Character Artist 3 Art

Simon Rogers

We have a fixed art budget for Character Artist, and within that budget we have to make certain decisions.

For example, the number of:

basic poses (CA Pro has one, front on, with a second set of legs, but we can have an active and a passive pose)

number of body types, (CA Pro has one for each race, but for example, people might want a bulky and a slim human, and worry less about races)

Number of arm positions

Number of garments and weapons

Amount of "face furniture" (noses, mouths, etc)

Imagine that all these numbers get multiplied together, and you see the possibilities and restrictions.

What are your priorities? A greater variety of body shapes, but fewer accessories, for example?

JimP

Hard to say... I do need accessories for space/futuristic. Hand carried items, things that look good on tables.

Poses of more non-humans would be good to.

Highland_Piper

My priorities is to use Character Artist for paper miniatures in Fantasy and Post Apocalypse games (both RPG and Table Top Wargames). Instructions for adding your own poses.

Arm and leg poses are important. They relay a sense of action. Having a guy stand with the arms and legs looking semi static does not relay that sense of movement. This was the problem I have with the current CA.

As for standard poses I would like to see

View: Front
View: Side
View: Three-quarters
Action: Standing
Action: Kneeling
Action: Laying Prone
Relaxed: Standing

Using the Sheets you could incorporate shoulders and parts of the body to give a sense of action. So an arm that is swinging would layer above the standard body pose to make it look like that side of the body is swinging with full body force instead of a "Toy Soldier" Action chop with a static upper body.

I know the choices are a lot but there is no reason you could not sell a character symbol pack and release some in the annuals.

Legs

View: Front
View: Side
View: Three-quarters
Running
Relaxed
Jumping
Kneeling
Laying down (prone)
Martial Arts

Arms (for each left and right)

View: Front
View: Side
View: Three-quarters
Swinging Weapon
Firing Bow (straight ahead and 45 degree angle)
Firing Gun/Crossbow (straight ahead and 45 degree angle)
Firing Pistol/Hand Crossbow (straight ahead and 45 degree angle)
Shield Arm
Weapon in Guard position
Spell casting
Martial Arts

alp

I would like to see two things in the new character artist.

1) something similar to (but not as high powered) as the Faces program used by the police to develop photofit facial portraits (http://www.facesid.com/products_faces_edu.html). I often just use a face for my character sheet portraits.

2) the new character creation tools in console / PC games like Dragon Age / Oblivion / etc is fantastic. If something like this could be incorporated it would be fantastic.

These are probably unrealistic desires, but I would find this functionality extremely useful and gratifying.

Alp

sdavies2720

My preference would be additional poses, then armor/clothing, then facial variety, then species variety.

I second the call for information about the best way to create our own stuff (maybe it's a good opportunity for annuals).

Steve

Dogtag

Would it be possible to segment limbs at the joints so that we could "break" them and reposition them? Maybe have open and closed hands (claws, talons, or whatever) that we could then exchange at will?

Personally, I'd rather see more accessories and face "furniture" -- or other ways to individualize the final work. I would primarily use the tool to create portraits or miniatures which require greater customization. The actual poses are not as important to me, though something other than the splay-foot, arms-akimbo options would be nice. :-)

Thanks for seeking input! Another reason PF rocks.
~Dogtag

Monsen

My preference is to make facial portraits. So I would like as much detail/variation as possible in that area, with different races, different expressions, lots of possible accessories/tattoos, and so on.

Grimur

Fantastic to see CA coming back.

I think like Monsen, that facial expressions are most important. A way to differentiate characters with lots of options to customize facial expressions. Different poses do not matter in my opinion, if all characters look the same. So variety in eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, hair, facial hair and other facial features that can be customized in position, size, dimensions etc. are what I am looking for. Non-humans should be an add-on.

sdavies2720

I'm making more cards for my games, so faces are now most important for me. I suspect that if we had a full-on and 3/4 view, that would be enough variation of face poses -- that can be flipped to look to the other side, and rotated a little to get slight variations. Variable color and a variety of face structures should be able to get racial variants.

With the available effects, I bet that facial features will blend much better than before.

I'm also really looking forward to this.

Steve

LeeB

I don't currently use CA Pro, as I've always found HeroMachine to be 'good enough'. To make me buy CA3, it would need to offer at least as many poses and builds and much more in the way of accessories\customisations as that tool.

My personal gaming preference is for a mix of mediaeval fantasy and superhero and, if I had to choose, I'd rather have the option of more accessories and customisations than additional poses\races\builds.

I'd second the request for something along the lines of the Skyrim character designer, but combine that level of control over the build\face of a character and then all the accessories and options, I think that might be a bit ambitious - one to save for CA4...?

mosswood17

I would also like a focus on faces. I think they are the most important when conveying a character. All the other stuff is optional for me.

BradClark0

I Agree that facial expressions should be the first priority, followed by body types and shapes, then different poses if possible. I wouldn't worry about races, make that an add-on like suggested before. People can always change the scaling of symbols and colors to get the feel for demi-human races, not to mention that it would only deal with fantasy games. If you concentrate on just humans, and a variety of symbols to represent them in past, present, and future I believe we as users will be able to make due with the tool set to make changes to the human symbols to make our own races, demi-humans, and humanoids. Thank you!

Chaosmeister

Face, Hair and Clothing is the most important for me. Weapons after. I primary do Faces and upper bodies. A "Token" functionallity to create a game token like the Fiery Dragon ones from what you create would be great.

The comment above about hero machine is very valid. I use it for lot`s of stuff so the new CA needs to provide something that HM does not. Are there any news/Previews yet?