a "Family" hit going down. When the Family realized they had been captured on film they sent another hitman to take out Emma.

The hitman detonated a large explosive device in her darkroom, with Emma inside. The entire building was completely destroyed. However, instead of killing Emma, the darkroom chemicals infused with her body. The silver halide bonded with her skin giving it a slight silvery/metallic tone and made it virtually indestructable.

She has now taken on the identity of PhotoChick, fighting bad guys in Paragon City.

*** on yet another side note: I can't BELIEVE they left out "photographer" or "photojournalist" from the day job list. I mean seriously...Peter Parker, Jimmy Olsen, Vicki Vale, that chick from Sky Captain (if that counts). Anyhow, enough rambling. Enjoy.

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Wait...there's a game?!

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LOL nice.

I was finally able to use the duct tape provided in another forum (have test server patch, override the real exe with the fake exe, edit properties....ugh). Anyhow, I was finally able to get in again and make my shield character.

I loved some of the new shield I hadn't seen, but was disappointed the high-tech, futuristic wrist shield has apparently disappeared.