Importing custom pictures is already in this, you can simply choose your portrait and they are adding more and more everytimes a new race comes in and they get pictures. that said, custom pictures is already there and has been since 2018s beginning. as i have use it often and often for my own characters including my new pink loxodon that i drew !
but, i would agree on a new portrait maker, it would be a very good idea... but considering this little tidbit of information... - other websites does this and allow you to export it to a JPEG - this site allows you to import your own picture. - other sites have bare minimum because they end up never making more which is a required thing for any portrait making site. - even heroforge do not add much to their site. - most portrait maker do not use fantasy high magic making portraits. - it is much harder then you think maintaining such a tool. - a 1,000 possibilities or even 10,000 is nothing on a site used by millions.
considering all of this.... you have to wonder why they'd lose precious time on that one. i'd love to have this feature, but considering i tryed that myself by doing my own portrait making software and the time required to do and draw each possible things... it is a lot of time going down the road for a thing that may not be that much of a deal to begin with. so in the end, i will not be putting my hopes to high on this one. for now i'm fully happy with just importing my own pictures. and no i dont always draw my characters... i often just go on the net and pic other pictures and import them in.
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I can't speak for anyone else, but the portrait maker isn't about putting it on the character sheet. It's about having a visual representation of a character that is both closer to my idea of the character and doesn't rip anyone off. I like the idea of custom art, but I can't afford to pay someone $80 per character to have something for private use. Worse yet if it's for an NPC. Yes, there are systems like Hero Machine 3, but they're not really suited for D&D, and is ultimately limited to a (relatively) tiny set of permutations to create distinct characters. Not to mention that the way its designed limits poses if you want them to be dressed. That being said, HM3 is free, so I'm not complaining. I'm just saying that it doesn't fit my needs.
As far as ensuring profitability, I can almost guarantee that I'm in a minority here, but I'm personally willing to spend a good amount of money to have software that'll allow me to create a lot of characters, especially as a DM. $80 per character is a lot, but $100 for a fully robust toolset is reasonable. If it's a thing that can have the pieces adjust to each other, such as height, weight, muscle tone, poses, etc., especially if it comes with a lot of pieces, I'm willing to drop a lot more. I'm sure tiers of pricing for different people is reasonable.
Hero Forge doesn't add the function to their site because it's not a part of their business model. They're not in the business of portraits, and it wouldn't add to their business to do so. The fact that most people don't do high fantasy is entirely the point. People want the tool that's just not being made, and a D&D tool with the ability to create D&D characters would be all the better. I doubt that anyone expects that the costs of making and maintaining such a character art creator would not be difficult. That's why people are suggesting (knowing that it's unlikely to happen) Curse do it, because they have better resources than you or I do. Do they have enough? At least not at the moment, but I have neither the expertise nor the capital to make it happen, so they're a more likely candidate to at least have it at the bottom of the list of things they'd like to do if they can.
Finally, the only way that you ensure that you'll never get a yes is to never ask. Obviously the odds are minuscule. It's probably something like 0.00003234%, but it's 0% if you don't bring it up at all. As long as people are being reasonable when they suggest it, then there's no harm in it. It's not hurting anyone at the moment, and it's for sure not a thing that people feel like should be a core aspect of the product. Campaign management, encounter builders and trackers, and virtual tabletops ar much more important functions of the hobby. Character art is close to the bottom, and I have no doubt that most reasonable people are aware that no matter how cool it would be to have virtual tabletops it's unlikely to happen, so a character art generator is a genie wish.
No the problem with hero machine and hero forge isnt cost or ressources as you mention... It is about the fact that people are never satisfied with what they have. Even if you create a software with 100,000 possibilities... You will ask more !
Thats the problem.
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While that is the case in a lot of things, the fact is that they have a point. The tools that exist are sub-par. Even if you create a program with 100,000 possibilities, that’s frankly not enough. There are 34 D&D races, of which each set needs about 15 different parts, each with an absolute minimum of 20 options per part (40-50 is more like it). Granted, that’s 10k different pieces, which would not be an easy endeavor, but it’ll make 756,725,015,925,067,015,914,480,063,496,879,898,365,893,834,000 different combinations (if I understand how the math works, or 443,643,407,165,376 if I’m wrong). That’s not including items like clothing, armor, weapons, tools, accessories, pets/companions, etc. All that doesn’t include things like colors or adjustments to position, either.
