If you don't see it, clear your browser's cache, but I've just updated the Headgear-Fantasy set with the following ten items from the suggestions you made after the last update:
With this release we're at a turning point in the HeroMachine 3 development process -- I have the sense that we're pretty much done with adding new items, with the exception of female bustiers. Barring any huge item set that I've overlooked, and which I count on you to remind me of in the comments, I think the next steps are as follows:
- Swap all the items that are currently right-only to have left components as well (hands, shoulders, feet, items, etc.);
- Convert all the male-only items (tops and legwear mostly) to fit the female figure as well;
- Recode to solve bugs and hopefully address some of the performance issues, add new features, etc.;
- Make another pass through the items to catch any that we missed;
- Upgrade status to beta and go for a wider release;
- Address any major issues revealed by the beta test and release.
The key takeaway is that this will be the end of "new" item releases for quite a while as I concentrate on converting over the stuff that already exists. I know that's not super exciting for you (or for me, frankly), but it clearly needs doing.
So, let me know what you think of this proposed plan!
There is one item that I think is missing. There used to be some boots in HM2 that looked kinda like motorcycle boots. They have two buckles on them. I used them quite often. Is there any chance on your final pass through, this could be added?
Also, under auras or something, I was wondering if it were possible to include some kind of cyclops-like optic blast?
Thanks, Jeff, for creating this awesome playground for us.
This sounds like a great idea to me. I’m looking forward to when HM3 is bug-free and it will be great having everything available for female characters too.
Just out of curiosity, how do you plan on making the second pass through items? Will it be kind of like what we’ve typically done, asking for suggestions in a thread piece by piece or will it be more of a free-for-all of suggestions?
Nice additions Jeff !!
About the future plans, I think you should swap steps 1 and 2.
IMO the right to left conversion shouldn’t be a high priority because it is easy to multiply and flip items, but adapting male items to female bodies is usually harder.
Also, am I confused, or at some point you said you were going to work on more eyes (like reptilian eyes)?
And when would you work on the bustiers?
When you are swapping things over from male to female, in foot wear the calf high moccasin for the females is only the upper half and it don’t look right with any of the lower selections. Could we maybe have the full boot?
Jeff, I’m a-lookin’ and I’m a-likin’.
CPrime is right. I really wanted those motorcycle boots back too. I second his inquiry.
Once again, a nice update Jeff! Thanks for doing this; continuing to update the HM3.
How’s your progress in the character contest prizes? Have everyone made their choice, or are there still someone you haven’t heard from? What will happen to those that you can’t get into contact with?
As far as the second item pass-through, this is subject to change but the rough idea is that I’ll announce “Hey, I’m going through Headgear-Modern, is there anything in there you think I need?” While I wait for feedback on that, I’ll literally go through each of the 2.5 sets and make sure there’s a correspondence.
For one-off types of things like the motorcycle boots, I don’t plan on doing those right now. Piecemeal sorts of efforts like that are kind of more trouble than they’re worth. When the time comes that I’m working on footwear, though, by all means remind me.
Steps 1 and 2 are largely interchangeable. I mostly just hate doing conversions, which both steps are, only I hate redrawing slightly more than I hate swaps. At least with the swaps I’ll be done quickly and you’ll have the fruits of that labor sooner rather than labor. I tend to drag my feet on redraws :-/
As far as eyes, I did say I needed to do those (and
eyesmouths) but I think I’ll save that for the second pass-through. I think what we have now is sufficient if not complete, which is kind of the yard stick I am trying to use.Bustiers I will probably do in the midst of the male-female conversions.
On contest prizes, I’m way behind but will probably take that up in the next few days and try to knock out a few. For instance, I know Imp wanted some of the hands brought over from the Modern Warrior set, which I would need to do before doing the flip-over conversion from right to left.
I haven’t decided yet on the “MIA” contest winners. Nothing so far as hit the nail on the head for a solution.
NEON_N64’s (3) suggestion to swap steps 1 and 2 makes sense to me as well. If the left items don’t exist they can be duplicated exactly using the right. If the female items don’t exists then modifying the male items doesn’t necessarily work as well.
Hm, good point MMI.
Oh, by the way Jeff; really nice add on’s. For some reason I didn’t expect them so they were a nice surprise.
