Category Archives: Tips & Tricks

Masking is the process of placing one item inside another, so that the masked item is only visible where it overlaps the masking item. Masking causes a lot of confusion, so let's look at a few examples at what this subtle and powerful tool can do.

The basic process works like this:

1. Load the first item, the one you want to be 100% visible. For instance, you might add a nice button-down shirt.
   
   
2. Load the second item, the one you want to be masked into the first one such that only the parts of it that overlap are visible. For instance, you might add a lightning bolt from Insignia-Standard. Position, scale, rotate, and otherwise place the second item where you want it to appear on the first one.
   
3. Click on the second item (in our example, the lightning bolt insignia) to make it the current, active item.
4. Under the Transform tab, click the Mask button. Your cursor turns into a little mask icon because super-heroes. I blame Robin -- be glad it's not scaled hot-pants.
   
5. Click on the original item (in our example, the shirt). You're telling the program "Hey, I want to place the active item into this other item that I'm clicking on."
   

Voila! You have masked one item onto another one. Like this:

Note that once it's masked, you can drag, rotate, or otherwise transform the masked item (the lightning bolt) around and it stays masked, only being visible where it overlaps the masking item (the shirt):

Using this same basic approach -- load the base item, load the second item, click mask, click the base item -- you can place items in your character's hands, apply a flag from Backgrounds to a banner or shirt, make a belt fit a non-Standard body, and much, much more. It opens up a staggering array of possibilities to take your portrait from a paper doll to a true illustration.

Today's Quick Tip is; Hand Alignment. I am including a blank sheet if anyone wants to share their tips with everyone. Keep the size the same, no bigger then 6"x8" or 600x800 pixels. E-mail them to me at: thehammerknight@yahoo.com

I posted this to the forums way back when, and I was thinking a quick tip here and there would be good to post here on the blog. If everyone likes the idea, I will post tips here and there from here on. There are a lot of tips in the forums, but I know that there are people that do not visit the forums that do visit the blog.

Remember to size the head to the body. Paying attention to these little details can make a big difference in the way your character looks. This shows the heads at x=100 y=100 and the bodies at x=100 y=100. Adjustments to the head or the body is needed to make the character look right.

(Many thanks to Forum Moderator and all-around great guy Hammerknight for the following tip! -- Jeff)

Hi all,

I'm not the best with the computer, so when I find something that makes things easier on me I like to share. The other day I was looking for a cropping tool to use on my lap top, so I went to Yahoo search and entered "cropping tool". What I found was great. There was a how-to article about the free Windows 7 Snipping Tool. I don't care much for Windows 7 but the Snipping Tool is great. I didn't even know that it was already on my computer. I went to search for it in the program search bar and it came right up. I hit the button and cropped my picture and saved it in less time then it takes me to use print screen. I tried it out with HM3 and it worked. It is one of the easiest things to use on the computer. You have a few choices to save in. No more, print screen, paste in Paint, crop it, copy it, paste again, and then save it.

Thanks,
Hammerknight