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Full Custom Minis for Your Party? Heroforge Review for Dungeons and Dragons 2022
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- čas přidán 26. 12. 2021
- Do custom minis have souls? Or are they just hollow-eyed store mannequins? I designed and painted a ton of Heroforge minis for our D&D party to figure this out! We’ve got a ranger, a sorcerer, a rogue, and a barbarian, all with different poses and costume swaps. In this review I did the printing myself, and I tried the models at different scales.
Learn more about our party by listening to the Twenty Sided Realms Podcast. This is a great listen while you’re painting… or while you’re messing around in a character builder! :-) Available wherever you normally get podcasts!
tsrpodcast.lib...
Season 3 is a fresh campaign set in Waterdeep. We cap things at ~PG-13.
[Seasons 1 and 2 are a slightly different cast, are set in the Underdark, and are rated ~R.]
Try the Heroforge designer and see if you can come up with some fun characters!
www.heroforge....
More Goobertown!
Patreon / goobertownhob. .
Instagram / goobertown_. .
Twitter / gthobbies
Chitubox is the slicer I used in this video
www.chitubox.c...
AutoDesk Meshmixer was used to smooth out the character files a bit.
www.meshmixer....
Our TSRP podcast uses Syrinscape for sound effects and ambiance.
syrinscape.com
Most figures were printed on an Elegoo Mars with Zmud resin (both of which were provided free-of-charge to Goobertown Hobbies for testing purposes).
These are the characters from The Twenty Sided Realms Podcast! [TSRP]. Season 3 is a fresh campaign, and the first 3 episodes are available as of this post. The crew is really getting into the groove now :-) It's a great listen while you're painting or playing around in Heroforge!
Love the videos!
Hey Brent, just watching the video, pretty cool so far! If you want to do some stuff in Meshmixer, I'd recommend either selecting an area and then using the "erase & fill" option or select the area and use "remesh". Using the sculptiung tool can change the surface quite a bit. Would be happy to share more insights if you'd like as I'm using Meshmixer on a (at least) weekly basis for multiple years now to clean up stuff for SLA printing
Late to conversation, but I just made a mini based on a character from an asmrtist, and I only make minis on heroforge for fun, but I decided that when I get money, I should make them real, thanks for reviewing these minis and giving your honest opinion, I was getting worried that the minis wouldn't turn out great but I can't wait to get my "prudence" mini then I'm off to making league of legends minis
My one stickup for Heroforge is the system for facial expressions. The sliders are really narrow and any facial expression that isn’t a combination of smiling, yelling, and Dreamworks is just out of luck.
I got so many character that would benefit from an evil grin
I believe iirc that the company said they would try to fix that with an upcoming update, but don't quote me on that. Those in the community (such as myself) would also love to see that.
@@JamesWilliams-rp4ll Yeah, they just posted on Instagram a bunch of new updates they have planned for this year.
face customization is coming this year, so i'd hope a different expression system is coming alongside it, or maybe after
Also it’s lacking in decent hair styles honestly
I’d like to add that as someone who isn’t very artistically talented Hero Forge is an amazing tool for me as a dm because I can design npc art that I can send to my players for free and that is really nice, I haven’t spent a cent but I’ve gotten tremendous value.
Man, that's a great idea, I will totally use that for my homebrew campaign!
I did something similar, but as a player for my character. We play using Roll 20 so no need for physical minis.
@Retrodistroyer one of my friend did this back when coloring your mini was not an option. Never thought about using it for this before he did. Glad someone else thought about this it is a brilliant idea.
@@demonicbunny3po We did this too for our last two r20 campaigns. It's so cool. I'm glad a friend thought of this.
Clarify?
As a daily HeroForge(tm) user, I find there to be a detail gap between the early items and their more recent ones. I think they'd benefit from updating some of those models like they did with the chainmail set a while back! And we definitely need new crossbows lol
I agree, 100%
Fully agree. The quality gap between the earliest hair and the newest hair is as vast as the grand canyon.
The cook looks the best. That guys huge belt gap with much smaller waist looks weird
I see, you're an experienced user of Heroforge.
My question is: is there an option for choosing the scale of the mini?
Me and my friends are playing in the 28mm scale.
But in the video it seems you can only make a char big or small in a certain way that the head scales differend and a small char has a big head and looks like a gnome. Also the hands stay big, when you scale the mini smaller.
