I’ve added the GloveLeftStandard set of items to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha, so you can now have matching items without having to manually flip them. I also added two dedicated “arm blasters” by request:

I’ll be moving on to Tops today, so holler if you want anything NOT currently in HeroMachine 2.x or one of the minis.

I’ve just updated the HeroMachine 3 Alpha with the GloveRightStandard set of items. In retrospect I bet I’m going to have to change that to GloveRightMALEStandard, but oh well. Here’s a quick taste of some of the new items:

Like with the shoes, let me know any gloves you’d like to see but don’t, or any weirdnesses you encounter. I’m going to keep it just to the right glove for now, until the set is finalized, then I’ll swap them all over to the left side. In the meantime, you can use Multiples and flipping to get matching items if you like.

I also wanted to note that if you’re using one of the alternate arms, you can still get a good glove on it by picking one, rotating and scaling it to where it mostly fits, then Masking it with the arm piece to make it conform if it’s one of the skintight ones.

Finally, the applet itself has one fairly major update to it. Mousing over an item now fades it to 50% transparent instead of giving the blue glow. I am testing to see if the glow is part of the reason trying to mouse around in the canvas area is so slow when you add enough items to the stage. I also think it might make it easier to position items if you can see what’s underneath it. Let me know what you think of the change, it’s easy enough to go back to the old way if people prefer it.

I just updated the HM3 Alpha with the “LeftFootMaleStandard” set, so now you can have a shoe on each foot if you like.

I’ve posted a new update to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha. The big addition is the “FootRightMaleStandard” set, so you can start shoe-ing your creations. The FootLeft will be coming in the next day or two, but in the meantime you can use the “flip” button to get by. Just find the shoe you want, click the “multiples” button, add the same shoe again, click the “Flip” button, and put it where you want for a matching pair. Here’s a taste of the new items:

Also in this update I’ve changed the sort order on the slot dropdowns. Before the slots were listed in stack order, starting from the bottom layer (which currently is “Backplane”) and working its way up. Now it’s just in alpha order. Let me know which you prefer, it’s easy enough to change.

I also made the two dropdown boxes a bit larger, both for ease-of-reading and because before I had unknowingly shrunk them, which made it really hard to line everything up properly. It was really irritating. Now it’s all scaled at 100% and my math is working.

Finally, I changed the wording on the “allow multiples” radio button. Before it would say “Allow multiple Body items? YES/NO”, which I think is clearer, but it was all jammed up in there and looked crappy. I reduced it to read “Multiples/Singles”, but I don’t know if that’s going to be obvious or not. It’s a very important piece of functionality that I don’t think is immediately intuitive, so any feedback you have on the best way to present it would be appreciated.

Let me know any other foot-type items you want. I decided to consolidate Footwear into just Foot, since there aren’t that many plain old feet I could think of. Plus, with the Multiples thing, it works out a little better this way.

I will be adding a “LegwearKneepads” set as well for those sorts of items. I’ve got several from the Lordi and Warrior applet that are cool and deserve to be included, plus I want to include some medieval knight-type knee protectors.

I’ve now added a set of “LegwearMaleSpandex” items to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha. Enjoy! Holler if there are spandex variations you’d like to see. I’m thinking I should probably include at least the flying-type full-length leggings too.

The HM3 Alpha applet has been updated again. The pattern buttons now work, and the problem where you couldn’t manually drag items more than halfway to the left and down has been fixed.

You might need to hit REFRESH in your browser to reload the most current version of the applet if you’ve been there recently.

Edited To Add: Also, I added a “LegwearMaleBriefs” set of starter items so your guys don’t have to be nekkid so much. More of those to come, obviously.

I’ve updated the HeroMachine 3 Alpha with the following changes:

• Masking now works. More on that below.
• Flipping items now works (though if you then scale it, it will flip back, a bug I hope to fix soon).
• Paintbrush feature now works (applies the current color scheme to whatever you click on).
• Color Hair now works (click it applies the current hair item’s color scheme to all “hair” type items).

More on all of this after the jump.

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With that rather cryptic and Star-Trekkie-like headline, I am happy to announced that the early test version of the upcoming HeroMachine 3 is now available! Please note all of the caveats and disclaimers and warnings of incompleteness at the top of the page — this is a very, very early look at the program, there are lots or more items and features yet to be implemented. Only about half the slots even have any items in them.

So yes, there will be eyes and noses and mouths and pants and gloves and boots and all that other stuff, in time.

Regardless, that page will always have the most up-to-date version of the test program I have.

What I’m looking for at this point is very broad feedback, things like how you feel the multiple item functionality works; whether or not the little toolbars in the preview of each item makes sense and has the buttons you want on it; does the organization of the items in the various slots work; etc. I’m fully aware that there are (not to get too technical) “a crapload” of features that while mostly working are still quite buggy, like the item selection getting hosed up if you mouse out of the menu area and scaling “all items” only works horizontally, that kind of thing.

Anyway, please make any suggestions, observations, complaints, requests (either items or features), or quips you like in the comments to this post. Whenever I launch an update I’ll make a new entry for it and we can go from there.

Thanks already for all the great feedback I’ve received so far; with your help this program will absolutely kick ass!

I am happy to announce that the Lordi Machine (aka the “Horror Mini”) has now launched! Lordi is a metal band from overseas, and teamed with UGO (and yours truly) to make a HeroMachine version for you to create your own band members in their distinctive style

Have fun!

I’ve now added a “Backplanes” slot to the HeroMachine Horror Mini Beta, available here. It includes the holstered shotgun, bat wings, man-bat wings, mechanical wings, extra arm, and a few other items from previous versions.