More SMAniaC faction makeovers

[Maniac]

I've sent you those things I promised.

Thanks!

I half want to argue to move the Genesis leader away from Argentina

Let's make her Israelite. Jews favour eugenetics (seriously). I kinda like the irony of it.

Sure, I’ll take a run at it. I’m getting so I don’t even loathe Photoshop anymore. Much.

Cool! This is what the Planetfall graphics tasklist says about it, for the record:

I'd suggest using the SMAC Empath graphic for Planetfall's similarly named specialist.

A big problem though which I'm not sure how to solve:

The SMAC source material is rectangle instead of square. This didn't cause a big problem for the other specialist buttons, as the SMAC source's background was black anyways (so could easily be turned transparent). But it does form a problem for the Empath. The background is an integral part of the button, and without adding stuff to the left and right, the hands would look cut off. Any method to create a good looking square button from the SMAC source material? If not, any other ideas for what the Empath button can look like?

It would need to be 56*56 pixels.
Perhaps make the hands disappear/merge in the aura of light?
Would it also be possible to create a version in which the aura becomes more opaque near the borders? That version can be 64*64 pixels.

Sure, when I’ve done it. Shall we edit Linda’s last name out of our posts in case of vanity searches, then?

Nah, she's pretty famous AFAIK. We'd probably be found on page 100 of Google or something.

I’d guess she’s maybe Japanese- northerners have pronounced cheekbones and pale skin- with heavy eye make-up to make her eyes rounder- I can undo that.

I kinda regularly see Chinese people, and I'd say the biggest objection to thinking she's Chinese, is not her eyes, skin colour or facial structure, but rather that her hair is too brown.

Here’s another size/crop for your approval. Zoomed in more, but leaving the top of his crossed arms in the frame- that should address your good point, yet be different enough for me.

Looks good to me too. Don't really have a preference on the matter. Let's go with what you (or Hydro) want.

“...In fact, I suspect the artist would be flattered enough by being contacted by an academic interested in featuring her work that she'd provide much nicer masks than I could make, or at least grant permission to rip off her work, in return for photos and info about the production, perhaps video.

You have a cred/status someone interested in promoting herself ought to like to make use of.”

She's also pretty well-known (has a wikipedia page for instance ), so I don't think she's in need of extra promotion. Can't hurt to ask of course. Just don't mention this place.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Back-logged on replyings- need to get back to Hydro first- more this afternoon if no random events trigger.

(The last time I searched N*matt, to my alarm, we turned up in the middle of page one. Twice. He's pretty famous, too- occasional talking head on cable news, I gather. though I don't recall seeing him. I wouldn't have taken notice before...)

 

[Maniac]

That guy definitely needs to be renamed. I doubt he'd like being leader of an authoritarian faction, given his background...

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Check your PMs.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

. .

 

[Darsnan]

Here is the current revision of the datalinks for the Empathi:

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Looks great- but which of us is to blame for the one-pixel blue border on the left?

 

[Darsnan]

Looks great- but which of us is to blame for the one-pixel blue border on the left?

I thought you couldn't see things up close? Anyways, probably me when I took the pic.


D

 

[Buster's Uncle]

I thought you couldn't see things up close?

Eyesight's going fast.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Siiigh. Thank you for pitching in.

…People have GOT to start actually reading my posts, though- it’s hard to be cordial when someone comments before they read.

Hydro. Buddy. Have a quick look the four factions I’ve already worked over graphically, please. They’re all here or linked in the thread. Maniac and I would love to hear what you think.

Sorry if I’m being snotty. No good way to address that issue. …I’ve been ruder to Darsnan over the same thing.

…He tried to plead not guilty, unconvincingly. If I surmise incorrectly here, I apologize.

Originally Posted by Hydro
Hi Buster’s Uncle!

Hey. Uncle, BU, or Jack is fine, too.

Glad you and Maniac are teaming up!

Boy, am I, too.

My thoughts, including a few images I found:

Bree – good. No clothes, though! You’ll ruin the ambiance.