They've updated some older pieces like the chain mail. I think once the kickstarter goals are meet they'll start updating the older stuff
Heroforge adds new parts every week, whether that be new weapons, body parts, or whatever. It's really cool to get new parts constantly, but the new stuff definitely has a higher quality design/modeling than the older stuff, so you can often tell when something is an older part. I hope they go through and touch up some of the old designs at some point.
They do have a ton of great options, though, and I use it a lot.
That totally makes sense. My guess is the chunkier bits are relics of a time gone by... still an impressive selection tho! :-)
They've actually touched up some older stuff like the chainmail armour but other than that I can't give other examples. But they do fix the older stuff...slowly
Yeah
As a quick note, some local libraries have 3d printing services. My local library will print the files for less than a dollar a mini. Plus, you get to support your library.
That's pretty cool... I love the idea of getting custom minis, but hate the idea of paying an arm and a leg.
Do they post that info online or do you call them
@@drowningin in my experience, yes. Usually there’s some maker shop or something that has 3d printers and other tools for the community.
This is a very good point! Another great reason to go to the library :-)
@Eric Mumper I'll have to check if some libraries do this around here.
Are you in the US or another country ???
I love the customization offered by Heroforge, but as someone who lacks a 3D printer I have never been impressed with their "durability" Even taking good care to transport minis to and from games "(inside Chessex dice containers tacted to the base) every member of my party has had their mini break. Usually the weak spot seems to be at the legs. Once a party member accidently had their mini fall from on top of their dice tower to the table (4 inch drop) and it shattered into 5 different pieces...
Similar experience, the plastic HF uses is just absurdly brittle.
I loved here forge but I've only used it once. I have a resin printer and my friends always send my their customized characters to print. I don't charge them since I get more unique miniatures to use.
huh, good to know! :-)
OMG this. Twice now I have been in the last step of painting a mini before lacquering, and broken them. It’s takes me 1-2 months of occasional evenings of painting per mini, so it’s heart breaking. The first one snapped at the feet when I took it off it’s painting stand, I accidentally dropped my hand on the second and it ended up in 3 pieces. I’m now much more aware about how brittle they are.
My cat threw my Heroforge mini off my desk onto carpet and the head of the halberd the character was holding broke off. It's the type of resin they use. It holds higher detail (supposedly) but has no bend to it so it breaks easily. It wasn't a huge deal for me because I just glued it back together but for people who move their minis around and do a lot of play with maps and terrain it might be a deal breaker. I think the cheaper heroforge plastic might actually be more durable but I'm not sure.
We did a collection of Heroforge minis for our dungeon master, one of each of our characters, as a “thank you” for running the campaign this year. He loves them and they are unique to our campaign. I was pleased with how well the present went down
that's awesome!! Good DMs deserve good players :-)
Note: The overly chunky areas of clothing and (occasionally) equipment can be somewhat avoided by changing the weight and shape of the character's bodies, due to how the individual assets are overlaid on one another and morph to fit the body.
There are a couple of non chunky clothes, but the pose can help disguise it
doesn't really work with over-skirts tho. They really should add a slider to adress this
@@delfinenteddyson9865 Yeah, the new leg options can be clunky :/
I like the kind of quirky/cartoony look you can create from this service. Slightly reminds me of the Fable video games, which in terms of design is a good thing in my book. Nicely painted as always, my friend!
Ya know Fable is the best way to explain this art style
@@tabletopapprentice233 I know, right?
Wow I see it! Never will look at hero forge or fable the same.
Personally, this is the one reason I don't like hero forge. When I get a mini I want it to be pretty much exactly like how I imagined.
Bulky/cartoony items and faces that all look the same tbh is not really my forte.
I like heroforge, you can also use their photobooth to make overhead pics of the minis for use in virtual tabletops.
I use it for character sheet portraits too
and download 3D VTT friendly files
I do wish one of the models had been printed by hero forge so we could see if there was any sort of difference between what they send you and the model quality based on the stl they send you.
I bought a painted Tortle from them and it came out great. I think they sand the minis to remove the polygons because there weren't any on my mini and the paint job they did was fantastic and matched my colour choices perfectly. I paid about $50 but I'm super happy with it.
