I then fired up paint shop pro (free trial - download from www.tucows.com) and used the soften tool, with a wide brush, to soften the whole explosion Which I kinda like, and could be an end in itself...alas no the smudge tool in psp, starting at the end of the explosion, then smudging horns in alternating directions, moving backwards, makes the gun "blast" this image was then copied, the new image had a motion blur added, then was pasted over the old one in a new layer. The parts that I didn't want blurred (i.e. the whole image barring the gun and arm) were then cut from the layer letting the original show through.

ok...this is going to be more than a few images, so I might spread it between a few messages.... First off, I (obviously) started with making the figure and gun, putting a spotlight on him from where the explosion would be (I told the spotlight to point at his body, then moved it to the tip of the explosion, and turned up the ending angle and intensity) I had an "explosion" object parented to the end of the gun the particle blast by Akisiel at props guild - http://www.gwz.org/propsguild/files/fxprops/ actually, I had two, one smaller than the other, with the larger one having a red ambience and the smaller one a white ambience....this creates a glowing centre to the explosion so after the render and some touching up to the figure I had this

JKELLER! How could I forget? JKeller man, you rock...he's helped me out with a few other problems over time, always friendly =) I made a point of harshly lighting the figure, both to get the shadows happening, and to make the explosion look larger and more explosive...but yes, it was more a trick than what would happen in a "real life" situation the hair could be fixed up I guess, I didn't really think of it as a problem, maybe my eye isn't drawn to it as much - how do you suggest fixing it? just adding more colour so it doesn't look washed-out, or properly drawing in new hair? as for the vampire image, I didn't bother posting it because I didn't think it's that exciting. Yes, the layout of this image is inspired by the movie "The Shadow" (hope this accepts HTML) SewerRat

Thanks for the corrections kate =) now knowing those seats are the right size I can view the image without being bugged (yes, little things get to me) grin if greywolf blurs the tower slightly it will look like it's in the distance without him having to move it =) SewerRat

go into the edit menu for the terrain, and chose posterize hold down the button and drag that'll make it nice 'n square

I stopped using the sketch renderer because you don't have complete control over it it'll draw lines where you don't want them, and not put enough detail in places you want detail it would be nice to select "hotspots" of the image where it should take more or less care, like you would by hand when drawing nevertheless, it's a great tool even 'tho I don't design stuff for it, I usually throw a rendering through it just to see what comes out SewerRat

yep, it moves but only when you stare at the spiral on the little figure maybe it would work better if he was facing front-on? SewerRat

methinks you need to make the scroll "dirtier" and more illegible because if he was writing, it wouldn't be with one word per line, it would be small so you can read it when you are sitting in front of the scroll of course then the viewer can't read and would have to assume he is writing about the story unfolding behind him... SewerRat

oh yeah, and I'd also like to know what people think about the stylised explosion instead of a more "realistic" firing of the gun =) SewerRat

haven't seen you in a while greywolf... maybe you should remove the chairs from the top deck of the boat? they look like kiddie-furniture compared to the other characters or make the boat larger? I like the (radio?) tower in the background =) SewerRat

myself, I'm scared of churches (I'm serious, that wasn't a joke) an empty church, with a huge statue of a guy nailed to a cross (a very evocative image) with stone people gazing down at you....it's not exactly a phobia, but hey, it makes me more uncomfortable than I'd have to be =) Then again, remember the tim allen movie "Jungle to Jungle"? It had a picture of Tim Allen wearing nothing but a snake. And there are many underwear adverts, all shown on the side of busses......if that can be shoved in our face, and yes, in the face if liddle sweet innocent kiddies, why are we really complaining about pictures on a forum where we have to actively seek out the content? We have tags to warn us about the content. So anyone still looking wants to see the picture, sex related or not. As for keeping it away from the children even if they want to see, honestly, it's not hard to get access to sex-related sites, even with things like netnanny running not that that's going to stop the censorship debate of course, but at least I can say I tried SewerRat

spam isn't often a problem for me I've got a webpage at hypermart.net - they give you free e-mail as my webpage is http://apocx.hypermart.net they give me e-mail which is username@apocx.hypermart.net so when I use it for something like this I can use an arbitrary e-mail e.g. poserforum@apocx.hypermart.net and if I get spam I know exactly which site I'm getting it from sure it doesn't stop the problem, but it helps to pinpoint its cause SewerRat

but even the bionic implants need to see the light, and that only happens when it's too late don't forget all the light is still attached to the sword, so when it gets split into hundreds of shards, it just ends up making the light sword look like a brightly lit christmas tree... SewerRat

can't wait to make an animation using your marine and this =) can I request some gunfire spurts? little flames I can parent to the gun nozzles? Or is this the wrong way to go about making gunfire for an animation? SewerRat

Wait, wait What if the shield is actually a really really intense magnetic field? If it was strong enough that would stop almost anything, & it wouldn't push her over! WOO! only one teeny tiny problem....that sort of energy would need her to have a personal nuclear generator...which would probably farther dissuade anyone from shooting anything remotely explosive at her. It would also probably leave her sterile. On the plus, any of those starwars battle droids going near here would have their circutry fried from the magnetismismwhatever SewerRat (did I learn nothing during physics except how to build a magnetic shield)