Random Panel: How authors think

fantastic-worlds-5-1952-brilliant

(From "Fantastic Worlds", number 5, 1952.)

HM3: If the glove fits …

I've just updated the HeroMachine 3 Alpha with the GloveRightStandard set of items. In retrospect I bet I'm going to have to change that to GloveRightMALEStandard, but oh well. Here's a quick taste of some of the new items:

gloves

Like with the shoes, let me know any gloves you'd like to see but don't, or any weirdnesses you encounter. I'm going to keep it just to the right glove for now, until the set is finalized, then I'll swap them all over to the left side. In the meantime, you can use Multiples and flipping to get matching items if you like.

I also wanted to note that if you're using one of the alternate arms, you can still get a good glove on it by picking one, rotating and scaling it to where it mostly fits, then Masking it with the arm piece to make it conform if it's one of the skintight ones.

Finally, the applet itself has one fairly major update to it. Mousing over an item now fades it to 50% transparent instead of giving the blue glow. I am testing to see if the glow is part of the reason trying to mouse around in the canvas area is so slow when you add enough items to the stage. I also think it might make it easier to position items if you can see what's underneath it. Let me know what you think of the change, it's easy enough to go back to the old way if people prefer it.

Random Panel: Pre-Viet Nam era irony

ww3-1953-alwayswin

(From "World War III", 1953.)

Random Panel: Great moments in Orwellism

fantastic-worlds-5-1952-for-peace

(From "Fantastic Worlds", number 5, 1952.)

Random Panel: Bring me to this hatch, STAT!

abc-2-1942-boobyhatch

(From "America's Best Comics", 1942.)

HM3: The other shoe drops

I just updated the HM3 Alpha with the "LeftFootMaleStandard" set, so now you can have a shoe on each foot if you like.

HM3: The game is afoot!

I've posted a new update to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha. The big addition is the "FootRightMaleStandard" set, so you can start shoe-ing your creations. The FootLeft will be coming in the next day or two, but in the meantime you can use the "flip" button to get by. Just find the shoe you want, click the "multiples" button, add the same shoe again, click the "Flip" button, and put it where you want for a matching pair. Here's a taste of the new items:

footwear

Also in this update I've changed the sort order on the slot dropdowns. Before the slots were listed in stack order, starting from the bottom layer (which currently is "Backplane") and working its way up. Now it's just in alpha order. Let me know which you prefer, it's easy enough to change.

I also made the two dropdown boxes a bit larger, both for ease-of-reading and because before I had unknowingly shrunk them, which made it really hard to line everything up properly. It was really irritating. Now it's all scaled at 100% and my math is working.

Finally, I changed the wording on the "allow multiples" radio button. Before it would say "Allow multiple Body items? YES/NO", which I think is clearer, but it was all jammed up in there and looked crappy. I reduced it to read "Multiples/Singles", but I don't know if that's going to be obvious or not. It's a very important piece of functionality that I don't think is immediately intuitive, so any feedback you have on the best way to present it would be appreciated.

Let me know any other foot-type items you want. I decided to consolidate Footwear into just Foot, since there aren't that many plain old feet I could think of. Plus, with the Multiples thing, it works out a little better this way.

I will be adding a "LegwearKneepads" set as well for those sorts of items. I've got several from the Lordi and Warrior applet that are cool and deserve to be included, plus I want to include some medieval knight-type knee protectors.

Random Panel: Your plan is vodka … ?

abc-2-1942-bottle

(From "America's Best Comics", number 2, 1942.)

HM3: Yet more colors

All right, I admit it -- Damien and Fabien (brothers, mayhap?!) were right and I was wrong. There actually were more colors in HM2.5 than were in the beta, which clearly is unacceptable. So I spent most of the day on Sunday redoing the color palette to match the one in 2.5 and have posted the updated version to the HM3 Alpha page.

The colors now are arranged in the classic cascading rainbow gradient like you'd see in most commercial image manipulation applications. I added on a few metallic colors at the end for good measure. Plus, you still have the 25 dedicated skin tone colors at the end separated out into their own rows for ease of use.

If there are colors you wanted to see but don't, let me know.

Remember, villains, you're in PUBLIC

Note to Brainiac:

brainiac

If you're going to go out in public and duke it out with the likes of Superman, remember to remove your jammies first. It's not a good idea to go out in your sleepwear, especially if you also have a frilly mohawk and your nightie is pink. I don't even want to ask why you need kneepads in your sleeping suit, to each his own, but that "30th Century Chunky Farmboy in Overalls" look is just not gonna get it done, son.

All those brains and still he can't put together a reasonable outfit. Makes you kind of appreciate Tyra Banks and the "Top Model" crew a little, you know?