New Item Brainstorming: What Art Assets Would You Like to See Created?

Hello fellow Machinists! Choose your 5 top categories that you would like me to create art assets for.

Just sitting around wondering what art assets the Machinist community would like to see added to HM3. I made this poll as a semi-formal gathering of data to gauge the interest in particular categories. I am also interested in hearing specific requests in the discussion below, with the hope of expanding upon the conversation. Ultimately I want to use this as a guide for future item polls.

34 Responses to New Item Brainstorming: What Art Assets Would You Like to See Created?

  1. Herr D says:

    . . . and thanks!

  2. JR19759 says:

    Personally, out of these choices, I’d like more new Hair most. We could do with more modern styles for female hair and we don’t have too many decent medium-longer male hair styles.
    Tops- we could do with some of the male stuff being redone to female before we add anymore, same with hands, though there are still plenty of hand positions that we could do with.
    Legwear, again more modern stuff, we only have two pairs of jeans at the moment for both male and female. How about some ripped knee jeans?
    I can’t think of anything that needs adding to Shoulders, Headgear or Belts. Neckwear, it’d be nice to have female neckwear, because resizing some of the items is a pain. And as for the others, that’s just a case of you can add as many as you like. Though it would be nice to have more styles of pupil-less eyes so we can mask the stand-alone pupil to them for better expressions.
    But that’s just my opinion.

  3. Ace Lions says:

    One thing I always thought would be good is a wheelchair. Like ones we have in real life.

  4. hawk007 says:

    Always love new helmets to play around with!
    Good idea, by the way.

  5. Wild Card says:

    The one category I feel that is most in need of more items is patterns.
    As for the categories you have listed.
    Tops: First the male to female conversion is most needful. As for added assets some kind of a pull over type sweater (maybe an army sweater like this: http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/9/9/8/3/3/6/webimg/493405858_o.jpg ) and some arm armor.
    Gloves: Mostly armbands and elbow pads (or would they be in another category?).
    Foot: Male sandals
    Insignia: An old school Soviet hammer & sickle logo.
    Ears: Floppily bunny ears.
    Backplane: Fire wings, ice wings, and mech wings.
    Head: An insentoid head
    Headgear: Some military soft covers such as Marine cap, army field cap (aka Patrol cap), Campaign Hat, Garrison cap. I feel like we have enuff hems.
    Shoulder and Neckwear: just convert male to female

    As for the rest the mouths are full, we have plenty of eyes and noses, I just can’t think of anything else for hands and hair

  6. Malfar says:

    Definitely some Legwear. We’ve got all kinds of fantasy stuff, but quite a few sci-fi leg armor which is not too bulky.

    Somehow Tops still lead although I think we’ve got quite enough of them for now. But personally I would welcome any new item.

  7. Fabien says:

    For Tops, it would good to focus on uniform jackets ( old military style with chest shield, futuristic style…)
    Heads : few animals ( Tapir, anteater, hyena, miscellanous insects).
    Headgear : futuristic helmets and masks, high tech stuff with antennas, profiled cycling helmet…

  8. superfly30 says:

    I think it would be cool to have (non-copywritten versions) of vehicles….cars, motorcycles, aircraft, boats, etc.

  9. superfly30 says:

    I meant more of them

    superfly30:
    I think it would be cool to have (non-copywritten versions) of vehicles….cars, motorcycles, aircraft, boats, etc.

  10. dblade says:

    The Top 5 categories so far are
    1. Tops (by a considerable number)
    2. Headgear
    3. Legwear
    4. Hair
    5. Glove
    Phase 2 of my data gathering will be breaking down the need/want of items within these categories starting with Tops. As I stated before this will aid me in creating polls and choosing items that would be useful to have in HeroMachine. This is just a guide, though, and I will not limit myself to just these categories in the long run. It is very helpful to get feedback, which has an impact on my direction though.

  11. dblade says:

    JR19759:
    Personally, out of these choices, I’d like more new Hair most. We could do with more modern styles for female hair and we don’t have too many decent medium-longer male hair styles.
    Tops- we could do with some of the male stuff being redone to female before we add anymore, same with hands, though there are still plenty of hand positions that we could do with.
    Legwear, again more modern stuff, we only have two pairs of jeans at the moment for both male and female. How about some ripped knee jeans?
    I can’t think of anything that needs adding to Shoulders, Headgear or Belts. Neckwear, it’d be nice to have female neckwear, because resizing some of the items is a pain. And as for the others, that’s just a case of you can add as many as you like. Though it would be nice to have more styles of pupil-less eyes so we can mask the stand-alone pupil to them for better expressions.
    But that’s just my opinion.

