I used this tutorial to create the teraport effects seen in Sunday’s strip.
The tutorial has you use a linear gradient as a starting point. In order to get the hoops, I used a double circular gradient. For the teraport “grab” effect seen in panel 5 (3rd row, 1st panel) I hand-painted the gradient with a big ol’ airbrush.
The long and short of it — it took a little practice, but I now control the lightning. Yes, that’s right, I totally pwn3d Thor.
–Howard
BTW
I liked your open letter. As someone who has visited the OKC Memorial and had a loved one in a building only blocks away from the blast when it happened, I think the power of the place would be vastly diminished if it had been used for a political statement instead of honoring the lost and the survivors.
In my mind, adding politics to such sacred places only dishonors the innocent, it removes their humanity. They are no longer people who were diverse and wonderful, but objectified pawns. It just finishes off the job of those who killed them in the first place – those who saw them as nothing but pieces in their agenda.
I don’t want to open a debate and you can delete this comment if you think it will start one. I just wanted to add a few words to what you said.
Re: BTW
I tell you what… post it over in http://www.livejournal.com/users/schlocktroops
I’ve created a thread for that express purpose.
–Howard
Re: BTW
Will do. I suppose it’s about time I’ve joined anyway.
no-one pwn3s thor. see volume two of the ‘Ultimate universe’ Ultimates
no-one, i say! also, that teraport effect looks completely awesome. gonna use it more? cause that would be good
Yes, we’ll see that effect again. It takes less than two minutes now that I know how to do it.
Pwned or not, Thor doesn’t seem to be complaining that I now control the lightning.
–Howard
Well, seeing as according to Sandman Thor spends most of his time drunk or sleeping off his drink, I would be surprised if you heard anything from him.
What a thorry state of affairth.
What’d you expect from a guy who’s always hammered?
Thor? You think *you’re* Thor?
Me, I’m tho thor I can hardly Pith!!!
😉
Silly question about the strip. Why depleted uranium? At those velocities the same mass of toilet paper would do the same damage. And plain old iron is both cheaper and easier to accelerate.
Atmospheric penetration, plus armor-piercing for the exterior of the arcologies.
Then 118 megatons of energy gets converted from KE to heat inside an armored dome, where the worst of the dust and vapor remain mostly contained instead of pluming out into the atmosphere and spawning a nuclear winter.
–Howard
At .83 c, you don’t get any armor piercing effects from high density. Their isn’t time. Also the impactors convert to *very* high energy plasma at the upper fringes of the atmosphere.
Of course, assuming that it happens at 1000 km above ground, that gives all of 4 milliseconds for the plasma to expand before it hits the target. asssuming it can expasnd at 1000 m/s (roughly mach 3) it’ll have expanded to 8 meters across by the time it hits “ground”. Ignoring the effects of the rest of the atmosphere 🙂
Since the surface area of a 4 meter radius circle is about 50 meters, that means you’ve got around 2 megatons per square meter. 🙂
Most of said energy is still directed “down”. Though a lot will have radiated out as light, heat and other EM radiation.
As I said originally, what the projectiles are composed of is pretty much irrelevant once velocities get above 10 km/sec or so. Definitely after 100 km/sec.
We use DU penetratorts now because impact velocities aren’t a lot faster than the speed of sound in the projectiles & armor.
It sounds like his concern is entirely a matter of density. Possibly more dense projectiles hold together better during atmospheric penetration? (Not a question of structural integrity, just a question of the cross-section of the atmosphere they eat on the way down. Put the same mass in 1/3 the space and you bypass several thousand kilograms of atmosphere between you and the target…
Why not use Tungsten then, it has a higher density than Uranium and as an added bonus has a much higher melting temp. Of course if price is not an object Iridium is the way go.