Republic – looks good. Kind of snooty.

Ghosts – I liked the ominous bald head and the blood veins (??). Kind of scary. But, a new image would be OK.

Templar – I like the flames in the back, but the picture can change.

I wasn’t paying attention and thought the Templar and Genesis leaders were dudes- that’s an unforgivable flaw.

I dislike the flames even more than the head- what are they, a devil faction? Cenobites? From Wisconsin?

http://www.pengal.com/jpg/iluj0517.jpg

I wish that shot was bigger. Maniac, it’s an Asian lady.

Genesis – terrible picture.

Couldn’t agree more. Fails on multiple levels. The big one for me was that, like the Templars, it’s a creepy-looking pic, and I don’t want to look at it.

I like the idea of a scientist-in-a-lab-coat, but not too much. Perhaps a hint of science?
www.gettyimages.com/detail/82485942/Stockbyte
www.gettyimages.com/detail/82485943/Stockbyte

Maniac, you’ve got to have a look at those links- the first one isn’t bad at all; she’s Japanese, I think, and I could loose the watermark- ditto, or crop-out, for the plant. Only downside I see is the smile….

Atlantians – could be redone. I like the blue hair
www.newsweek.com/id/57224

Empaths – kind of blah.

Come to think of it, I felt the same way about the Empath portrait until I spent a lot of time looking at Oleksandra (the Ukrainan beauty queen whose photo that is) while I was working on her. She’s exquisitely beautiful, but that didn’t jump out at me while playing.

Also, it’s clearly just a photograph, the worst case of that in the set.

We should revisit this one with a black person in mind…

I don’t think it is good to have all the factions be pretty. It is more important for them to a have character that demonstrates an aspect of their faction.

I agree completely, even though I’m guilty of what you say.

***
And more of my slight response backlog out of the way:
***

Originally Posted by Maniac
Let's make her [prospective Genesis leader portrait] Israelite. Jews favour eugenetics (seriously). I kinda like the irony of it.

Me too.

It would need to be 56*56 pixels.
Perhaps make the hands disappear/merge in the aura of light?
Would it also be possible to create a version in which the aura becomes more opaque near the borders? That version can be 64*64 pixels.

Easiest, I could draw in more of the hands, I think. I don’t know if I know how the opaque thing works- if you mean blurred, and pixels increasingly dropping out towards the edge, I probably could.

Nah, she's pretty famous AFAIK. We'd probably be found on page 100 of Google or something.

See my discovery about N*matt for this. Google thinks we’re pretty or something. I think you’re the only one who’s used her full name. Might better check.

I kinda regularly see Chinese people, and I'd say the biggest objection to thinking she's Chinese, is not her eyes, skin colour or facial structure, but rather that her hair is too brown.

Weeeak. A model posing for a glamour shot never dyes her hair? And I can fix that more easily than most things…

[latest version/crop for Templar] Looks good to me too. Don't really have a preference on the matter. Let's go with what you (or Hydro) want.

I'm happy enough. Hydro?

She's also pretty well-known (has a wikipedia page for instance ), so I don't think she's in need of extra promotion. Can't hurt to ask of course. Just don't mention this place.

If she’s never had her work featured/analyzed by a PhD, lending that kind of gravity to her efforts as serious creations- capital "A" ART- I don’t care if she’s Jesus Christ. She’ll be thrilled.

 

[skreeblios]

Hey - I had just recently got back into SMAX. Didn't realize people were still working on this.

This was a crack I had at redoing the Bree base graphics; since they were aquatic I used the Gaian sea base. It doesn't mesh as well with the land - I'm considering adding fungus to the land bases. Defenses were changed to mindworms because those were easier to add.

I've been working on some others also; otherwise mostly reshuffling leaderheads.

I'm willing to help if you've need of assistance. Email at anthony dot skriba at gmail.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Hey look! My first virgin at CFC!

Actually skreeblios, I just registered here nine days ago, and I'm totally joking. I'll always treasure being your first, though.