Very nice. I have been watching this thing for a while and its getting close to the beta (Yeah!).
There was a hand position I noticed was not really possible. I’ll try getting a picture but, for now I will just describe it.
Hold a stick or sword something like that in your hand. Extend your hand out to your side and point the stick away from you. Basically making a straight line from the end of the stick to your shoulder. If you were to view the hand from the front it would show the top of the thumb.
Kind of like this:
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQrXulLmee4kAcWB_Jw77FHJ7yK5b-T-oae1xV6NmG-xl9hBhg&t=1&usg=__1R7TB0GOvN4H_MEynX3I9s0jBL4=
or
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSJQqLBS9a5e-LJHJL6HDthLs2anVMsvZNzVOtkgdjLj6LR49I&t=1&usg=__wjMAG1XEUrOUiHxFdvkfXFw5xCE=
OK, change of plan!
First, bustiers, then female conversions, then the rest.
This Rapid Fire Change of Mind brought to you by the letter “G” and the letters M, M, I, and the color NEON.
Thanks for the answers Jeff.
Oh, and forgot to ask another thing. What about the jewelry category (or subcategories as once you mentioned)?
@Neon_N64
I also like the idea of jewelery. I have been trying to custom jewelery with varying success.
And female items before flipping all the items would be very nice.
Thx Jeff!
One category I would like to see at some point is a BodyDetails set. We already have some scars in the ZombieHead set, but I think it would be cool if we had a selection of little things to really make our characters realistic. I’m thinking it could include moles, freckles, arm hair, leg hair, chicken pox etc. Maybe we could have a set of FaceDetails too to make high cheekbones, wrinkles, crow’s feet, fourheads, etc.
I know you probably don’t want to get involved with more sets, but I think these would take very little time to draw and would be very useful.
Jewelry will likely go in either as sets, or just items added to the end of “Standard”, in the appropriate slot. So in other words, “Ear-Jewelry” or “Neckwear-Jewelry”, that sort of thing. It’s not going to be its own slot like Headgear or Body or whatnot, that would be unworkable.
As far as timing, that would fit into the “second pass through all the items” area.
I hadn’t seen your last post Jeff.
Awesome!! Ladies first FTW!
Thanks 🙂
Like jewelry, stuff like “Body Details” or whatnot would go in the “second pass through all the items” area, when I’ll just in general be adding more stuff that kind of needs to be there to be considered a truly complete, robust release. Right now, I think we’re solid as far as “must have to be a viable product at all” stage. In other words, more would be nice, but it’s not an absolutely critical milestone to hit before it’s launch-worthy.
Even more helmet goodnes, love it!!
On missing items Jeff, I was just trying to recreate an old HM2 character, and realised the big grizzly beard isn’t there (you know the long wild one). Maybe one to add to the list of items for the future.
Scorp
Thanks for switching steps 1 and 2. I couldn’t agree more with that.
Hmm, nice additions Jeff! I guess my visor suggestion didn’t make the cut, Oh well.
I agree with the converting male to female items before working about Right Left conversions, and I would like to add that when doing those female conversions don’t forget to convert the eyes, nose, Mouth, eyebrows, and ears please. It may seem a minor thing, but not only are those items too large for the female face, they also propagate way to high up on the canvas for the female heads ( and being off a even a little bit on facial feature placement can really effect the final picture in my opinion )
Lastly most of those items look fair too masculine to really be useful in female characters especial, the noses, and ears. I tend to stick with the per drawn female faces instead of trying to use the individual facial parts which tend to make a lot of my female character look like they are related to each other.
Well Kaldath (22), are they realated to each other? Could be. 🙂
@MMI (23): Some of them are, lol I have one Particularly LARGE family Group, The La`Damors, and El`Damors 😀
Jeff, Mark is still working on heavy weapons right, as well as Companios – Big Weapons?
As far as I know, yes, Mark is still working on those. He does this on a volunteer basis so it definitely takes a backseat to his real life, but I’ve seen the first few Big Weapons and they’re pretty cool.
Do you plan on converting female-only items to fit the male figure, like Legwear-MaleDresses?
There are a few pants I’d like to see converted, but your plans now I great, plus the helmets are nice.
