Dante_NA

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  1. (( I wrote this during the downtime at work yesterday. It's my first story and I have not had extensive time for rewriting so go easy on me! Let me know what you think of my first ever story (for entertainment purposes, plenty of dreadful school papers in my lifetime). ))

    FAIR SKYE


    She crouched behind a dirty old crate, her legs cramping from holding still for so long. Her revealing green and yellow suit was dirty from being around such a damp and filthy place for so long. She peeked over the crate to continue her watch of the large door that overlooked the bay. Her body was growing tired of having to suppress it's magic in fear of the Skulls that poured in and out of the door.

    They were a local gang in Paragon City. Dealing heavily in drug trafficking, specializing in a nasty dose of green elixir that enraged its victim causing violent outbursts, the Skulls were a big threat. A few of them, dressed in the normal black outfit with a mask resembling a human skull, were carrying a large container into the warehouse. Fair remained quiet and watched from her hiding place, waiting for the outside to calm before she made her move.

    An hour passed before the last of the Skulls walked into the warehouse carrying the final crate and waiving the truck to leave. As the large vehicle roared out of the parking lot and the sound of its tires faded, Fair made her way towards the locked door of the warehouse. She listened intently as she came upon the door, trying to catch any hint of who and how many were on the other side.

    Fair turned the handle, only to find it locked. She looked around to insure nobody was watching and turned her attention back to the door. She closed her eyes and placed her hand on the lock. Slowly she felt the energy build in her hand and she extended a thin tendril into the keyhole. Moments later the latch popped open and, smiling, Fair Skye made her way into the dark interior of the Skulls hideout.

    *~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*

    Tired and hurt, Fair Skye stopped to rest in a dark corner, hidden from view. Removing the lackeys in her way up to this point was no small task. She had to make sure she not only eliminated them, but disposed of their bodies somewhere secret so they did not give her away. Her suit was now torn and bloodied, and her face scarred with anger. "Dumb beasts" she spat as she decided her next move.

    Rising up from her hiding place, she concentrated a quick moment. With her eyes closed, she focused on her intent and slowly, her fairly like wings extended from her back. Growing to a span twice her size, the transparent but oddly glowing wings allowed her to fly. She subdued their glow to avoid being seen and rapidly rose into the air, bow in hand. She flew along the top of the warehouse to avoid the unintelligent Skulls view. A fast flying arrow to the head, and most went down without a sound.

    She flew around the warehouse for another 5 minutes before she came upon what she had been looking for the whole time. The mass of crates the Skulls had pulled from the truck lay stacked in a corner of the largest room in the warehouse. Large vats of steaming green elixir were mixing in various spots around the room, stirred by the thoughtless underlings of the gang. Fair was about to begin her destruction when she heard a voice from below.

    "I want this shipment moved out before morning. With this large a payoff, we will never have to work these streets again. Think of the trouble it'll give all those heroes too!" the man said as he made his way towards a large vat.

    Fair Skye let out an inaudible gasp. It was the one person she was hoping would not show, and now that he was here there was going to be no turning back. The Skulls leader, known as Bone Daddy, stood smiling over his glowing treasure. He grabbed a needle and injected himself and he let out a malicious laugh. Fair stared in amazement.

    He screamed as he fell to the floor, struggling to maintain control. His body flopped around and his shirt began to tear off from the pressure his growing muscles presented. This was a man who was now more dangerous than ever. She had to act now before it was too late.

    Fair Skye swooped around to the crates and grabbed her oils. She laced her arrow with oil and lit it on fire. With this she could set the whole place ablaze and destroy all of the work the Skulls had spent so long putting together. She knotched her arrow and as she was getting ready to release it, she stopped cold.

    "Hello little darling" the Bone Daddy spoke, to her. "What a wonderful surprise. You will make a lovely test subject for what will happen to all of Paragons heroes!" As he spoke, he struck his hands straight down and his fingers sunk into the concrete as if it were water, and he pulled back a large chuck of the ground. "Why don't you join us down here sweety?" With that, he threw the large boulder at her and it flew with such speed she could not dodge fast enough, and it clipped her left side throwing her off balance. She did not remember falling.

    *~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*~-_-~*

    Fair came awake without opening her eyes. Her head was pounding and she could feel the dry blood on the side of her face. She decided not to 'wake up' and so remained still, listening to her surroundings.

