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Comments Off on Poll Position: The Kurgan Konundrum
Posted in Versus
The biggest challenge so far in designing HeroMachine 3 has been how to let the user control multiple items in the same slot, particularly multiple examples of the same item in that slot. For instance, if you want three Colt .45's on the character, trying to present the controls for them in an intuitive way is hard. Today I've been working on how that might work, and I have a screen shot of the simple test movie:
The idea here is that when you click on an item to add it to your character, a tool bar gets added to that item's preview box. At a glance, then, you can tell which items are loaded and which are not, which is a deficiency in the current round of Minis. The first item in the new item tool bar is a number with a little drop-down arrow next to it. The idea on this is that if you have the aforementioned three Colt .45s loaded, clicking on the dropdown will cycle through each one in order, from 1 to 2 to 3 and then back to 1. I would probably add something that would briefly highlight the actual item on the character, too, so you know which number goes with which of the guns.
The next button on the tool bar is a lock/unlock toggle. Clicking that will lock the current item so it doesn't get removed when you add another item from that slot.
Next comes the Delete Item button, which would remove that item from the character (and the toolbar from the preview box, so you know that item's not loaded any more).
Finally you have the Reset button, which will return the item in question to the default rotation, scale, and colors.
The "Dupe" button would go away in this scenario. I think it was confusing and non-intuitive to use, and hope that this new way -- focusing on the items -- might be easier.
What do you think?
Comments Off on HM3 Journal: Duplicity
Posted in HeroMachine 3
With thanks to Collex for pointing this out, apparently Brett Ratner (the genius behind "X-Men: Last Stand" or, as I like to call him, the Joel Schumacher of the X-Men franchise) is slated to direct the movie version of Rob Liefeld's "Youngblood".
My favorite quote is "Ratner told Variety that “Most of the great graphic novels are gone, and ‘Youngblood’ is one of the few comicbooks left.”
In other words, all the good comics have been taken, so now we're stuck doing this crappy one.
Judging by "Last Stand", Ratner is the perfect director for a Liefeld property, with his innate grasp of all things flashy and shiny and disdain for anything approaching a coherent narrative or compelling character. Because the lesson to take from the mega-success of the Dark Knight film series is that stories and people don't matter, just flashy gadgets, babes with big boobs, and lots of violence. Right.
I can't decide if this news makes my day or ruins it, but I appreciate Collex pointing it out.
Comments Off on Youngblood the Movie
Posted in Movies and TV
(From "Blue Beetle" #18, 1955.)
Comments Off on Random Panel: Great moments in bad theme park mottos
Posted in Daily Random Panel
Cory and I have finished his prize for winning Caption Contest 44, White Lightning:
Thanks to Cory for coming up with a fun concept and being easy to work with.
If you want to win your very own custom black and white illustration of whatever you like (within reason), take a crack at Caption Contest 47, going on now!
Comments Off on Contest 44 Prize: White Lightning
Posted in Challenge Prizes, Challenges
(From "Swift Arrow", 1954.)
Comments Off on Random Panel: No wonder he wears a mask
Posted in Daily Random Panel
While going through the hundreds of entries for the UGO Modern Warrior contest (don't forget to vote for a winner!), I pulled out several examples of creative use of the program to show what it can do. I'll post them below the fold with a little explanation of why I thought each was noteworthy.
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Posted in Challenges
(Image and characters ©1992, Rob Liefeld, from "Prophet" #5.)
Comments Off on Random Panel: What the … But that's … oh my.
Posted in Daily Random Panel
I've been called out before for saying Rob Liefeld's early Nineties Image work was lazy. To belie such baseless and scurrilous refutations, I present just one piece of evidence out of the dozens I could have chosen from the Liefeld written/created/pencilled/inked "Youngblood" number 2:
That's "Brama" (get it? like the bull? genius!) throwing a punch at Prophet so big it spans two entire pages. A punch so big it has transformed the background into a Star Wars hyperdrive-like expanse of horizontal lines. A punch so big it has apparently severed Brama's own head, simultaneously squashing it flat and propelling it forward a good foot.
Seriously, look at his head. Notice how flat the top is -- usually you've got about as much space above the eyeline as you do below it. And look where it's positioned on the neck in relation to the torso. It ought to be back about two inches and about an inch higher, if this were an actual human figure being represented.
One explanation might be the aforementioned self-decapitation due to force-of-blow. But I think we all know that's BS.
Another explanation might be that Rob Liefeld is a genius who is dynamically reinterpreting human anatomy to reinforce the awesome action being portrayed. But I think we all know that's BS too.
The simple answer is, Rob Liefeld ran out of room to fit the figure into the panel. He roughed out where the torso and arm and punch were, and didn't notice that he hadn't left enough space to squeeze the head in at the top.
So rather than resketch the layout, he just decided to squash that sucker in there wherever and however it fit, anatomy be damned.
And that, my friends, is just flat out-and-out lazy.
(Note: I'm renaming this category "Reasons I Hate Rob Liefeld's Art", with Reason #1 being "He doesn't understand human feet face different directions". These reasons are not in order of how much they make me hate his art, they're just kind of random. And I didn't name it "I hate Rob Liefeld" because I don't even know him; he might be a swell guy. I just hate his art.)
(Image and characters © Rob Liefeld, 1992, from "Youngblood" #2.)
Comments Off on Reason #2: He's lazy
Posted in I Hate Rob Liefeld's Art
(An ad from "Strange Fantasy" Number 2, 1953.)
Comments Off on Random Panel: When men were men, and children's dolls had cigarettes …
Posted in Daily Random Panel
Three middle-aged nerds (including yours truly!) review all of the MCU movies in chronological order. Short, funny, and full of good vibes, check it out and let us know what you think!
Nerdmudgeon.com