Forum Replies Created
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@headlessgeneral said:
@JR19759 said:
@headlessgeneral said:
And JR if you ever decide to give out Certificates of Guinness, I’ll take on of those
You have to do something extra awesome to get one, I don’t just give them away you know
So far I think only Jeimuzu, Herr D and Rob have got one. I might have to actually make it at some point.And theirs were well deserved. But I was actually asking for a Certificate of GUINNESS
Sorry RobM for the thread hijack
Nah, ya have ta do sometin’ extra special ta get one a dem laddie. (Even in phonetics my Irish accent sucks).
@headlessgeneral said:
And JR if you ever decide to give out Certificates of Guinness, I’ll take on of those
You have to do something extra awesome to get one, I don’t just give them away you know
So far I think only Jeimuzu, Herr D and Rob have got one. I might have to actually make it at some point.Anyway, taking a break from the current series, because of a special occasion. I do believe I’ve just hit 2000 posts. And when I reached 1000 posts I did a run down of my top 10 favourite creations that I’d made on heromachine up to that point, so I thought I’d do the same again. So lets take a look at my favourites in the last 1000 posts and thank you to everyone who has commented on this thread, whether it be complement or critique, I appreciate every comment.
Anyway.
10. Alyria
This one is the earliest on this list, from my Manokindd series. It was the first time I’d tried multiple colour blending on one item and I was inspired by AlexanderOfLimbo’s Mummy character, especially the colour fade that he made on the skin, going from white to normal skin tone, the first time I’d ever seen that effect, so I took it and ran with it. Plus, using those eye tattoos was fun.9. Grawrp
Oh. My. God. This took AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGES to shade, I think that it was about 4-5 hours (at a very conservative estimate) altogether over 3 days. I loved doing the entire Galactic Guard team, but this one just pips Mira Abina as the best of the bunch, because basically everyone said so. But I’m so not doing that much shading ever again.8. Butterfly Dress
I’m going to go on record and say that the Fashion Contest I hosted on the blog for CDC41 has to be my favourite contest we’ve ever had on the blog, the quality of entries was just stellar, it was so hard to choose a final 5 (which is why it was the only time I’ve done an honourable mentions section afterwards) and this was the result of seeing all of those entries. Inspiration overload. I have to give a big shout out to Trekkie though, because I completely ripped off the shading style from their entry. I never realised how much you do on your works until I tried to copy your style, how do you do it?7. Colours Fade
I feel that this piece is probably the most under-rated of my works, in terms of how much attention it got (two comments I think, and one of them mostly focused on the lyrics I posted along with the picture) compared to how proud I am of it. Maybe it’s just the fact that I made it and I know what inspired it, but this picture just bleeds emotion to me. The character is blind in case anyone was wondering, and if you notice the blood stained bandages behind her back, presumably in her hand, as well as the bloody tear from her left eye, you can start to form a picture about what happened, but I’ll leave that up to you. Either way, I have to include this one, because whilst it may not be my best, this is my FAVOURITES list and this should actually be higher up if I was just basing it solely on emotional pride, but there are others Im more proud of technically (if that makes any sense). This list was so hard to decide.6. Rainbow Wings/ Guardian
Now lets talk about one that got a lot of attention (and so far my only HOF nomination, although it didn’t get in). I think that at least 4 people are going to steal these wings at some point and I will admit, that is a bloody brilliant effect, even if I do say so myself. And it’s not that difficult to do.5. Little Black Dress (+Little Black Dress 2 by Jeimuzu)
This one had to be on here didn’t it. So far to date, my only “collaboration” with another ‘machiner and boy did it work well. I’ve talked at length at least twice about how much I love Jei’s style, so I won’t go into it again (go and search Character Of The Week on the Blog if you’re interested), but I will talk about my half. I totally stole ideas from Harlekin for the dress, he managed to do silk/ velvet perfectly, so (as with Trekkie earlier) I just studied every little detail. And then we have the face and pose, they turned out perfectly from my perspective, giving off just the right shy aura with that touch of mystery. This is a good ‘un.4. Kira Saiban
Speaking of good ‘un’s, ever had a creation that you just randomly started with no plan at all, that then ended up being one that blows peoples minds. Well I’d say that sums this one up. Also Atomic Punk wrote a truly brilliant duologue companion story on his Tell My Story thread (what ever happened to that AP, did you run out of submissions? I loved reading the stories you came up with). Just everything about this one turned out right, the expression, the tattoos, the pose, the costume. Pretty proud of this one.3. Higher
Now this one has a backstory. This piece was very cathartic for me. I was at the time going through one of the worst periods, if not the worst period of my life. My cat had just died, then a week later my Grandad had a stroke and I was going through a pretty bad bout of depression. I can’t even look at the page in my gallery that this piece is on because of the feelings the other works on that page bring back. Fortunately the song that inspired this piece helped me through it and I felt I had to turn the feelings the song gave me into a piece of Heromachine art. I don’t know if I captured them perfectly, but it really helped, so it has to go on this list.2. Meditation
Up until recently, this was my favourite piece I’d ever done and I still feel it’s probably the best work I’ve ever done, especially the red girl. Everything I did here is the best I’ve ever done. It’s all very minimal in terms of the character design, but it contrasts well with the backgrounds. Plus it’s another music inspired one, this time the English progressive rock band Anathema, who do very relaxing, chilled out stuff, so that’s what I was going for and I think I succeeded, and most of the comments I got would suggest others agree.1. Angel Wings
If you’ve been on the blog recently, you probably knew this was coming, but I will say it again, this is my favourite thing I’ve ever done on Heromachine. I had this idea in my head for months, but I could never get it to work, because none of the wings we had in Heromachine at the time worked for what I wanted. But then comes along MadJack with these wings and it all just clicks. New favourite item ever. I couldn’t really explain why I love this one so much, especially not in the way I’ve explained the last two. I don’t know what it is about it, everything just feels right. I seem to have a thing for doing tattoos, and this is probably the best example of that (I managed to sneak those wings in twice there), plus the shirt just rocks. By the way, did I mention that I love those wings.Anyway, that’s my list, now over to you guys. What’s your favourite of my creations and why?
