Since this came up in the contest thread, I just want to point out that anyone at all is more than welcome to put together one of these. Write it up however you like and email it to me, and if it seems like something helpful I’ll post it.

If you’d rather not be that formal, I’d definitely encourage you to post them on the “Tips & Tricks” forum. That’s open to anyone who’s registered and you can do it up however you like.

Instead of the usual Power User Profile, we have a special treat today — Nick Hentschel has graciously put together a nifty how-to recipe for your own sunset backgrounds! I know he put a ton of work into this, so please let him know in the comments that you appreciate the effort and the willingness to share.

Note that you can click on most of these screen captures to see them at maximum size. Without further ado, I give you Nick’s recipe!

Step 1: Go to background- Floors and select the “dead trees” background.
Increase width to 115% and height to 140%.

Set Primary Color to Darker Yellow Orange, and Secondary Color to Darker Pea Green. Lighten the latter color to about two-thirds (66-67%), and reposition it at (x)202-(y)208.

Step 2: Go to Background-Shapes and select the last, gradient rectangle (remember to set the element to “Multiples”).

Increase x to 120% (so it will cover the whole screen), decrease height to 78% (so that it’s just barely covered by the tree background), and flip it vertically (this is very important).
Turn the Primary Color to some light, sun-like orange color, and the Secondary to some darker color. You have plenty of options, since sunsets turn all sorts of crazy colors: shades of red, purple, blue, orange, and even green. I eventually settled on Pure Yellow Orange, and Dark Green Cyan (at 87%), respectively, giving it a greenish tint, since they set off my character well, but the sky is literally the limit! My advice is to get out there, and watch some sunsets! (Boy, does it suck to have your job!)
Re-position at (x)199-(y)270, and move the whole shebang to the back!

Step 3: Go back to Background-Shapes and pick the last, gradient circle (the one that’s darker around the edge).

Adjust the width and height to about 67%, keep it at the same layer, and position it in this little “nook,” conveniently made by the background itself!

Now, we tinker with the colors a bit: we change the Primary Color to Light Yellow, the Secondary to Pure Yellow Orange, and the Line Color to Pure Yellow, thinning it out to about one-third (33%).

Step 4: We now go to Background-Sky, and select the horizontal-looking clouds that are the next-to-last item.

Reset both their size and position, and change their colors as follows: Primary Color to Light Magenta Red, Secondary to 75% Gray (both of which you then feather out to about 85%), and the Line Color at 0%, whatever it is.

And do feel free to flip it around; it makes the picture a little more “balanced” and symmetrical.

Now, put a character in there, and have fun!

The always awesome Zyp has graciously put together a brief guide on how you can create incredible looking faces in HeroMachine 3 just like he does! I’ve always been impressed with the dimensionality and personality he gets into his characters, and really appreciate his sharing his secrets with us. Thank you, Zyp!

(Click to embiggen.)

(Click to embiggen.)

Many thanks to unknownblackpaper for providing this nifty recipe for making a sunset in HeroMachine 3:

(Click to embiggen.)

1. Male Clothing
2. Female Clothing
3. Backgrounds
4. Companions / Complete Characters
5. Headgear
6. Weapons
7. Miscellaneous Items

Currently they’re all empty, so you’ve got a chance to be the first one to add anything to each of them!

In response to Jeff’s (not so subtle ☺) suggestion that we could use a Recipe for making realistic fire with HeroMachine I have put this together.

There are a few things I consider when producing fire imagery;

• It contrasts greatly with whatever is around it;
• It is never completely symmetrical but it is often balanced;
• Because it is a light source, the color and intensity of close by objects will often be affected;
• It is always transparent but in varying degrees;
• It varies in color and can include greens, blues, reds, oranges, yellows and even whites;
• Fire also engulfs objects.

The major challenge with making a recipe for fire is that it does not have a static form. Therefore this recipe will be kept very general with few specifics.

Step #1 – Background
I referred to contrast previously and a really dark background can make a bright subject really pop off the page. I just used a dark background rectangle and filled the entire screen with it.

Step #2 – Burning Object
What fire is complete without something to burn eh? (Yes I did just include “eh” at the end of my sentence. I’m Canadian so I figure I’m allowed☺). This time I chose a skull because it’s dark and sinister.

Step #3 – Shading
Certainly not necessary but I often like my objects to have some shading. I selected the last item in the Backgrounds > Shapes section and gave the Primary color an Alpha of 0%. The Secondary color has an Alpha of 75% and is black. Sized like the image here and centered over the skull makes the edges of the skull darker while the center remains lighter. This should give the skull some depth. The Line Color is left as white to illustrate here but will be subsequently changed to an Alpha of 0%.

Step #4 – Flame Elements
I like to use a few different objects to make flames. I do this so that the same shapes do not appear readily. As the image progresses I will add literally dozens of layers of just the flames and the will begin to overlap. There are a few elements available that work easily for flames and here are a few examples before I start to color and layer them.

