HelmAverse Supers - Reinforcements Arrive

[Matt Helm]

Thanks, Torny. The kid is impressing me with his ability and his commitment. He just fixed the color of the hexes at the bottom of the special ability box. We also resized the image slightly hoping it will print in the same scale as the others.

Unfortunately we are starting with a real old border template and that leaves us at a disadvantage. Also, as much as he and I painstaking went through numerous font choices on all parts of the card, we still can't get help but grumble at the way the powers actually look written out. The lines in the font appear just slightly thick and we wish there was an opposite to bolding that would make them thinner but still keep them sharp for legibility. There's a reason A3n and the C3G art department are all masters and the rest of us are pretenders.

The last nitpick we have is that we can't figure out the signature line that A3n puts in the lower corner. Ah well, we know its a HelmAverse card.

In the end, Lil'Helm made ol'Matt Helm pretty proud. Now let's see if he is willing to use this template to give us a few more designs recently finished.

[Sherman Davies]

Nice work from Lil'Helm! I agree that the special power text should be less bold than the special power names. I personally use Arial Narrow for the text and simply bold it for the names, if you haven't already tried that.

[Matt Helm]

I forgot the name of the font we used but will look it up later. We even narrowed the letters to change circular "O's" to oval "0's". Believe it or not the power names are larger font and bolded while the body of the powers are not. We like the look of the post best as it matched up well everywhere (except the word "POINTS" which was different). We will keep experimenting I'm sure.

[A3n]

I can't see the card so I can't offer an advice. The official font for the cards is Helvetica Neue Light. I use Photoshop and the headings in the powers are the same font size but the next font style up, then scaled horizontally & vertically 110% & (I think it's called) tracking set to 25. For your cards from memory the default font size is 9pt. I use the style 47 LT Condensed for the power text & 67 Lt Condensed for the headings. By doing it this way keeping the font the same size I can adjust the size & leading to reduce the text to make it fit. Then only have to adjust the leading for the blank lines.

As for the signature, the font has a funny name that I can never remember but Stencil should be close enough. Just create it on a separate layer. Centre the text then move & rotate the layer to the correct position.

[Matt Helm]

Thanks good buddy. I reattached the correct image so you should be able to see it now. If not, it is definitely visible on the first post.

We are using photopea and unfortunately that program doesn't have Helvetica Neue nor does it have Arial Narrow. We're using Helmut Neue which seems pretty close. It just has a little too much thickness to the strokes.

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EDIT: Thanks to the amazing A3n we were able to get the card font to match the rest of the HelmaAverse cards. Captain Cold has been updated and now looks amazing. Thanks again ol'Master of the Graphic Arts. The Helm family is in your debt.

[Tornado]

Nice teamwork.

[Matt Helm]

Oh what a Helmsgiving tournament it is going to be. Thanks to the world's greatest graphic art man A3n, we now have some real quality tools to work with for our cards. We still look forward to the day that A3n can get back up and running but until then, we have newcomer Lil'Helm using the A3n method to bring the following designs to life:




Oh boy, oh boy, and Captain Cold will be updated with the better card soon. He just wants to finish off our other designs first. Thanks again A3n... Excelsior!

[Tornado]

Devil Dino looks a little under cost.
How.is a T Rex not Huge?

[Matt Helm]

Originally Posted by Tornado

Devil Dino looks a little under cost.
How.is a T Rex not Huge?

Great catch, he should be Huge.

As for the cost it was definitely a tough call that may change slightly with more testing. It seemed right based on the battles we ran him through. In one on one fights he gets crushed by 300 pt melee thumpers. On a double base with some serious bulk, no flying and no real range (other than Moon Boy SA) he’s vulnerable to figures who can kite on uneven terrain. He sure looks great on a map though. We couldn’t wait to get this piece going.

[Tornado]

5 Move, double base is pretty slow. Save him for end game.

[Matt Helm]

Great catch on the move Tornado. On the test maps he was having trouble navigating changes in elevation and at 5 move it slowed him down way more than a T-Rex should have to deal with. And on a flat map he should run at 65 MPH!

Based on your feedback we've updated him slightly.

We also have 2 more to be posted momentarily. Thanks for always taking a look and giving us some advice on potential changes.

[Matt Helm]

Here's some new designs by the Helm family. Iron Fist is a brand new Matt Helm design while Red Hood, created by Helm Jr., has been around for some time but is finally seeing the light. All art by Lil'Helm with A3n's templates.