To continue the theme, here’s a mashup of the four-colour American Hero and his Iron Age alter-ego as USAlien. Note the similarity between American Hero’s costume design and that of his daughter, All American Girl.
These things don’t just happen by accident, y’know.
December 8 1941, and Private Roger Stevens is stationed at Wake Island when he is hit by a bolt of light from the sky and becomes American Hero. He spends the following months helping repel the Japanese invasion fleet time and again, gaining medals and accolades from fellow soldiers and civilians alike, earning a place in their hearts and history books.
That was the public story. In truth Private Roger Stevens died that day, the victim of a crashing spacecraft. In keeping with its race traditions, the alien occupant took on his form and memories to pay for the lifedebt caused by his negligence. To all intents he became Roger Stevens, and the American Hero was a lie.
His secret remained secure until 1992 when, as a founding member of the Revengers, he was called to defend against a possible alien invasion. These were his own people come to search for him, and during the battle the Heirarch decreed his lifedebt paid in full. It reverted him back to his true form, much to the horror of his team-members and (thanks to the wonders of television) the world at large.
American Hero was no more.
As a non-US citizen he was stripped of military rank and honours, and only managed to avoid imprisonment thanks to the efforts of the superhero community. Taking the name USAlien, he cut a darkly brooding figure on the world stage, an outsider not by choice but by prejudice. He felt he had betrayed his friends, allies, the name of Roger Stevens and even his family – albeit with a lie that had over the decades saved the lives of countless thousands of people. Where previously he had fought for Truth and Justice, he now fought a brutal one-man war against injustice and his own inner demons.
When he died it was at the hands of a coalition of drug dealers and hyperjuicers in an unlit warehouse in the worst part of town. His gravestone bore just five words: “Here lies a true man.”
Kara Stevens is the daughter he never knew. She was born on the eve of American Hero’s fateful unmasking, and during the ensuing witch hunt the government granted she and her mother entirely new identities and new lives for their own safety. While USAlien soon found them he chose to stay away, believing this would put them at least risk.
As a part-alien (though she doesn’t know which race), Kara possesses many of the superpowers of her father – great density through molecular control, strength and flight – but in an entirely human form. When her powers began to appear her mother revealed the truth about her father, emphasising the great and noble deeds he carried out as American Hero. When her sophomore class was threatened by a masked gunman, she didn’t hesitate to step forward as his legacy, the All American Girl!
Dirty little secret: Like the grotesque underbelly that consumed her father, All American Girl has a dark side that threatens to take over. Meet Duality. Oh yes.
Notes: Captain America is really Martian Manhunter, and has a kid! I’m loving the legacy angle of All American Girl – it’s full of “sins of the fathers” promise all wrapped up in an identity that is still trying to find her place in the world.
Power-wise, All American Girl is a terrific build. Her powers centre around Density Control; she can become super-tough (able to shrug off a direct missile hit and lift almost 40 tons without breaking sweat), fly (up to 2500mph), turn totally incorporeal or direct her powers outward and control the elemental earth itself – but not all at the same time. She has Impervious Toughness 4 meaning she’s immune to small arms fire even when not using her Density Control (alien kinetic absorbtion skin ftw!). Adaptation 2 is a welcome bonus thanks to her alien heritage – her body will immediately adapt to hostile environments such as poison, underwater or deep space. It’s at a very low level (a mere Rank 2) to reflect her diluted gene-pool.
When it comes to stats she’s well in the human norm – a popular, healthy, graceful teenage girl with little to mark her as different to any other gal around campus. Until she punches someone through several buildings, flies into the air or walks through a wall, that is. She’s something of a talented singer (and a member of a college band), an art major and has all the skills required of college life (Bluff, Sense Motive, KS:Pop Culture and Drive).
Thanks to her slightly alien mindset, she has Second Chance (Mind Control), and her can-do attitude gives her both Beginner’s Luck and Luck 1 feats. After all, the gods smile on those who try.
