Monthly Archives: April 2009

Or an insignia would be even better, actually. I'll start on Insignia-Standard tomorrow, so if you have any special requests, let me know in the comments below. I'll of course be making every effort to convert over all the 2.x Insignia, plus a whole bunch more in the spirit of what you've seen already.

I realized earlier that I'm starting to get perilously close to having all the planned Slots filled with a set of Standard items. According to my rough working draft, the remaining unfilled Slots are:

• Insignia
• Companion
• Belt
• Facial Hair

Can you think of any slots I am leaving out? There are some pretty hefty sub-sets, of course, including a bunch of environmental/setting ones for Background (bits and pieces of scenery like chairs, desks, doors, wall dividers, text boxes for character names and/or headers like in a comic book, etc.). But if I am missing any big, glaring areas that merit their own Slot but don't have one, by all means let me know.

I've just updated the HeroMachine 3 Alpha with a new "Standard" set for the "Hair" slot, replacing the former "HairMaleStandard". All of the items that used to be in the old one are in the new one too, starting on preview page three, I think it is.

The new set has a total of 71 different hair styles and pieces, hopefully giving you everything you need to customize your character to the tee. Here's a set of twelve to whet your appetite, but by all means check out the live set available now:

Let me know in the comments if there are any styles you were really hoping for that didn't make it, or if there are any changes you'd like to see made. Thanks for all of your earlier suggestions, they were very helpful in putting the group together!

I've just uploaded the first set of Background items, "Shapes", to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha. I've included 21 different backgrounds for you in this set, which is a lot more than the first 2.x Background-Standard group, including your basic rectangles, circles, triangles, Union Jack, concentric target circles, a yin yang symbol, etc.

In addition, the basic program now has six more "Pattern" options, to allow you to apply basic dark-to-light gradients from either the top, bottom, left, or right, as well as one goes from the center out and one that's in a circle. They're not perfect, but they do let you do some things you couldn't before.

You might also play around with using this big giant Background Shapes to create some funky uniform elements, as well. Just move the Background item to the front using the "To Top Layer" button in the Transform tab. Hit the Mask button, and click on the basic Body. This works particularly well with the Background Shapes that have gradients built in, especially if you set both of its colors to 0% Alpha -- it removes the colors so the underlying Body can show through, but leaves the gradient, so you get a cool effect.

Enjoy!

I've just uploaded "BladesTwo" to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha. This should do it for the blades, let me know if I missed anything big. I do still plan on the naginata (the samurai blade at the end of a pole), but in polearms.

What would you like me to work on next? I'm thinking either Hair or Insignia but holler if you think something else ought to have priority.