Monthly Archives: July 2011

Character Contest 67 Winners!

Posted on July 4, 2011 by AFDStudios | Comments Off

First, happy Independence Day to all of our U.S. community members! May your day be filled with all the blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness promised us in the Declaration of Independence.

For all you non-U.S. folk, happy Fourth of July! Which isn't anything significant, but is, nonetheless, today's date. Hooray!

Second, we had a ton of great entries for Character Contest 67, which challenged you to take two great concepts and mash them together. So without further ado, I present the relative handful of submissions that I thought had something truly special and unique about them.

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Posted in Challenge Favorites, Challenges, Character Design Challenges

Stealth — you’re doing it wrong.

Posted on July 4, 2011 by AFDStudios | Comments Off

(From "Mystery Men Comics" number 4, 1939.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Stuff You Didn’t Know Was Possible in HeroMachine

Posted on July 3, 2011 by AFDStudios | Comments Off

[Panner is not only a fantastic troubleshooter and critique-giver, but he's also an expert digital archaeologist, uncovering hidden gems of knowledge when using HeroMachine 3. He was nice enough to put together some of his findings here to share with the rest of the community, for which I'm very thankful. Enjoy! -- Jeff]

HeroMachine has changed a lot over these latest months. In a short time we have seen the debut of a beautiful interface, extremely useful features, dozens of items to work with, and a forum for sharing creations. I don't think anyone will contest that these changes have made the HeroMachine experience a lot more pleasant and a lot less exhausting.

Since HeroMachine is currently in alpha stage, there are a few oddities that can be exploited to reach results that are unavailable when using the program as intended. Here I present three such exploits that all produce results you might have thought were impossible. I hope this will be educational or at least entertaining!

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Posted in HeroMachine 3, Tips & Tricks

Dr. NIMBY’s not-very-civil protest

Posted on July 3, 2011 by AFDStudios | Comments Off

(From "Mystery Men Comics" number 4, 1939.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Power User Profile: Logosgal

Posted on July 2, 2011 by AFDStudios | Comments Off

A fixture in the comments sections, always positive and engaging, and a definite up-and-comer for a contest win, I am happy to present a little more information on one of the most active members of our community, Logosgal!

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Posted in Power User Profiles

And doesn’t he look THRILLED?!

Posted on July 2, 2011 by AFDStudios | Comments Off

(From "Mystery Men Comics" number 4, 1939.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Caption Contest 100 Prize

Posted on July 1, 2011 by AFDStudios | Comments Off

Knighthawk and I have finished his prize for winning Caption Contest 100:

Thanks for the neat character to work on, Knighthawk!

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Posted in Caption Challenges, Challenge Prizes, Challenges

Open Critique Day #21

Posted on July 1, 2011 by AFDStudios | Comments Off

It's time once again for another Open Critique Day!

If you have a HeroMachine illustration or another piece of artwork you've done that you'd like some help with, post a link to it in comments along with your thoughts on it -- what you think is working, what you're struggling with, etc. I will post my critique of the piece, hopefully giving some tips on how to improve it.

Of course everyone is welcome to post their critiques as well, keeping in mind the following rules:

Make sure your criticism is constructive. Just saying "This sucks" is both rude and unhelpful without giving specific reasons why you think it sucks and, ideally, some advice on how to make it better.
Each person should only post one illustration for critique to make sure everyone who wants feedback has a chance.
I will not critique characters entered in any currently running contest, as that doesn't seem fair to the other entrants. You can still post it if you like for the other visitors to critique, but I will not do so.

That's it! Hopefully we can get some good interaction going here and help everyone (me included!) learn a little bit today.

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Posted in Open Critique Day