Nice! Glad it came out lookin sweet- I like tortles :-)
Man I could really go for a bread bowl right about now. 🍞 🍲
gotcha! :-)
My lil fur brother passed away this year .. to memorialise him, I went to Hero Forge and created a mini using the Canine Race. Its awesome as I could include designs elements that were (for me) specific to him. Now he will always sit on my work table and share more adventures with me on the computer as I work.
awwwwww :-)
Dats nice
I just use the site to make characters. I don’t plan on buying, but it has helped me when developing my fantasy setting.
Saaaame
My one gripe is I wish that once you buy the character you get to edit the STL as many times you want. Other than that I really like Heroforge, though I wish there were other Miniuature creators with a more realistic style.
That being said I managed to make, print, and paint my childhood characters so it was pretty cool to see a character I have had in my head for the longest time, be placed into Tabletop Miniature form.
Wouldn't really work that way. You can edit any character into any other character in hero forge, so you would only ever need to buy one. Maybe if further editing was limited to pose and clothing/gear options that could work.
I think you should at least be able to pose your character differently for a discount. Hate wanting a slightly different pose for my model and need to pay full price.
@@cmattss4 can't you put it in blender?
@@drowningin you could if you had the skills but at that point you can probabky make the models your self. to change a pose you would need to rerig the models and stuff.
One thing that might be worth mentioning is that more content is constantly being added. For example, since this videos release, they've added some (admittedly very limited currently) options for layered clothing, with inner and outer layers.
Instead of using mesh mixer, you could probably throw the model into blender and hit it with a Subdivide a couple times.
That's a good idea! blender is on my list of skills to develop one of these days... :-)
and in Blender set them to "shade smooth" instead of flat
im not really into 3d printing, but the easiest way to "upscale" the minis would be to get a 3d software (i would recommend blender on account of being free) and then using the subdivision surface modifier to add extra geometry for the curvature. its not a perfect fix and would work better if the model was not triangulated and my need some messing around with support loops or creases, but it could be a quick and efficient way to solve that issue, provided the user has rudimentary knowledge of 3d modelling
A few others have been suggesting blender, this is a good idea! Seems like a useful set of skills to develop... :-)
@@GoobertownHobbies it is a wonderful piece of software. Certainly has a learning curve to it but it's main draw are that it's a jack of all trades and foss, there are so many add-ons for it made by first parties, a lot of them free. What truly makes it great tho is its range of applications. From polymodeling to animation, sculpting and even video editing. It's a piece of software I very much like and am passionate about. But again, it has a steep learning curve and needs dedication to learn.
they do have a table top sim download option that probably has the models in a diffrent form/quality that might be easier to convert to stl yourself.
Blender user here
You can increase the polycount automatically with a subsurf modifier Just bump it up by a factor or 2-3 and you will have a completely smoothed out model.
The method you used gives you more control, but it requires more skill to use well.
Thanks for this! my method was tricky near the borders of the belts and such, I'm looking for alternatives :-)
Love heroforge but I think in an effort to make their printing service run smoother, they restrict the detail of their minis. I wish they would allow us to have smaller and more detailed parts to use on our home printers.
yeah, it'd be great if they sent a couple of different files at different detail levels... maybe someday if we keep asking for it!! :-)
Definitely some good critique on Heroforge. Printing without a base is something I'll be doing in the future especially when I need to paint under skirts etc as after painting a couple minis for friends this becomes a challenge.
Yeah this is a big mistake I made when I let my party make their own characters my last campaign. They all made these custom bases for their minis on hero forge which became a huge pain in the painting process
Im of two minds about Heroforge minis. On the one hand I understand the appeal of building your own mini to match your character, especially given the scarcity of minis for any of the even slightly "exotic" dnd races. It's custom designed so it feels more like Your Character. On the other hand, once you've seen a couple Heroforge minis they all start to look the same. So even though it's "custom" it actually winds up looking way more generic than a pre-sculpted mini.
They're also expensive when you get them printed by Heroforge, and the print quality is not great. As you say, you can fix that to some extent if you're printing your own, but in my experience their audience tends to be dnd players more than mini hobbyists, so most people are buying the physical prints.
I guess my verdict is they're overpriced but fill a need for people who just want a mini of their rpg character, but for painting and collecting they're not worth even the stl price.
The character designer is a lot of fun though, we use it to design tokens for our characters for digital games.
Yup yup! This jives with my feelings
I definitely agree.