Kara Stevens AKA All American Girl, PL10 150pp
Str 14/38, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 16
Tough +4i/+10i, Fort +14, Ref +8, Will +10
Attack +6, Defense +10, Init +3
Adaptation 2, Impervious Toughness 2
Density 12 (+24 Str, Weight x25, adds Immovable 4, Protection 6, Super-Strength 4)
- AP: Element Control 16 (Earth)
- AP: Flight 8 (2,500mph)
- AP: Insubstantial 4 (Incorporeal)
Acrobatics +5, Bluff +5, Computers +4, Concentration +6, Drive +4, Investigate +3, KS:Art +8, KS:Pop Culture +4, Notice +5, Perform:Singing +5, Sense Motive +4, Swim +4
Beginner’s Luck, Luck 1, Second Chance 1 (Mind Control)
Drawback: Involuntary Transformation (into Duality, Uncommon, Major)
DAZ Studio, no postwork. Click for (very) large.
Daughter of disgraced American Hero! New symbol of hope! Overuser of exclamation marks! This gal will kick your ass, and you’ll still ask for her number afterwards.
Bloody love how she turned out. This is soon to be my character for a new online campaign set in our ongoing Mutants & Masterminds universe. Expect full stats, origin (complete with long convoluted backstory for her dear ol’ dad) and more, soon!
“Just because you hear voices, don’t make you crazy. That’s what my old ma said to me. ‘Course, back then I knew all the voices I heard. I could hear Old Spikey down the road chastizin’ his mule, clear as if he was in the room right next to me. I knew when my sis was coming home from school, even afore the dogs started barkin’. Some days, I could hear the voices clear across the valley to the next settlement and even then I knew most of them, or got to know ‘em.
Anyhows. Now I’m in the city and I hear so many voices all the time, and I hardly know any of ‘em at all. But the bad ones – the real bad ones – well, I make a point of getting to know them very well. If you catch my drift.
No. Hearing voices don’t make you crazy.
It’s what they say what does that.”
Jonah was born with a gift – or perhaps a curse. He can hear the surface thoughts of everyone over a wide (and steadily growing – currently about 2.5 mile) range, all at the same time. He can focus on a single mind to delve deeper, and at a closer range (1 mile) can even see through a person’s eyes. While he cannot communicate telepathically (it’s one-way only) he has mastered sending a concentrated burst of all those thoughts at a single mind, overloading their brain. It’s a crude yet effective attack at best, but is a sign that he may well develop full telepathy as his abilities improve.
At 6′5″, Jonah is a lanky welt of bone and sinew, possessing a catlike agility that’s heightened by his precognitive talents – he knows where you’re going to be before you even know yourself. Against a living, thinking foe he is almost untouchable, able to move and pre-empt every attack before it even begins. Against robots, the undead or any other non-living thing though, he’s at a disadvantage.
Jonah’s sense of right and wrong comes from his life on the settlement where his Preacher father instilled in him a sense that the Law of Man and the Good Book were inviolate things, and it’s the duty of all godfearin’ men to see that sinners find just punishment. A natural drifter, Jonah has found his way to the city, drawn like a moth to a flame by the sound of all those voices.
They will be his undoing, one day.
Notes: Psionic Cowboy! Mind-reading son of a preacher man! Daredevil meets Jonah Hex! Greyseer is a prime PC for a gritty PL10 street-level game where the stakes are high and the risks are hidden in the shadows of the night.
Dirty little secret: Where do Jonah’s powers come from? Well, you better ask his pa that question. Too bad he died many years ago – though Jonah still hears his thoughts on the wind. And those thoughts, they ain’t good.
Jonah Greyseer, PL 10 150pp
Str 18, Dex 24, Con 18, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 16
Tough +4, Fort +9, Ref +8/+14, Will +10, Init +7
Attack (Ranged) +4/+10, (Melee) +8/+14, Defense +4/+14Enhanced Trait 43 (Defense +10, Reflex +6, Attack +6, Attack Focus (Melee) 4; Limited: only vs. living)
Super-Senses 2 (Mental Awareness, Danger Sense:Mental)
Super-Strength 2
ESP 4 (Visual Senses, Range 1 mile, Medium:other people’s eyes)
Mind Reading 6 (DC Will 16, Ranged, Area:Burst, Extra:Area 8 (about 2.5 miles))
- AP: Stun 10 (DC Fort 20, 100′, Limited:only vs. living)Acrobatics +15, Climb +8, Computers +5, Concentration +12, Gather Information +7, Investigate +7, Medicine +6, Notice +8, Search +7, Sense Motive +8, Stealth +15
Acrobatic Bluff, Master Plan, Redirect, Teamwork 2Flash Goggles, Motorcycle
See the image above? It’s not a great render by any stretch of the imagination, but it does show two of the new features which came on board with the release of DAZ Studio 3. I’ve come very late to the DS3 party but thanks to my shiny new netbook I’m here, and eager to highlight the new and funky stuff that the latest version of DAZ Studio brings to the table. This is the start of a short set of posts which shows you some of the features of DAZ Studio 3 which you might not be aware of, or not yet tried. Hope you like ‘em!
