Category Archives: HeroMachine 3

HM3: The day is saved!

Posted on May 18, 2009 by | Comments Off on HM3: The day is saved!

The HeroMachine 3 Alpha now allows you to Save and Load your characters!

saveload

Other things to note about this feature:

  • Currently characters are stored on your local hard drive only, although in the future you will have the option to "export" or "import" some sort of text string like in HeroMachine 2.x as well.
  • This is all-new stuff, something I haven't ever done before, so please let me know when and how it breaks on you.
  • The four radio buttons at the top of the box allow you to sort your saved characters in alpha order normal, alpha order reversed, date order from newest to oldest, and date order from oldest to newest.
  • When you get more than 12 characters, a scroll bar appears allowing you to scroll up and down. Currently there's no check in place preventing you from scrolling all the label boxes completely off the screen, but if you close and reopen the save/load dialog box, they'll be back in place.
  • I don't yet have warnings in place for when you delete a character, so be careful.
  • I also don't yet have a notification in place telling you the character was successfully saved, but it will show up if you re-open the save or load box.
  • You can't currently overwrite a character with an updated version. You can either name it "[Name] 2" or the same name, then sort it by creation date, and delete the older one. Eventually I'll have a "quick save" and/or an "overwrite" option that will let you quickly save over the top of what you're already doing, but that was going to take too long.
  • As an added bonus, "Clear All" should now work properly when trying to delete a character with multiple instances of the same item.

Hope you enjoy it! Again, be sure to let me know if/when/how this breaks on you.

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Posted in HeroMachine 3, News & Updates

"Save" status update

Posted on May 14, 2009 by | Comments Off on "Save" status update

I am still working on the load/save functionality for HeroMachine 3. So far I have the program saving and loading one character, which is great -- that's the heart of the beast. I am currently working on a more complicated interface that will save more than one character (what a concept!), allowing you to pick the one you want to load or save from a list, or to type in a new save file name. That all takes a lot longer in Flash than in other languages because you have to build a lot of that from scratch, but it's more tedious and mind-numbing than difficult.

The long and short of it is, I ought to have this up for testing and use next week, if all goes well.

As a bonus, I can use essentially the same code as a "QuickSave" sort of thing to allow an "Undo" feature. It'll probably be just one level, although if I can stomach it I'll try to figure out how to do more. This stuff is important, but boring to work on, I am itchy to actually draw something.

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Posted in HeroMachine 3

HM3: Working on saving

Posted on May 7, 2009 by | Comments Off on HM3: Working on saving

The latest on HeroMachine 3 development is that I am working on the Load/Save code, which we've been badly in need of for some time. The good news is the fundamental trick that was needed turned out to be much easier than I feared it would be; I know how to do what needs to be done and have that basic bit already in place.

The bad news is all the other stuff that has to surround that heart. There's a lot of it, and it's going to take a while to crank out.

To elaborate, I have the bit in place that takes all the items you've put together and saves them to your local hard drive, then reloads them -- IF you already have all the preview sets loaded up. But I still have to write the part that cranks through each item set you need, loads it up, then moves on to the next one until they're all loaded. And I have to write all the error checking and dialog boxing -- "Are you sure you want to load/save a previous character, this will lose your current one" and "Which character do you want to load" and the like. For each of those you have to provide functionality based on what the user picks -- ok or cancel -- and all the associated baggage that goes along with it.

Along the way you have to be sure you're resetting all the other stuff that needs to be reset like variable names, toggle button settings, arrays, and the like.

So while the basics turned out to be easy enough, there's still a lot of grunt work to go through to make it all work usefully. Which is going to take a while, probably about a week.

In the meantime, I head to Oregon tomorrow for a long weekend, which means I won't be back to work on HeroMachine stuff till Tuesday.

I've got posts scheduled to go up while I'm out, and I should be able to access everything through my iPhone to approve moderated posts and such, but I won't be releasing any new updates or items or anything.

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Posted in HeroMachine 3, Meta

HM3: Shoulder to shoulder

Posted on May 6, 2009 by | Comments Off on HM3: Shoulder to shoulder

I've just posted the Shoulder-Standard set of items to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha, with 59 mostly-new (including some from the Lordi version) illustrations including the following sample:

shoulders-standard

I tired to include a good cross-section of high-tech, fantasy, and modern items for your creative pleasure, hopefully they'll help make your characters closer to how you envision them in your mind.

