God School Assignments: #4

[thinkslogically]

Assignment the First



ÔÇ£Good! So you are the ones who have decided to stay are you? Well, may I be the first to wish you the best of luck! ...Not that youÔÇÖll need it IÔÇÖm sure. Our first class register is:

1: askstoomuch
2: M0rtimer
3: BeanDip
4: Ratha
5: whirdcheese
6: GathersIngredients
7; Bob
8: Nerre
9: Looks at you Funny
10. donnigan
11. badgeaddict
12. madmartin
(13. Looks&Smiles)

"Welcome!

ÔÇ£Now, thanks to my incredible skill and diligence, I have managed to procure each of you a private alternate dimension where you can learn how to create and destroy entire worlds on a whim! ItÔÇÖs only one per student though (the procurement forms are a NIGHTMARE!), so please try and not wreck them completely. However, the first step in Godhood is to create yourself an avatar who will represent you in your dealings on this plane. There is no point in creating a universe of puny mortals to worship you if you canÔÇÖt occasionally show up and inspire awe in the local populace after all! ItÔÇÖs also a little disconcerting being the only person in this classroom...

ÔÇ£This week your task is to collect your first toolkit and send an avatar to represent you in the tasks ahead. Your design can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be! Give your avatar a name and add any descriptions you feel are appropriate. You may use any drawing style you are comfortable with, whether itÔÇÖs freehand drawing or pixel art. For example, I might be:



Name: The Messenger

Description: The Messenger is a strange being who appears to be made entirely of light and shadows. He is essentially a glorified messenger boy however, and spends his eternity travelling the paths between the worlds delivering whatever news and assistance he is required to deliver on behalf of whatever deity requires his services.

ÔÇ£Off you go then! YouÔÇÖll find your lesson HERE to get you started, and I expect to meet your messengers by NEXT FRIDAY. Good luck and happy building!ÔÇØ

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If anyone else still wants to join the class, you're free to do so for the rest of this week. After that, it's closed doors (unless you're extra persuasive).

[Donnigan]

Donnigan would like to Join.

[thinkslogically]

Great! Welcome aboard!

Also, I should have said but let's keep this thread for sign ups and assignments only. if you have questions or problems about the lesson please use the lesson thread.

[BeanDip]

This avatar floats slowly and deliberately out of the shadows, saying nothing. All white noise in the room completely silences and the lighting flickers. A supernaturally cold aura surrounds him and the black material of his cloak shifts like a shimmer over deadly waters. His eyes are gone but none escapes his frightful gaze. He's perfectly still, biding his time before the final strike. Mortals fear him, even Gods will be reaped by him, older than the Universe, birthed before Time herself. He is...

DOUGLAS!
(Okay that's not his real name. His real name is completely unpronounceable and would likely kill any who spoke it but Douglas is a close approximation. Doug for short or Douggy D Dawg if you're feeling funky.



DESCRIPTION:Doug is the avatar of a Death God who's grown tired of destroying and reaping, tired of wandering battlefields and sheparding souls and especially tired of inspiring fear. He just wants to be loved and to have friends that don't suddenly die in the middle of a best-friends picnic just because they took a sip of your cola like that jerk Chad. So he tried to learn how to be Good. He searched for the Goodest being in the entire universe and found: SUZY SMITH: THE LITTLE GIRL FROM APARTMENT 2B. Douglas soon emulated Suzy's appearance to better absorb her teachings, copying her pigtails and hairbow.

Under Suzy's tutelage he learned what it meant to be Good. Sadly, he now had the knowledge but not the ability. Suzy was merely mortal and could not teach him how to use his Godly powers for Good, only what it meant to be Good. So Doug went to drown his sorrows in a ham sandwich (extra mayo) and found a flyer for Godschool thumbtacked to the corkboard at his local deli. He enrolled immediately.

He's here to learn how to create instead of kill, build instead of break and how to make friends instead of kill them.