But first, back to those two heroes. They’re clearly brother and sister, and that’s due to the magic of Figure Mixer. Let’s call them She-Ro and He-Ro. The brother is a straight render of Freak 4 clad in the ever-essential M4 Bodysuit. All of the magic is in his sis. She is a straight Victoria 4, but I’ve used Figure Mixer to blend her with Freak 4 to create a completely unique figure.
To use Figure Mixer, put two figures into a scene (a Base and A.N. Other). They have to come from the same Generation of figures (Victoria 3, Aiko, David, Stephanie, Freak 3, Hiro 3 and Michael 3, or V4 and M4, etc) but they can contain any morphs, custom injections or whatever. Select the Base figure then click Edit->Figure Mixer and choose the second figure from the dialog box. Sit back and let DAZ Studio do it’s stuff.
What you’ll end up with is the Base figure altered so it’s a blend of the two (you can delete the second figure if you wish). With the Base figure selected if you head into the Parameters tab and find a new pair of sliders (by default set to 50/50) which let you set the balance between the two morphs. For She-Ro above I’ve set it to 25% Freak, 75% Vicky.
Where Figure Mixer comes into it’s own is if you want to apply a custom morph to a character it’s not designed for. For example, if you want to use the excellent M4 War Orc morph on Victoria 4, just add it to M4 then use Figure Mixer to blend it into a Vicky Base. Or how about a female Tauran, male Alice morph or even a blend of the two. I’m stoked at the potential for Figure Mixing!
But it’s not without some problems. Your resulting custom blended figure is unique, and unlikely to find any clothes to fit him or her. It’s a similar problem if you use a custom morph (Alice again, for example) which the clothing doesn’t support. Prior to DAZ Studio 3 the way around this was to use magnets, deformers and clever Scale dial twiddling to make the clothes fit. That’s a fine art (and something I’ve covered before) and DS3 offers a new solution too: Morph Follower.
Right click on the item of clothing in the preview pane, select Morph Follower, wait a while and it’s done. Simple as that – the clothing gains the custom morph settings of the figure and adapts to fit automatically. I had to make a few small tweaks to the settings for She-Ro above, but it was far, far easier than trying to fit the bodysuit to her unique shape by hand. This ‘wulf approves.
Next: DAZ Studio 3’s easy Depth-of-field
I’m all out of braincells today, so hope you don’t mind me using some of yours instead. Here’s a hero who is as agile as Spiderman and almost (but not quite) as strong as Thing from the Fantastic Four. His rough backstory so far is that he lacks the little cut-off switch in his brain that tells him when he’s reached his physical potential. So, the more he trains the faster and stronger he gets – and the sky is the limit.
I’ve been throwing around ideas based on words like “Peak”, “Potential”, “Summit” and the like, and got nuthin’ that grabs me. In some ways he’s similar to Throwback. I might find some way to link the two.
Over to you, dear reader. Any suggestions?
Just as some people are destined for greatness, some are destined to be forgotten. Bernie Jenkins was such a one; a no-hope two-bit guy who drifted from baseline job to baseline job all the way across the US. It’s ironic that despite his lack of ambition he’s seen more of the country than most, albeit mainly from behind a bar, in a mall or inside a warehouse.
That was right up until his last job in the warehouse of an experimental drug facility. He was the nightwatchman on the night a couple of lowlifes tried to raid it – with predictably disastrous results. All three of them ended up bathed in experimental chemicals and Drifter Jenkins went from being a skinny runt to…….
