I am happy to present for your edification and entertainment the inside story of one of the most innovative HeroMachine creators, the man who brought you so many cool poses, the one and only SeanDavidRoss!
- Online name used in HeroMachine environs: seandavidross
- A photo (or drawing) of you in "real life":
- Real name: Sean David Ross
- Real city/state/country: North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Real job: Game Designer
- Real age: 39
- Gender: Male
- Relationship status (married, single, in a long-term relationship, dating someone, "it's complicated", etc): Long Term Relationship.
- Online archive of your creations: The Dark Herd
- The best piece of HeroMachine art you've created:
- Favorite all-time geeky movie if any: That's hard. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I think. It's between that and Sorcerer's Stone. The Dark Knight, The Princess Bride, and The Life Aquatic (I think it's geeky, in a Magic Realism kind of way) are close contenders.
- Favorite all-time geeky book if any: This is harder than the movie question. I tend to like series of books. You can see the books I've read (that I remember) and the ratings I've given them here. From those, I'm going to say the Lancer/Ace series of Conan stories by Robert E. Howard, followed closely by the Harry Potter books and the Lord of the Rings.
- Favorite all-time geeky TV show if any: This is the hardest one of all. I'd say it's a toss up between Farscape and Red Dwarf. But Doctor Who, Buffy, Angel, and Stargate SG-1 could sway me depending on my mood.
- Favorite all-time comic book character if any: This one wasn't hard at all. Batman.
- If you could have one super-heroic power in real life, you'd choose: Invulnerability.
- In your leisure time you like to: Read, play and play-test board and card games, watch movies, attend plays, visit art galleries, hike.
- Character design turn-ons (things you love to see that make for a good design): Excellent colouring. Particularly line colour choices. I'm a big fan of Pesky for his daring use of colour - it doesn't always work but when it does it's outstanding. Shading and highlighting that are well done (see Zyp's work). Good use of patterns as texture (Papakrok is who I think of for this one). Relaxed, natural looking poses or dynamic poses. Um, those would be mine... 😉 See Zyp's Taurus win for a subtle but effective pose.
- Character design turn-offs (things you hate to see that make for a bad design): Poor colouring. Lack of shading (unless your intention is a highly deliberate sense of flatness) and/or poor shading/highlighting (if it doesn't work, I'd rather it wasn't done at all). Stiff, lifeless poses.
- Best tip for a HeroMachine newbie: Learn from the masters. See what the better Hero Machinists are doing. Look to the Character Contests and Forums to see whose work you like. Try to understand how they are able to produce the images you see. Try to push the boundaries of Hero Machine by also learning from the masters in comic book illustration. Try to bring what they can do into what Hero Machinists can do.
"Bad artists copy. Good artists steal." - Pablo Picasso
- Any personal message you'd like to share with the HeroMachine community about Geek Life: Embrace your geekitude. Being a geek is fine. Just try to avoid being a dweeb, nerd, or dork.