    Ah, Hair. My own personal kryptonite. This is the one category that I would dearly love to work on but my illustration techniques fall short of Jeff’s expertise. Alas, rendering normal hairstyles for HeroMachine is a difficult endeavor for me. Now if you want crazy horns/tentacle/needle hair I’m your man.

    Converting Male Tops to Female Tops: A considerable task that I’m not ready to devote myself too. A sure pathway to burnout. I will try to make both Male and Female versions of any new Tops that I create from now on.

    Ripped knee jeans! I’m putting it on the list.

  12. dblade says:

    Ace Lions:
    One thing I always thought would be good is a wheelchair. Like ones we have in real life.

    I’ve also wanted to add one of these. Back in the day when Jeff was running the art contests and rewarding art assets, I almost requested a wheel chair as my prize. I wish I would have. I’ll see about this one.

  13. dblade says:

    Wild Card:
    The one category I feel that is most in need of more items is patterns.
    As for the categories you have listed.
    Tops: First the male to female conversion is most needful.As for added assets some kind of a pull over type sweater (maybe an army sweater like this: http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/9/9/8/3/3/6/webimg/493405858_o.jpg ) and some arm armor.
    Gloves: Mostly armbands and elbow pads (or would they be in another category?).
    Foot: Male sandals
    Insignia: An old school Soviet hammer & sickle logo.
    Ears: Floppily bunny ears.
    Backplane: Fire wings, ice wings, and mech wings.
    Head: An insentoid head
    Headgear: Some military soft covers such as Marine cap, army field cap (aka Patrol cap), Campaign Hat, Garrison cap.I feel like we have enuff hems.
    Shoulder and Neckwear: just convert male to female

    As for the rest the mouths are full, we have plenty of eyes and noses, I just can’t think of anything else for hands and hair

    I haven’t tried patterns yet. Perhaps I should look into them.

    The army sweater is nice. I believe that will make it into one of the upcoming polls.

    No Soviet Hammer and Sickle! I’m just going to do that one.

    The military soft covers are also a good suggestion. On the list.

  14. dblade says:

    Malfar:
    Definitely some Legwear. We’ve got all kinds of fantasy stuff, but quite a few sci-fi leg armor which is not too bulky.

    Somehow Tops still lead although I think we’ve got quite enough of them for now. But personally I would welcome any new item.

    Any specific Legwear you are thinking about?

  15. dblade says:

    Fabien:
    For Tops, it would good to focus on uniform jackets ( old military style with chest shield, futuristic style…)
    Heads : few animals ( Tapir, anteater, hyena, miscellanous insects).
    Headgear : futuristic helmets and masks, high tech stuff with antennas, profiled cycling helmet…

    Tops: Uniform Jackets would probably be a good focus. If anyone has a link to good visual resources that would be appreciated.

    Heads: I think more Insect Heads would be a great addition. A Hyena would also be very useful.

    Headgear: Any specific pieces that you can suggest?

  16. dblade says:

    superfly30:
    I think it would be cool to have (non-copywritten versions) of vehicles….cars, motorcycles, aircraft, boats, etc.

    If we found a resource for non-copywrite vehicles it would be cool to convert some into HeroMachine assets. I’m focused on creating Character assets but you never know.

  17. ams says:

    Here are some of my suggestions….
    http://www.heromachine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/dblade-guns-1.png
    http://www.heromachine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/dblade-turned-heads.png
    http://www.heromachine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/boots-5.png

    Instead of going through your whole archive, I compiled some of the item suggestions I have made and put them together.

    What do you like as reference exaples? Black and white?

    Some of the items that I am suggesting are things you can add on to existing items that will change them up a little. Such as the laces and soles for boots. You add those onto some current foot items and you have a whole new piece.

    As you have seen, I tend to favor the 3/4 turn for many of my pics. More 3/4 turned heads that I have provided would certainly make for some dynamic posing. http://www.heromachine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/test.png

    The electric energy items come from HM 2.5 and I believe would be awesome items for electrifying characters.

    Let me know what you guys think. Cheers!

  18. Anarchangel says:

    I think more Insect Heads would be a great addition.

    This pleases me.

  19. ams says:

    Great artist for Hair references – http://dark-sheikah.deviantart.com/

  20. dblade says:

    ams:
    Great artist for Hair references – http://dark-sheikah.deviantart.com/

    Very nice! I just wish I had the Hair Mojo to make it happen.

  21. Malfar says:

    @dblade I was thinking about something slim, something that doesn’t scream “POWER ARMORRR!!!”. Maybe something like this (not exactly this item but this general direction)
    http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/162/3/f/female_sci_fi_armour_01_by_graym-d47u063.jpg
    http://pre01.deviantart.net/7204/th/pre/i/2012/222/3/f/sci_fi_armor_by_imhuntingwabbits-d5alrlo.png

    Maybe something reminiscent of what New 52 did to Batman (Bruce, not Mecha Gordon) and Superman suits which is changing skin-tight fabric to some kind of armor with nonsense lines everywhere (I actually find them cool).