The crooks fled, and a few moments later so did Drifter when he realized the trouble he’d be in. Oh boy.
Dirty little secret: The drug company have set a tracker on his tail and he’s got no hope of future employment this side of a state carnival. All he can do is hide and hope the effects wear off real soon. Good luck with that, Bernie.
Notes: It’s easy to forget what a thing of beauty Mutants & Masterminds is. Here’s a character whose entire sheet would fit on the back of a 3×5 card and still leave room for doodling, yet is fully fledged and immediately ready to play.
This is one of the archetypal builds I give to new players when indoctrinating them into the wonderful world of superhero role-playing games. No complicated powers here – just the raw ability to lift over 3,000 tons without breaking sweat, leap buildings with a single bound and climb sheer surfaces by making whatever handholds he needs with his bare hands (hence Noticeable – he’s easy to track!).
You know you’ve got them hooked when they say “I pick up the freight train and hit him with it.”
Oh yeah.
Bernie “Drifter” Jenkins, PL10 150pp
Str 40, Dex 18, Con 40, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 16
Tough +15, Fort +15, Ref +10, Will +8
Attack +5 (Unarmed DC30), Grapple +20/+30, Defense +5Leaping 6, Super-Movement 2(Wall Crawling 2, Noticeable), Super-Strength 10
Bluff +11, Escape Artist +8, Intimidate +15, Sense Motive +11
Accurate Attack, Assessment, Distract:Bluff
Even though it’s a simple build there’s no shortage of options both in and out of combat. As written he hits hard but wild (ie, he’s untrained) but thanks to Accurate Attack he can take a little more care with his fists (so to speak) and trade raw damage for accuracy. If he’s got time Assessment gives him the ability to size up his opponents (Bernie is a cautious guy!) and Distract means he’s pretty good at fooling his foes. As an ex-weedy guy Bernie knew how to trick bullies then run the other way. Only now he doesn’t need to run.
His main weakness is his Defense. Just like a brick wall he’s easy to hit but hard to hurt – but a couple of good shots from a powerful Energy Blast and he’ll drop.
From there, we could complicate things slowly. This is an intentionally simplified sub-optimal build so there’s plenty of wiggle room for improvement. Drop in a few levels of Growth to take care of the STR rather than buying it direct and you’ve got points to spare for Alternate Powers, trick shots, etc. Add in weaknesses (a future dependency on the chemicals he was bathed in, perhaps) and we’ve a solid, fun character to play.
So there you have it. One simple-to-play super strong guy.
I love you, Mutants & Masterminds.
When it comes to creating superhero images whether for your own amusement or to fill in that blank portrait spot on your character sheet I reckon there’s no better program than DAZ Studio. And today I’m going to show you just how to do it – for free.
I’ve already covered a lot of this ground before in the DAZ Studio tutorials (and I recommend checking them out), but this post should hopefully be a one-stop shop to get you started on the wonderful world of 3D rendering. Just so this doesn’t become a book-sized blogpost I’ll be skipping along at a fair old pace, so if there’s anything you need clarifying either use the search box or drop a question in the comments.
In future posts I’ll be showing you how to render Elves, Spaceships, fantasy dioramas and more. Watch this space!
Right now though, I’m going to show you how to get started rendering superheroes. You will need:
DAZ Studio 3 is available in two versions – free, and not-free. The free version is complete and unrestricted in any way. The Advanced version costs $149 and includes a whole load of additional plugins and advanced features. Seriously, you don’t need it. My humble aged laptop unfortunately can’t run DAZ Studio 3 due to the higher OpenGL requirements so for this tutorial I’m using DAZ Studio 2.3 (available at the bottom of this page if you have the same problems) but there’s few changes to the interface or workflow so you should be able to follow along with any version.
Michael 4 is the current best-quality male figure there is. The base figure is free and comes with a surprisingly good default texture. The only real catch is that morphs (to change his body shape) and higher-resolution textures cost extra – the Morhps++ pack costs $29 though is best bought as part of the Michael 4 Complete pack for $49. But you don’t need that for this purposes of this tute.