Holler in the comments if you see that I've missed something egregious, or if there are any bugs that are getting in your way.

I believe -- and please, correct me if I am wrong here -- that this completes all the "Standard" items for the male figure. Which is pretty amazing when I sit back and think about it. It might not seem like it, but believe me, after two years of working through the Expansion for 2.5, and countless custom versions for Sales, and all the other stuff, once I got to sit down and actually work full-time on HeroMachine 3, it's come together at a rapid pace.

I posted "HeroMachine 3.0 Begins" on January 19 of this year. In just three and a half months, you have a functioning (if somewhat buggy) version in your hands with a full set of basic items. And as you have seen in the various "Cool Characters" posts, people are doing some amazing things already.

I want to be sure you understand how important everyone who has taken the time to comment on the program during this development period has been. Many of the items and features you see are directly attributable to input from someone in the community here, which I think is just fantastic. So thank you, very sincerely, for helping this application come to life at all, much less to be as awesome as it's turning out (he said humbly).

Not that we're done -- not by a long shot. I haven't done an actual count but I would guess there are probably three times as many more items just to convert from 2.x, not to mention any new stuff that gets added. That's a lot of drawing. Plus the female body template (which I've contracted out by the way) and the conversion of any gender-dependent items to fit on it. And all the feature enhancements and bug fixes.

In other words, we're a long ways from done. But not as long as we were three months ago, when this was just an idea.

Thank you for following along thus far, and I hope you'll be sticking around for the next few months as this thing eventually leaves alpha and goes to beta, and then to a full, formal "final release". It should be fun!

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Posted in HeroMachine 3, News & Updates

HM3: Atlas twitched

Posted on May 4, 2009 by | Comments Off on HM3: Atlas twitched

I just wanted to give a quick status report as the new week begins. I am currently drawing Shoulder items, using the vast array of references submitted in the last post, for which I thank you all tremendously -- there are some pretty cool things going in already, and I've only drawn twelve of them! Here's a quick look at four samples:

shoulders

These should be done and posted in the next couple of days.

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Posted in HeroMachine 3, Previews

HM3: Free rides!

Posted on May 2, 2009 by | Comments Off on HM3: Free rides!

Mustaches and beards in the HeroMachine 3 Facial Hair slot, Standard set, have been updated. I more than doubled the number of items in the set and hopefully added some bits that will help personalize your character even more.

My dilemma is whether I ought to go through and re-draw the original 24 items, which I think I took from the Warrior Mini, with the newer lineart, or if it's good to have some simpler, more cartoony stuff in there.

Here's a sample of the new stuff:

facialhair

Holler if you have any sideburns, beards or mustaches that are not present, but which you'd like to be.

Next up -- Shoulders. Feel free to post requests for those as well.

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Posted in HeroMachine 3

More cool characters

Posted on May 2, 2009 by | Comments Off on More cool characters

I've been collecting characters posted to the UGO Forums lately, and since apparently there's a problem now with non-registered users seeing attachments, I wanted to make sure as many people as possible got to see them. Follow me after the jump to see some sterling examples of what HeroMachine 3 can do in the right hands!

Continue reading →

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Posted in Cool Characters, HeroMachine 3

HM3: I can really belt them out …

Posted on May 1, 2009 by | Comments Off on HM3: I can really belt them out …

... and onto your screen, as the "Belt-Standard" set of items for HeroMachine 3 has now been released. Included in it are 72 mostly-new items ranging from plain buckles and straps to elaborate filigrees and everything -- or at least a lot of things -- in between.

If anything particularly egregious was left out that belongs in a very broad sampling of possibilities, let me know in comments. I do plan on doing Belt-Buckles and Belt-Containers sorts of sets for scabbards, buckles (duh), holsters, more straps, canteens, dungeon-delving belt-worn items, etc.

One thing that will not be in the latter are items that would make more sense as part of the "ItemRight/Left" sets. Now that you can move items around, layer them, scale them, rotate them, etc., it's easy enough to add stuff to the belts rather than have me draw eleventy bazillion (an actual number! Not.) variations on a big wide leather belt with twenty things hanging off of it.

