Living Art
Level: 3
Quantum Minimum: 3
Dice Pool: Wits + Arts
Range: Touch
Area: Q+1 in square feet
Duration: Permanent
Effect: Create a animated piece of art
Multipile Action: No
Description: This power allows the nova to create an animated mirage that is permanent. This image is clearly not real, as there is some aspect to it that is exaggerated, cartoonish, or otherwise flawed, revealing the reality of this mirage. The image must be attached to something - a paint canvas, a block of marble or any medium that can accept art. The movements that the power uses are set at the time of creation, and may not be changed unless the old art is destroyed, and a new roll is made. The creator can remove any image they constructed without a roll.
Each success on a Wits+Arts roll allows you to do add a simple animation to the art.
The animations are limited to [Q+rating] in minutes.
Example: Amber is sculpting a small cat, and she wants it to stretch and yawn. She makes clay into the rough shapes she wants, then uses Living Art to animate the cat. She successfully rolls, getting two successes and getting the desired result. Later, a customer wants the cat to shake itself after the yawn, and so Amber removes the Living Art and re-rolls the power. She needs three successes to add all the motions. If she only gets two, only the first two animations are added.

I'll admit to not understanding why this is a Level 3 power (it just doesn't seem to be quite that "hefty"), but I rather like the idea. Count me supporting.

I made it a level 3 for two reasons: the power permanently impacts the world and it's a step-up from Mirage. I left the Quantum minimum low because it doesn't have much "heft."

Ah, fair enough.

It has my go, but I think it should need more succeses the more senses it tries to trick?

I mean, maybe somebody wants to give deapth perception to a painting, and then make it move, make it do sounds, and make the pantig smell like ocean because it depicts a beach. Thats's a very concentrated effort, don't you think?

[By the by, If I'm rambling and you don't understand what I said >_> fee free to call me on it]

Good points; however, Mirage, which is the "template" for this power, doesn't indicate an audio component, or any component save video. How about this: the more successes, the more animations that you cause the art to show. In the example given above, Amber would need two successes to have the cat stretch and yawn, and would need three to change it later. How does that sound?

How is this diffrent form quantum construct with a whole lot of limits and then a longer time? That is what I see. No need for a new power just redefine an old one?

Very simply, Q Construct creates animated creatures which are "obviously made of quantum forces." So it isn't the same power, and wouldn't work for my purposes at all, unless I was interested in animated, active, quantum "sculptures." Living Art can be sculpture, paint, drawing, etc.

Do I get your vote?

My question pertains to the limitations on actions. Your write-up confirms that a piece of living art can only perform a series of rote movements that are decided when the piece is created, but there's no built-in restriction as to the length of time the action takes or how many discrete actions can be performed. Admittedly, there shouldn't be a serious penalty for "extra" actions, but as written, it seems to imply that the nova could make a painting of, for example, an outdoor scene, and then use Living Art to make the players act out an entire silent movie, or for a sculpture of the Thinker to perform a two hour exercise routine. Is there any sort of cap on how long the action(s) can take?

I see as similar powers, the Animation techinques of Elemental Mastery, and Molecular Manipulation. Now granted, the animations for Living Art are more limited in scope, but unlike EM and MM, the effect is permanent.

Both those powers are Q5 powers. Since Living art essentially Animates a piece of art permanently, the power would have to be of a similar Quantum level. Q4 at least.

In addition, you could require the expenditure of Willpower points to make the animations permanent.

Other than this, I like the power.

I'll admit I forgot to read the Mirage power in the book last night (I meant to). As such, everything below is from perhaps flawed memory.

I like the power.

When I first read the power description though, I didn't think of Mirage as the template, I thought of Holo. Main reason, Mirage is a mental power, it doesn't affect the physical world where as holo does affect the physical world. [iirc]

The permanence is the only thing giving me pause from saying everything looks good. I was thinking about a Quantum 4 minimum similarly to White Rat's, but I don't think that a Willpower point is necessary. That of course is from my original thinking of this being a riff off of Holo (Q1) and thus, putting the Q min that high would be a good enough trade off for the permanence.

A stated limit to the length of time of the animation beyond 'set at creation' might not be a bad idea.

[X Time Units] per [Q + rating] should be a resonable template. Plus, making it partially dependent on the rating gives the artist a way to increase the time frame reasonably.

But really, I like the power.