We’re going to use the lights from Pose Kit 1 and the two packs of shaders to create faux superhero costume bodysuit for Michael 4. Unzip the Poser Kit and you’ll find a folder called Runtime. Copy that into your DAZ Studio/content folder (there’s a Runtime folder already there). Unzip the Shaders and there’s content folders. Copy those into your DAZ Studio folder, and we’re ready to roll.
Fire up DAZ Studio and select File->New to get a blank scene. You’ll need to have four tabs visible on your screen to follow along, so select View->Interface Layout->Select Layout… and choose 2nd Level, then select View->Tab and make sure you’ve got the Content, Scene, Parameters and Surfaces tabs visible. Drag them around and position them as you wish. My layout, for example, looks like this:
As show above, select the content tab then click the little triangle in the top-right corner and choose View Folders as List. This shows all your content in folders rather than DAZ Studio’s default category-sorted view. Next, choose Render->Render Settings, set the Dimensions to Custom, 600×800 and make sure that Render to New Window is selected.
In the content tab, click on DAZ People->Michael 4 (just click Accept if the Powerloader pops up), and you should see something like this:
Time to pose him. Still in the content tab, head into Poses->DAZ’s Michael 4->General Poses and pick a suitably superheroic one. M4_18, for example. Reposition the camera using the controls in the top-left corner of the viewing window (the ball rotates the cam, the crosshairs pan it and the arrow pointing forward zooms it). Hit CTRL-R to render, and…….
Congratulations. Your first render of a… uhhh… naked superhero. If you want to save him for posterity, use File->Save Last Render. Before we clothe him, let’s add some lights to give him a little more definition. Go to Lights->Mostdigitalcreations->PoseKitM4 and choose 1a, 1b or 1c. Hit CTRL-R to see the effect of each. If you want a dark, brooding hero change the Background colour to black by pressing the triangle at the end of the camera controls, choose Background color and select black.
Time to give Our Hero a costume. As we’re doing things the quick, easy and cheap way, we are going to do this by using shaders applied directly to Michael’s skin to create a faux bodysuit. Shaders allow you to create textures, materials and other special effects on a surface. Every figure, prop or item of clothing has different material zones which you can alter, recolour and shade to create whatever effects you desire.
Make sure that Michael is selected in the Scenes tab, then go into the Surfaces tab and CTRL-click his Nipple, SkinHip, SkinTorso, SkinArm, SkinFoot, SkinForearm and SkinLeg. Back in the Content tab go into Content->Shaders->jlgPlastic Presets and double-click Fire. Hit CTRL-R.
You can mix and match using different shaders for different material zones. Select whichever zones you wish in the Surfaces tab by clicking to select one, or CTRL-clicking to select multiple. Apply the Ice shader to the Hips and Forearms and you get this guy.
Over to you. Try out the different shaders and see if you can create that superhero style you’ve always wanted. Use the Super Shiny Shaders (Shaders->SuperShine) for that classic shiny Spandex look. Meet Domino, the two-tone superhero.
The only real limitation to applying shaders directly to the skin is the belly button. But, that’s why God invented Photoshop and the Clone Stamp tool, right?
Working with the shaders can take you a long way, but at some point you’re going to hit a point where you need to accessorize, baby. One of the best superhero packs for DAZ Studio/Poser is Hero M4 by MDC. It’s just $7.50 and inludes masks, pants, bodysuit, cape, belts and more – plenty for an infinite variety of hero.
Domino, plus!
You’re not limited by the superhero genre either – use the jlgVelvet shaders with the belt from the Hero M4 set and you’ve a passable sci-fi uniform from a certain TV series.
Change the colour of the velvet to green, use the Hero M4 hood, and you’ve got the makings of a fantasy Ranger
Add in the Morphs++ for muscle tone, and you get this guy.
In short, DAZ Studio is more than enough for your character portrait needs. Why not give it a try and finally fill in that blank portrait hole on your character sheet?
I wasn’t going to post another render up today – let alone another superhero one – but I’m so pleased with how this one turned out I had to post it right now. It’s not one that’ll appeal to everyone, but I love it. And yes, it started life as a DAZ Studio render with less Photoshop postwork trickery than you’d think.
It says a lot about how I think of how superheroes should be – anonymous, faceless watchers who protect the world. This is my essence of hero.
Hope you like it!
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