Note, for instance, I put in the injection-molded holster (is that what you call it?) from the Military/Tech set, but without the gun handle sticking out. That's because you can put whatever gun you want in there, rather than having to live with my metal-gripped .45. Just roate it, scale it if necessary, move it to a layer just below the holster, and viola, you got yourself a gun in a holster.

I feel the pain of those hoping for scabbards in this release. I just couldn't get there, I apologize -- there were too many great suggestions for complete belts in the last thread for me to pass up. And THANK YOU to everyone who posted there, you made this set much more than it would have been otherwise.

In the meantime, you can always make your own scabbards by taking just the blade portion of any of the stuff in ItemRight-Blades, color it black (or leather-brown or whatever you want, and you've got yourself a scabbard. You can decorate it with tassles from the new Belt-Standard set, filigree from the Foot or Glove sets, and patterns to make it all fancy, and then stick it onto a regular belt, and you're good to go. More difficult for you, yes, but at least you're not being held hostage to that mean old bald guy in Texas (that's me, by the way).

Hope you enjoy the new belts! I'm pleased with the way they came back, and really appreciate all the great ideas you guys fed me. Couldn't do this without you!

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Posted in HeroMachine 3

HM3: Looking for belt suggestions

Posted on April 30, 2009 by | Comments Off on HM3: Looking for belt suggestions

I'm working on belts now, and have quite a bit of room left. I don't feel like I've gotten a solid Standard set after adding some new stuff and converting over the HM2.x gear, so if you have ideas for me, please let me know in the comments.

I am probably going to do Belt-Buckles and Belt-ClipOns as separate sets. There are sooooo many of each, I thought I should probably just stick to actual full (or mostly full) belt-type items in the Standard set, and really go to town on the other two.

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Posted in HeroMachine 3

Creating a woman, no ribs required

Posted on April 29, 2009 by | Comments Off on Creating a woman, no ribs required

Kudos to UGO Forums user Isia, who posted an early attempt at using HeroMachine 3 to create a female character, Sirena:

Many of the elements are there, starting of course with the single female body template in BodyZombies. But the eyes, mouths, noses, and ears are for both genders, and you can (as you see here) make some nice feminine hair styles by combining the existing ones. I have to admire the clever use of Insignia as bra cups here, that's very clever.

With a little ingenuity, you don't have to wait on ol' Jeff to make your character, you can even go girl!

(Edited to add:)

I couldn't resist taking a crack at doing a female character myself after being inspired by Isia. Here's my attempt, The Female Warrior With No Name From The Land of Cold Enough For a Fur Cape But Not Cold Enough To Cover Up The Yummy Bits:

brynnhilde

The key trick is multiple masking. For instance, the "gloves" and the pseudo-bustier are all masked to the body. Yes, an item can only serve as a mask to one object at a time, so what you see are actually THREE bodies, all stacked on top of each other, each acting as a mask for one other item -- the right and left square Insignia (rotated to make it look like a glove when masked) and the bustier (which is a Top masked and scaled to look like a bustier).

The tricky bit, which I need to fix on the back end, is that when you add the second Insignia to serve as a mask, it unmasks the first one you put on the stage. I got around it by nudging the second Body over twenty spaces, re-applying the initial glove mask to it, then nudging both it and the Insignia/glove back over. Painful, but do-able.

Everything else had to be scaled and moved to fit, as the boots were in the wrong spot. I chose the last MaleStandard head, which is sort of a Manga-inspired kewpie doll shape and works well for more feminine features. The hair is three main pieces -- the long back, scaled even longer; bangs; and the top part. I added two each of the pony tails and the long braids, flipping one of each. I moved the braids behind the Ears to make them look more 3D.

Like I said, the hard part was getting the gloves and the Top masked with the three stacked bodies. Once that was done the rest was pretty easy. If I was feeling really OCD I'd have created a fourth Body and masked the Belt to it so the top edges didn't stick out, but I was in a hurry.

Finally, Dalls Cowboy Cheerleader boots FTW. Yee-haw!

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Posted in Cool Characters, HeroMachine 3