I had a look at your .pcx, and those bases are slickly-executed. People who haven’t worked the graphics wouldn’t get what hard work your alterations were, or how technically excellent this work is. It’s seamless where you stuck the mindworms on, and I see no uncleaned pixels from elements you removed.

You're gonna get some "where's the shields?", and those people aren’t wrong. It’s not visually obvious enough what’s up with that- I wouldn’t have gotten it just looking at the file and not reading your post -and that’s no place for subtlety.

You know something you might could do that’s on my plate and I don’t especially look forward to? Nip over to Apolyton AC forums, and have a careful look at the Strategist thread in the Creation forum. Pay careful attention to the background links in the first post, read everything, especially the description/discussion of the bases we’re planning, and see if you want to register there and climb aboard the project. I can promise you nothing except I’ll try to respond to your posts and work- diplomatically and helpfully as I can.

Now I don’t think the jokers on the two AC forums I frequent worship a good graphics guy like they should, but they keep telling me how much they’ve needed one for years, and you'd be a second, and I hope they’ll treat you right. Good hunting, sir.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

I got curious about the subject of the original Empath image (whose full name is over at 'poly in two places years apart and once on my factions page in hovertext, which doesn't worry me.)
I found a stillshot of her from a video that I liked enough to crop to datalinks, not least for Hydro:

-I don't see us using this, although I could fix the background,

. . . -and she looks smokin' hot...

She's still white... There are smokin' hot black women in the world w/ images on the innerweb.

 

[vyeh]

-I don't see us using this, although I could fix the background,

Ironwood expressed interest in an alternate faction set. Save this for an alt-Gaian. Maybe an eco-warrior. (Oops, am I threadjacking?)

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Naw, it's not even off-topic. Darsnan came up with an unrelated faction in this thread, anyway, and posts on it here, and I mention the Strategist a lot, too.

...BTW, she's married to a septuagenarian American billionaire now, so she can buy and sell us all combined many times over…



skreeblios, I think I wasn’t clear enough that I had generating the rookish tower bases in mind. If you can contribute in other places, that’s fine, too. I’m sure we’d all like to see more of what you can do.

 

[Darsnan]

(Oops, am I threadjacking?)

I guess it could be considered threadjacking in that if someone with SMAniaC were to read this thread they might be confused, as some of these Factions are not meant for SMAniaC. Does that make sense? Should we post our non-SMAniaC factions into a different thread, or is it not that big an issue?

D

 

[Buster's Uncle]

A new thread would be better for all the (actually it is) off-topic stuff, but I don't care enough to start one.

You really should, but not for my sake. You're hiding your light under a bushel. Showcase your (and my, for that matter) fine work where more people will see it. I'm just a (talented, prolific) newb who posts a lot, and you know my threads don't draw as much respect from the big kids/upper classmen like you as your own thread would.

Some more general thread would be great, too.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

It's a wonderful thing, by the way, when something useful to the community mutates out of discussion. But there does come time to leave the nest, and let Momma and Daddy get back on-topic.

Never heard it called that before, have you?



So, yeah, D, I kick you out for non-SMAniaC faction makeover purposes. Come to lunch Sunday, though.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

BTW, Maniac, we should have been crediting Network Node all along- he cared enough to sign his work, as you know, and it's wrong of us not to mention him when most graphic elements were lifted from him, or people he collaborated with- or just posted their work. Textual Poaching I'm all for, but he was part of the tribe...

I know it's a time-consuming pain, especially for a project you did years ago, and don't remember what-all came from where, but I don't know enough either, and where credit can be determined, I wouldn't feel right at all about not including it.

 

[vyeh]

You're hiding your light under a bushel. Showcase your (and my, for that matter) fine work where more people will see it.

Darsnan's post count on CFC is lower than Buster's Uncle (and will continue to remain less).

Yet his light will shine through. It isn't about the number of threads you start (scient has started none on 'poly; the thread with his name was split off an older thread).

On topic, I think the Genesis Project, Templars and Ghost could use a makeover.