How to Create Your Own Character Online

Eric the Blue

Adopting characters from fantasy, horror, science fiction or reality can take us away from our humdrum lives into extraordinary worlds. Many online and video games allow you to create such characters but only for a fee. To create one that is free or not specific to a game, you can use an online generator such as HeroMachine.

Things You'll Need

• Online character creator such as HeroMachine

Instructions

Creating

1. 

   Browse the HeroMachine website. The link is in References, below.

2. 

   Choose a pose on the right. Your choice appears in the box on the left. A dialog box asks you to define what options are loaded.

3. 

   Click the "Complete" button if you are using DSL or cable, so all the options are loaded. Click the "Partial" button if you are using dial-up, so only the options relating to your current choice are loaded.

4. Choose a skin and then color it by selecting 1, for the lines, or 2, for the fill. Then click on a color in the palette. This example chooses two different shades of brown.

5. Enter a name for your character. This example uses "Eric the Blue."

6. 

   Define your character's appearance by selecting from the lower dropdown under "Component and Genre." A palette of choices for that selection appears. Click the one you want so it appears on the character. To color that choice, click on a square from the color palette.

7. Edit a part that is already on the character by clicking on it in the left box. A palette of options for that selection appear on the right. Choose new options as needed.

8. 

   Print the character by clicking the "Print" button. To share the character in the forums, click the "Share" button. Note that you will need to register for the forums to share characters there.

Saving

1. Save the character as a text file by clicking on the "Save" button at the top. The "Save Character" dialog box appears.

2. Make sure that all the text is selected. Right-click on the text and choose "Copy" on the popup.

3. Open your favorite text editor, such as Notepad, and paste the copied text into the document. Save the document as a text file. This example saves the character as "Eric the Red.txt."

Loading

1. Open your character text file in your favorite text editor.

2. Select all the text and copy it.

3. Browse to HeroMaker and click the "Load" button. The "Load Character" dialog box appear.

4. Delete the current selection and paste your current text.

5. Click the "Load" button and wait for your character to appear on the right.

Tips & Warnings

• To save your character as a picture, scroll the page so the entire character is busy. Then press "Prnt Scrn" to copy the entire screen. Paste the screen into your favorite art program, crop out the background and save the character as GIF or JPG.

References

• HeroMaker