[GathersIngredients]

"Intro:"
This god has trouble creating the avatar in this unfamiliar environment and she feels frustrated about the level of simplicity she has to downgrade her artistic abilities to due to her limited time and her being completely unacquainted with this medium. She struggles for quite a while, resenting the lack of detail, coloring, lighting etc. she can create without investing ridiculous amounts of time, but then she reminds herself that she is here to LEARN about all of this, later. She also remembers the time when she learned to utilize the parameters of another world, which was also quite awkward in the beginning. So, she shrugs and encouragingly nudges forward this crude avatar she calls "Sprite" and fills them with hope and dreams of better times, when she has developed more and better skills, and maybe, should they still want her to, redo Sprite's appearances.

Picture:

Sprite takes a tentative step towards the others and raises a hand to greet them. Oh their lips Sprite is sporting a shy smile. "Hello, my name is Sprite. I am here with GathersIngredients and we would very much like to learn more about this "GIMP". Nice meeting you all."

Description:
As you have just witnessed, Sprite is a newly created avatar, basically from the things that the god had just lying around. Not much effort was put into their making (heck, they didn't even get a gender yet!), and apparently they feel how their deity is not really content with what she made here. So far, this influences Sprites behavior and their character, they are quite a bit insecure and touchy about their looks. So please, if you can manage, be nice to Sprite.

[Ratha]

Once, long ago, there was a god. An ancient god, who created worlds with the power of his mind, the force of his will, and his skill with open source graphics manipulation programs.



Somewhere, a being is looking at old pictures of this god. Remembering relatives...



Epic battles...



And reliving past glories. Seriously, you haven't lived until you've barely survived an epic level "Summon Owlbear" spell. This deity floats through its gallery, gazing upon...



... HOLY SONUVACRAP! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?

"Eh? Oh, captivity by a pair of demons. Nasty pair they were. NOT healthy."

Okay... wow. So I guess you're going to god school to regain your power?

"Yeah. Kind of poetic really, the very school I started helping me get back in practice."

Your skills look perfectly okay to me.

"This took me a few perfectly good hours to do, and I stayed far away from some of the more complicated things. I need to accelerate my skills, and increase their range. Now introduce me! You're wasting time here!"

Okay, okay.



Name: Ratha

Description: The second Pacifist God of War, powered by an inner fire of unknowable proportions. Recent captivity has left him weakened, but attendance to god school may return his edge. He can only try and do his best. Maybe even learn some new things while remembering the old.

"One moment, let me do one more thing for you... and... there. Check your avatar."

Ah, cool!

[WhirdCheese]

Meet Cheese.
Image:

cheese.png

Description: Cheese is the Avatar of a god of well... Cheese. Also weird smells. And bad spelling. Cheese, upon his creation, vowed the Destruction of all things, as his creator decided not to give him a face. Or hands. Or much else. His creator sent him to God School in order to try and get those destructive urges out of him, but he's just using it as an opportunity to learn how to destroy in a more subtle manner. So that his creator doesn't destroy him but he remains true to his vow.

[LooksAndSmiles]

Hi! I'm Trix. A friendly underling of He Who Looks and Smiles, and I'm here to see how the other gods are faring in their lessons. Ask me for help, and I'll try my best to be to your aid.

[LAYF]

Hay everyone, my name is Iecc.
IÔÇÖm just here to tell you, that IÔÇÖm sorry, LAYFÔÇÖs avatar cannot be here today, cause, well... I ate him.. sorry...

No I mean, I AM sorry, now the little bastard controls me from within with the power of pointy sticks, damn thatÔÇÖs eveil.. and thatÔÇÖs coming from me.. Iecc, the incarnated evil clown clich├®...

Btw, anyone want a kiss?

[Nerre]

Since it is called "show your face" I will do exactly that and stick with my old avatar I drew in Thunts goblin style a while ago.



Name: Nerregatt

Description: He is the god of creativity and likes creating and imagine things most of all. If he is not on holidays or waiting for his muse to inspire him, he likes to shape land and sky, races, ideas and concepts. In the beginning he also liked destruction as long as it was helping with creation, but when the things living on the planet got more and more fragile, he confined himself in using it. Well, a goblin is not as sturdy as a mountain, he cannot even take one little meteor impact. Therefore, he switched from creating planets, continents and oceans to creating races, plants, animals. Then he switched to ideas and concepts. Once he even got so bored, he created magic to allow his creations to create a little bit too, but they primarily used it as a weapon, like they did with most of the concepts and ideas he gave them: sticks, fire, wheels, riding animals. So he took most of the magic out of the world again. Since then, he got more carefull on the one side, but also longed back for the old days, when he could create without taking everything he already created into account, if he didn't want it to be destroyed. "The mountains, they did never complain as much as those humans. Sigh."

