Any way to get a group shot of my alts?

[CharBug]

I'm an alt-aholic like most of us.   On Paragon Chat, before the return of our favorite game, I was able to log on to multiple alts, group them up and get a screenshot for my laptop wallpaper.  I know there is no way to do that on the Homecoming servers so I'm asking if anyone has any ideas short of shooting each one individually and photoshopping up something?  If that is the only way, what is the easiest and most cost effective software to aid in that endeavor?  Appreciate any and all advice.  Thanks heroes.

[biostem]

9 minutes ago, CharBug said:

I'm an alt-aholic like most of us.   On Paragon Chat, before the return of our favorite game, I was able to log on to multiple alts, group them up and get a screenshot for my laptop wallpaper.  I know there is no way to do that on the Homecoming servers so I'm asking if anyone has any ideas short of shooting each one individually and photoshopping up something?  If that is the only way, what is the easiest and most cost effective software to aid in that endeavor?  Appreciate any and all advice.  Thanks heroes.

You could save your costumes, create alternate accounts, create "throw-away" characters on them, and do a temporary multi-box, or maybe just send some friends the costume files and ask them to login with you for the group shot...

[CharBug]

Thanks for the reply biostem.  I've done something like that actually but only works for a few alts simultaneously.  I have about 70, and would like to group them into SG pics of five to a dozen depending on the group.

[NNDeepdish]

Is Demo Editing still possible these days? Never dove into it myself, but it's something I've been thinking of taking a look at.

 

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Demo_Editing

[Nericus]

1 hour ago, CharBug said:

I'm an alt-aholic like most of us.   On Paragon Chat, before the return of our favorite game, I was able to log on to multiple alts, group them up and get a screenshot for my laptop wallpaper.  I know there is no way to do that on the Homecoming servers so I'm asking if anyone has any ideas short of shooting each one individually and photoshopping up something?  If that is the only way, what is the easiest and most cost effective software to aid in that endeavor?  Appreciate any and all advice.  Thanks heroes.

Make replicas of them in the AE, set them as rescues that will follow and fight alongside you, use the biggest map that allows a lot of hostages to be saved. Free them all, group up and take a screenshot

[Darkir]

2 minutes ago, Nericus said:

Make replicas of them in the AE, set them as rescues that will follow and fight alongside you, use the biggest map that allows a lot of hostages to be saved. Free them all, group up and take a screenshot

This is brilliant.

[CharBug]

That Is a fantastic idea!  I've never made an AE mod.  Guess what I'll be doing now.  Thank you Nericus.

[Nericus]

12 minutes ago, Darkir said:

This is brilliant.

 

9 minutes ago, CharBug said:

That Is a fantastic idea!  I've never made an AE mod.  Guess what I'll be doing now.  Thank you Nericus.

You're welcome.

 

I had a mission long ago in AE where I used the outdoor graveyard map with the circular crevice in the middle with a tomb atop the hill to rescue my alts, or at least as many as I could fit into the map.

 

They were set to flight alongside me, though their AI pathing was a bit humorous at times.

 

Once all were rescued a giant monster would spawn and all my alts and I would be a huge team to defeat the giant.

 

Fun times 🙂

[WanderingAries]

2 hours ago, NNDeepdish said:

Is Demo Editing still possible these days? Never dove into it myself, but it's something I've been thinking of taking a look at.

 

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Demo_Editing

This was my first thought.

[Troo]

Demo example

 

The 3:00 mark has a bunch of characters coming out of the train.

[VileTerror]

That heroine waiting for a bus at 3:14 is perfect.
But that video showcases that we really need to improve the AI for vehicles and pedestrians, and then bump up the populations of both!  That video makes the City feel like a CITY!

[Troo]

@VileTerror I agree and also realistic regarding impact to performance. (I think it took the creator of that demo over a year)

[AboveTheChemist]

I made a demo the other night for unrelated purposes and decided I would see what I could do in terms of getting a shot with my alts. I recorded a quick demo clip in Atlas Park of one of the heroes standing talking to reporters, and I edited it to insert my main talking to my alts (posing as reporters). It was a quick and dirty trial just to see if it would work, and I think it turned out fine. So, there's definitely potential going the demo editing route.

 

 

[Troo]

if we shared some demo code, we could add too it over time and share additions back back and forth.

 

Edited February 9, 2020 by Troo
added

[Greycat]

YEah, demo editing used to be the way to go. I don't remember a thing about it these days.

[RikOz]

On 2/4/2020 at 1:37 PM, biostem said:

You could save your costumes, create alternate accounts, create "throw-away" characters on them, and do a temporary multi-box, or maybe just send some friends the costume files and ask them to login with you for the group shot...

