HM3 Update (A.23)

I just uploaded a minor update to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha. First, I've introduced a "Current Layer" indicator in the Layering box (Transform tab) showing which layer the current item is on. It should update automatically as you raise or lower the current item's layer.

Second, I've added a "minimize" button to the "view" toolbar just below the character creation canvas:

It's a little hard to see, which I may tweak down the line, but clicking it hides the view toolbar, leaving just the button. So now you can have the entire left side of the screen for character viewing.

I want to thank Worf for pointing out this problem -- the toolbar was hiding the very bottom of the illustration, so if you wanted to do a screen capture you'd lose that bottom portion. Hopefully this will resolve that issue.

Next on “Sidekicks Gone Wild”!

(From "Mr. Muscles" number 22, 1956.)

META: Let’s talk ownership

An interesting discussion has arisen in the context of the current Character Design contest, and I wanted to highlight it here for more thorough dissection. In a word, the subject is ownership.

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Character Contest 60: Revamp 2.0

Your character design challenge for this week is to take a character designed originally in HeroMachine 2 and redesign it using HeroMachine 3. You'll need to explain your concept behind the redesign, why you made the choices you did and why you think they're an improvement. In other words, this isn't just remaking the exact same character's look using a new version of the software, it's taking the concept of the character and updating it with your own vision.

You can choose one of your old designs if you like, or you can choose any one from the HeroMachine Facebook page. Why the Facebook page? Because I am still hell-bent on catching up to UGO's fan numbers, that's why! So if you aren't already a fan of my page there, please take a moment to do so even if you're not using an image from the Photos archive.

Edited to Add:
OK, I think I am not being clear here.

The point of this is not to recreate the character in version 3. The point is to take an existing character and redesign it completely. Like when Iron Man went from the big gray tank armor to the silver and gold. Like when Superman went from the red-and-blues to the blue lightning bolt costume. Like when Spider-Man went from the red-and-blues to the black.

Your mission here is to reimagine a character, as if you were an artist working for DC or Marvel and your editor came to you and said "Hey, we're relaunching 'The Black Terror' but we need to completely redo it. Come up with something cool."

The goal is not to see how close you can get to making something done in HM2 look exactly the same, only done in HM3.

Now, how do you tell if an image is from HeroMachine 2? It's easy -- there's only one pose and it looks like this for the male:

And like this for the female:

They're all three-quarters' view with the left arm tucked up behind the torso and the hand jutting off horizontally.

The contest rules are the same as usual, except in addition to a link to your main entry, I'll also need a link to the 2.0 design you're revising.

  1. Use only a HeroMachine applet (no PhotoShopping except for basic cropping) to create a PNG or JPG of your entry, named as [your name]-[character name].[file extension]. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his "Bayou Belle" character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.
  2. Post the image to a publicly accessible website (ImageShack, PhotoBucket, the UGO Forums, etc.).
  3. Enter the name of your entry and a link directly to the image in a comment to this post. The image cannot have been used in any previous HeroMachine character design contest.
  4. The link to your image should go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this). If you see "preview" or "rotate" somewhere in the link you're probably doing it wrong.
  5. I'll choose a winner next Monday, who will receive his or her choice of any item or a portrait to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 program, or a "Sketch of the Week" style black and white illustration (you pick the subject and I draw it up however I like).

No limit on entries this week, so knock yourselves out. Good luck everyone!

Caption Contest 95 Winner!

Many thanks to everyone who participated in Caption Contest 95, there were some really great entries. I had a hard time picking just one, as you can see from this list of Finalists I ended up with after reading through them all:

count libido: I told you not to hide under that elephant!
B. Clouser: Consider it this way: Cheap funeral.
B. Clouser: What do ya think this giant caption above us means? Oh.
Dan: We’ve got a McNugget incident! Get the Bar-b-que sauce!
joel: “WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT KEEPING MY VOICE DOWN?!”
Danny Beaty: It’s okay, you’re wearing a helmet!
Danny Beaty: I’d sure hate to be you!
Gargoyle323: “Rock breaks Scissors!”
Jester: Stop! He’s allergic to rocks!
JonnyDemon: Wow, pigs can fly!
Myro: “Quit whining Ted. A few rocks never hurt anyone.”
Joe: “I would help, but i bruise easily!”
alphaalpharomeo: The Hills are alive with the sound of music…..Oh wait that just Jim screaming.

But ultimately, I kept coming back to one joke in particular that tickled my very weird funny bone. And that entry is:

So congratulations to Jester for winning Caption Contest 95! Jester, let me know what you'd like for your prize using either the "Contact us" link at the top of the right column, or by leaving a comment to this post (or really, any post), or email me directly at afdstudios@gmail.com.

Thanks again to all of our Finalists, and again to everyone who took the time to enter!

And the “Sweetest Murderer” Award goes to …

(From "Super Mystery Comics" volume 2, number 4, 1941.)

HM3 Scroller

Just wanted to give you a heads-up that a minor tweak to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha has been uploaded (version A.22) that improves the performance of the scroll bars in the Load/Save window. You can now hold the arrows down and the list will scroll on its own, or you can drag the little handle in the middle for more rapid manual scrolling.

I thought I'd fixed the "sort by date" bug on that screen too, but it turns out it's still broken. Feh.

Never let your five year old daughter pick your super villain name.

(From "Super Mystery Comics" volume 2, number 4, 1941.)

Power User Profile: Me, Myself, and I

This week's "Power User Profile" features frequent commenter and contest winner Me, Myself, and I!
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HM3 minor tweaks

I just wanted to give you a quick heads-up regarding three minor tweaks I uploaded to the HM3 Alpha this morning:

  1. The manual entry box for resizing items used to be limited to 200%, but now goes all the way up to 999%. That should allow for some interesting effects.
  2. The label formerly known as "Scale" has been renamed to "Size", on the recommendation of UI specialist Mark Shute. I agree with him that this is a much more universally understood way of saying what the tool does.
  3. While you could previously click on the three "current color" swatches to change color areas just as if you'd clicked on one of the buttons over to the side, you can now also click directly on the numbers themselves to do the same thing. Before this tweak, the numbers were not clickable, creating a non-functional blank spot right in the middle of the swatch.
  4. It doesn't get much more minor than this, but I added "%" indicators to the manual entry boxes for the Size tool.

One question for you all, is it obvious that you can manually change the settings in the Transform area?