[I'mBob]

Name: Bob
Description: Bob is the avatar of the mighty god of dragons. He likes being a dragon. He likes breathing fire and burning people. He hates time, because he don't have enough of it. Bob was sent to school because he wants to kill the dragon god(s) and be the strongest of them all. But for this he needs power. (And more time.)

[Nerre]

Bob, you want to be my awesome dragon mount? You got the perfect color and you are cute but still a powerful dragon. XD

[thinkslogically]

@nerre: Is your avatar intended to have a body as well or is it just a floating head? just because I'll be using the sprites you create here in one or two future lessons, so if you want him to have a body you might want to draw one.

@everyone: these are great!

[Nerre]

Thanks. A floating head is fine with me. Maybe he just decided to only show his head to others. Some gods are said to be too much for mortal eyes, so maybe this is his way trying to avoid that other people do explode.

[M0rtimer]

"Could we all please kindly pretend I spent an hour or so making an amazing entrance? I totally would have, weren't it for the fact that, even being a timelord I find myself quite lacking in my aspect at this time."

Name: Paradox

Description: Paradox is a self-proclaimed "lord of time"- Which is slightly ironic since his creator is severely lacking said time. Currently at least. Though even he probably agrees that "Time's a bitch.".

He origins from another universe- Who exactly he is or what his role in the story is yet unknown. However, considering the fact he hasn't even actually appeared in the story and still the GM seems to be actively looking for a reason to introduce him early probably says a lot.

[BadgeAddict]

► Show Spoiler

I would claim that my character (who doesn't exist!) was the master of disguise, which is why he doesn't appear in the list at the first post, But I feel that that would be rude and intrusive, so, the master of disguise, will just watch instead.

Just kick me out if you want.





Name: Mr. Peepers

Description: Mr. Peepers is a perverted and yet socially awkward and extremely shy rooster. He thinks that he is a superhero and thus wears a cape. When he is not horribly failing at saving people who may or may not actually be in need, he spends his time peering longingly into the chicken coop at those sexy ladies laying their eggs.


I 'm horrible at drawing bodies, so, for now he doesn't have one.

[thinkslogically]

BadgeAddict: Welcome aboard! Like I said, doors are open for the rest of the week, so please make yourself at home

[madmartin26]

While on his explorations, Martin, the god of exploration, unfortunately became trapped on a small desert island when his ship sunk in a storm. While looking for new supplies to continue his journey, he stumbled across the god school grounds, and upon being told what was happening immediately signed up for the course. Both because he is excited that he could possibly make another world for himself and others to explore, and because at the very least he could make himself a boat and some adventuring gear to get off this damn island.

► Show Spoiler

What do you guys think of the drawing? I've been wanting to learn how to draw for awhile now, and this seemed like a step in the right direction. To me it looks pretty good, but then again it took me more than an hour to make.

Edit: Also, now that i look again, his eyes combined with his smile make him look really creepy.

[thinkslogically]

Guys, please let's keep this thread on-topic for ASSIGNMENTS only! Please stick discussions of drawing techniques etc. into the lesson thread and maybe keep the memes for somewhere else

[thinkslogically]

Ok guys, this is the last day for your assignments to come in. Please make sure they're in by 8pm (BST) tonight (that's in 5 and a half hours), and you'll get your next lesson tomorrow

[thinkslogically]

Assignment Two



ÔÇ£Welcome back! Welcome back! Come in, come in! ItÔÇÖs very nice to see so many of you in corporeal form! LetÔÇÖs have ourselves a little class photo shall we?



ÔÇ£Wonderful! ...We seem to be missing a couple of people though. Hmmm.... It seems the avatars for askstoomuch and Donnigan haven't shown up yet. Well, they'd better arrive soon or they'll lose their spaces in the class.

