HeroMachine 3 Lives Again!

Design custom characters using thousands of mix-and-match art components all hand-drawn in classic comic-book style! Pick a body, add costumes, weapons, backgrounds, and more — no drawing skills required. No Flash required, it all works in your browser and is 100% backwards compatible for any creations you’ve made in the past.

Latest Posts

HM3 Sunday SMACKDOWN! New Wrestling items!

With many thanks to all the folks who’ve requested these kinds of items and who’ve waited patiently for literally years, and especially to AMS and Colby Primeaux for timely reference and guidance, I’m happy to launch two new wrestling-themed sets, Headgear -> Luchador and Belt -> Championship.

The belts are a little unusual, ones with nothing in the big center area have the itemMask set to that shape, so you can position Insignia or other items to fill it without the edges bleeding over.

On the masks, this is just a basic starter set. I don’t know the world of wrestling all that well, but I included a few blank masks with the eyes/nose/mouth holes cut out so you can mask other items onto it to get the custom look you want, hopefully.

Enoy!

Posted in HeroMachine 3, New Item Releases, News & Updates | Leave a comment

I could use some Luchador / Wrestling help

I’m working on the Luchador masks lots of folks have requested over the years and I’m struggling a bit because I don’t know that world at all. Here’s what I have so far, what direction should I go from here?

Should I be adding seams to make them more realistic? Come up with a set of x patterns (the yellow area shapes) that get repeated across different eye/nose/mouth shapes? Make a blank overall head/mask pattern, then add individual eye/nose/mouth shapes that you could apply the skin color to, then mask eyes/noses/mouths to from their sets? Add shading for that interior head color on all items (the yellow area on that first example)? Ears or no ears?! I’m floundering!

I really don’t know where to go from here. I also haven’t found a great image reference for these so I don’t know what kinds of designs are useful.

Help?

Posted in HeroMachine 3, Meta | Leave a comment

Headgear Military New Items

Dblade continues to impress, this time with two new helmets that are built with 3 individual items each. 6 Items total. Here’s a preview of the individual Items along with a preview of them placed together for the full effect.

These were based on some requests from Yuri Lucia, so shoutout to both him and Dblade!

Posted in HeroMachine 3, New Item Releases, News & Updates | Leave a comment

Whip it REAL good

Cracking good artist Dblade has whipped up a great set of new Item Right/Left -> Energy for all your sci-fi Indiana Jones needs. Please thank him in the comments for his ongoing excellent work!

Posted in HeroMachine 3, New Item Releases, News & Updates | 1 Comment

The HM3 Item Request List

I keep telling people “I’ll add it to The List” when asked for specific items. But what IS The List?! Well, now you don’t have to wonder, because here it is. If you want to add something(s) to it, let me know.

Done:

  • Roman shields (added to ItemRight Shields)
  • Roman helmets (added to Headgear)
  • Male sandals (added to FootLeft + FootRight Male Standard)
  • Shields for the ItemLeft slot (added)

Outstanding (from long-time user, 2026-04-07):

Hands:

  • Pointing sideways
  • Pointing up (“we’re number 1” pose)
  • Flat hand, pointer/thumb to front, fingers straight, facing down (karate chop style)
  • Relaxed hand

Hair:

  • More ethnic varieties
  • More profile and 3/4 view options
  • Dreadcurls
  • Jem and the Holograms-style big 80s rock star hair

Body/Legs:

  • Lower leg for default leg (exists for military and alternate but not default)
  • Thigh side view, inside to front (Van Damme splits pose)
  • Calf side view, inside to front
  • Foreshortened thigh (running/lunging toward camera)
  • Foreshortened calf (tucked under thigh, or whole leg extended forward)
  • Kneeling legs
  • Profile torsos
  • Female tech body parts

Feet:

  • More front-facing varieties
  • More top-down varieties

Heads:

  • Profile and 3/4 heads with no features (blank face)
  • Head tilted back / looking up (head and face)
  • Monsters set (Head-Monsters)

Nose:

  • Profile and 3/4 noses

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-04-09):

Heads/Headgear:

  • Cyborg/mecha heads (various styles)
  • Duke Fleed style helmet (Grendizer)
  • Classic mecha helmets (Jeeg, Voltron style)

Body/Tops:

  • Cyborg body parts (torso, limbs with mechanical detail)
  • Mecha abdomen details (Jeeg style)
  • Mecha abdomen type 2 + drill missiles (Kotetsu style)
  • Ghostbusters-style uniforms
  • Voltron-style body parts
  • Masters of the Universe style body parts

Arms/Hands:

  • Mecha-style gloves and hands
  • Tech/armored gauntlets
  • Mecha-style alternative arms