That's more or less what I did on live for this trio shot, though I deliberately rolled each of them on different accounts right from the beginning for this purpose. Triplet sisters from Argentina, "Los Colores". One account logged in on my Mac, and the other two logged into separate instances of the game on the same Windows laptop (and about a minute to pose them and get the shot before the laptop crashed):

On 2/4/2020 at 3:17 PM, Nericus said:

Make replicas of them in the AE, set them as rescues that will follow and fight alongside you, use the biggest map that allows a lot of hostages to be saved. Free them all, group up and take a screenshot

And that's what I did, back on live, to get a shot of these two together: Bruised Violet, my main villain, on the left, and her older sister, the hero White Orchid. I wanted a portrait of them together during their "crimefighting duo" days, before BV went bad.

Edited February 9, 2020 by RikOz

[AboveTheChemist]

On 2/8/2020 at 11:03 AM, Troo said:

if we shared some demo code, we could add too it over time and share additions back back and forth.

I had a similar thought. Something along the lines of setting up files that make for nice screenshots (like lining up on the steps of the Atlas City Hall) where all one has to do is drop in the costume data for each alt. This could be done for anywhere scenic that would make a nice screenshot.

 

I also had a thought last night while running through Perez Park of setting up a demo file to drop alts in place of say a CoT circle where one's main is in the middle with all the alts circled around, or have the main on a soapbox in place of a Lost leader, with the alts standing in front listening intently. Something a little more silly/fun and the possibilities are numerous.

[Oklahoman]

As it turns out, because I am a digital pack rat, I have an old COH demo file I used prior to shutdown to capture all of my characters at the time standing with Statesman in front of the Atlas statue. I've attached that demo file here, and you can find instructions about how to run it here: https://cityofheroes.fandom.com/wiki/Demo_Recording

 

I had to capture demos of all of my characters individually, then copy/paste their little sections of code into this demo to make it work. I just checked, and the code and instructions all still work. Hope this is helpful!

 

 

Combined.cohdemo

[AboveTheChemist]

Here's one I made today with a more deliberate eye towards showing a lineup of my characters. It's not final (positioning of the characters in the front row is a bit off) but it's another example of what one could do.

On 2/9/2020 at 12:36 PM, Oklahoman said:

I had to capture demos of all of my characters individually, then copy/paste their little sections of code into this demo to make it work.

That is exactly how I did mine as well.

Edited February 12, 2020 by AboveTheChemist

[Christopher Robin]

 

If you want quick and easy demo edit is the way to go. Find a line up or grouping you

like (or use the handy one provided by OklahomaMan) and just copy paste some code and it's done.

It's what I used way back in the day to get this shot of my witch Chloe Macomber forcing the Cabal to bow to her will.

 

 

 

 The Idea of using AE is good as well if you know how to make an AE mission ( I have never done it myself).

 

Using a photo editing program will give you the most control and perhaps the prettiest results but the

learning curve for doing it well can be steep. The upside though is you can take the pictures in any

location, wipe out the backgrounds (as I did below) & then composite them any way you wish.

 

 

 

Then go and find whatever scenic shot you want in the game and overlay the images onto it.

The advantage here is you can take dozens of city shots in different places and from

different angles and keep trying the overlay until you get the perfect shot.

 

 

One more thought. With demo edit if you can only get 4 friends to pose but you want a dozen of

your heroes in the shot just place the four of them and have them type /loc. Make a note

of their positions, have them move to the next four spots & repeat as needed.

You don't need 12 people standing together to get a shot with 12 in it.

You could do it by yourself if you were patient enough. Once you

have all the locations just open the demo file & substitute

your heroes at each location and take your picture.

 

 

Edited February 13, 2021 by Christopher Robin

[AboveTheChemist]

Here's my final version of my previous screenshot. I adjusted the view a bit to even it up, moved the characters as close to the center as I could reasonably get them, adjusted their spacing, and adjusted their yaw so they were looking towards the camera. This took multiple iterations to get everything looking right, but I think it turned out fine.

 

I've attached the demo file if anyone wants to plunk their characters in. Here's the lineup (spoilered) if you want to know who is where in the screenshot, so you'll know which ones are where to replace with your characters:

Spoiler

Back row, left to right:

Rustin Peace, Shadow Spark, Arctic Ant, Porcine Swine, Steel Stick, Slashy Ashley

 

Front row, left to right:

Elizabeth Dane, Mitternacht, Polar Sable, Cryogenic Cranberry

 

If your characters are vastly different in size, you'll probably need to adjust positioning a bit.

ouro_lineup.cohdemo

[Max Firepower]

Remove.bg is an easy site for people who haven’t done editing before.  Once COVID shut down my classroom, I made ‘class photos’ using individual pictures, and overlaid onto photos from school.  Same idea here.