Here’s to the next thousand.Welcome to the forums. Please make sure to read the forum rules if you haven’t done so already.
As for tips and critiques. Starting with the first pic, you could put a circle from the Insignias behind his head to make it look like there’s a back to the hood, like you did on the other pic. Also don’t forget ears, unless the characters hair is covering them. Also try masking the bow to his hands. Jeff did a tutorial on masking which you can find here: http://www.heromachine.com/2014/01/08/how-to-use-the-mask-feature-in-heromachine3/ or you can get there by going on to the transform tab on any object and on the left hand side there should be a small button with a mask on and some blue writing underneath saying “How to mask”, if you click that it’ll take you to the tutorial.
As for the second pic, well firstly his head looks too big and it’s pushing the hood upwards so now the bulge where the hood should be meeting the shoulders is a long way above it. You could also try using different items for the cape, so you don’t have that odd overlap where the cape should be disappearing behind his shoulder but instead ends up in front of his arm. Just play around with rotation and positioning there. Finally, the bow. I did a tutorial on how to do a drawn bow string for another ‘machiner, so hopefully you’ll find this useful.
1. Start off by getting the basic pose you want, for the purposes of this tutorial I’ve just gone for a basic sideways draw (obviously bare minimum, because it’s only a tutorial, but this technique should work for more complex positions).
2. Next thing you are going to need to do is get rid of the original bow string. To do this start off by masking another arm to an insignia over where the bow string crosses the first arm. That way you don’t have to worry about weird layering.
3. Now we get rid of the string properly. Use a large scale insignia to cover over the majority of the string (which is why we layered/ masked another arm on top of the bow string originally), then use circles to do the bit where the string meets the bow. You’ll have to size differently to fit the different bows here. After you’ve finished match the insignia colour to your background colour (in this case white).
4. Now we are ready to start making the new bow string. Get another square/ rectangle insignia and line it up with where the bow string originally attached to the bow and then angle it so it makes a straight line to the pulling hand (this will take a bit of trial and error).
5. Make the insignia 1 pixel thin and then lengthen to preference (here I used 2 rectangles at 1-200 which fitted perfectly) and layer the rectangle under the pulling hand.
6. Finally, do the same for the upper part of the string, only with the insignia layered above the hand and placed so it ends where the grip of the hand is.
Anyway, nice start and I look forward to seeing more of your work.Thanks AoC & HK.
This next one is a repost, but I thought it would make more sense to post it again at this point because of the story continuation.
Anyway.When the Gremlins first invaded EtherWorld, the Elven King Kastarobos formed a grand alliance of the three races to combat this threat. From his capital (and the largest city in EtherWorld) Castaryl, he coordinated the war, forcing back the invasion on many fronts and utilising the strengths of each of the three races to their fullest. But he was betrayed. One of his princes gave the Gremlins vital information about the defences of the city. The city was destroyed and the King and all of his other potential successors were slaughtered. All but one.
Talin Nightcaster was an Elven Guard in Castaryl, powerful in shadow magic, concealment and teleportation, she often worked as the bodyguard to the princes and princesses of the Elves, hiding amongst the shadows and watching over them. She was close to Princess June Spellsong, one of the favourites to succeed Kastarobos. She managed to survive the fall of Castaryl and was one of those who helped search for survivors, being the first to reach the royal court and discover the horror within. However, she noticed one thing that many others did not. Her friend was not amongst the dead. However, without leadership, the Elves were in disarray and she could not put together a party to search for the missing Princess. Most of the Elves were more worried that, without their King to hold the alliances together, the war would start to go against them. And they were right. The Seraphim began to withdraw back to their clouds, whilst the remaining Earthen and Elven warriors struggled to hold back the tide. Knowing that only the Elven Ruler could reforge these alliances, Talin took it upon herself to find June and, with the blessing of one of the loyal Ladies of the Seraphim, as well as one of her most trusted Seraphim guards, she set out in search of the one who could unite the three races again.Thanks guys.
Next up.
Of the 3 races, the ones least affected by the war are the Seraphim, due to their preference to living in cities in the clouds, which only they can reach without the use of magic. Because of this, and due to their naturally haughty and proud natures, there is often a fair amount of resentment towards them, especially from the Earthen tribe, who bore the brunt of the fighting. However, the Seraphim did see war come to their domain many times, especially during the middle years of the war, before the alliance with the Elves fell down and the cloud walkers withdrew to their realm of storms and wind. However, there are those amongst the ruling families of the Seraphim who would still join the battle.
Vail Clouddancer is a distinguished member of the Royal Guard of Cloud City, serving as one of the most trusted protectors and confidants of Lady Alininal. When the elf, Talin Nightcaster ventured to the Seraphim realm in search of aid in her quest, the Lady of Cloud City answered her call and bade Vail journey with her, in search of the one to unite the 3 races against their foe.@Trekkie said:
Thanks Di! I was pretty pleased with the colours on Juliana in the end, and I’m glad you think the androgyny worked out well. And anyway, I can’t let you have a monopoly on queer characters on here!
I think you’ll find Di isn’t the only one to have an LGBT team
(although his is far better than mine). I have to concur with his judgement on Luna though. Keep ’em comin’.