I’d like to see a few new beards thrown in, like the long ones in HeroMachine 2.5 I know beards can be resized in 3.0, but they always end up dragging away from the chin. It makes it tough doing medieval-type characters. Also, I’m wondering if we might see a few more mouths at any point in the future, maybe some more smiling/open mouths, or mouths geared more towards women. Thanks for all the work you’ve been putting in. This is a great program to be able to use.
A set I would like to see is something like Companion-Miscellaneous or Background-Miscellaneous, a set with specific scenery like thrones or portraits and other furniture
Also a plain samurai helmet so it ca be customized:
http://www.japanese-antiques-tokyo.com/Muneharu%20Helmet/DSCN8195.jpg
And finally, just more background pieces to build better backgrounds
WOW!!! HOW
FRIGGING KEWL!
What a GREAT
assortment of
Helmets and such!
I am thinking a kewl
Spider Helm would
look great!
I agree with the
addotion of face
things like chin
clefts, smile lines,
dimples, nose divit
(the indentation
between nose and
mouth) high cheek
bones (a couple of
different types
maybe), crows feet,
creased brows, and
generic face
wrinkles to make
some older and more
unique characters
been thinking we
need that for a
while.
I too have used the
female face … then
added lips or nose
over them because
some eyebrows just
look too masculine
on the whole … to
me.
I am still thinking we
need a few more
hand postitions,
since some HM3
creations you can
REALLY tell the
hand is backwards
from wht it should
be, but can’t find the
pics to illustrate it. I
will try before your
final pass through.
Do you still have my
Femme Fatale priae
planned of the
LARGE background
type flower or was it
one of the small
flowers in Insignias
Nature?
When you do get to
Jewelry …
BRACELTS. Not sure
how many time’s I’ve
used the “wrist
bands” yellow as
bracelets, some
small variety would
be great. and some
more earrings like some diamond/gemstone studs and other danglies … or even just the hook so we could put various Insignias or whatever from the hook, AND as far as Necklaces, maybe a 3 strand string of pearls that goes down to the breastbone. when you enlarge them the size gets bigger from the previous strand and doesn’t look right.
I agree with a few more backgrounds, maybe the inside of a cave,
and just some idividual background objects: an evergreen tree (Christmas is coming), a single oak or some other tree,
furniture, namely a a throne, a chair, a plain desk, a table, and end table, a standing lamp, and maybe a sofa, with a couple other frames for pictures.
I really don’t mind making them, but sometimes it does overload the system and hangs or glitches if you have to make too much.
Speaking of Christmas and holidays for Insignias what about a Holly leaf, a Poisettia bloom, a bunny (in Companions), a plain egg (for decorating), a basket, an Easter Lily, a MayPole with ribbons wrapped around it (OK maybe that would be Backgrounds), Fireworks explosion (also backgrounds),
pumpkin (we can mae it a jack o lantern with triangles and such), (we already have a great scared cat) broom, a spider insignia,
Pilgrim hat, turkey etc
I am making HM3 Holiday cards as you might have noticed in my Nature entries and the listed stuff would be AWESOME addtions .. I think for everyone and not just me)
I hate it when my posts space like that. Sorry.
Uh jeff these are nice but PLEASE put in the jack O’ lantern head!!! And keres helmet/dark helm from soul calibur 3! Those are beyond awesome!!!
Since your working on woman how about the female ninja chest from mortal kombat Armageddon? It looks hot awesome and well…friggin awesome!
Jeff How about some proper male sandals for the feet?
I just want to say that I’m looking forward to the skin materials. Thanks
I just mentioned this in the newest post from Jeff, but I’ll repeat again here just for saturation’s sake. 😀
Is there any real need to have any ‘left’ items at all? With the flip function, you can create as many lefts as you want, AND not having lefts would free up loads of space for new items in the future…
I think there is a need still for left and rights. Partly for the casual or “in a hurry” user, it’s a lot easier to have it listed there and you can click and go, without worrying about having to position the item where you want it.
The flipping feature is nice, but it’s also more work intensive and counter-intuitive than just having the item there.
Doing the mirror image versions doesn’t really take up “room” that could be freed for other items, except in the sense that it makes the list of slots bigger. But I have plenty of space for that.
The savvy user on a slow connection might just use the Right side items with flip to save download time, but that’s really the only constraint.