This week's "Power User Profile" features multiple Character Design Contest winner DiCicatriz!
- A photo (or drawing) of you in "real life":
- Online name used in HeroMachine environs: DiCicatriz
- Real name: Diego
- Real city/state/country: Sunny California
- Real job: Bookseller/Cafe Worker
- Real age: 23
- Gender: Male
- Married/single: Four years and counting with my wonderful partner, Mike.
- Online archive of your creations (if any): http://s1126.photobucket.com/albums/l607/DiCicatriz/
- The best piece of HeroMachine art you've created:I'm particularly attached to these six portraits I made, of characters from a comic I've been working on and tweaking for a while now. Clockwise from the top left, we have: Howl, Foundry, Sad Bastard, Maximo, Rift, and Wraith. I don't really know why I find myself more attached to these images than any others I've created. I think it might be the time I spent developing these characters, their back-stories, their relationships together, their abilities, etc;. In any case, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.
(Click to embiggen.) - Favorite all-time geeky movie if any: I went crazy for the Lord of the Rings movies. If I had to choose one out of the trilogy it'd have to be Fellowship of the Ring. Between the Shire, Rivendell, the big reveal moment in Moria, Lothlorien, and the Pillars of the Argonath; it just had so many awe-inspiring visual moments.
- Favorite all-time geeky book if any: I'm a big Samuel R. Delany fan. He does a lot of amazing envelope-pushing stuff, dealing so intelligently with taboo and controversial topics. I recommend his Tales of Neveryon series or any of his space operas (Empire Star, Nova, Babel-17, or even Trouble on Triton if you're in the mood for an existential headache).
- Favorite all-time geeky TV show if any: I can go on Simpsons quoting benders for hours on end. Greatest show ever.
- Favorite all-time comic book character: Thor! Anything Thor. It makes sense considering my nerdiness is heavily rooted in fantasy and mythology. The fact that he's such a badass helps too 🙂
- If you could have one super-heroic power in real life, you'd choose: Practical teleportation. Living in Southern California has made some serious dents in my relationship with freeway driving.
- In your leisure time you like to: Write, tweak my HeroMachine designs, read the books I never got around to, and when I'm not entirely consumed with anything else a good round of drumming always puts me in a good mood.
- Character design turn-ons (things you love to see that make for a good design): A nice and cohesive color palette, trying new things, something in which the effort that went into the design is really evident.
- Character design turn-offs (things you hate to see that make for a bad design): Blatant errors that could've been easily corrected with a little effort. Anything that shows me the designer didn't enjoy any part of making the piece.
- Best tip for a HeroMachine newbie: Patience! If something goes wrong or doesn't turn out how you envisioned, roll with it. Sometimes you can end up with a really cool element to your image by accident. Some of my favorite poses came to me just tinkering around.
- Any personal message you'd like to share with the HeroMachine community about Geek Life: I've truly and honestly enjoyed myself as a member of this community. I don't post too much outside of the contests, but everyone has always made me feel welcome. Jeff has provided us with an awesome creative outlet and being able to share it with everybody is the icing on the cake. I mean after all, what's the point of accumulating all this geeky knowledge if you have nobody to talk about it with? 🙂