Is 10k a reasonable number of pieces of body parts (plus items) for them to do? Probably not. Would it be a great tool to have? Absolutely. Is it still fine for them to wish for that? 100%. Is all that math why I say that it would be a nearly invaluable tool, especially for DMs who want to create a more immersive experience for their players? You bet your sweet bippy it is.
Yet thats not gonna be enough and people will want more options. They can wish it all they want... There is a reason why nobody has done it. It is a very very extensive project that would requires days and days of work. What you are asking curse is to stop everything and work only on that for about 3 years.
One has to stop thinking "its never been done before" and start thinking "why its never been done yet tryed so often"
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Months and months of work to just get the art done, much less the programming. That doesn’t mean that people are demanding this. It’s a suggestion. It would be great to have, but there are no calls for boycotting it. If you want an example of that, go look at all the people demanding content unlocked if they bought the book or the content on another platform. That’s not happening here. This is clearly a Santa wish list kind of thing, but no one expects it.
Yes, people are going to ask for more. People are always going to want more. That’s how you get improvements. This site has operated that way since the beginning. It’s probably why people feel comfortable with Curse taking on that mantle, because they’ve proven themselves time and again. The very concept of D&D Beyond itself is a demand for something more.
As far as why it hasn’t been effectively attempted (I’m assuming that’s your gist) by anyone, the answer is the concept of an untapped market. In this case, there’s not a lot of data to support whether investing in it is worthwhile. There is clearly demand, but the question is if there is enough demand to justify supplying it. When Gary Gygax developed D&D, no one thought there was a demand for it, but he took the risk that eventually overshadowed the wargaming market that he rose from. The fantasy genre was also a risk at the time. These were risks for an untapped market. Is a character art generator worth the risk? I don’t know. Does it seem odd that there are an ubundance of RPG map programs, which are realistically only useful for DMs, and character art creators are nigh to be seen?
My last question to you is this: Why do you care so much? This literally doesn’t actually affect your life. Curse will make its own decisions based on the needs of their company and of the platform. If they feel like character art matters more, they’ll turn attention to it. They could even decide to hire a new team, specifically to avoid delay rolling out other features. Or they could just see the suggestions here and ignore it entirely. It’s their job as a business to listen to their customers and prioritize their upcoming additions and improvements. Let them do their job, and leave everyone else to have their dreams. It’s not like Curse is paying you to be a pompous jerk.
Not gonna say more to this gygax thing then... He wasnt ******* alone and the versions that worked the most werent his versions.
As for the features... Adam said hed like to have 3d renderisation of a character. So its definitely coming at some year or another. 3D makes it much easier to do. But 2d i wouldnt go into cause it would take far more time. Ask yourself this... Why isnt heroforge doing more of their stuff considering it is literally their thing. Yet they add only when people give them more to do.
Stop making the assumption that nobody is trying to do it cause there is literally 3 companies that have been doing it for 5 years.
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Untapped market. Not best in market. Untapped. Untapped markets can come from anywhere. Before Star Wars, very few sci-fi movies were taken seriously, and were mostly considered children's affairs. George Lucas changed that. Is Star Wars particularly good? Not really, or at least not as good as the praise it gets, but it struck a chord with a market that I don't think anyone had a true understanding that existed. It's now one of the three core sci-fi franchises by which everything else is compared against, and a lot of the times built on.
When did I ever say that there aren't other companies trying to do it? When did I say that no one is trying to do it? Please go back and point out where I specifically said that. I think I pointed out Heromachine 3, and I replied to someone who had developed a Windows app that does it (I'm an macOS user, so I can't check it out, unfortunately).
Also, my point of map making vs character art creation is entirely the point. According to you, there have been precisely 3 companies that have tried to do it over a 5 year span. There are dozens of map makers of all types of varieties. I don't know if it's a reasonable investment, because traditionally DMs have been expected to pay a lot of money out of pocket, while players try to get away with spending as little as possible. Just because there's an untapped market doesn't mean that the market is big enough to support the service. My point is that people would like it, and it's not currently being serviced in a meaningful way.
If Adam Bradford said he wants to do it, why are you being a dick about it? Isn't your whole argument that it would take away from Curse resources to do? That should be an invitation for you to just leave it alone. People have voiced their suggestions and Curse wants to do it. What is your contribution to the conversation? What are you adding? So far the end game of everything you've had to say is that you're an angry little badger that hates that people want things. Please just chill and leave it alone.
