Author Archives: AFDStudios

Forum Non-Update

Posted on September 17, 2014 | Comments Off on Forum Non-Update

Regarding the long down time for the forums, I'm sorry for the extended delay. Ben the Awesome Tech Guy and I both work for the same company for our regular jobs and we've had a major project that's due to launch today. That's taken up all our time, but I'm hopeful that maybe this weekend we can turn our attention back to the forum issue.

We've found a replacement for SimplePress (the current blog software) that we hope will put less of a load on the server. We've run one sample import and it looked good but we haven't had time to really dive into it to make sure, since data integrity and the preservation of peoples' character images is the most important thing.

Thanks for your patience, I know it's super frustrating.

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Posted in Meta

Full of hot air

Posted on May 20, 2014 | Comments Off on Full of hot air

For a long-outstanding prize request, I've just uploaded the following item to Companion-Vehicles:

hot-air-balloon

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Posted in Challenge Prizes, HeroMachine 3

"The Forsaken" by Valyndril

Posted on May 15, 2014 | Comments Off on "The Forsaken" by Valyndril

"The Forsaken" by Valyndril

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Posted in Hall of Fame

HM3: Exporting broken. Again.

Posted on May 14, 2014 | Comments Off on HM3: Exporting broken. Again.

UPDATE: I just installed a fix that's working in Chrome, but I don't have IE. Can someone who does please go to the HM3 app, hold down CTRL-F5 to force it to refresh with the latest version of the app, and try exporting again, please? Thank you!

UPDATE 2: I have confirmation from djuby (who originally reported the problem) that IE is fixed now as well. Woot!

I've gotten a couple of reports that Internet Explorer is no longer allowing you to export images from HM3 as of last night. Reports are from both IE9 and IE11. In testing, Chrome worked this morning with Chrome Version 34.0.1847.131 but a few moments later after I "upgraded" to Chrome Version 34.0.1847.137 it was broken.

So something major changed for it to affect two different browsers from both Google and Microsoft. I don't know what, I haven't changed anything in the code base.

Once again you'll have to do screen captures till I figure out what they broke THIS time. It's very frustrating, I apologize.

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Posted in HeroMachine 3

Special Contest Prize for Lime — an Aurochs!

Posted on May 12, 2014 | Comments Off on Special Contest Prize for Lime — an Aurochs!

Lime requested an aurochs to be added to Companion-Standard as her prize for winning the Special Character Design Contest for my friend JJ Baskin. And here it is, available now!

aurochs

Thanks again to all who entered and thanks to Lime!

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Posted in Challenge Prizes

Guess who just won up to a $50 value?

Posted on May 11, 2014 | Comments Off on Guess who just won up to a $50 value?

The Special Character Design Contest for my friend JJ Baskin, who's battling a recent brain cancer diagnosis, is over and it was a spectacular success. I posted each entry, one per day, to his Facebook feed and he's really enjoyed seeing them. His sons are huge super-hero fans and getting to see their dad all decked out has helped lift all their spirits during this tough round of radiation treatment. A sincere, deep thanks to all of you who took the time to enter, each of you made a genuine difference.

Here are all the entries for your enjoyment:

I (and JJ! and his sons!) enjoyed all of these very much. But as this is a contest and there can be only one winner, and because I am a ruthless autocrat unlike the kind-hearted "mob rules" other moderators with their polls, I am going to choose the one JJ had the highest praise for. And that one is by Lime!

No slight is meant to the other awesome entrants, but JJ's boys are actually studying Andy Warhol in school right now so in addition to being a kick-butt illustration, it was also very timely.

Lime, you've won your choice of:

  1. A custom color illustration by me of any one character you like (a $50 value!);
  2. A caricature of you to join the others in the Heads-Winners set; or
  3. Any one item you like to be included in HeroMachine 3.

    4. Please contact me either in the comments to this post, or via email, to claim your prize.

    Thank you again to everyone who entered!

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Posted in Challenge Favorites

HM3: Compass Rose

Posted on May 5, 2014 | Comments Off on HM3: Compass Rose

So far this morning you've gotten a new site install that's super zippy AND that lets you log in thanks to Ben. I handed over a new version of HeroMachine 3 that once again allows exporting from Chrome. Which are both cool things but they're not really new, they just fix things that were more or less broken. It's like waking up Christmas morning and getting your old bike with a new coat of paint and the horn fixed.

So to complete the trifecta with a brand spanking new present, I've added a compass rose to the Insignia-Tech set for use in making maps or for a navigational-themed character. Or flag, tattoo, very odd Companion, whatever your fancy suggests. Enjoy!

compassrose

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Posted in HeroMachine 3, New Item Releases, News & Updates

Chrome Image Exporting fixed for reals this time

Posted on May 5, 2014 | Comments Off on Chrome Image Exporting fixed for reals this time

I've thought I had the bug fixed in the past where you couldn't export an image out of Chrome, but this time I think I've actually done it. I've tested in both computers I have available here (sadly, both are Macs, so if you are running Chrome on Windows please give it a shot and let me know how it works for you) and it exports the image successfully, and then returns the character to the proper spot instead of 30 pixels off to the left.

Please let me know any issues you run into and thank you very much for your patience.

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Posted in Meta

Commission: Wonderland

Posted on May 4, 2014 | Comments Off on Commission: Wonderland

The client wishes to remain anonymous, but the illustration was for two of the main characters to be fighting off invading card soldiers from Wonderland:

Rene-Cards-Flash

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Posted in Sketch of the Day

Custom Illustration: Arrow Wolf

Posted on May 3, 2014 | Comments Off on Custom Illustration: Arrow Wolf

I think I forgot to post this one a few weeks back when I was finished with it, but "Arrow Wolf" is a character by Brad Carter. Here's the HeroMachine 3 version he sent me:

hm3-beta

The description I got was:

Arrow-Wolf is an archer and a swordsman his costume is a mix between indian and a knight his companion is Jackle the legendary black wolf id like him to be in the pic to if that's extra money no problem I want the costume for arrow-wolf to be somewhat diff I had an idea of his hood being made out of a wolf's hide his eyes would be looking out of where the wolf's eyes would be and he wears warpaint ... arrow wolf is about 5'11 200lbs of muscle kinda athletic built I told you about the hood I wanted for him but im not sure if its gonna look right or not so we can play witht he idea though he has arrows and small throwing knives he uses as his gadgets ...

We did a bit of back and forth on the design and ultimately we ended up with this illustration:

Brad-ArrowWolf-web

Remember, you can order your own custom color character illustration here, it's just $50 for one figure.

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Posted in Sketch of the Day