Creating a Character, Part 1: Thought Processes

Now that I'll be more visible, I think I should do something worthwhile. So I'll be posting an occasional article or something on various subjects, and today's is on character creation in Hero Machine.

Now, just in case anyone wonders how I'm qualified to do that, let me tell you that I have half(ish) an associates degree in graphic design. So there. Continue reading

Random Panel: Meet the Confused Two-Fisted Racist

exciting-comics-20-1942-aryan

(From "Exciting Comics" number 20, 1942.)

BUGS!

At the urging of both Damien and Violodion, I've put up a HeroMachine 3 Bugs page, perma-linked over there in the right column. I and Damien will try to keep that updated with your reports so I can remember not to forget what's going on, and so you can quickly see if what's happening to you is "normal bad" or "unusual bad".

If only wraiths were invisible …

If you ever get down about your inability to create a cool looking character, just remember that people at DC got paid a lot of money to assemble THIS look:

wraith

First of all, if you're an intrepid adventurer for good or evil and you get the idea to dress up in a costume to hit the streets, let me offer you a quick word of warning from the dizzying heights of my years of super-costume experience:

Don't make your mask out of your initials.

Sadly, no one was there to help Wraith with that little tidbit, so he's forced to wear a giant purple "W" as a helmet. Since this character predates the ascension of George W. Bush to America's Presidency, we can safely assume that rather than some sort of political statement this is, instead, just a horrible fashion faux-pas. "Oh no," I hear you crying, "I am sure that was just an accident, that's not really supposed to be a W!" Riddle me this, then, O Defender of the Sartorially Challenged: why then does he have another W woven in similar clumsy style onto his top?

I thought so.

Not content with one assault on the senses, though, Wraith has gone a step further by making the offending piece of headwear out of purple and orange fabric.

Purple. And. Orange.

It's bad enough the thing looks like Batman's cowl is getting eaten by by an X-Wing Fighter without forcing it to deal with those two colors, each horrible in its own right and each made even worse by its proximity to the other. Throw in the "Cape With Only Three Notches" that looks like a leftover from the "You Too Can Make a Batman Cape" seminar and we have yet another in the long line of nemeses who tried to ape the Darknight Detective's fashion sense only to get an epic fail. I think the slightly-too-high-to-be-comfortable purple leg strip really seals the deal. It's like someone wanted a Rob Liefeld leg pouch but couldn't bring himself to actually do it. Maybe they blew their "Copycat" load ripping off Bruce's tailor and just couldn't get over the hump, but whatever the reason, we should all be thankful.

I also love how, in this illustration, he apparently has no idea how to carry a briefcase. "Hmm, I've got this bag of loot, but NOW what do I do with it?!! Curse these modern carryalls and their confusing handlery! If only my W Mask wasn't eating my face I could figure this out!"

I think we'd all be better off if this garter-wearing pinata-colored letter-masked no-briefcase-carrying buffoon would make like a real Wraith and just fade away ...

HM3: Two prize items

With thanks to Brambles and Mark Shute, I am happy to announce that I've just uploaded a version of ItemRightBladesTwo for the HeroMachine 3 Alpha that includes their contest winning prizes:

mark-brambles-prizes

Mark's stone dagger can be used either as a regular knife or, with a rotated handle, an axe head (that's what the extra bindings are for). And those of you who have wanted a scabbard for a while have Brambles to thank for at least this first one. The cavalry sword he submitted was pretty cool looking, I think both it and Mark's Neolithic weapon are fine additions.

Thanks to both of them and congratulations once more! If you've won a contest but haven't sent me your request, make sure you do so at some point.

Random Panel: Let's just wiggle those broken limbs around some more…

exciting-comics-20-1942-broken

(from "Exciting Comics" number 20 , 1942.)

Character Contest 6: Animalia

Your character creation challenge for this week is going to be a bit more focused than last time: you must create a character (or characters) based on the animal kingdom. That might mean a super chimpanzee, or it might mean The Battling Beaver super-hero, or it might be a space-zombie-fighting intergalactic robot horse, or it might be your take on the Beastmaster, or a fantasy ranger with his wolf companion, or or or anything else you can think of, so long as it relates in some way to an animal. The rules are the same as last time:

  • No editing in anything but HeroMachine (except for basic cropping or sticking a label on it or something);
  • Post a link to your image in the comments;
  • You must use a version of HeroMachine to create your image.

The winner will get to choose either one item or a caricature of their head to go in the HeroMachine 3 final version so they can serve as a model for countless legions of creative people the world over! The contest runs from now until next Tuesday, at which time a winner will be announced.

Good luck everyone, I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Character Contest 5 Winners

After the jump I have the winners of Character Design Contest 5: Fantasy Edition. That's right, I said winnerS, plural; there were so many great entries (42 different individuals contributed 186 separate illustrations, which is mind-blowing) that I couldn't decide on just one. So I'll be showing you what I consider to be the best examples from five different categories, each of which will win either one item of their choice or a caricature of their head to be included in the HeroMachine 3 program!

Many thanks to everyone who entered; as always, if you don't see one of yours called out here, it's due to lack of space and not a lack of ability or creativity on your part. There's only so much room, after all!

And now, your winners (WARNING: Lots of very large images to follow, users with slow connections beware!).

Continue reading

Damien the Editing Widget had arrived!

(I'm happy to welcome the first guest contributor to the site, the guy you've known as Damien who puts together those wild and crazy characters. I'm delighted to have him on board helping out and hope you'll welcome him with open arms! -- Jeff)

You all know me as Damien, and I've been hanging around here for a while now, longer than some. I recently undertook a project on my own time to help Jeff out with Hero Machine by going through posts from January '08 through March '09, cataloging comments for HM items from almost every post he made over the last year and a fourth. The result was a comprehensive and organized list of what you all wanted, with the most popular requests marked out. When Jeff asked me what I wanted in return, I told him.

I wanted to keep doing it.

So here I am, a sort of Web Assistant. I like the name Editing Widget, because it sounds weird and because it describes what I'd be doing--namely helping to moderate link posts, answering questions, writing the occasional column, and whatever else he happens to need done. We're even discussing some streamlining on things like item suggestions and program bugs. I asked for this because I enjoy having the power of life and--I mean contributing to this community that has lifted and supported me, and contributing to this program which has helped launch an attempted writing career. I'll be able to do so much to help, and to me, that was the only prize worth asking for.

[Well, I could have asked for a cool custom illustration, but this lasts longer 🙂 .]

HM3: Ranged update

With thanks to Violodion for pointing out the problem, I have updated the ItemRightRanged set by making the patterns and masks align properly in the HeroMachine 3 Alpha. As always, holler if the fix broke something else.