I’m happy to post the following “recipes” about constructing faces from Hammerknight, whom you probably recognize from his many inspired contest entries. Thanks for putting this together, Hammerknight! — Jeff

(Click to embiggen.)

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(From “The Black Terror” number 1, 1942.)

(From “The Black Terror” number 1, 1942.)

Although it runs the risk of stepping on the star-spangled coat-tails of the Patriot Contest, I wanted to honor the upcoming United States “Independence Day” holiday. So if you come up with the best character illustration centered on anything related to July 4, you’ll win either a caricature of your head OR any one item, either of which will be included in the final release of HeroMachine 3! You could go for your classic American-themed character like Cap or Uncle Sam, or you might do something centered on fireworks, or a guy named “The Revolutionary”, or a Colonial era concept, or heck even The Human Barbeque as a nod to what most people actually do on that day.

The rules are simple:

1. You must use a HeroMachine version (preferably the 3.0 alpha, but any one is fine);
2. All entries must be made as comments to this post containing a link to an image file on a publicly accessible web server somewhere (UGO Forums, ImageShack, PicasaWeb, whatever);
3. No PhotoShopping or other after-HeroMachine image software manipulation allowed except for basic cropping and maybe adding a name.

I prefer new stuff that you haven’t entered before, but sufficient awesomeness of the image will overcome a myriad of sins.

Note that if you’ve never entered one of these before, it’s really easy. Just use the built-in “Save as JPG/PNG” buttons in HeroMachine 3 to get an image file of your character. Then post it to the web using either your own web server if you have one, or one of the free image hosting sites like PicasaWeb.com, ImageShack.com, PhotoBucket.com, or even Facebook (just make sure the album is set to Public). Then cut and paste the HTTP:// address for your image into a comment to this post and you’re done. It’s that easy!

Good luck everyone, and have a great long weekend if you’re one of the lucky Americans celebrating the holiday with a day off.

I wanted to thank everyone who entered Character Contest 9. You submitted a total of 75 illustrations on the “Elemental” theme, and the quality as always was very high. So if you screwed up your courage to submit an entry, take a second to pat yourself on the back because I really appreciate it!

And now, on to the handful of illustrations I selected for a general overview as Honorable Mentions, and then your overall winner.

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If you have specific requests for energy effects to go around the hands, please post them in the comments below. Note that pretty much everything from 2.x will be added in, so you can skip requesting those. Suggestions with links to images get extra super bonus points.

From Superman to The Flash to Green Lantern to, most recently, Captain America, killing off a main character and replacing him with someone else to wear their costume is a time-honored convention of the genre. So which of these long-established but rarely-killed-off characters would you like to see get that treatment?

Discussion after the jump.

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(From “The Flame” number 1, 1955.)

(From “The Flame” number 1, 1955.)

Well, I’m afraid to say it, but circumstances in my life are forcing me to go on hiatus for an unknown amount of time. It’s a number of things and personal issues that I have to deal with. I’ll still be around though, helping Jeff occasionally and answering questions that show up in my old posts, but for now I’m not going to be able to run weekly blogs.

I don’t know what Hammerknight has in mind yet, but he’s agreed to step in with Hammerknight’s Recipes, which so far seem to be geared more towards what people are asking for anyway. So good luck, HK!

For those needing a quick reference on (useful) things I’ve already written–

Introduction to Human Bodies In HeroMachine 3

Masking Cool Animal Legs and Custom Heraldry on Shields

Queer Eye for the Superhuman Guy! (the weird superhero story)

Studly Male Poses and Looking Different Directions

Alluring Female Poses and Provocative Hair-Masking

The Official Masking Tutorial Work-In-Progress

Yes, “questions” includes requests for step-by-steps, but those take awhile to make, and until my “State of MY Union” post, I wasn’t as aware that so many people wanted it broken down like that. I’ll do my best to serve!