Step #5 – Adding the Fire
I will layer numerous layers of each of the flame objects. As mentioned previously, flames are not symmetrical so each object will be changed in size, shape and rotation to reduce the same shapes showing up repeatedly. Furthermore, the level of transparency changes as well so the Alpha levels will be changed for each object as well. The torch and glove may seem like unlikely additions but the flames on the torch are really good if the Line Color and the Primary Color Alpha 0 ratings. Some of these objects will be in front of the burning object and some will be behind. The torches in particular are placed behind the object so that the lines aren’t so obtrusive. The glove works quite well for small wisps of flame if the Primary Color and Line Color are made to have Alpha values of 0.

Step #6 – Review
Because the fire covers the burning objects the underlying items often look different than anticipated. I usually find it is good to review the burning object to make sure the coloring and clarity is still what was desired. Feel free to experiment with other objects or coloring to decide what meets your desired objective. In the end it is the methodology or strategy and experimentation that is important and produces results; not any one detail.

Step #7 – Alternatives

Many thanks to Hammerknight for putting together the following handy guide to the physical size your character image translates to when using the Export option.

Click on any one to see at a larger size.

Kaldath was nice enough to put together a recipe for how to make a wall-crawling female in HeroMachine 3 for us. Perhaps the producers of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” will notice and recast the lead …

These are shown in order from left to right, top row first. Click on any one to see it at the original size. And be sure to thank Kaldath in the comments if you find this helpful!

(Mashlagoo was kind enough to put together this nifty guide for how to make a portal effect in HeroMachine 3. It’s great stuff, I hope you enjoy it! — Jeff.)

The intended purpose of this guide is to show how multiple backgrounds can be combined to create the illusion of a portal.

I assume the reader has a certain level of familiarity with using HM3. So, I will not be covering much of the process I used to create the background to the left. I will instead only be covering how the effect of the portal was made and what I used to create the border of the portal.

To begin, determine what background items are going to show through the portal. I used the shaded circle for the sky as it would be the exact same shape of my portal (No need for masking!). I also wanted a sharp contrast to the original background, so I picked the barren trees, volcano, and mountains. Be sure to note which items are going to overflow the viewing area of the portal for future masking.

For each item overflowing the portal area, one circle needs to be created for masking purposes. The circles should be the exact same dimensions as the portal. In this example, only two of the backgrounds used (barren trees and mountains) fall outside the portal area. So, I will need two additional circle backgrounds to mask them.

Now, arrange one circle directly behind each item that needs to be masked. So the layers from front to back in this example are… barren trees, circle, mountains, circle, and everything else.

With all the necessary layers in place, masking can begin. Each overflowing background should be masked to the circle background behind it. In the picture to the right, the mountains background has been masked to the white circle behind it.

After the item is masked, the circle which the item was masked to should have all the colors set to alpha 0. This allows the items behind the circle to show through.

Repeat masking and coloring steps for every layer until all the overflowing layers are masked to a circle and all circles with items masked to them are transparent.

Now, the portal just needs to have some type of border. Multiple items can suit this purpose. I decided to go with the fourth option for the scythe blade weapon. It has a nice slight curve to it and is wavy on one side. It also has no langet or ricasso (oh god, am I using blade terminology now?) that would need to be hidden.

Use the item to cover the entire border of the portal. This took about sixteen blades for my portal. Once it has been completed, coloring can begin. The colors I selected are listed below.
Color 1 – Pure Green Cyan, 00A69C
Color 2 – Pastel Yellow Green, AED79D
Line Color – Pastel Cyan, 8CCFF9
None of these are custom colors.

I originally wanted to have a fading effect with the portal and maybe somebody reaching through. I attempted this with an additional circle background. This did remove my masks, but since only two items were masked, it was not difficult for me to remask them. I eventually decided against the fade as the effect obscured the view through the portal too much for my liking.

That’s everything! Enjoy making your portals!

Inspired by Lime’s contest-winning entry, I wanted to figure out how to create an illustration where the figure and its items would break the bounds of a frame surrounding the background elements. I am sure you all can think of twenty easier ways to do it than this one, but it’s what I came up with. If nothing else, maybe it will spur you to create your own method and share it with the rest of us! Here’s what the final result looks like:

First, create your character and background however you like. When you’re done, here’s how to make the frame effect.

Essentially this technique uses five iterations of the basic square element in Background-Shapes (the very first item in the set):

Place one of the squares and set all three colors to white. Scale it so that it makes a tall, skinny border along the left. Using the Layers panel, move it so it’s below all the figure elements, but above all the other background elements. Repeat this placement, coloring, and relevant scaling three more times to create narrow frames for the other three sides, as you see here:

Once you have the four frame edges positioned how you like, place a fifth square. Change its line color to black, and the other two colors to 0% Alpha using the slider above the color selection boxes. Scale it so it matches up to the inside edges of the blank space left inside the four white frame borders, the part where the background shows through. Getting it positioned exactly is hard, I recommend using the Positioning arrows set to 1 pixel at a time. For the scaling, manually enter the numbers and use the little arrows to the right of the manual scale box to enter it exactly:

This gives you the black outline for the interior of the frame. You can repeat the same technique if you want an outer frame edge as well, though I didn’t bother this particular time.

That’s it! Hope you found that at least somewhat helpful — I don’t have Hammerknight’s facility with making actual recipe cards, so this in-line HTML format will have to do.