Category Archives: Meta

WANTED! Creator Club

Hammerknight is looking to put together another poster featuring the folks who use HeroMachine to illustrate their imaginations, and asked me to put up this solicitation for the project. Looks like fun! See the poster itself for submission deadlines, details, etc.

Help for Ian

Longtime reader and sometimes contributor Ian Healy asked me to pass along this request for some creative help:

Crap in a hat! My computer is broken and my queue is empty! I'm looking. For some emergency filler strips for the next week (http://www.ianthealy.com/comic/). If you ever wanted to submit a guest comic strip, now is the time. It doesn't have to be LEGO, but it should feature characters of the S-Team in some way. Funny and creative is a bonus. Email your submissions to ian@ianthealy.com. I hope to see an overflowing inbox shortly...

If you've always wanted to have your comics ideas published, now's your chance!

HM3: Coding updates and changes

I wanted to make sure you all know that I am currently starting on the Great Code Rewrite. And I want you to know that because when the next release goes live, your old save files may or may not work. That's the problem with using alpha or beta software; when things change, they might change in a big, big way.

Now, what's more likely to happen is that when you load an old character in the new setup, the layers might be all messed up. Although that happens now, too. Or, it might be that everything stays the same with regards to saving and loading, I just don't know yet. But it's a possibility, and I want to be sure you're aware of it so you can be sure to have JPG or PNG backup hard copies of your favorite guys and gals.

You can also make a backup copy of the .SOL files that Flash uses to save your guys. I'll probably keep the old (current) alpha version "live" for a little while under another name (so heromacine3a.swf or something). If I do that, then you should be able to go in and change the directory name where these .SOL files are kept to that name and still be able to access your characters.

To refresh, here's the info on how the saving works currently:

The saved Flash shared object library files (.sol for you Windows users) are LIKE cookies, but they are NOT actual cookies. They are not stored in the shared internet data files and will not be deleted if you erase all your cookies. You can only remove them by right-clicking on the movie, and going to Flash Settings, removing them there.

Violodion found them in his Windows installation at %AppData%MacromediaFlash Player#SharedObjects\www.heromachine.comhm3

He was able to copy those and move them to another computer in the same directory and load his characters there.

On my Mac they are in HD / User / / Library / Preferences / Macromedia / Flash Player / #SharedObjects / / http://www.heromachine.com / hm3 / heromachine3.swf / hmcharacters.sol

META: Online comic book stores

Due to some recent unpleasantness at Heavy Ink, folks without local comic book shops are looking around for a good, reliable comic book vendor retailer online. For instance, I am in the middle of nowhere and at least 2-3 hours away from the nearest shop, so I need to get my fix through the mail. The Marvel Digital Comics are nice, but they're only Marvel and they're only digital.

Do any of you have recommendations on a good online store to manage subscriptions to a variety of titles?

META: What about Fridays?

I need some ideas for an ongoing series of posts for Fridays. Or Thursdays. I'll be doing Open Critique Days on one of the two starting next week again, when the hardwire internet at the new place is done, but that still leaves one of the two days without a "theme".

Any suggestions?

In the past, Hammerknight suggested RPG Day, where we would talk about anything related to role-playing games, and from time to time we do Friday Night Fights, and I've done "Why I Hate Rob Liefeld's Art". But now I'm out of ideas. Help!

META: Moving

I am moving yet again, so posting will be spotty till Saturday at the earliest. Sorry folks.

Hope you're having a good holiday season though!

META: Class

I'm teaching my first-ever "How to Draw Super-Heroes" class at the library today (community service type event, not an actual school or anything) and I'm a little freaked out. So if my posting today is a little scattershot, my apologies.

I'll try to get the contest judged and done asap. If you have an idea for the next character contest, or if you'd prefer I stick to the schedule of alternating character designs with caption contests, please chime in below.

Otherwise I will stick to the schedule for this week, including Open Critique Day on Thursday.

Finally, don't forget you can vote in Friday Night Fights every day! So if your favorites aren't winning, head back in and toss another vote on the pile!

META: Travel

Full disclosure time: I'm actually in Arizona and have been for a couple of days, taking a sick donkey to the vet. Thus my posting schedule has been a bit messed up, and I apologize for that.

The long and short of it is that I am going to be driving nine hours towing a trailer today, so I won't be able to do Open Critique Day as planned; I'll be moving that to Saturday in all likelihood.

In a few minutes I'll be putting up a Bad Costume post that should have gone up yesterday, which got bumped because I missed Poll Position Tuesday due to the drive.

One day I'll get back on schedule and then you'll all be sorry!

Also, don't forget you only have till midnight tonight to vote on who should advance in Friday Night Fights!

META: Moving Open Critique Day

For the duration of Friday Night Fights, I'll be moving Open Critique Day from Fridays to Thursdays. Unfortunately that means no OCD today, but we'll see you next Thursday.

META: FAQ updated with character transfer info

I just updated the FAQ with the following:

Can I transfer saved HM3 characters from one computer to another?
HeroMachine 3 saves your character as a “shared object library file” (.sol for you Windows users), which are like browser cookies, only not: They are not stored in the shared internet data files and will not be deleted if you erase all your cookies. You can only remove them by right-clicking on the movie, going to Flash Settings, and removing them there.

In Windows, you can find the .sol files in your Windows installation at %AppData%MacromediaFlash Player#SharedObjects\www.heromachine.comhm3 You can copy those and move them to another computer in the same directory where they will be accessible via the HeroMachine 3 “load” function.

On a Mac they are in HD / User / / Library / Preferences / Macromedia / Flash Player / #SharedObjects / / http://www.heromachine.com / hm3 / heromachine3.swf / hmcharacters.sol where again they can be copied and pasted to other computers in the same directory.

Hope having the answer published and always available will help.