Category Archives: Meta

Design Update

Posted on July 27, 2015 by | 6 comments

Hey all, I'm giving the new design another few days, but at this point it has cratered ad revenue. If it doesn't start to equalize a little, I'm going back to the old design. Just a heads-up so you don't get whiplash too bad if it happens.

6 Comments

Posted in Meta

New Site Design

Posted on July 23, 2015 by | 24 comments

Hello HeroMachiners! As you may have noticed, I've just launched a new site design to hopefully make your browsing and creating experience more enjoyable. The home page now looks like this:

hm-new-site-front

 

The goals of the redesign were:

  • Make the site easier and more enjoyable to use by decluttering and toning down the riot of colors in general.
  • Get more in line with the design aesthetic of HeroMachine 3.
  • Widen the default page layout so you can see more on the screen without getting crowded.
  • Give direct and unambiguous access to two key features -- downloading HM2 and using HM2 online.

You can still find your favorite links like the forums, the Hall of Fame, and the blog in the one central drop down menu right in the middle at the top, labeled "Explore".

I hope you enjoy the new look and feel. Please let me know in comments or through the contact form (the envelope in the header) if you have any suggestions or feedback.

Have fun creating!

24 Comments

Posted in Meta

No Gallery Grabs This Week/ The Big Question ♯30

Posted on May 26, 2015 by | 27 comments

Ok guys, unfortunately there isn't going to be a Gallery Grabs this week (I'll explain why after the jump), but instead of just leaving the slot empty this week why don't we get some discussion going. And my question for you guys is, who is the greatest villain of all time?

Now you can choose from any medium you like here, I'm not just asking about comics. You can go books, TV, film, animation, video games etc. so that's a whole lot of villains for you to choose from. My question isn't who would win if all of them had a massive fight, it is who is the best at being bad. Answers below please.

Continue reading →

27 Comments

Posted in Meta, Sharing Day

HeroMachine 2 Desktop Edition Now Available!

Posted on March 30, 2015 by | Comments Off on HeroMachine 2 Desktop Edition Now Available!

download-screenshot

After way too long and a lot of requests later, I've finally bundled all of the most current HeroMachine 2 items and the larger-canvas, no-ad layout into a downloadable bundle! This used to be an option back in the day when the program was available on a very smart-looking CD. Now it's a digital-only download, making it possible to use HeroMachine 2 without an Internet connection on your local computer.

It will come as a ZIP archive, just extract it into whatever folder you want on your computer, then double-click heromachine2.html to launch it in your favorite browser to enjoy always-available, no-ad character creation.

Note that since it still requires the Flash Player plugin, it will not work on iPads or iPhones. Desktops and laptops and Android devices are of course fine.

Click here, just $9.95!

Comments Off on HeroMachine 2 Desktop Edition Now Available!

Posted in Meta, News & Updates

Caption Contest Returns next week!

Posted on March 11, 2015 by | 9 comments

I do not plan on writing a post this week as I am not feeling all that well, but like the topic says I am planning on bringing back the caption contest next week and see how that goes. I might go back to weekly caption contests or just make them a once a months feature not sure which yet. Anyway sorry for not writing this week and hopefully you are all eager for some caption goodness next week.

9 Comments

Posted in Meta

Creators Club 2015

Posted on January 13, 2015 by | 23 comments

Hey guys JR here, bringing you the formal announcement of this years Creators Club poster, something which we are trying to get to be an annual thing.

This years poster will be done by MadJack who came up with the idea of doing a Days Of Future Past cover themed poster. Since we haven't done a superhero themed poster, I thought this would be a good theme (especially considering a certain film that came out last year). So, the idea is this; you guys have to create a self-portrait, either realistic or idealised, of yourself as a superhero. You can show powers and have poses other than the standard straight-on pose if you wish (zypping is also optional), but we must insist on two things. 1: Your character's face must be forward facing and 2: No Masks, we want to see all of your wonderful faces. Also, no backgrounds, MadJack will deal with all of that stuff when he puts the poster together.

For your entry to be acceptable you must complete the following criteria. If you don't then you don't get on the poster.

1. Your entry must be in .png format. You must title it in standard contest entry style i.e. Username- Creators Club Poster (for example I would title mine JR19759- Creators Club Poster). Don't screenshot the picture and send that in, export it as a .png please.

2. You MUST include the text for your entry. Mandatory. This is incase MadJack needs to re-export any of the files in a bigger or smaller format. You can include it as an attachment in the email or just paste it into the email, but you have to have the text accessible.