    "Tonight, we make an example out of her and by tomorrow, the example will be applied to all the heroes of Paragon!" his laughter rang and she could hear his footsteps echo in the large room. He walked to the crates and checked their contents. He then walked around monitoring everyone who was working on getting this plan finished.

    "You there, have you ever tried any of this before? You look rather weak, like you could use some!" He smiled as he approached the young boy. "N-No, sir. I have not." He said, scared and talking to the ground.

    "Well it's okay boy!" Bone Daddy said as he patted him on the back, that wicked grin of his hinting to his evil intent. "Well you know, the Skulls are all about being tough, and you don't really fit the part." The boy trembled as he stirred faster to keep busy.

    "You know what would help?" Bone Daddy said as he grabbed something in his hand. The boy let out a scream that was beyond Fair's worst nightmares as he collapsed to the ground. As he flailed crazily from the effects of the drugs, the Bone Daddy reached his hand down to rest hovering over the boys chest. His screams intensified.

    Fair opened her eyes and watched as the Bone Daddy stood over the boy. Sharp, dark as night tendrils ripped into the boys body and pulled from it his young soul. Up into the Bone Daddy's arm and dissipating into him, the soul disappeared from sight. He opened his eyes, and from them the most eerie dark glow came from within. His eyes shifted to Fair and she moved back in her own skin. The corners of his lips rose slowly.

    "Well look who it is. I could have killed you already, but I wanted you awake so I could hear your screams as I pulled that pretty little soul from your body." He stepped towards her and Fair began to panic. She broke the ropes that held her with a thin slice of energy and got to her feet immediately. She looked around for her bow, unable to defend herself without it. Growing up she was never taught anything by her parents beyond simple tasks involving her energy, and that's all it seemed useful for to her.

    "Looking for something?" He said as he looked to her right and behind her about 50 feet lay her bow and arrows. She stared at him, going over the possibilities of her getting to it before he got to her. She had no choice, and bolted for bow as fast as possible.

    As she ran towards her bow, she felt more relieved the closer she got. If she could only get to it, she would be okay. As she was almost there, the coldest chill came over her and through her chest passed the blackest bolt of death she had ever seen. It did not harm her, but continued on through reaching her bow. The bow rose into the air and shattered before her eyes. The Bone Daddy laughed.

    "What's the matter? Can't do anything without your little bow?" He said as he walked towards her. She slowly turned to face him, she had no choice. He came within a few feet and Fair entered into her defensive position. She may not have a bow, but she would have to use her other skills as much as she could. A Thin shield a energy came before her, and she thought of the best weapon she could make with the energy. It could not be big for she did not know how to sustain a large form of energy.

    She grew claws, and got ready for her defense. Luckily, her energy could be transparent so he did not know she was at all prepared. He reared his fist and threw a mighty punch at her laced with his black death. Unprepared for such force, it slammed into Fair's shield shattering it and throwing her back. The Bone Daddy laughed realizing what happened. "So you've got a trick up your sleeve do you? Well I have got more I assure you."

    She lay, her hope shattered on the floor along with her body. Blood covered her body, and tears ran down her face. She had no hope of surviving and gave up. She lay her head down and thought of the happiest memories she could in her last moments. Her mother came to her mind. Her smile always made Fair feel safe. She remembered how her mother protected her growing up.

    She came upon the memory of the day she was walking home and had been ambushed by none other than the Skulls. She was nearly unconscious when her mother arrived. She was so delirious she could barely see, but she could make her mother out clear as day. She stood with her bright green suit and her greatly shining bow. The bow was so powerful and it saved her life.

    Fair suddenly snapped out and opened her eyes. With a renewed spirit, she gathered herself and as Bone Daddy slammed his fist down into the spot she was moments before, she rose into the air above him. "Don't ever underestimate me." With that, she raised her hand, and in it formed a bow from thin air, glowing brighter than the sun itself next to the darkness of Bone Daddy's deathly aura.

    Her other hand touched the front of the bow, and slid backwards. An arrow formed as she drew her hand back. As she sat with an arrow knotched, aimed at Bone Daddy, she smiled. She never realized what the energy was meant to be, and feeling it in its true form filled her with an inner peace. She could feel the power of it inside her like nothing a wooden bow could ever provide.

    Bone Daddy could feel his power draining in the presence of the glowing light. All he could do was stare at her as she took her final aim. "This is for my mother" Fair said as she released that magical arrow, and it founds it way to it's target, as if that's where it was meant to be.

