Monthly Archives: May 2012

HM3: New mask

I've just updated Headgear-Mask with TOOL's "Friday Night Fights 3" consolation round prize:

Note that color2 is the skull/torn up paint sort of stuff, so if you want just a pure mask in the general outline you can make color2 transparent.

Enjoy!

Note that this means my only two outstanding "named" prizes are a ten-speed bike for Nick Hentschel and an open umbrella for Dan. Then it's on to the replacement prizes and I will be caught up, finally!

Contest deadline looming!

Don't forget, you only have till Sunday night/crack of dawn Monday to get your submissions for the Super Omega Deathbattle Warzone Apocalypse Contest! The winners will get their characters painted in full color in a promotional piece for this new awesome game by professional artist Livio Ramondelli of “Transformers: Autocracy” and “DC Universe Online” fame.

Again, a perfectly valid strategy here is to pick out the nine most outstanding characters you've ever designed with HeroMachine and send them in as your entry. You're not limited to new characters only, folks, so go with your best. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!

And please, remember to peruse the official rules before committing.

PS: If you sent yours in, you should have gotten an email back from me acknowledging their receipt. If you didn't get that reply but you sent yours in, please email me (afdstudios@gmail.com) ASAP.

Open Critique Day #37

Although my new full-time (non-HeroMachine) job might keep me from actually getting to these before this afternoon, it's time 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.

In space, no one can hear you love

(From "Target Comics" number 11, 1940.)

META: Ads

Google Ads has become a non-insignificant contributor to the bottom line here at HeroMachine Central. As of yet I haven't put any ads in the actual apps themselves (the big blank white box in the upper right corner). The only way I can figure out how to place them there means that the ad is still present when you go to "widescreen" mode.

So my question is, how irritating would that be? You'd still be able to output the image in widescreen format without the ad being there, but online it would be present.

Whom to shoot? That is the question.

When last we left our zombie-fighting stuffed bunny, we were deciding whether to rally the police troops or to gracefully retire to a holding cell. Breaking from our normal habit of enlightened self-interest, we opted to go all Dirty Harry on Clampy Pete:

Well. Ahem. That seems not to have turned out so well. But we're still fighting, people! We have both a gun and bullets, which you have to admit is better than just one of the two. Plus we have a plucky if somewhat pessimistic pal parading down the primrose path to Hell with us.

On the one hand I'm tempted to go Full Metal Rabbit on these jokers. Maybe we can blast a path clear to shelter, or failing that maybe we can trip our erstwhile companion and slow the horde down while they feast on his brains and we make our escape.

On the other hand, this is looking a bit desperate, and I've grown fond of having our brains in our own head and not in some zombie's gullet. So some sort of "out" would be nice, just in case.

You make the call and defend it in the comments, folks!

[polldaddy poll="6195344"]

Because no one EVER got shot in the face or leg!

(From "Target Comics" number 11, 1940.)

A Fate Worse than Death

Our latest excrescence from the flatulent bowels of the 1990s comes courtesy of mega-publisher DC Comics, featuring a redesign of the immortal warrior for Order, Doctor Fate. He normally looks like this:

But in their infinite wisdom, DC made him look like this instead:

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From the pages of "Space Kink 2000"

(From "Target Comics" number 5, 1940.)

Friday Night Fights 3 Grand Prize

DiCicatriz and I have finished work on his prize for being the overall Friday Night Fights 3 champion. It's a duo of his original characters, Wraith and Howl. Here they are in black and white (click to embiggen any of these):

And here they are in color:

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