Category Archives: Previews

I'd like to get your feedback on two possible female templates. The image below has the two generic ones (with faces for reference) in the middle, then two sample characters with outfits on so you can see how they might look dressed.

The major change has been in the pose. We discovered that trying to put a female in the pose the male is in -- arms akimbo, held out from the body, weight evenly distributed, feet on the same level -- made her look very mannish, no matter what her body was like. At the end of the day, the point of this whole thing is to get a drawing that looks good, as if it were commissioned at a convention by a real comics artist, NOT to make my life easier. So I am probably going to have to abandon the concept that the poses would be exactly the same and that it would be up to the user to put it however they wanted. That's still possible, but I have to make the default image, I think, the best it can possibly be for those who don't want to go the extra mile.

I'm curious to get your input on that, as well.

Anyway, here goes:
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I'm working my way through a great usability study Mark Shute did (for which he got an outstanding A+ in a 700 level course -- woot Mark!). Before I actually hack up the code, I wanted to present the basic layout and concept here for your input and feedback.

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On one hand, I'm sad to report that the HM Mini I've been talking about has been canceled again. They didn't like the coloring book idea, so the whole thing is dead at this point.

On the other hand, that loss is your gain, as I have now translated over all of the mech stuff from it to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha! It's in two parts, "BodyMech" and "HeadMech", with the Body set having torsos, arms, and legs. All of this was drawn at a three quarter angle view as opposed to the regular HM straight-on model, so the pieces aren't going to work with most of the existing clothing and such. But you can build a pretty cool looking robot and some of the heads go well on existing creations, giving them a looking-off-into-space look.

Here are a couple of screen shots to show you some of the options:

Let me know what you think, and if you want me to edit the arms so they lack hands (allowing you to drop in your own from Left/Right Hand).

The next few days I'll be working on cleaning this stuff up, adding some more to Mark's great Polearms set, and then we'll see from there.

I've just added the Companion-Vehicles set to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha, including the following:

Most of these were drawn by using Flash's automatic "Trace" feature and then patching, so they're a little different stylistically than most of what is in the program. The very last car (not shown above), the 1920's style roadster, was hand-drawn, I'm curious what you think of the difference between the tracing and the drawing styles. Auto-tracing (no pun intended) is a LOT faster than hand-drawing, I did about six of these in the time it took to draw the one roadster. But, if the quality is different enough, I'll do what I have to do.

Let me know any other vehicles you'd like to see, and while we're at it, any Polearm bits Mark didn't include but that you want to see added in.

It looks like the Mini I was working on has been canceled after three weeks of hard work. Such is life. On the upside, most of these vehicles were drawn for it, so you'll get some spillover benefit. Most of the rest of it is probably not applicable to the main HM but we'll see.

Mark has updated the ItemRightPolearms set with another group of items (including some favorites from 2.5) and a few tweaks to existing ones. Check it out when you get a chance, and thanks once again to Mark!

With thanks to Demented the Clown for the gentle nudge and the painful (in a good way) face-plant of idiocy I subsequently administered to myself for not thinking of it before, I just posted the "TopsZombie" set to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha. This should be of particular interest because it includes the Zombie Female tops like the cheerleader outfit, the fitted jackets, etc. so you can hopefully get a somewhat better female figure assembled a bit more easily.

Note that I was able to squeeze this in because it only took like thirty minutes. All I had to do was rename stuff and update the previews, so it was quick. The down side is that I don't have time to do the tops up in the "new" style of removing the sleeves as separate elements, so for some of these you're stuck with the arms in the regular down position.

This is just a quick and dirty stop-gap measure to get you something nicer than what we have, without implying that it's the optimal or final resolution.

Anyway, hope you get some use out of it until we can get the real female template up and itemized. In the meantime, back to the Mini grind, which hopefully should be done soon.

I've just updated the HeroMachine 3 Alpha with the ItemRight-Pistols set of items for your shooting pleasure. This includes all of the one-handed firearms from HM2.5 (I hope) and some new ones, too, for a total of 32 complete items. Most of those are further broken down into separate stock and barrel items as well, plus a scope and a silencer at the end of the set, for a grand total of 84 selectable choices. Here are the assembled ones:

As a bonus, here are the HM2 items alongside their new 3.0a counterparts. The difference is, I think, striking:

Hope you like them! Please let me know in comments if you run into any weird bugs, or if something's missing that you were really hoping for.

Also, please post in comments what you'd like me to work on next. When I return from DragonCon I'll pick a set and get your specific requests for whatever it is.

I've just added the complete "TopsMaleCoats" to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha. I've broken each item down into four parts -- the complete item, just the chest portion, just the upper sleeve, and just the lower sleeve, as you can see in the samples below:

You can use the "multiples" setting and the "Flip" button to get matching sleeves on the other side. Some of the HM2.x items aren't here yet, as they were just vests, and I'll have a separate "TopsVests" set at some point.

At the end, I added in four elbow pieces that hopefully are generic enough to serve as "bridges" between sleeve portions for when you want to have a character with bent arms. Similarly, in the middle portion I added a few separated trenchcoat bits (one pulled back at the waist as if tucked behind a gun, one long vest portion just on the right, etc.) sine those seem like popular choices and mix well with the existing trenchcoat sleeves.

Let me know any bugs you find, missing items you hoped for but don't see, or anything else you want to say about the new bunch of stuff. Also, what would you like me to work on next? Popular suggestions in the past have been more hand-held items (probably either guns or Blunts), more Tops (vests, probably), more Legwear sets, etc.

Hope you like the new stuff!