Finally, Hero Forge is in the business of custom miniatures, not character art. Saying that's their business is like saying that Harley Davidson is in the business of making cars because the make motorcycles. That's not even including that Hero Forge is still a relatively small operation. They're growing, which I'm happy about, but they have other priorities. That's not to say that they couldn't make some adjustments to make it happen. I'm not going to say that it would be easy, but if they were to add a coloring app into their system for the virtual renditions only, that would do a lot. Yes, it would help their current customers, because it would allow them to play with the models in color to help them make their selections, but that doesn't mean they have the resources to put out a product like that.
Until something comes along, whether its Hero Forge, Curse, or some other company, that makes something that people are looking for, then they'll pine for it, and that's fine. Dreaming big is how we've gotten where we are. We keep having better, faster airplanes because we keep asking for it. Hell, our species has been pining for flight since pre-history. We decided that flying wasn't enough, too, so we went into outer space, then on the moon, and now we're working our way towards Mars. Throughout all of this, wishing and dreaming hasn't been bad. It's been what drives us as a species, so let people have it.
Scifi not being great before star wars... You lost credibility there...
Doctor who
Star trek
Lost in space
Space 1999
I could go on and on about scifi being a thing in the 60 because of the nasa and lunar stuff. I think you misstaken resurgences of genre because you either didnt know those series existed or because you are too young. After all those series were before my time. But i can guarantee you... Scifi exists and was something way before star wars appeared. Why do you think trekkies take it so seriously with star wars. Because they have enough of being told star wars started the genre while it started about 13 years later then most other shows.
Also i could argue that lucas didnt do shit and in fact was told it was shit by all 4 producers they showed it to. Its his wife who edited the whole thing in order to save her husband movie which was way under at that point.
Gene roddenberry was pretty hard to ignore for any scifi goers in the 60ies 70ies and the 80ies.
The fact is... It is not untapped as you claim.... Numerous companies did it and many companies have great stuff for fantasy characters. You just dont like them. Thats all.
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"Before Star Wars, very few sci-fi movies were taken seriously, and were mostly considered children's affairs." Please do me a favor and read what I'm writing, or don't bother to reply at all.
Also, I'm 37-years-old. Old enough that my parents took me to go see Return of the Jedi when I was two years old (of which is by far my earliest memory). It's unlikely that you are older than me, or if you are it's not by that much. I'm not going through my nerd resume in full, but I've been at it a long time. I watched Doctor Who with my dad on PBS duing the 80s and 90s, with Sam Baker being my first Doctor. To whit, Doctor Who is absolutely a prime example of what I'm talking about, because it literally started out as a children's show, and up until the resurgance it was pretty campy. As was Lost in Space, but it didn't have the decency of at least being good.
The companies that have tried to do character art creators not being good enough is literally the entire point that I've been making. I don't accept a bad product just because it's the only thing that's available. Neither should you. No one should. There are times where we must until someone does make a quality product, and there are times when we don't have to. I tried a number of character sheet apps, programs, and websites before I gave up and went back to the traditional character sheet. Or at least until D&D Beyond came out. I knew it was exactly what I was looking for right away, which is why I got it, and why I bought the Legendary Bundle the day it came out (and why I continue to buy every piece of content that gets released). Conversely, I gave Roll20 a shot for a virtual tabletop, and it pissed me off, so I gave up, and Fantasy Grounds was Windows only (well, it was macOS supported, but only through Wine, and that pisses me off more). I never gave up looking for a quality virtual tabletop, and I found one in Encounter+. It doesn't have native online support, so I have to do some workarounds for when I stream, but it's an amazing tool to have at a table if you can't afford maps and minis.
Now, I hope you're done having your little emper tantrum. Run off little one.
"Before Star Wars, very few sci-fi movies were taken seriously, and were mostly considered children's affairs." Please do me a favor and read what I'm writing, or don't bother to reply at all.
and this is where we got a beef, nope, these shows i told you about, weren't taken lightly, and were taken very seriously. some of those shows were actually pretty good. but believe what you want. i'm just saying you are wrong thinking that because you think the world "thought" that way or because your environment were taking them lightly that the whole world did. for our parents these shows weren't kids shows, they were the top of the line.
that said i've gone so far off the point, that this is pointless and thus i'll stop there. as for you, i suggest you stop being so close minded into your own opinions that you should really consider why the whooping 5 companies and the whooping 30 different apps that do portrait making since the last 10 years have all stop doing it instead of thinking, nobody ever tampered with them. maybe gain a bit of insight on why these things do not work to begin with. you could be surprised as to why that is.
for me, yes i want that feature and by what adam said, he wants it too... but let's be real... it wont happen anytime soon.
