Category Archives: News & Updates

I spent a big chunk of the weekend working on the template for the upcoming HM Mini, and wanted to get your thoughts on it:

At this point I'm thinking the entire head will be one slot, consisting of the outline of the skull, the jawline, and the chin. Hair, facial hair, and the face would be separate slots as well inside the head slot. This means that when you scale (resize) or move the head, the face and beard will transform right along with it.

The hands also will probably be their own separate slot. That hasn't gotten a lot of traction in HM2.5, but I think partly that's because it was an add-on rather than being a core part of the program from the beginning. I really think having the ability to change out the way they're posed will help make the figures more distinctive.

Flash now lets you dynamically declare one movie clip (which is what the "slots" are) as a mask for another. So what I'll probably do is have one slot for "Hand-held items" with a drop-down box for you to choose another slot to mask it out with or not. That way if there's a cool sword you like, for instance, you could either drag it over the belt to make it look sheathed behind a sash, or you could drag it over to a hand and mask it so it looks like it's being held, or you could drag it over to the back and mask it out with the body so it looks like it's in a back sheath.

I've just gotten word that the "theme" of the next HeroMachine Mini I talked about earlier will be "Modern Commando". That means lots of camo gear, lots of weapons, lots of cool gun belts, and other ultra-modern gear for all your urban assault needs.

A new project for a major UGO client has come up, and while I can't talk about it in any detail, it's going to come along with a contest that's absolutely going to knock your socks off. Seriously, what you stand to win is so cool that I wish I weren't building the applet so I could enter.

This is going to end up as the most HeroMachine 3-like applet yet. I'll be testing almost all of the core ideas that will go into the full version, the only exception being the ability to rotate the underlying body parts. I have to rewrite the base code again, because I want to make it possible for you to add ten different shirt layers if you want, for maximum flexibility. More technical detail after the jump.

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I have made a lot of big changes to the FaceMaker beta applet and am curious to get your reaction to it. The latest update looks like this:

You can find this new version here, and the previous one for comparison's sake here. Changes in this update include:

1. Moved the character canvas area with colors and buttons to the left side of the screen, and the ad over to the right. Since most people expect the most important part of the page to be at the upper left, I think this works a bit better.
2. Massive update of items -- every item slot now has what I think to be a reasonably solid, complete set of options from which to choose.
3. Changed the item slot selection boxes from being separated out and visible at all times to being in a collapsible selection box like in HeroMachine 2. I probably need to add a little arrow in that box to make it obvious what it's for. Basically though you just click on the item slot name and a pop-up appears with all the other options.
4. Made the action buttons icons instead of text-based.
5. Added "gender" buttons, which basically just skip the beard and mustache if you're randomizing the face.
6. Created space for preview boxes which I am reluctantly going to have to add by hand. Sigh. They'll go on the bottom right, below where the "Share" and "Save" buttons currently sit.
7. Fixed the bug where the scaling button would keep moving even after you moused out of the box.
8. The scaling button now moves to the appropriate spot on the grid to reflect how the currently selected item is set when changing slots.
9. You no longer get "blank" items for essential slots like Forehead, Jaw, Nose, etc. Before you'd get some really bizarre looking results with Random Face, with the background showing through and such. You can still make those slots blank manually if you like, of course.

I'm very curious as to how you think the new layout and collapsing the item selection boxes into a pop-out menu works versus the previous method of keeping them out at all times.

Feel free to leave your suggestions, observations, complaints, and/or compliments in the comments below. Or if you're shy, you can email them to me directly either via afdstudios@gmail.com or through this blog's "contact us" page.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you'd like to share regarding the program thus far!

I'm continuing to work on the basic functionality and code for the series of HeroMachine Minis we'd like to do. One of the neat features -- not Earth-shattering or anything, just a fun little addition -- I've installed is a color guide:

When you mouse over a color, the line of text at the upper right tells you what that color is named. It "sticks" as well, always showing you what the currently selected color is. This should be helpful for color-blind folks using the program, but I think it'll still be a nice little addition for everyone who's wondered "What the heck color is that, anyway?"

Most of the names are from Photoshop, so don't blame me if they seem silly!

On the coding side, the applet is turning out to be much easier to program and much tighter. It will hopefully be much easier to "skin" and change, allowing for faster updates and additions down the line. That's the hope, anyway. I've learned a lot about writing code in the past five years that I can implement in the new version to make it all work faster, better, and more easily. The next big challenge is the scaling control.

If you've ever wished you could influence the design of an actual Internet application, now's your chance! I am designing the next generation of HeroMachine Mini-applets and I want to hear from you about what you do and don't want them to be like. The goal is to create one basic frame that can be used for any of these smaller applets by changing just a few pieces of data (and of course drawing all new items).

Here's the latest version of the wireframe (a basic layout without any design elements applied) I am considering for future "HeroMachine Minis" like a Face Maker, Alien Creature Creator, or what have you:

(Click for a larger version.)

The gray area would be for a 325x250 ad. Below that are general function buttons that affect the overall applet. The only "new" one is the "preview" button, which will remove everything except the current creation, shown full-screen. I might even include some zooming type of feature on that screen. Below that in light green are the various item category buttons (for instance "Headgear", "Undershirt", and so on).

The right side of the applet is for actually creating your image. The row of six small rectangles is for item previews, like you have in HeroMachine 2.5, so you can see a set of items before having to pick one. The currently selected item would be highlighted in white. You can scroll up or down an entire set of six items by clicking either below or above the green scroll button, or more than one set by dragging the scroll button itself. The green arrows at the top and bottom of the scroll bar allow you to scroll the preview boxes up or down one box at a time. Clicking on a preview box will select that item and put it on the dark yellow canvas area, applying the currently selected colors to it.

Below the preview boxes and the canvas area is a row of buttons that let you affect the current item or the entire image. Items can be moved up or down in layers, like in the current HeroMachine 2.5 application. You can clear the current item, clear all items, or clear just the currently selected item. The blue and yellow arrow buttons let you select the next or previous item in the set, acting like the left and right arrows that were previously integrated into the component selection boxes.

Below that row of buttons is the scaling control. This will let you stretch the currently selected item sidways or up and down. You can move the current item around on the canvas by clicking and dragging it.

Finally, to the right of the scaling control is the color selection area. The number of color boxes here is flexible. You can potentially set two different color areas as well as the line color. Selecting a color area tab will set that as the active region.

That pretty much covers it. I'd be delighted to hear any suggestions or concerns you might have about this proposed interface -- features to include that aren't there, features currently there you think would be useless, overall layout, anything goes.