Category Archives: Previews

The HeroMachine 3 Alpha has just been updated with 39 new entries in ItemRightEnergy for all your blasting needs. I tried to include things that would work well when used together, so you'll notice a variety of simple circular shapes and energy auras and such, so give the "multiples" setting a ride on this one. As always your suggestions were key to making this set work, so thank you for taking the time to post your links and ideas, I really appreciate it.

If you see something you don't like, or don't see something you would like, please let me know in comments and we'll see what can be done. Here's a quick preview of the first page of new energy effects:

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:

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

I just uploaded an expanded "InsigniaTech" set for HeroMachine 3, doubling the number of items. Here's a quick preview:

I also have a bunch of gears (cogwheels) per Fabien's request, that's one of the items I regretted not fitting into the Standard set. Hopefully that will help make steampunk types of things easier.

We have insignia! One hundred of them, to be exact, by far the largest number of items in any set in HeroMachine history. And to think just a few days ago I was wondering what in the world I'd put in the Insignia slot that I hadn't already done! Many, many thanks to the fantastic response in that last thread, you all had some great ideas that really helped flesh out the set. I couldn't get every suggestion in, but an awful lot of them are there. Everything from the Tech set is also present, as is almost all of the 2.x stuff. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Here are a couple of previews to give you a taste of what's now available:

(Some of your old favorites, plus variations on them -- like multiple lightning bolts and birds -- and some totally new stuff to boot.)

(Lots of suggestions from the comments are in the new set as well, including the crosshairs, the swastika, the bomb, the scales, the caduceus, and many more.)

I'm probably going to take a bit of a breather for the rest of the day, gather feedback, and then put out at least one more sub-set of Insignia if not more. I really liked Hakoon's idea of labeling the runes Kalkin suggested in the actual preview box with the name of the rune. That's pretty cool. So I'll be knocking those out, and then probably doing at least one set of letters. If anyone has a super-cool font you want to point me at as a guide, I'll take a look.

I want to also point out how flexible these insignia items are with all of your transformation tools and the use of multiples. For instance, the last two items are a Union Jack and the US Stars and Bars. The careful observer will note that each of those flags has three colors -- red, white, and blue -- and yet HeroMachine only allows for two colors. If you want to have an authentic-looking flag, therefore, you're going to have to use multiples.

First, choose the square insignia, and make all three colors white. Scale it into a rectangle, longer than it is tall, like a flag. Make sure the "Multiples" selection is on and pick one of the flags, and make the first color red (or blue, I can't remember which is which), and vice versa for the other color. Size it so it fits onto your white square, allowing the white bits to show through the stripes and stars I left transparent, and you've got yourself a flag.

As just one more example, in HM2.5 I had an Insignia that consisted of an archer on top of a circle. You'll notice that in this new 3.0 set the shooter is alone, with no circle. That's because you can choose the circle Insignia, set multiples to on, then choose the archer and layer him on top. This allows you to recreate the same logo with up to four different colors, while still giving you the flexibility to have a square shape behind him instead, or a triangle, or whatever you like.

Finally, whenever I get to the ItemRight/Left-Shield set, you'll be able to use any of these Insignia as the boss on a shield. Or to decorate a tabard, or a piece of chest armor. The possibilities are endless.

I hope you like the new options and artwork, let me know if there's something missing (besides what I mentioned above -- runes and letters) that you just have to have and I'll see what I can do. Oh, I also want to do a "Flags" set to include the Confederate stars and bars, that was a good idea that I just couldn't fit in. The file started acting really funny at 97 items, I couldn't actually click on them any more and had to finagle my way around, so this is pretty much the cap on the total number of items I can have.

I've just released the ItemRight-Blades to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha. Note that this is part one of two sets of Bladed items; once I got to 72 entries, the file was getting to be too slow to work with easily. So starting tomorrow I'll be working on "Blades2", as I am only halfway through the HM2.x cutting implements and haven't gotten much into the user-submitted stuff. Breaking everything into four pieces is slow slogging and really balloons the file size.

To recap, you'll see each item broken out into four pieces: the entire sword/dagger/whatever; just the hilt and pommel; just the crosspiece (what the heck is that called?!); and the blade. Basically this gives you a mini-HeroMachine "Weapon Maker" within the main application, because you can add the handle of a broadsword to a round katana crossguard and a greatsword blade. Or -- and this is pretty neat -- you can put a ... ahem, an "energy based saber-like blade" onto a samurai sword base.

I know, cool, hunh?! Here's one screen of previews showing some of the new entries:

In some cases there wasn't really enough of a crossguard to warrant having it as a separate piece, but I wanted to keep to the "four items per design" thing going, so I threw in something else that fit. For instance with the colonial hatchet, I made a double-headed blade instead, and for the sickle I put in a spiked hand guard.

Let me know your thoughts on what I have so far, any changes you'd like to see made, any bladed items NOT currently in HM2.x that you want to make a pitch to include (Scorp, I still have all your suggestions on file), etc. I hope this works like I think it will and that you find it fun to play with ...

With thanks to Brian in the comments of the last thread, I give you a Mind Flayer type of squid head:

It was such a good idea I jumped on drawing it before realizing that this isn't really an "animal" head. So I put it in the Head slot's "Aliens" set. Where it sits as the only current member, and which won't get any more fully developed until I get the rest of the "Standard" slots filled. Which is unfortunate. So, I share it here so you can at least see how cool it is, because come on -- that's cool looking.

Incidentally, this is what it looks like while I'm actually in the source Flash files drawing these things. I have the default body template grayed out in the background so I can make sure everything is where it's supposed to be and that it looks good on the figure. The light gray area is color1, the dark gray area is color2, and obviously the black lines are the lineart. The white and red are uncolorable areas, which you're typically going to only see on things like these all-in-one heads, spots that are going to be the same color 99% of the time but which aren't covered by one of the main three color areas.

I wanted to show you some of the "Tops" items I've been working on for HeroMachine 3:

(Click to embiggen.)

This is the second page of items; the first is all stuff from the Modern Warrior Mini, which you've already seen. Note that I've broken these items down into four types -- vest only, left arm only, right arm only, and complete item. I did this so that you could mix and match "sleeves" with various torso pieces. For instance, maybe you like the first chest piece, but you want to couple it with the big bulky arm pieces in the middle row. With these items broken apart, it's no problem.

I also wanted to include the completely assembled pieces for those who don't want to be bothered with selecting and coloring three different things, but who want just one to do it all. That works fine if you don't want to move the figure's arms, and more advanced users can easily hand-assemble the units they want.

I've been struggling mentally with how to organize all this stuff. Originally I was planning on having "Body" broken up into like seven different slots, including upper & lower arms, upper & lower legs, etc. But the more I got into it, the more it seemed like that would impose a high burden on the user to have to go through and pick all those pieces. I want HM3 to be just as easy to use as 2.x was for kids or lazy people (like me). Then I started thinking that having a bunch of "sleeves" in "Right Upper Arm" was overkill and confusing. If you're trying to dress a character, you're going to be looking where the rest of the shirt is, you know?

It's starting to look like "multiple items" is going to pretty much be a very necessary thing. Having the mini toolbars right there on each item preview makes this less of a pain than you might think, as you can cycle through items pretty easily, quickly getting rid of the ones that don't work.

I hope to have the alpha (it's not really even a beta yet) posted very soon so you can play around and see if this approach works in actual usage or not.