Lou Anne

I agree; it was an oversight to not put a time limit on the animations. And, I like Lou Anne's suggestion for a time frame for a single animation. I'm adding the time suggestion to the power; I'll use minutes, which I think is fair. Thanks Seph and Lou Anne!



Question: does not the fact that the art is obviously an illusion help reduce the Quantum cost? I'm reasonably ok with requiring Q4, except that is a lot of power to make, essentially, pretty pictures that can be 6 square feet at most (disregarding the white elephant of Q6+, obviously).

Yes, permanent is a big deal, but this is not building something from nothing, like EM or MM. You have to have a "frame" to build on, so there's another limitation.

In short, you have the following limitations built into the power:
-max area is 6 square feet, if you have Q5
-max of 10 time units, if you have Q5 and rating 5 [with the time units being 1 minute]
-the power is clearly an illusion; it can't be made to look like a bear trap to fool someone - at worst, it can be used as some durable graffiti (which is an awesome idea someone could explore with the power, IMO)
-need a canvas or medium to display upon; can't create a hanging 3-D image floating in the air on nothing, and destroying the frame destroys the image
-it can be obscured by paint, cloth hanging, clothing, etc.

with the following bonuses:
-it can be seen by everyone (like Mirage) with no roll (unlike Mirage)
-it is permanent, so long as the creator doesn't remove it, and so long as the frame it's built on is left intact (in my graffiti example above, the way to remove the graffiti would be to remove the wall or paint over it)

This was my reasoning for Q3 rather than something higher; if I were to add the expendature of willpower, I'd drop it still lower. That is extremely puniative for the scope of the power, since that makes it an extremely gimped Mirage which has the option of being permanent.

Thanks for your comments, guys. They are really helpful. Do you have any further thoughts? Or votes to add?

1 minute as a time unit was at the extreme range of what I had in mind, but it sounds good.

You've addressed covering/destroying or willingly removing the animation, but what about 'walking through it' or 'touching it'. Short form - what happens within the physical space of the living art?

For instance, in the example of Amber's cat above... One would assume that if the cat is stretching, the physical position of the back would change, for instance if you wanted to pet the cat, your hand would move up/down/forward/backward based on where the back was... Or is it just an illusion of the cat moving.

What about a painting that 'comes up off of' the canvas or graffiti that comes up off the wall. Does the paint physically occupy the space or is it an illusion of the paint doing so? What happens if someone doesn't know a painting is animated and walks through the animate part projected off the surface? Is it damaged, is the person covered with paint or dried paint residue or vice versa? Or is it a non-physical illusion? Does the any part of the art take damage?

(Not sure how applicable, but consider the example of potential accumulated damage as a 3d painting at a gallery might accrue through people touching it.)


And at the risk of picking nits, Holo is the power that allows all to see an image. Mirage is directed to 1 mind unless you have an extra to affect more than 1 mind.

Since the power works on drawings, would the power also work work on tattoos?

I choose a minute because I like easy numbers, and one second was too short.


I was going to make the power be pure illusion. So long as the base art/canvas/frame isn't damaged, it's just slightly distorted by fingers that pass through it. If the frame itself is damaged (and some art is very fragile) then the illusion is destroyed. Flaking paint off a canvas qualifies; a small chip out of the statue does not. Does that make sense?


Sorry - I always get them confused. It was Holo that I had meant to use.


It will work on tattoos - in fact, that was my aim when creating this power.

I agree 1 second is too short if the animation is going to have any real substance, I hadn't been thinking that low, more like 30 seconds or so.


Not only makes sense but that was what I had as an image in my head, I just didn't know if that was what you were thinking or not.

One last question (I think) which I meant to add to the last post. You have the roll as wits + Art. Extra successes go to what? Complexity of the animation or do you only need 1 success? If they add to complexity what is the limit to complexity, especially where Artistic Genius (Mega Wits Enhancement) is concerned? Or would Artistic Genius not apply to the animation, only the creation of the base artwork?

Thanks

Lou Anne

Each success allows a simple animation (i.e. the cat stretching is one animation, yawning is a second and shaking would be a third success).

I'd honestly never intended for this power to allow anything too complex; the most involved image I had in my mind was a bird realistically flapping its wings.

I'll be sure to add this to the power description; I thought I had, but I don't see it.

Sounds good at this point. Count me in as in support.

Lou Anne

Has had my vote since the beggining *is Polymath*

Given the revisions, you have my support.

You have my Support (Tempest/Lost Angel)