    ***

    The police came on to the scene at 11:42 PM. They found a room full of bodies, and the floor covered in a burned residue that's smoke left the walls covered in green soot. In front of a large stack of burned crates, there was a body that lay alone, with a glowing metallic shard protruding from his chest.
  2. Well I didnt read carefully enough and my story submission was very long. Much much longer than "brief" haha.
  3. Dante_NA

    3d Rikti

    Hey, that is just amazing. Sorry if you answered this but did you do the model start to finish in zbrush, or did you start in Maya or 3DMax etc and create a basic model, then move it to zbrush for the detailwork?
  4. Score. Me n TA Are totally hanging out together in the pic :P looks like his arm is around my shoulder haha
  5. Try to focus on one thing at a time. Ill try to help.

    The head is very proportional. The best thing I have found to use as a base are the eyes. So practice on your eyes. From there, realize that the width of your head(when looking straight at the "camera") is 5 eyes wide. The head is 20 eye heights high, from the chin to the very tip top of the back of the hair. The distance from the eyes to thh nose, is the same distance from nose to chin. Chin to Eyes, is Eyes to top of head. Nose to Lips is Lips to Chin.

    Just try to work on each of those one at a time and it might comeout abit better. Try to stay away from shading until you've got the basic lines down first.
  6. I just think one thing that might effect some people when trying to draw anime, is that all they have ever drawn is anime. To me, Anime style is just that, a style. It's taking a real life picture, and changing proportion to a look you want. The thing about this is, the people who do this professionally understand human proportion (most likely) and therefor know the results of modifying it and getting good results in a stylized manner.

    Of course, im sure there are plenty of anime artists who are amazing, but suck at real life renders. Different strokes for different folks I suppose. I guess my point is, some people need the knowledge of realistic proportions, some people don't.

    EDIT: Here is something for you to focus on. In the picture you simply copied that you mentioned looks really good, focus on the shadow. Notice how it follows her cheek? It kind of makes a bump where her cheek is. That adds tons of depth all by itself if you ask me.
  7. I agree with Zekiran.

    I believe your pictures "lack depth" because of the anime likeness to them. To get a good sense of feel for depth, you really need to have proportions correct. We are so used to seeing the human face, that I think you dont see any depth in your drawings because they are so characterized.

    Also, like pointed out and suspected by yourself, shadow is a big thing. I recently learned myself that shadow is much more than light and dark. There are actually 7 layers of "light/dark".

    I'll run em down so you can see.

    1. Highlights - These are the really bright spots, mostly seen on reflective materials. There should not be a lot of highlights on any given object.

    2. The Light - The base light of your object. In other words, the light that is hitting the object, but not highlighting, nor run over by a shadow.

    3. The Shadow - The basic, 1 tone shadow.

    4. Core Shadow - The darkest part of the shadow. Contrary to belief, this is NOT on the part farthest from the lighted side.

    5. Reflected Light - Reflected light typically reduces the shadow on the shadowed side of an object, due to light bouncing off, for instance, the floor if something is sitting upon the floor.

    6. Reflected Shadow - If something is sitting on the floor, the shadow that it casts itself will reflect back upon it and create a very dark area at the bottom of the sphere.

    7. Cast Shadow - ^^ The Casted Shadow

    If you imagine a sphere, with the light source in the upper right, you can follow these 7 down the sphere (towards bottom left) in order of thier appearance. The 4 - Core Shadow, is actually just on the other side of the "middle" of the sphere.

    Hard to explain without a book but hopefully that helps alittle bit.

    I think a big thing though is proportion and most def eyes. Your eyes have no sense right now, that they wrap around the head. They look very "flat" so to speak.

    All I can really say is study study study, and draw from what you see. Do not stick to only anime. Take a picture of a person and try to draw them, and repeat this process again and again. Then go back to anime and attempt to take what you've learned from drawing accurate proportions and go from there.

    Hope it helps.

    -Dante
  8. Especially the left pillar. I'm guessing it is because the camera made the uneven tone even more noticeable, to the point of looking underwater light filter-like. Thanks for the comments guys!
  9. That's probably from my webcam... >.< lol but thanks haha.
  10. I took -Drawing I- in college, and decided to share what I think was one of my best pieces overall. Now do realize that this is a basic principles course, basically. It deals mostly with form and shadow, so we use lights and boxes, bottles and objects like this to learn from. Anywho, just thought I'd show you guys what I've learned shading wise.

