"So Jeff," I hear you asking out there in Internetland, "just what the heck are you doing with your time, since clearly you are not bringing teh funnah on such a regular basis the last two weeks and the Warrior Mini is pretty much done?" To which I reply, "Why am I hearing voices in my head again, did I not take my lithium?"
Seriously, joking about mental illness is not funny, I regret that last sentence and refer you to my many other substantive, caring, mature posts dealing with such weighty matters as cabbages, thinly veiled penis jokes, and vaguely homoerotic spandex fetishes, not to mention the thousands of words I have penned regarding the pressing scatological issues of our time.
To answer your impertinent and personal questions, however, the fact is that I have been spending night and day for the last two weeks drawing skulls, bones, horns, pulsating skinless muscles, spike-clad leather pants, and much more, all in service to a new client-sponsored top secret HeroMachine Mini I like to call ... "Mini Horror!"
Hmm, that doesn't spawn the sort of bone-chilling dread I'd hoped. I instead have flashes of Mini-Me in latex cracking a whip at me, which results in giggles. Not at al the effect I was going for. I think instead I'll settle on "HeroMachine Horror Edition" instead, at least it sounds somewhat professional.
I'll post some sample images below the fold, and if you have any particularly gruesome or morbidly fantastic items you've always wanted to see in a HeroMachine version, speak now or forever hold your severed head. Or whatever.




Looks Very cool
How about a Cthulhu-like tentacle mouth?
All I can say is that is some very nice artwork and I hope that most if not all of those pieces make it into HM 3 because not only are those nice “Horror” Pieces they can be used to make nice “Fantasy Characters” also
Thanks Kaldath! I hope that many of these will make the transition. I’m struggling internally to try and figure out what the best way to go on the post is. I like the 3/4 body position better in terms of what kind of look you get, but it’s soooo convenient to be able to draw just one boot that you can then Flip to put on the other side, or not. That has lots of powerful implications but is only really doable on a front-on, symmetrical pose.
I just can’t decide what the best thing to do is.
Thr front pose itself is not too bad, what I don’t like about it in the Warrior Mini is how the arms are held out a little with the arms turned out ( Or in depending on which hand you choose )
A eyeball hanging from the socket.
a “burnt” face/skin texture.
A hockey mask?
Everything on there looks really good. I agree I hope most (if not all) make it into HM3
Why couldn’t it all make it?
Could use a furry werewolf-type furry body;maybe spikes protruding from the skin?
You could add a trapjaw in shoulders.
I hope you include some cloak hoods
I want to say right off, this is something I’ve been waiting for for a long time. I’m sure you’re not going to be able to fit all these new ideas into the horror mini, but…
zippers of varying length, some closed, some half open
stitches of varying length, some oozing a viscous liquid, others not
internal organs, I mean a drawing of the torso with all the internal organs in place and no skin, you should probably do another option on this where all the internal organs are atrophied and there are cobwebs all over them
bio-mechanical, in this case I was thinking sort of a combination of Geiger-esque type art and Clive Barker (Hellraiser) type melding of flesh and machine, maybe also throw in some stuff from the movie Virus with Jamie Lee Curtis, specifically I mean skin that’s stretched way too far over cybernetic limbs or pistons moving inside flesh torn open, you could go for a Star Trek Borg look, but that just looks more sci-fi than horror, one other thought on this maybe you could a face that’s inside of a TV screen or a face with TV or oscilloscope eyes, a speaker for a mouth
there should be various bloody things sticking out of the skin, (glass, crystal, spikes, bone, nails, thorns, razors, barbed/razor wire, etc.)
That’s all I’ve got for now. I hope I didn’t creep you out with how much I’ve been thinking about this.
that severed head you mentioned as a hand item or belt
Will we have all the masking/mooving/sizing option in this mini that we have in the warrior one? if yes, That will be uber cool.
What about a Alien-Style mouth within a mouth.
Some insects part would be cool too.
If you could do a hand holding a severed head, that would be awesome.
Good suggestions, everyone, thanks. This is another client-driven app, so I’m not sure what the boundaries of taste are on it. Judging from the reference material, my guess is there’s not much that wouldn’t be allowed, but we’ll see.
@Collex: Yes, this will be built on the same code base as the Warrior Mini (which in turn will be the base for HM3) so you’ll be able to move, scale, rotate, pattern, change alpha, color lines, mask, etc.
I’m currently working on a comic fantasy/horror story, so the fact that you’re doing a “Horror Mini” is fantastic
(especially since I can’t draw!)
Having said that, I have some questions: will there be backgrounds and auras, maybe even a feature that allows you to make posters or add dialogue?
Will there be female poses?
And will you be able to move your character so you can see it from all angles?
@D: The client wants a female body. I haven’t figured out yet if I have the time to do so — we’re on an incredibly tight deadline on this one.
There is no plan for backgrounds, auras, or a poster/dialog balloon option.
You will not be able to rotate the character, everything is 2D, not 3D.
This looks awesome. Once you’ve met the client’s requirements it would be great to see this expansion continue into heromachine 3.
Some suggestions:
– a torso with a face and slavering mouth
– zombified limbs and facial features
– stiches on the face, limbs, torso – or a torso option where the guts are only just being held into the body by a few belts or netting.
– bone protrusions, elbows, knees, ribs, shoulders, EVERYWHERE!
And seeing as it is obligatory for something like this…A PUMPKIN HEAD!
Horror has never really been my thang, but hey, if that’s what y’all are into, go for it! A one-stop shop for all your Lovecraft, King, Barker, etc., Mutant Hell-Beast Needs!