ÔÇ£Of course, now youÔÇÖre all here youÔÇÖre going need somewhere appropriate to live! We donÔÇÖt have student accommodation around here, but with a personal Universe each youÔÇÖre not exactly short of real estate. Your task for this week therefore is to get building! Go forth and create yourself a lair fit for your godliness and fill it with whatever you feel like. Just remember to put everything on a new layer so you can modify it all later.

ÔÇ£The lesson which will help you get through this can be found HERE, so get to it and show us what you can come up with!

ÔÇ£The next lessons will be brought to you by the one known to you as ÔÇÿARLESÔÇÖ and heÔÇÖll be taking you through how to run a freestyle game in the style popularised by the MSPA comic, and used in Escape! and Memories on our very own forums. I will most likely join you for those classes, so see you in there!ÔÇØ

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► Show Spoiler

These are looking ace, well done! Don't forget to save your files as .xcf AND .png for this lesson though - you don't want to lose any of your hard work.

[madmartin26]

Heh, i like how Martin is holding Paradox in his hand. Pretty big size difference there.

Also, what size of Lair do you want us to have? I know it's up to us what the setting is, but do you want us to have an office(So, zoomed in with one small room), a series of rooms, one large room with multiple floors(LSN dungeon style), something else?

[M0rtimer]

Heh, yeah, I had figured my sprite would be tiny in comparison to the others... I didn't have the time to create something better though, so decided to just stick with it.

As for lair though, I know for fact that I've already started going overboard with what I'm going to do... Oh well.

[Ratha]

► Show Spoiler

M0rtimer, your sprite is beautiful. I've heard it said that where a picture is worth a thousand words, sprite art is the equivalent of poetry, communicating as much as possible in as few words as possible. And your sprite is a great poem. I'ma study the hell outta that poem.

Going overboard, eh? I can't WAIT to see this

"Time to make a lair, eh? Well, this is easy. I Already have-"

Hold it! The whole point of this is for you to get used to using gimp again, quickly and efficiently. No re-using old lairs!

"...but, this is what my lair looks like. In real life. Minus the teleport pad and the spear."

Don't care. You need to make a new lair. Hop to it! You need the practice!

*Sigh* "Okay, fine. Let's see, first, I need a space in which to live. Let's make it a pleasant light blue."



"Now, I need a desk, where I can do my work."



"And... let's see, a chair... maybe a bookshelf where I can keep my books and the server for the worlds I make. And I'll some way to let people in, maybe a teleporter?"



"Now... I'll just add a-"

Oh no you don't! I can see where this is going! New workroom! Pronto!

"Jeeze, fine!"



"Okay, there's my space. Now, I wasn't kidding about needing somewhere to work, but instead of a desk, how about... a workbench! Yes, that'll do!"



"Right, excellent. I can move some of the stuff I'm working on to that. Now... I do need some way for people to get in or out. I'll make the portal magic this time."



"Well, I failed at that. Still, that was some good fail. Now... I can hang up some pictures on the wall..."



That's borderline, but I'll allow it.

"Re-using old images is part of the process and you know it! Now... maybe a chandelier? I've always wanted one of those!"



"And a place to hang my spear. Huh, that's odd. I wonder where my spear went."

I'd like to know that too. We'll figure it out.



"That should do for now. I changed the wallpaper and made the chandelier a light source. I'll add more as time allows."

Reasonable. Your time this week was: 1 hour 29 minutes

"Damnit. I need to get better. I need to turn it out faster!"

Calm down. You'll get the hang of it. It's been a while since you did something like this. You just need practice. You'll get these done in under an hour soon, I promise.

"Okay, still that felt good. I feel... more well rounded you might say."

Heheh.

[thinkslogically]

Heh, i like how Martin is holding Paradox in his hand. Pretty big size difference there.

Also, what size of Lair do you want us to have? I know it's up to us what the setting is, but do you want us to have an office(So, zoomed in with one small room), a series of rooms, one large room with multiple floors(LSN dungeon style), something else?

Completely up to you - this assignment is for getting the hang of using gimp and layers so your hideout can be as complex or simple as you feel like. There's some continuity between some of my lessons, but they're all essentially stand- alone lessons until the very end so don't worry too much!

All this is really about finding a style you enjoy too, so play around with different things and see how you gt on there's no penalty for experimenting!