    But as I said already, you are awesome and I will be grateful for any addition.

  22. dblade says:

    ams:
    Here are some of my suggestions….
    http://www.heromachine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/dblade-guns-1.png
    http://www.heromachine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/dblade-turned-heads.png
    http://www.heromachine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/boots-5.png

    Instead of going through your whole archive, I compiled some of the item suggestions I have made and put them together.

    What do you like as reference exaples?Black and white?

    Some of the items that I am suggesting are things you can add on to existing items that will change them up a little.Such as the laces and soles for boots.You add those onto some current foot items and you have a whole new piece.

    As you have seen, I tend to favor the 3/4 turn for many of my pics.More 3/4 turned heads that I have provided would certainly make for some dynamic posing. http://www.heromachine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/test.png

    The electric energy items come from HM 2.5 and I believe would be awesome items for electrifying characters.

    Let me know what you guys think.Cheers!

    All sorts of gems in your post. The guns look awesome.

    I might be able to do some of the heads as a side project. These are excellent resource images.

    The miscellaneous boot items are a good idea.

    Electrical items. Gives me an idea. A side project.

    Regarding reference items. The best pieces, color or black and white, are positioned in the way they will appear in HM3. Less guessing on my part. Also sharp detail works best too.

  23. dblade says:

    Malfar:
    @dblade I was thinking about something slim, something that doesn’t scream “POWER ARMORRR!!!”. Maybe something like this (not exactly this item but this general direction)
    http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/162/3/f/female_sci_fi_armour_01_by_graym-d47u063.jpg
    http://pre01.deviantart.net/7204/th/pre/i/2012/222/3/f/sci_fi_armor_by_imhuntingwabbits-d5alrlo.png

    Maybe something reminiscent of what New 52 did to Batman (Bruce, not Mecha Gordon) and Superman suits which is changing skin-tight fabric to some kind of armor with nonsense lines everywhere (I actually find them cool).

    But as I said already, you are awesome and I will be grateful for any addition.

    Nice. I agree. Some more streamlined armor. Consider these items on the list.

  24. Logan says:

    I would like more patterns. Fabrics, animal prints, energy. Converting the patterns from the Editing window to full Items would be a great start.

  25. CantDraw says:

    I made my choices based on either things I hate to manufacture myself (i.e. mouths) or where I find a lot of useful items to manipulate (i.e. headgear, backplane).

    ams – great choice for hair styles. I’ve used dark-sheikah for inspiration before.

  26. ams says:

    Separation of body hair into 3 items to be able to use on other body parts easlily without masking?
    http://www.heromachine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Body-hair-oct-2015.png

    Sorry, don’t mean to open the flood gates….

  27. dblade says:

    I will definitely being focusing on Tops in the next couple of polls. Now I need some more suggestions. What pieces do you think are missing? Reference images and/or links are very welcome.

  28. dblade says:

    Nice. I actually have those Skywarp images sitting around in my digital workshop. Funny thing about the marvel images. I’ve been meaning to go deep-diving into the Marvel Universe and RPG files to see if there are some interesting assets to reference.

  29. Fabien says:

    For Headgears, i guess you to visit this Deviantart gallery :
    http://one-thousand-heads.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=0

    You have ton of inspiration for this.

  30. vespertine says:

    Damn, wish I was on here less sporadically; hope this gets seen. ;p

    One thing I’ve been dying to have in HeroMachine — not sure if it is even possible within the program — is to have a CURVED gradient. Basically, take something like the crescent-shaped insignia and make that a gradient. This would save a ridiculous amount of time when doing shading, IMHO, as most things I add shading to require half a dozen gradients due to a curve in the character, clothing or hair. And since I use a laptop most of the time, it would save a lot of layers to add other details.

    I’m also totally on board with what AMS mentioned about laces, etc., for boots/shoes. I think details that can be added to other pieces of clothing to customize them and make them look less “vanilla” would do a lot to make characters look more unique. Like, maybe just a few styles of pocket by themselves which could be tacked-on to a jacket/shirt/pants… Laces, buckles, buttons, seams, frays, rips, etc. I think items like these have a lot more utility in the long run. There are a lot of pieces of clothing in particular that I almost never use in HM because I tend to build my bodies and/or pose them in ways that end up making a lot of the clothing hard to use.

    The last thing I would love to see in HM is individual fingers and palms. I think that could be very useful in articulating more specific hand poses. As with the clothing items, a lot of the hands I almost never use because they are not oriented to the direction I need them to be…

    Just my two cents. 🙂