Some things that would be useful for some of my horror characters: thin dehydrated body, fat bloated body, guts hanging out, stapled on face, stapled shut chest, vampire teeth, hoofs, claws, wings, a brain, and tentacles.
Jeff i would still like a skeleton lower jaw like you have in the 2.5 mouths i use it alot π
Hanged mans rope to add to in as a neck part.
Excellent! Surely this will put you closer in releasing the final product, n’est-ce pas?
Hope you cleared out the kinks that everyone pointed out with the Warrior mini!
Hey Jeff, you have me drooling with all this cool new stuff!!
Damn, what I could do with all those items in Heromachine 2.5!!! My Brotherhood of the Axe collection would more than treble in no time!!
Then again if you are adding them all to Heromachine 3, I will have so much fun redoing all my warriors!! roll on H3!!!!
…Wow… it worked! You actually heard me Jeff?! …So being bit by that radioactive cabbage really DID give me powers…
Anyway… What about different kinds of body parts? Like a third arm growing out of his side? Additional eyes and mouths that can be places on various parts of the body. Or a “ghost-tail” pants/leg item. Or a hunch-back back item. Another idea is entirely different poses/character models (e.g. hunchback, werewolf, tall man, etc). Just some ideas on my part, not really sure what the limits are as far as what you can/cannot do with it…
@Yusuf: I think I got all the stuff people mentioned in terms of bugs fixed. The last two items I need to attend to are 1) changing the way the scrolling on preview items works so you don’t have to have the Flash Player 10 installed and 2) trying to make the “dupe” setting stick with each slot type.
@Jester: For this Horror one, I do have single eyes and noses and ears available, so you can dupe and place them wherever you like.
deletable limbs, appendages, head. Have u considered gothic, scary looking weapons. Also, i reccomend you do an image search for ‘Lordi’ They are a Finnish band that i don’t even particularly like, but some of their stuff is pretty good. My brother believes you have ‘ripped off’ some of their items. Left in my mind before i short out to fight chicken-monkeys, is spiky jackets, maybe a baseballbat with loads of pointy nails sticking out, or a face like that dummy from SAW.
Byeeee
My advice is for you to search for Warhammer artwork, especially chaos. Tzeenthian mutations and Nurglish bloated vileness are both quite noteworthy.
I especially like the facial features. Plenty of opportunities there…
I also hope all manner of medieval armours and contemporary clothes will make the final cut. After all, you don’t want to go too over the top with the horror aspects (well, not every time) – sometimes a clearly fiendish face and detailing with an otherwise very capably powerful and understated garb make for a more intimidating presence.
Off the top of my head Eyes and / or Mouth that has been sewn shut.
Good Sources for additonal ideas would be the Troll Market scenes in Hellboy II and Palladium Books Nightbane sourcebooks if you have access to them.
LORDI LORDI LORDI
-Kita(shoulders,mouth,eyes)
-Amen(shoulders,mouth)
-Mr LORDI(shoulders,faces on knees,)
-Kalma(spikes,chains on torso)
-OX(horns,jacket)
RECOMMENDATIONS
Eye with ripped flesh around,stiched gash w/embedded glass/nails/shrapenl,dont forget bloody teeth,knucles,wepons etc.
@Dan and AJ’s brother:
Lordi, really, hunh. Interesting. Finnish band, incredibly detailed and intricate outfits, outstanding production values, wow. How about that.
Move along, move along, nothing to see here on this *client sponsored* applet, nosir, move along …
Palladium Nightbanes is good for source material as mentioned earlier, so is Palladiums Beyond The Supernatural and Rifts Vampire Kingdoms and Rifts Atlantis
@Jeff
Is that hint about the client sponsoring it? lol
this is good you should have a head as a hand item and a stump instead of a head with blood oozing out of it.
when you make hm3 you should combine warrior and hooror together
Wow that looks like it will be cool cant wait
Wow this should tickle my imagination. Some things I’d like to see if you have space is some evil clown stuff. And a long bulbous nose like this
http://www.screencap-paradise.com/caps/displayimage.php?pid=565602&fullsize=1
and I like Demogoblin’s teeth, long tongue and torn hood on this
http://cgi.ebay.it/L-K-MARVEL-MASTERPIECES-1994-SIGNATURE-30-DEMOGOBLIN_W0QQitemZ110304216173QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item110304216173&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A758|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A2|240%3A1318#ebayphotohosting
Tristan, is it not a no-brainer that both mini applets, as well as possibly a couple more plus a wealth of miscellaneous items, shall be a part of Heromachine III? One would suggest to think one’s message through first, then type.
Well, it’s a no brainer that I would LIKE all these items to migrate over, but ultimately that depends on the pose I pick. Odds are I’ll just select one of the two from the minis and call it a day, but I sure like the 3/4 view alternate pose I posted a while back.
The very original Heromachine had a wealth of poses. Are your sponsors not willing to let you add several updates regardless of what ships a’la Heromachine 2.5?
It’s not a question of being allowed or not allowed, it’s a question of time. It takes FOREVER to add a different pose because you have to redraw literally every item. It’s a nightmare.
When do you think it will be released?
I believe they want to launch in the first or second week of December. Tight deadline.
Any ideas on a HM 3 release ?
No HM3 release date yet, but I’m tentatively targeting Feb or March, with beta releases well before that. It just depends on if there are other client-sponsored versions between now and then.
Some suggestions: beastmen ala Island of Dr Moreau; were-creatures; animal/machine hybrids similar to Beast Wars Transformers.
If you don’t have time to put them in the “Horror Edition,”
maybe they could be added to HM3?
why dont you add some of these tops to HM3? i could use some of them for things that i am thinking of creating.