Over the years I've had a couple of freelance clients send me images of a character from HeroMachine that they wanted to have in a custom illustration. Don't get me wrong, HeroMachine is great for making "darn good" portraits, but there's just nothing like a true, unique, professionally rendered image.
I thought it might be interesting to show you how the program can be used to give an artist a really good idea of what you're looking for, though, so here's one example of a character designed in HeroMachine, then rendered by hand. I give you Kubota, pint-sized (but deadly serious) soldier of fortune in the Star Frontiers game world (click on either image for a larger version):
I'll be posting a few more of these over the next little while, the HeroMachine version first and then the custom illustration next. If anyone's interested, I've also been thinking about having a contest. People would send me their HeroMachine creations, I'd pick, say, the five best, and then open it up to a vote. The winner would get a custom character portrait based on that visual.
If that sounds interesting, please leave a comment and let me know!
I’d be very interested indeed in participating in such a contest if you were to run one. I Have a couple of PCs that I’d love to memorialize with a professional illustration.
Although this has nothing to do with the current post, I’m here to make a suggestion to the next updates in heromachine. It would be good enough for me if, instead of adding tons of new accessories or poses or anything else, to work on the existing ones in order to fix its flaws and glitches. For example, the new skin types do not work all that well with some of the previous accessories, like the hair feature, which in some cases leaves a gap where the ears should be. Or some of the new weapons, that simply can’t be used with the skins. I guess fixing this compatibility issues would be great. That’s all for me, then!
P.S.: By the way, this new additions are spetacular! Congrats on the fantastic work!
Dazed, that’s definitely on the agenda. Once all the basic items are in place for all six bodies, I’ll go through and do a sweep to fix any bugs like the ones you mention. I just want to be able to do them all at once; fixing them along the way gets too confusing and I end up with things fixed on one or two bodies but not the others, etc.
A HeroMachine battle royale!? Count me in! I’d love to see a character of mine turned into a bona fide portrait!
HM is awesome in giving “power to the people”. But custom stuff? Isn’t there an add on saying akin to “ultimate power corrupts ultimately”?
Custom creations would be positively spoiling folks!!
=:-o
Also, for a custom portrait, do you do them for free, or is there some payment involved?
I can’t do custom portraits any more since I am under exclusive contract with UGO (except of course for them like in a contest) but I used to charge for them.