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Hi, I used heroforge to make the model of my character and then I made the color on photoshop. It's very cool and has a nice looking. Here's the result ! ( Btw I'm an halfling bard if you were asking):
Absolute BUMP for this. An official DNDBeyond full character and profile design program would be amazing and would also add a ton to campaigns. Pretty, pretty please with a plump Tiefling on top, DNDBeyond?
I am 1000000% behind that, but it'd also be nice to have the ability for GMs to make a group portrait if the players at their table/session. Something as simple as the party standing side-by-side or a something a but more complex like the party sitting in a tavern drinking and swapping stories.
I think the problem with hoping for/expecting something like this is that it's a whole other toolkit. Like, there are companies who do this kind of thing as their entire viable business model as apps and such, it's a dedicated team kind of thing. There's also the fact that the satisfaction return is likely to be very low as a portrait tool generally only delivers one type of art style (and adding more leads to exponential growth of the project complexity). Say they make tool that does stuff in the style of stand 5e art; the people who like anime style, comic book style, photorealistic style and grim fantasy style will all be disappointed with the tool. It's why artist commissions are so important in the community; you can find someone with the style they like and then commission a portrait in that style.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love this feature, but I think it's vital to temper expectations, both of the scope of DDB and what's possible. I use heroforge to make portraits and minis, but not everyone likes that style, and people generally have a strong mental image of what their character looks like. That's a hard expectation to meet.
The problem with your statement is that ddb already does this with character portrait. Taking and designing portrait from the book and their own designs as well.
Thus a character portrait like adam said. Its definitely on the horizon as they definitely wanna do it. But they wont as long as people do not vote for it. Far more then that... Adam said it might even be 3D where you can actually see every side of the character and not just a portrait. Which means 3D will make it easier to design postures choices.
So yeah... Its definitely not a far fetched dream.
No the only problem with companies like hero forge is that they dont develop enough for it. Exemple... Hero forge cannot design every races. And thats the problem with it. Thats the problem with all companies. They lack dedication to it. They all think you have 1000 possibility and thats enough. But to fantasy games you need more builds. Not more clothes. Clothing is easy to do as it fit everything.
When it comes to designing characters. Hero machine is much better choice as they ask you the ty of body and then made clothing that fits each types. And the head is a different part as well so are the hands and all. So their modularity gives them a much more broad range for everyone.
Too bad hero machine 3 works badly otherwise it would be the best software around. So for now hero machine is the best !!!
I think ddb should contact the hero machine guys and do like they did with fantasy name generator and use thei character portrait software. It would be awesome.
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The current portraits aren't anything similar to a portrait creator, unless I'm misunderstanding what people are describing. Wouldn't be something where you specify features such as ears, nose, hair, etc to construct an image of your character? Like a character creator engine in a video game. I assumed that if they did make such a tool, it'd be 3D as that seems like the best module for RoI
I never said it was a far fetched dream, in fact I've leant my voice to the system to show I'd like the feature. I just wanted to raise the fact that people should temper their expectations based on how much work such a feature can be (there are a lot of vocal individuals loudly lamenting how such-and-such a feature isn't here yet and should be) and also the subjective nature of art styles.
Saying the only problem with companies is "lack of dedication" is the same excuse that gives us crunch in the tech industry. It's not dedication that gets projects through; it's funding and resources and time. If you look at heroforge, I think they have every race basically covered except maybe some of the monstrous ones. But here's the important thing; I wasn't lauding Heroforge as the perfect choice/solution/alternative. I was simply holding it up as a) a style that some people like, some people don't and b) a tool I use for custom portraits as an interim until DDB is able to bring in some kind of feature. So you seem to have misunderstood me and gone off on a tangent.
Also clothing isn't easy as it doesn't 'fit everything', especially when you have model scaling and accessories. Cliping is a serious design constraint.
I agree that reaching out to heromachine would be a smart move, assuming that they are able to a) embed the feature like they did with the name generator and b) have some kind of control over options displayed so they can curate an experience that meshes with DDB.
As if ddb didnt have a design department team... Please seriously... Stop talking as if you knew ddb as if you were working there.
Drawing portraits is actually harder then creating a portrait designer. So if they do are designing their own portraits, which they do, then they already have everything to do the thing. And to boot... Adam already said as much !
