Category Archives: HeroMachine 3

And with that I hopefully am out of “pattern” puns. In any event, I’ve just posted an update to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha (use the “HM 3 Preview” button in the header) that includes 24 new semi-transparent patterns in addition to the 8 the program already had. The complete list of patterns is now:

• hex
• scales
• rivets/dots
• camo
• fishnet
• dirt/blood
• banded metal
• circuits
• tiger stripes (not entirely happy with this one, it may change)
• cheetah spots
• leather/squiggly bits
• hair
• chainmail links
• tartan
• cracked earth/rock
• bandages
• vertical narrow light stripes
• vertical thick light stripes
• vertical narrow dark stripes
• vertical thick dark stripes
• horizontal narrow light stripes
• horizontal thick light stripes
• horizontal narrow dark stripes
• horizontal thick dark stripes
• stars
• hearts
• checkerboard
• stylized flames
• electrical arcs
• dark smoke
• light smoke
• starfield

That’s probably going to be it, because there are now enough objects in the basic shell app that it’s starting to slow down. I think Flash CS3 has a problem when you put too many things in the library, it really slows to a crawl. If I add too much more it’s going to be really irritating to work on.

In addition to those 32 built-in grayscale patterns, there is now a “Patterns” slot with one set of items, “Standard”. The items in this set are just like any other items in that they can be colored, sized, rotated, etc. To get the effect, load up the item you want to be filled with the colorable pattern. Then load the pattern, click “Mask”, and click on the target item to be filled. Just like any other masking effect.

The nice thing about that is you can, for instance, have blue stars with a sprinkling of yellow ones filling a dark blue body. Or red and orange flames scaled to size to fill a deep red body, making it look like he’s full of fire. With the integrated grayscale patterns you can’t do that, you have to rely on the color of the original item to carry off the effect.

Here’s a sample of what I mean, with the “loaded as an item, colored, and masked” effect on the left and the “just use the built-in grayscale pattern” on the right:

Should I keep both the integrated patterns and the loadable, colorable set? One or the other? Neither?

I’d like to have a LOT more patterns in HeroMachine 3 than the minis had, to the point that you’ll have a set of basic clothing options in the various slots that you can then turn into chainmail or full of lightning or Scottish tartan or whatever. Here’s the list I have so far, let me know any additions or deletions you might have:

• zebra
• leopard
• cheetah
• tiger stripe
• fur
• leather
• stone
• metallic
• cement
• rusted/dirty
• hexes
• scales
• rivets
• camo
• fishnet
• banded armor
• cracked earth
• chainmail
• stripes – horizontal
• stripes – vertical
• circuits
• stars
• checkerboard
• webs
• bark/wood
• crystalline/icy
• flames
• lightning
• reptile skin (gradient filled tight circles)
• paisleys
• smoke
• tartan

Just a quickie update, the HM3 Alpha “Save as JPG” feature now saves the figure and not just its left leg. Oops.

Or are they walking legs? Either way, here’s a quick screen grab of the legs I just added to the “BodyMaleStandard” set:

I spent the weekend ironing out a persistent and irritating bug that was preventing me from making item set selection easier. To reward myself for my virtuous persistence, today I am drawing. Specifically, I am following up on Kaldath’s suggestion that I draw as many arm positions as possible in the “Body” sets to increase the flexibility of the character’s position. To wit:

The body in the image is made up of seven different items — torso, left & right upper arms, left & right forearms, and left & right legs. They’ve been layered, sized, and moved to create the given effect, along with one of the new RightHand items.

As you can see there are a few gaps in the lineart — the figure’s left elbow doesn’t quite match up, and the left wrist is a bit choppy, but I don’t think that’s avoidable given how freely all these items can rotate and the need to account for one being layered on top of another. Luckily the “outline” feature hides a myriad of these sorts of sins.

Next I think I’ll be working on more and alternate leg positions as well.

The drawback to all of this, of course, is that not all of the gloves are going to fit on that foreshortened forearm. And if I draw legs in the classic “flying guy” sort of pose (as I plan to), not all the pants or boots will fit either. But given that you can color the various body segments individually, it ought to be possible to make a pretty convincing body suit in any of these configurations regardless.