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  1. I'm looking for some help from one of you creative types out there. I would like some overlay images we can use during BZPower's streams, both for builds and games, to help share info for people who tune in part-way through and give them more of a BZPower-feel.

     

    For a visual style, I'm thinking something like the overlays we use for our YouTube thumbnails, with the angled line and the gears, but obviously smaller so it takes up less space. Maybe one in the bottom left and one in the top right. One would have generic BZPower info, the site name, URL, and social media names and icons. The other would be mostly empty to be customized for each stream. For sets it would have the set name, piece count, and price. For games it would have the game name. An overlay with directions for the giveaways we do might be a good idea too.

     

    Resolution should be 1920x1080 minimum and the file format should be something I can easily edit in GIMP to add the required text, so XCF or PSD probably.

     

    I am ready to be wowed. :)

  2. Hey everybody!

     

    It's that time of year again!

     

    I'd like to give away 6 months of Premier Membership!

     

    To enter please comment your favourite musical theatre song, or your favourite musical, and youll be entered!

     

    I'll draw the winner on November 25th!

  3. Here's a situation.

     

    "You have 24 hours to live. What do you do?"

     

    Pretty common situation. If you have 24 hours to live, what would you do?

     

    For me, I'd probably call my loved ones and tell them what they mean to me. I'd write some sort of story about my life and I'd organize some of my stories, concepts and ideas into files with instructions on how to expand on them. I'd probably write some sort of will as well.

     

    What about you?

     

    If you have 24 hours to live, what would you do?

     

    ~Soran

  4. Unit#phntk#1
    Latest Entry

    IT'S OCTOBEAR ALREADY

     

    Octobear.jpg

    i should really use this blog for something other than making this joke once a year

     

    e: i just went to change my name and pressed enter before I was done typing .-.

    at least it cut off at "Unit" instead of "Uni" or "Unit#"

  5. First things first: TNI has a new chapter, so go check that out. Ask Matau! to follow soon (assuming enough questions roll in), and come Halloween, the Holiday Series will be starting back up! Already got a few nice ideas in mind.

     

    As for my personal life and busy-ness, I'm still quite busy with graduate school but try to find time to write here and there. Hopefully things stabilize soon, but you never know. Adulting is hard!

     

    On my other BIONICLE projects, Sad Sad Lewa is still waiting for more players but I haven't forgotten it completely. Only two people have responded to my big comedy project announcement, but if I get more (especially animators/artists, we're really short on those) we'll be able to decide on a theme and get moving. I personally like the idea of an animated/voice-acted version of Ask Matau! right now (as it would be much easier to translate into video than TNI) but we'll see. Might also make it completely brand-new. Who knows?

     

    Still trying to re-format the QFTCJP cache I found online, but it's slow going. Looks like it includes most of the 2001 saga (about 15 chapters) but nothing past that. I'll definitely be posting something when that gets finished! I may be on less frequently than before, but I'm not gone completely. BZP will always be important!

     

     

     

    :mirunu: Lewa0111 Nuva :mirunu:

  6. Hey all,

     

    The prints I am selling on B/S/T are on sale for one more day! This would be a great time to pick one up if you haven't already.

    http://www.bzpower.c...cle-print-sale/

     

    Thanks for any support you can give!

     

    A reminder that the pictures in the thread are real-life photos of the prints, and if anyone wants to see the original digital images, I can supply them via PM.

    Feel free to message me with any questions!

     

    -Orion (Haecceity)

  7. makuta_titan_01_full_768.jpg

     

    "You wanted our power, monster. Let us see if you can handle it!"

     

    Successfully got my entry in for Bionicle's last hurrah! See more pics and learn the complete backstory over in BBC or give it a like over on Rebrick!

  8. BS01 has been working on a secret project that we hope you'll enjoy. Check out the topic, and stay tuned for more details.

  9. So, the big thing I want to do is apologize, I guess.

     

    I haven't been around much these past two years. That's a function of a lot of things: life, stress, good old-fashioned shifts in interest. Maybe I could've "done better" in being more active on general, but when the fire's not there, the fire's not there.

     

    So in some sense I owe apologies to people who relied on me for general BZP stuff, apologies to folks who I got to know years ago and then fell away from for no apparent reason, and if I can be egotistical for a moment, apologies to people who really enjoyed my writing and wanted more.

     

    But that's not the main thing I'm here to say I'm sorry for.

     

    I'm here to apologize to the fans - however many or however few - who wanted to tell stories for G2 or keep telling stories for G1, and found BZP wasn't as nurturing an environment as it should be. I'm not just talking about the Library, though that's of course the subforum nearest and dearest to my heart. I'm talking about the comics artists or writers who couldn't tell if people were reading their stories, the fanartists who got quiet responses more often than not, the RPer who couldn't find the interest in their idea they needed to see.

     

    I know the staff aren't miracle workers. I'm not going to act like I could have magically solved any activity issues in the creative subforums with a wave of my hand, or that somehow I forgot to tick a switch labeled "bring in new influx of creative-focused members."