Right now you are trying to defend a point who do not have a need to.
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We really need something like this, since I don't think as many people as one might think are able to draw that well, myself included.
Importing custom pictures is already in this, you can simply choose your portrait and they are adding more and more everytimes a new race comes in and they get pictures. that said, custom pictures is already there and has been since 2018s beginning. as i have use it often and often for my own characters including my new pink loxodon that i drew !
but, i would agree on a new portrait maker, it would be a very good idea... but considering this little tidbit of information...
- other websites does this and allow you to export it to a JPEG
- this site allows you to import your own picture.
- other sites have bare minimum because they end up never making more which is a required thing for any portrait making site.
- even heroforge do not add much to their site.
- most portrait maker do not use fantasy high magic making portraits.
- it is much harder then you think maintaining such a tool.
- a 1,000 possibilities or even 10,000 is nothing on a site used by millions.
considering all of this.... you have to wonder why they'd lose precious time on that one.
i'd love to have this feature, but considering i tryed that myself by doing my own portrait making software and the time required to do and draw each possible things... it is a lot of time going down the road for a thing that may not be that much of a deal to begin with. so in the end, i will not be putting my hopes to high on this one. for now i'm fully happy with just importing my own pictures. and no i dont always draw my characters... i often just go on the net and pic other pictures and import them in.
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I can't speak for anyone else, but the portrait maker isn't about putting it on the character sheet. It's about having a visual representation of a character that is both closer to my idea of the character and doesn't rip anyone off. I like the idea of custom art, but I can't afford to pay someone $80 per character to have something for private use. Worse yet if it's for an NPC. Yes, there are systems like Hero Machine 3, but they're not really suited for D&D, and is ultimately limited to a (relatively) tiny set of permutations to create distinct characters. Not to mention that the way its designed limits poses if you want them to be dressed. That being said, HM3 is free, so I'm not complaining. I'm just saying that it doesn't fit my needs.
As far as ensuring profitability, I can almost guarantee that I'm in a minority here, but I'm personally willing to spend a good amount of money to have software that'll allow me to create a lot of characters, especially as a DM. $80 per character is a lot, but $100 for a fully robust toolset is reasonable. If it's a thing that can have the pieces adjust to each other, such as height, weight, muscle tone, poses, etc., especially if it comes with a lot of pieces, I'm willing to drop a lot more. I'm sure tiers of pricing for different people is reasonable.
Hero Forge doesn't add the function to their site because it's not a part of their business model. They're not in the business of portraits, and it wouldn't add to their business to do so. The fact that most people don't do high fantasy is entirely the point. People want the tool that's just not being made, and a D&D tool with the ability to create D&D characters would be all the better. I doubt that anyone expects that the costs of making and maintaining such a character art creator would not be difficult. That's why people are suggesting (knowing that it's unlikely to happen) Curse do it, because they have better resources than you or I do. Do they have enough? At least not at the moment, but I have neither the expertise nor the capital to make it happen, so they're a more likely candidate to at least have it at the bottom of the list of things they'd like to do if they can.
Finally, the only way that you ensure that you'll never get a yes is to never ask. Obviously the odds are minuscule. It's probably something like 0.00003234%, but it's 0% if you don't bring it up at all. As long as people are being reasonable when they suggest it, then there's no harm in it. It's not hurting anyone at the moment, and it's for sure not a thing that people feel like should be a core aspect of the product. Campaign management, encounter builders and trackers, and virtual tabletops ar much more important functions of the hobby. Character art is close to the bottom, and I have no doubt that most reasonable people are aware that no matter how cool it would be to have virtual tabletops it's unlikely to happen, so a character art generator is a genie wish.
No the problem with hero machine and hero forge isnt cost or ressources as you mention... It is about the fact that people are never satisfied with what they have. Even if you create a software with 100,000 possibilities... You will ask more !
Thats the problem.
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While that is the case in a lot of things, the fact is that they have a point. The tools that exist are sub-par. Even if you create a program with 100,000 possibilities, that’s frankly not enough. There are 34 D&D races, of which each set needs about 15 different parts, each with an absolute minimum of 20 options per part (40-50 is more like it). Granted, that’s 10k different pieces, which would not be an easy endeavor, but it’ll make 756,725,015,925,067,015,914,480,063,496,879,898,365,893,834,000 different combinations (if I understand how the math works, or 443,643,407,165,376 if I’m wrong). That’s not including items like clothing, armor, weapons, tools, accessories, pets/companions, etc. All that doesn’t include things like colors or adjustments to position, either.