    Box, square pillar and cylinder pillar

    Thoughts, critiques. I did take it with my webcam but i tried to make it presentable alittle in photoshop. I need money...for a scanner lol.

    Edit: I forgot. This was gestured in light pencil, and actually done in charcoal.
  11. I love Wicked. hehe. I'm overly critical, that's all. Good job
  12. Most Favorite: Black Ashes (but please, make her boobs smaller lol. Most of your females have very unnaturally big boobs )

    Least Favorite: Personamorpher White (not a fan of the jacket, sorry)

    I chose one of each, picking 5 requires basically ranking each character, that takes a long time lol.
  13. Hey. Please Throw Strome into your hat. Pwease.

    Strome

    If you would rather have a Hero, you can throw Dante into the hat, I can get you a screenshot if you'd like.
  14. Dante_NA

    Well TA...

    Now I wonder where everyone went lol. I dont think anybody likes me *hangs head and walks away, shoulders slumped*
  15. Dante_NA

    Well TA...

    I wonder where TA is... hmm.
  16. Dante_NA

    Well TA...

    I've still yet to discover what to classify him as.


    I've got it! Like that guy from the power rangers, Loki made him from clay, and zapped him into real life!...ok maybe not :P
  17. Dante_NA

    Well TA...

    Well i put son in parenthesis because i wouldnt really call him his son. He was really just 'made' (from 2 guys mind you lol). I guess he could be a son.

    I did at least basic research. If you noticed, I did more research into the actual mythology than I did into TA's (though he still started the inspiration really). I'm still in the process of research really. I've created his name, and his very very very very basicly one line bio and that's all. I'll flesh him out as I research.

    If you look in my browser history, youll see wikipedia entries for multiple versions of Thor (myth, comic etc) as well as Loki. I'm not completely clueless, lol.
  18. Dante_NA

    Well TA...

    Everybody is murdering something when they write their bio. Be it history, another character, religion, mythology, whatever. Most stories come from pieces of other stories, with added personal twists and flare. It comes down to what you like.

    What's more interesting to you?
    1) After a terrible lab accident, Billy got schocked horribly but somehow survived, infused with lightning. Now, he can control the power surging through him and uses it to battle crime.

    or

    2) A Longer, more detailed bio of what ive already said about Strome? Locke of hair etc.

    I prefer 2, I guess it's a taste thing though. Shall we agree to disagree?
  19. Dante_NA

    Well TA...

    As far as the sons they never had thing, are comics not full of 'this is an alternate reality in which this did happen' stories?
  20. Dante_NA

    Well TA...

    Wow, I started a riot with a simple character idea

    By the way, um, angels are aplenty. lol, they are ripoffs too are they not? As well as Demons. Everything is a ripoff or knockoff of something now a days. The 'experiment gone wrong' or 'crisis brings forth powers' are just as often found and I find them to be just as bad...So I choose what I like.
  21. Dante_NA

    Well TA...

    You inspired me alittle bit :P, got my creative (or unoriginal but i think they are creative) juices going kinda.

    I sat around and thought 'I really need to get a villain to 50, Ive got the hero, but now i need the villain.'

    So I started to think what I most like AT wise. I chose Brutes. Then I needed to decide which powersets, and I have a current level 12 Elec/Elec which I liked, but hated his concept. I also wanted a character who would have wings by concept and fly.
    (save the no fly on brutes argument, I want it :P)

    Anywho, I was trying to think of a story and couldnt help but continuously stumble upon your name and/or Thor/Odin. Well, so born is Strome, 'son' of Loki, enemy of Thor and his assassin :P.

    I'll post pictures later, he doesnt have wings yet obviously but he will. He is on Freedom right now, and I may move him but im not sure, if I move him it will most likely be to my usual server 'Champion' or to 'Virture' cause I like him in an RP respect.

    Anywho, just a heads up that you totally have a rival :P. I'll post his bio when I finish. So far my story is that he was made by Loki with a Locke of Thor's hair, and part of Loki's spirit. So he has Thor's power(electricity and all) and Loki's evil nature. It is subject to change though.

    This is all.

    EDIT: Locke of Thor's hair, not yours :P. Anyways, after much actual looking into your characters own backstory, i've decided to unlink mine from yours, because your line is very different :P. #1 you have your rival Assassin of Thor already, and #2, I saw a picture of you and Loki together, and well my timeline doesnt make sense now does it? Still, you inspired me, do you feel good? lol
  22. Why has this fallen? *resurrection*