Legs/Feet:

  • Hi-tech leg armor
  • Mecha-style legs
  • Tech feet/boots

ItemRight/ItemLeft:

  • Taran’s magic sword (Black Cauldron)
  • Blackstar Power Star (two halves as separate items)
  • He-Man Power Sword (Masters of the Universe)
  • Masters of the Universe style weapons
  • Drill missiles (Kotetsu Jeeg style)

BackPlane:

  • Mecha-style wings
  • Ghostbusters proton packs
  • Centurions-style weapon system backpacks

Companions/Full Figures:

  • Blackstar’s companion Warlock

Outstanding (from community users, 2026-04-18):

Weapons/Items:

  • More swords
  • Historical sword designs with components: 1796 British Light Cavalry Saber, Venetian Schiavona, Highland Claymores, Katzbalger, Cinquedea, Russian Shashka (Cossack/Georgian Saber), leaf-bladed Celtic sword
  • More guns
  • Fishing pole
  • Modern pop culture anime weapons (general)
  • Power Rangers morphers
  • Ben 10 Omnitrix

Vehicles/Props:

  • Bicycles suite: road bike, mountain bike, beach cruiser, BMX, Euro-style city bike, tricycle, adult trike, quadricycle, e-bike, cargo bike

Headgear:

  • Flat cap / newsboy cap

Hands:

  • Relaxed hanging hand — female, male, and gloved versions for both genders

Heads/Headgear:

  • Bug-eyed Kamen Rider-style helmets (generic tokusatsu, not IP-specific)
  • M.A.S.K.-style helmets/masks

Tops/Body:

  • Male abs for the basic male torso
  • Mutant turtle-like torso (shell/plastron)
  • Owen Grady-style leather pocket vest (Jurassic World)
  • Sleeves shaped to fit arms in various positions
  • Full-length chainmail sleeves
  • Arm armor for various positions
  • Tokusatsu-style costume pieces — “not yet armor, already not fabric” mid-weight suits (generic Kamen Rider/Super Sentai inspired, not IP-specific)

Face:

  • More freckles and freckle patterns

Companions:

  • Mythical animal companions/mounts (in the style of the new farm animals)

Backgrounds:

  • HeroMachine logo as a background item (was available in past versions)
  • Modular city elements: city blocks, individual skyscrapers, roads, alleys (various sizes)
  • Skies (day, night, weather, etc.)
  • Natural/fantasy world landscapes
  • Background human figures: security, heavies, military, troops, crowds, generic people, models (scene-setting silhouettes/figures)

Tops/Clothing:

  • Cyberpunk female outfit set: crop top with keyhole cutout and high collar, detached sleeves with tech patches, asymmetric mini skirt with belt/buckles, thigh-high stockings/garters

Weapons/Items (additional):

  • Spyglass/telescope (user thought it was in HM3 but can’t find it — may be misremembering from HM2.5)

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-04-23):

Heads:

  • New heads, especially profile and 3/4 view — user says existing ones are overused

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-04-22):

Weapons/Items:

  • British L85/SA80 rifle without optic (Rifles tab) — popular in films, TV, games, RPGs

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-04-20):

Tops/Clothing:

  • More coat tails

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-04-19):

Hair:

  • More ponytails
  • More long hair options
  • More new male hairstyles

Tops/Clothing:

  • New tops
  • New trousers/legwear
  • More underwear sets: female briefs, brassieres (varying cup sizes)

General Themes:

  • Cyborg/mecha parts across all slots
  • Classic anime mecha (Jeeg, Grendizer, Voltron)
  • 80s cartoon properties (Masters of the Universe, Ghostbusters, Blackstar, M.A.S.K., Centurions)
  • Modern anime/pop culture properties (Power Rangers, Ben 10)
  • Cyberpunk clothing/accessories

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-04-30):

Tops/Clothing:

  • Spandex/bodysuits fitted to non-standard body poses (e.g. Female Body 50) — currently requires tedious masking to fit outfits to posed bodies

Outstanding (from community users, 2026-05-02):

Tops/Clothing:

  • Studs for clothing (decorative studs/rivets for punk/leather looks)
  • Prince’s Purple Rain jacket

Face:

  • Facial wrinkles for men and women — dedicated set (some exist in Head-Faces but need more variety in a standalone set)

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-05-06):

Ears:

  • Floppy dog ears

Outstanding (from community user, 2026-05-13):

Hands/Gloves:

  • Glove hands with individual finger color/texture control — separate color channels per finger to achieve effects like Miles Morales Spider-Man gloves
Posted in HeroMachine 3 | 1 Comment