Is 10k a reasonable number of pieces of body parts (plus items) for them to do? Probably not. Would it be a great tool to have? Absolutely. Is it still fine for them to wish for that? 100%. Is all that math why I say that it would be a nearly invaluable tool, especially for DMs who want to create a more immersive experience for their players? You bet your sweet bippy it is.
Yet thats not gonna be enough and people will want more options. They can wish it all they want... There is a reason why nobody has done it. It is a very very extensive project that would requires days and days of work. What you are asking curse is to stop everything and work only on that for about 3 years.
One has to stop thinking "its never been done before" and start thinking "why its never been done yet tryed so often"
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Months and months of work to just get the art done, much less the programming. That doesn’t mean that people are demanding this. It’s a suggestion. It would be great to have, but there are no calls for boycotting it. If you want an example of that, go look at all the people demanding content unlocked if they bought the book or the content on another platform. That’s not happening here. This is clearly a Santa wish list kind of thing, but no one expects it.
Yes, people are going to ask for more. People are always going to want more. That’s how you get improvements. This site has operated that way since the beginning. It’s probably why people feel comfortable with Curse taking on that mantle, because they’ve proven themselves time and again. The very concept of D&D Beyond itself is a demand for something more.
As far as why it hasn’t been effectively attempted (I’m assuming that’s your gist) by anyone, the answer is the concept of an untapped market. In this case, there’s not a lot of data to support whether investing in it is worthwhile. There is clearly demand, but the question is if there is enough demand to justify supplying it. When Gary Gygax developed D&D, no one thought there was a demand for it, but he took the risk that eventually overshadowed the wargaming market that he rose from. The fantasy genre was also a risk at the time. These were risks for an untapped market. Is a character art generator worth the risk? I don’t know. Does it seem odd that there are an ubundance of RPG map programs, which are realistically only useful for DMs, and character art creators are nigh to be seen?
My last question to you is this: Why do you care so much? This literally doesn’t actually affect your life. Curse will make its own decisions based on the needs of their company and of the platform. If they feel like character art matters more, they’ll turn attention to it. They could even decide to hire a new team, specifically to avoid delay rolling out other features. Or they could just see the suggestions here and ignore it entirely. It’s their job as a business to listen to their customers and prioritize their upcoming additions and improvements. Let them do their job, and leave everyone else to have their dreams. It’s not like Curse is paying you to be a pompous jerk.
Not gonna say more to this gygax thing then... He wasnt ******* alone and the versions that worked the most werent his versions.
As for the features... Adam said hed like to have 3d renderisation of a character. So its definitely coming at some year or another. 3D makes it much easier to do. But 2d i wouldnt go into cause it would take far more time. Ask yourself this... Why isnt heroforge doing more of their stuff considering it is literally their thing. Yet they add only when people give them more to do.
Stop making the assumption that nobody is trying to do it cause there is literally 3 companies that have been doing it for 5 years.
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Untapped market. Not best in market. Untapped. Untapped markets can come from anywhere. Before Star Wars, very few sci-fi movies were taken seriously, and were mostly considered children's affairs. George Lucas changed that. Is Star Wars particularly good? Not really, or at least not as good as the praise it gets, but it struck a chord with a market that I don't think anyone had a true understanding that existed. It's now one of the three core sci-fi franchises by which everything else is compared against, and a lot of the times built on.
When did I ever say that there aren't other companies trying to do it? When did I say that no one is trying to do it? Please go back and point out where I specifically said that. I think I pointed out Heromachine 3, and I replied to someone who had developed a Windows app that does it (I'm an macOS user, so I can't check it out, unfortunately).
Also, my point of map making vs character art creation is entirely the point. According to you, there have been precisely 3 companies that have tried to do it over a 5 year span. There are dozens of map makers of all types of varieties. I don't know if it's a reasonable investment, because traditionally DMs have been expected to pay a lot of money out of pocket, while players try to get away with spending as little as possible. Just because there's an untapped market doesn't mean that the market is big enough to support the service. My point is that people would like it, and it's not currently being serviced in a meaningful way.
If Adam Bradford said he wants to do it, why are you being a dick about it? Isn't your whole argument that it would take away from Curse resources to do? That should be an invitation for you to just leave it alone. People have voiced their suggestions and Curse wants to do it. What is your contribution to the conversation? What are you adding? So far the end game of everything you've had to say is that you're an angry little badger that hates that people want things. Please just chill and leave it alone.