     

    And I absolutely don't want to downplay the creative people active here today. On the contrary, they have all my respect and more. Even if I don't read them, I still feel heartened when I get a notification that a new story has popped up in the library.

     

    But BZP was once a better place for Bionicle fans who wanted to make things of their own and share them with others. We hosted contests to encourage people to get out of their comfort zone and put their best foot forward. We had groups dedicated to providing constructive feedback for other members. (Granted, that had its own issues, but let's keep on the rose-tinted glasses for just a little longer?) More than anything, we had a stronger community to help people find their voice here.

     

    I should know. Thirteen years ago now, I wrote a truly terrible story and posted it to the Epics forum. (Then I abandoned it after two months, but that's not the point.) Even as a kid, I saw the other stories being written and felt excited enough to want to throw my own hat into the ring, even if that hat was just yet another "human teleported to Mata Nui" self-insert fic.

     

    I left BZP for a long time shortly after that. And when I came back seven years later - 2011, somehow five years ago now - it was writing that drew me back in again. A few months after the forums relaunched, there was a writing contest to take the title of a Bionicle comic and write a story based around that. I still don't know why I sat down and slammed out a story over the course of an evening for the contest; I hadn't written fiction, well, pretty much ever.

     

    Truth be told, I was convinced it was a disaster. I forced myself not to look at the topic, terrified that it was getting the thrashing I felt certain it richly deserved. When the results were announced, and I found out I'd actually come in first - I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to say, other than "thank you." I saw other BZPers encouraging me and congratulating me, and it was - sorry for the cliché, I've been out of practice - like a door opened for me. I'd never seriously thought of being a "writer" before. Over the next two years, it became my passion.

     

     

     

    But that was then, and this is now.

     

    I was honored to take over the Library from Hahli Husky when she stepped down. I told myself I'd keep it as nurturing and encouraging a place as I had ever known it, lower activity levels or no. I'd contribute to it both by managing it and by keeping my own stories going. And when G2 was announced, I told myself I couldn't wait to see what new talent it brought in.

     

    Instead, I hardly looked at it.

     

    Again, this isn't meant to be entirely self-flagellating. I work a job that can get pretty tiring, and I work it full-time (or longer) every week. It's not really so surprising that I fell away from online activity, both at BZP and elsewhere. Nor could I have, entirely on my own, turned around a downtick in activity to some kind of creative haven.

     

    But I barely even tried. That's the apology I really need to make here. As someone still, however tenuously, chasing that dream of storytelling, I owed it to BZP to do better fostering the next generation of storytellers here. I told myself there would be plenty of time, that we would figure something out - but there is no more time. G2 is G2, and while it's not like that shuts the door on creative enterprises on BZP forever, it sure as heck doesn't help them.

     

    To be perfectly honest, I'm at a little bit of a loss of what to do going forward now (as I imagine we all are.) I was working - even if not as hard as I should have been - on an idea for a long-overdue library contest. That'll have to be tweaked a bit now, to say the least. I realize this entry is a bit of a downer, and I don't mean for it to be taken as a "BZP is doomed" thing. Just that, like a lot of us, this hit me harder than I was expecting. And it pushed me over the edge to saying a few things I needed to say.

     

    I'm sure I'll bounce back soon enough, but I wanted to get this out there. I really am sorry BZP hasn't been better for creative work the past few years, and for whatever role I played in that fact. If nothing else, hopefully y'all can use the comments to commiserate and share your thoughts a bit.

  10. 575525_2.jpg

     

    Team Mystic FTW.

     

    also team valor sucks and team instinct is a hufflepuff.

  11. Akuna Toa of Sonics
    Latest Entry

    Last minute entry for anniversary week, I know. But this is something that's been bugging me for a while.

     

    I looked at my Kraahkan from my 2003 Makuta set sometime last year and wondered about the holes in the chin. I know how there are four-hole and six-hole variants, but mine isn't either variant. Instead, it has five holes.

    Link to the Brickshelf gallery on my old account (when public)

     

    Does anyone know if this is a misprint, and if it is one, is it worth anything?

  12. So as I said in the title-this is probably my last blog entry for a while, either until July or I get premier.

    So today we got the ballad on field, so we've got two movements of the show on field.

    Woohoo!

    See you all later.

  13. HeavyMetalSunshineSister
    Latest Entry

    So, I liked X-Men Apocalypse. Haven't had more than a few hours for it to sink in yet, but, you know, so far so good.

     

    I like how the main villain's early actions make it understandable how someone could choose to follow him without personally desiring the end of the world. I mean... nuclear disarmament? Good start, buddy!

     

    But

     

    What if

     

    What if there were a story where some mighty immortal, trapped under rocks for literally thousands of years, woke up, got to see the world

     

    And had an overall positive reaction at first? Like,

     

    They saw cars, and were impressed with the speed at which a machine, unaided by any beasts of burden, could move

     

    And they saw trains, and got excited about trains, because trains are exciting

     

    And then planes. Wow, planes. Planes! If I were that old, and had been asleep that long, planes would blow my mind.

     

    And then someone tells them that smallpox isn't a thing anymore, and oh my good golly gumdrops, smallpox isn't a thing anymore! Again, coming from that far back in history, I'd be blown away.