3. Your email has to be titled something applicable to the Creators Club, so its easy to recognise as not-spam.

4. You only have one entry, so make sure you're happy with it before you send it in. It doesn't have to be the worlds best creation, this is only for fun after all, but we don't want endless revisions.

Once you've met all of those criteria, send your entries to MadJack at madjack@starnberg-mail.de. Submissions will be open from today until February 10th 2015. This is open to everyone in the community, you don't have to be especially prolific or a Power User or anything, you just have to be a part of the Heromachine community. And remember, this isn't a challenge, so just have fun with it.

If MadJack wants to add anything, then I'm sure he'll do so in the comments, but other than that. JR out.

23 Comments

Posted in HeroMachine 3, Meta, Open threads, Things I Like

HeroMachine Hall Of Fame Nomination Reminder!

Posted on December 8, 2014 by | Comments Off on HeroMachine Hall Of Fame Nomination Reminder!

Greetings everyone, I would like to take a moment of your time to remind you all that we are looking for Nominations for the HeroMachine Hall Of Fame . Please take a moment to nominate your favorite HeroMachine creations from one of our community members! Find out what you need to do to nominate in the Link Below

HEROMACHINE HALL OF FAME OPEN NOMINATIONS  

 

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Posted in Meta

Open Nominations For HeroMachine Hall of Fame

Posted on December 2, 2014 by | 13 comments

Greetings fellow Machiners! This post is being made to enlist your aid. You see we here at Heromachine have decided we need some additional members of our Hall of Fame. Now here is how this is going to work, JR, myself, Linea, and dblade are each going to select One image made by a member of our community to be entered into the hall of fame, but we want to bring the total number of entries up to 10. JR will be holding a Character of the year poll which will bring the number up to five. This is where you all come into play. I am asking you all to nominate a piece of artwork (HeroMachine creations only) for the hall of fame, preferably not one of your own pieces, though doing so will be allowed if you really feel the need to. Nominations will be open starting today December 2nd 2014 and last until December 22nd 2014  9 am Eastern Time.

 

Once the nomination process is closed I will take all  your nomination and place them in a giant poll which will Run from December 23rd until December 30th. On December 31st the 5 nominations with the most votes will be honored with a place in the HeroMachine Hall Of Fame!

 

Please post your nomination for the Hall Of Fame in the comments below by providing a link to the artwork in question. We will accept nominations posted here on our forms, posted to the Heromachine facebook page, or from Deviantart, all I ask is that you inform the owner of the piece that you have nominated them  here so that if they wish they can request to be removed from the poll in the event they do not following the happenings of the Blog.

 

I want to give you all a big thank you in advance for your assistance in this from the entire HeroMachine team!

13 Comments

Posted in Meta

Bugs?

Posted on November 29, 2014 by | 9 comments

Hey, everybody,

I've got some time out aside for working on HeroMachine site and forum issues -- not issues with HeroMachine itself. Please use the comments below to list any bugs you've encountered.

Thank you!

PS: This is not for feature requests. I already have a list of those to work on -- this thread is specifically for "stuff that isn't working properly."

9 Comments

Posted in Meta

New Post Idea

Posted on November 18, 2014 by | 10 comments

Now that we don't have anything on the Tuesday slot here on the blog, I was thinking "what would be a good idea to fill that slot?" I'd kinda like for it not be a rehash of something I've done before. Then an idea struck me, but I wanted to run it by you guys before I went a head with it.

The idea is kind of hard to explain, so I try to word it best I can. What I was thinking of doing is basically screen capturing myself making a character on Heromachine, narrating the process and then posting the video as that weeks post. Obviously it wouldn't just be me creating a whole character in one video, that video would be like 2 hours long and no-one has time for that, but instead it would be broken up into segments of around 20- 30 minutes (hopefully), say video 1 would be the base and posing, video 2 would be costume, video 3 would be hair/ face, video 4 would be background (if there is one) and video 5 would be shading and other finishing touches. That way it would take us all the way up to Christmas and then we can go from there. Also, it gives you guys a chance to have some control over the content, because you can make suggestions for things I can do with the character for the next weeks video (basically like a community character build only with one person doing the actual building). It might also help some of the newcomers with some of the more advanced aspects of Heromachine 3, such as shading and posing.

And the good thing about having this as a Tuesday slot, is that I'm not working on Tuesdays so I'll be able to record the video same day and, because I'm in the UK, if I record in the morning it should be up at the regular time for all you guys across the pond.

So what do you guys think. If you like the idea, we can start next week (so you can make suggestions in the comments if you so wish, just remember, when it comes to posing, I'm no DeliriousAl). If not, then I'll try to come up with something else.

JR out.

10 Comments

Posted in Meta, Suggestions & Ideas