Finally, Hero Forge is in the business of custom miniatures, not character art. Saying that's their business is like saying that Harley Davidson is in the business of making cars because the make motorcycles. That's not even including that Hero Forge is still a relatively small operation. They're growing, which I'm happy about, but they have other priorities. That's not to say that they couldn't make some adjustments to make it happen. I'm not going to say that it would be easy, but if they were to add a coloring app into their system for the virtual renditions only, that would do a lot. Yes, it would help their current customers, because it would allow them to play with the models in color to help them make their selections, but that doesn't mean they have the resources to put out a product like that.
Until something comes along, whether its Hero Forge, Curse, or some other company, that makes something that people are looking for, then they'll pine for it, and that's fine. Dreaming big is how we've gotten where we are. We keep having better, faster airplanes because we keep asking for it. Hell, our species has been pining for flight since pre-history. We decided that flying wasn't enough, too, so we went into outer space, then on the moon, and now we're working our way towards Mars. Throughout all of this, wishing and dreaming hasn't been bad. It's been what drives us as a species, so let people have it.
Scifi not being great before star wars... You lost credibility there...
Doctor who
Star trek
Lost in space
Space 1999
I could go on and on about scifi being a thing in the 60 because of the nasa and lunar stuff. I think you misstaken resurgences of genre because you either didnt know those series existed or because you are too young. After all those series were before my time. But i can guarantee you... Scifi exists and was something way before star wars appeared. Why do you think trekkies take it so seriously with star wars. Because they have enough of being told star wars started the genre while it started about 13 years later then most other shows.
Also i could argue that lucas didnt do shit and in fact was told it was shit by all 4 producers they showed it to. Its his wife who edited the whole thing in order to save her husband movie which was way under at that point.
Gene roddenberry was pretty hard to ignore for any scifi goers in the 60ies 70ies and the 80ies.
The fact is... It is not untapped as you claim.... Numerous companies did it and many companies have great stuff for fantasy characters. You just dont like them. Thats all.
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"Before Star Wars, very few sci-fi movies were taken seriously, and were mostly considered children's affairs." Please do me a favor and read what I'm writing, or don't bother to reply at all.
Also, I'm 37-years-old. Old enough that my parents took me to go see Return of the Jedi when I was two years old (of which is by far my earliest memory). It's unlikely that you are older than me, or if you are it's not by that much. I'm not going through my nerd resume in full, but I've been at it a long time. I watched Doctor Who with my dad on PBS duing the 80s and 90s, with Sam Baker being my first Doctor. To whit, Doctor Who is absolutely a prime example of what I'm talking about, because it literally started out as a children's show, and up until the resurgance it was pretty campy. As was Lost in Space, but it didn't have the decency of at least being good.
The companies that have tried to do character art creators not being good enough is literally the entire point that I've been making. I don't accept a bad product just because it's the only thing that's available. Neither should you. No one should. There are times where we must until someone does make a quality product, and there are times when we don't have to. I tried a number of character sheet apps, programs, and websites before I gave up and went back to the traditional character sheet. Or at least until D&D Beyond came out. I knew it was exactly what I was looking for right away, which is why I got it, and why I bought the Legendary Bundle the day it came out (and why I continue to buy every piece of content that gets released). Conversely, I gave Roll20 a shot for a virtual tabletop, and it pissed me off, so I gave up, and Fantasy Grounds was Windows only (well, it was macOS supported, but only through Wine, and that pisses me off more). I never gave up looking for a quality virtual tabletop, and I found one in Encounter+. It doesn't have native online support, so I have to do some workarounds for when I stream, but it's an amazing tool to have at a table if you can't afford maps and minis.
Now, I hope you're done having your little emper tantrum. Run off little one.
that said i've gone so far off the point, that this is pointless and thus i'll stop there.
as for you, i suggest you stop being so close minded into your own opinions that you should really consider why the whooping 5 companies and the whooping 30 different apps that do portrait making since the last 10 years have all stop doing it instead of thinking, nobody ever tampered with them. maybe gain a bit of insight on why these things do not work to begin with. you could be surprised as to why that is.
for me, yes i want that feature and by what adam said, he wants it too... but let's be real... it wont happen anytime soon.
DM of two gaming groups.
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Hi, I used heroforge to make the model of my character and then I made the color on photoshop. It's very cool and has a nice looking. Here's the result ! ( Btw I'm an halfling bard if you were asking):
How many GP did you put down to use this website? I just want a nice freakin' character sheet. Any suggestions on where?