     

    So they're impressed by that, and by the scale on which people live now (because Cairo ca. 1984 is much, much bigger than Cairo back when there were still working out the issues in pyramid-building), and at first this mighty, immortal ruler, this ancient world-ruler, is just walking around, taking in the sights, and they're thinking, y'know, this is good. I like what you've done with the place. A+ work, kids.

     

    And where they go from there kind of depends on the tone you want to set. Do they remain impressed? Do they decide that humanity, while it has progressed, still needs them at the helm for some reason? Do they see something, some darker side to this advancement, that convinces them that they need to do something big to change things?

     

    Can't really get into that last one without discussing what it is that would convince them that the world needs re-making, and I'm not in the mood to make it something ridiculous like Adam Sandler movies (though, to be fair, "burn the world" is a perfectly understandable reaction to Adam Sandler's financial success), so... yeah. Fun thing to think about.

  14. Yes, I did log in just to see what spinny I had now. That's what I've become.

     

    Real talk though: happy anniversary to BZPower and to myself. I can't believe it's been 14 years since I signed up on my old dial-up internet. Times were so simple back then.

     

    Anyway, I don't really have much to update. I'm still working on my video game. I've mostly just been trying to survive this heat. There's not much incentive to me trying to go out and meet people when everyone's all sweaty and gross. I went to Brick Fiesta earlier this year (as is tradition) and had a lot of fun. Will not be a BrickFair this year, but I'll try to go next year and make this into a 4-year cycle :lol: ('09, '13, '17).

     

    How have you been? Yes, you. I thought I just wanted to see the spinny but now I'm interested.

  15. I've seen great improvements ever since I started drawing pixel art, even more so than I did with regular digital art.

     

    Oh, and BZP's activity has been shrinking dramatically as of late.

  16. Has anybody been to a Lego convention in LA? Bricks LA was the top Google result.

     

    I always enjoyed looking at pics of displays from conventions around the world. I never attended one, though. I think it might be fun to swing by Bricks LA this January. I live within driving distance of the venue. Any advice or tips from experienced convention attendees?

  17. JiMing
    Latest Entry

    So I haven't been on here much lately, haven't I? Sorry bout that, but I've been getting into the Pokken Tournament competitive community and been trying to improve my play hard these last few months. Also been watching people stream, talking on Discord, etc.

     

    Since it was basically 5 hours away from me, I decided to visit the Evolution Championship Series 2016 to compete in Pokken Tournament and meet the people of the community! I've been practicing hard to get in shape for this event, but we'll just have to see what shall happen. I just wanted to give an update and let you all know that was what I've been planning for lately, heh.

    Not sure who will even care at this point, but that's what I've been up to yeah. Hope to make people proud with me and my Lucario!

  18. Well, just got the email that said I was needing to either ante up for another six months, or allow my premiership to lapse. As is becoming usual with this blog, I'm going to allow it to lapse and wait until I can either win a contest or something to gain premier again. Been nice to post up my thoughts the past half-year.

     

    And as is also becoming tradition: I shall end off with an AMA. If anyone has any questions they'd like to ask about anything at all, fire away!

  19. Hello, BZPeople! This is Dallior, with a SUPER SPOOPY CONTEST!!1!11one!

     

    All or most of you probably have a self-MOC; a Technic/System rendition of yourself that you use on the forums. Most of you could build your self-MOC in an instant if given the parts... but could you draw it?

     

    This contest aims to check out your art skills; to see how well you can recreate your self-MOC with non LEGO parts! Be it on paper, digital, clay, what have you, you need to make your self-MOC exist outside of the realm of your countertop.

     

    The entries are due by... umm... July 27? Yeah, it's random, but why not?

     

    THE WINNER WILL RECEIVE a copper huna of victory A SPECIAL PRIZE. Not sure what yet; I just need to get this going before my premier membership ends soon. :P

     

    Happy arting!

    (also if you could share this around here that would be great kthxbai)

  20. UngluedBike
    Latest Entry

    I was very sad to hear today that Andre Hurley (You should all know him as MaskCollector, owner of the Platinum Avokhii), has decided to sell everything in his collection. After years of preparing to create a museum of every part and collectible made, its all gone now. He's supposedly keeping the Avokhii, which is sad really, because no one else will have the chance to complete what he started. For one of the biggest collectors in the community to sell up, I'm really wondering what has happened to our truly beloved theme.

     

    Until next time,

     

    -UngluedBike

  21. Well, guys, it's been a wonderful six years on BZPower. I've met so many wonderful people, had so many great discussions and gotten to share art and ideas. I'm so glad I could be a part of the community. But I think it's time I say farewell. My interests have changed over the years, and while I will always have a place for Bionicle in my heart (gosh, thinking of the memories I've had on this site and the nostalgia that [1st gen] Bionicle brings makes me want to cry), I've moved on to new things. I wish you all well and will miss being a part of such a great community and a great forum. I may come back every so often to see what's up, but for the most part, this is my last leg of the BZPower journey.

     

    -Rez

  22. And for once something I did is related to LEGO:

     

    1TwV2Vo.png

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