Lost on plane BEYOND
Absolute BUMP for this. An official DNDBeyond full character and profile design program would be amazing and would also add a ton to campaigns. Pretty, pretty please with a plump Tiefling on top, DNDBeyond?
I am 1000000% behind that, but it'd also be nice to have the ability for GMs to make a group portrait if the players at their table/session. Something as simple as the party standing side-by-side or a something a but more complex like the party sitting in a tavern drinking and swapping stories.
I think the problem with hoping for/expecting something like this is that it's a whole other toolkit. Like, there are companies who do this kind of thing as their entire viable business model as apps and such, it's a dedicated team kind of thing. There's also the fact that the satisfaction return is likely to be very low as a portrait tool generally only delivers one type of art style (and adding more leads to exponential growth of the project complexity). Say they make tool that does stuff in the style of stand 5e art; the people who like anime style, comic book style, photorealistic style and grim fantasy style will all be disappointed with the tool. It's why artist commissions are so important in the community; you can find someone with the style they like and then commission a portrait in that style.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love this feature, but I think it's vital to temper expectations, both of the scope of DDB and what's possible. I use heroforge to make portraits and minis, but not everyone likes that style, and people generally have a strong mental image of what their character looks like. That's a hard expectation to meet.
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The problem with your statement is that ddb already does this with character portrait. Taking and designing portrait from the book and their own designs as well.
Thus a character portrait like adam said. Its definitely on the horizon as they definitely wanna do it. But they wont as long as people do not vote for it. Far more then that... Adam said it might even be 3D where you can actually see every side of the character and not just a portrait. Which means 3D will make it easier to design postures choices.
So yeah... Its definitely not a far fetched dream.
No the only problem with companies like hero forge is that they dont develop enough for it. Exemple... Hero forge cannot design every races. And thats the problem with it. Thats the problem with all companies. They lack dedication to it. They all think you have 1000 possibility and thats enough. But to fantasy games you need more builds. Not more clothes. Clothing is easy to do as it fit everything.
When it comes to designing characters. Hero machine is much better choice as they ask you the ty of body and then made clothing that fits each types. And the head is a different part as well so are the hands and all. So their modularity gives them a much more broad range for everyone.
Too bad hero machine 3 works badly otherwise it would be the best software around. So for now hero machine is the best !!!
I think ddb should contact the hero machine guys and do like they did with fantasy name generator and use thei character portrait software. It would be awesome.
DM of two gaming groups.
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The current portraits aren't anything similar to a portrait creator, unless I'm misunderstanding what people are describing. Wouldn't be something where you specify features such as ears, nose, hair, etc to construct an image of your character? Like a character creator engine in a video game. I assumed that if they did make such a tool, it'd be 3D as that seems like the best module for RoI
I never said it was a far fetched dream, in fact I've leant my voice to the system to show I'd like the feature. I just wanted to raise the fact that people should temper their expectations based on how much work such a feature can be (there are a lot of vocal individuals loudly lamenting how such-and-such a feature isn't here yet and should be) and also the subjective nature of art styles.
Saying the only problem with companies is "lack of dedication" is the same excuse that gives us crunch in the tech industry. It's not dedication that gets projects through; it's funding and resources and time. If you look at heroforge, I think they have every race basically covered except maybe some of the monstrous ones. But here's the important thing; I wasn't lauding Heroforge as the perfect choice/solution/alternative. I was simply holding it up as a) a style that some people like, some people don't and b) a tool I use for custom portraits as an interim until DDB is able to bring in some kind of feature. So you seem to have misunderstood me and gone off on a tangent.
Also clothing isn't easy as it doesn't 'fit everything', especially when you have model scaling and accessories. Cliping is a serious design constraint.
I agree that reaching out to heromachine would be a smart move, assuming that they are able to a) embed the feature like they did with the name generator and b) have some kind of control over options displayed so they can curate an experience that meshes with DDB.
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Wow dave... Seriously ?
As if ddb didnt have a design department team... Please seriously... Stop talking as if you knew ddb as if you were working there.
Drawing portraits is actually harder then creating a portrait designer. So if they do are designing their own portraits, which they do, then they already have everything to do the thing. And to boot... Adam already said as much !
Right now you are trying to defend a point who do not have a need to.
DM of two gaming groups.
Likes to create stuff.
Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses
If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games
--> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)