The house style definitely feels a bit generic and as a result I just don't like the way the models look.
To an extent it's a good decision on their part to make all the proportions and features a bit cartoony because it's less likely to print poorly if there's not a lot of very fine details but it does little to endow them with personality
The other problem I have is that the coloured prints come out "dusty" or faded looking, not as bold and vibrant as the creator would have you believe.
I listened to the whole first episode and I can't wait for more. Please keep posting links to the new episodes, I don't usually listen to podcasts so any shortcuts would be appreciated
yay!! :-) The first 3 episodes are out, they should all pop up here if you like to listen from a web browser tsrpodcast.libsyn.com/
Very timely. I just started miniature painting and I'm looking at getting some stls from heroforge. Thank you for the detailed and honest critique
I love Heroforge, but I do agree that some of the options are limited, considering how ubiquitous fantasy/D&D-style games are. You'd think the setting bias in the hobby would translate into the builder for the minis.
On balance though, I personally think they're a good company and I've never had any complaints (though again, I don't have a printer and I really, really want to get one... it'd save me so much money in the long run!).
It's interesting for me to see the polygon sizes given that's something I've not seen before - forewarned is forearmed, so thanks for showing that off!
This was a good learning experience! It seems like a worthy company to know about, useful for certain things for sure :-)
I was surprised at how limited the body weight options are. When we finished our 3 year lvl 1-20 campaign, we had a capstone session where we RP’d what our characters got up to after their adventures, before coming back for one more battle. My L20 Horizon Walker elf had moved to the Planar equivalent of Florida and had really let himself go (trading his leather armour for board shorts, excess tan, thongs, a balding/ponytail combo, and a beer gut). The “body weight” sliders in heroforge tended to make each area out of proportion - like a photoshopped butt from a Instagram rap video in Brazil, instead of the “I traded daily exercise for Bud Light” look that I wanted.
@@wellywanderer also true. They *are* getting a bit better with that, but it’s a very valid point.
Something you do gotta give them credit for is the fact that they add something new weekly. It’s not always that big of a deal or something _you_ want but it’s usually something _somebody_ wants. They show what they add every Tuesday.
@@wellywanderer i would gues that is probably due to a few factors
1. being the more extreme sliders and polygon manipulation the more buggy and deformed the clothing options become.
2. is printing restrictions.
they could be better but I can see why they are like they are.
Great Video. I think the best advice was given at the end. If you are doing stl files, buy them without a base! I can't stress that enough, it is sooo much better and easier to print!
yupyup! live and learn :-)
I LOVE the podcast! Been looking for a new live-play that clicks with me, and this is the one. I love you and your friends' characters so much. 💓
That's awesome! We're having a bunch of fun playing. Thanks for listening!!! :-)
Oh yeah!!!
I'm fairly familiar with Heroforge and almost skipped this video. Very glad that I didn't; it was neat to listen to the beginning of your campaign and watch some chill mini painting.
Your wait time thing was interesting. Longest I’ve ever had to wait was a few minutes. Then again, I was only purchasing one mini.
Most were just a few hours, but the two K'van minis took a long weekend... maybe because he has so many muscles! ;-)
I’ve bought around 12 heroforge minis, most was 4 at once. And I maxed out at 30 minutes wait time. Could just be luck of how many people are buying and also processing at the time maybe?
@@austinborst7920 that makes sense yep!
the voice of the rogue cook is smooth as hell
Blake is a superstar
So many little gnome friends! Penelope has never looked better 👌 Thanks for making these for the campaign - it’s really fun to have this clear vision of the characters. It’s a shame that you had to deal with all those polygons but all in all I think they look really great 👏
yay!!! that means a lot coming from you. Honestly I think we should look for alternative penny + chaz models, but we're off to a good start! :-)
@@GoobertownHobbies or I need to get my act together and learn how to 3D sculpt…
@@RaqrexArt oooo!!!
When I whipped up figures for the previous game I was in, I printed double-sized figures, as well. What we did was use the regular scale figures on the map, and had our double-sized figures next to our character sheets for easy visual recognition.
YES! exactly this :-)
Loved this one Brent! I’m going to check out that podcast. Sounds awesome. Happy New Year!
I've bought HF minis for 3 different campaigns. They really blazed a trail, but there are better options now. It's real hard to make the HF characters look right, next to any non-HF minis. The way the costumes fit is sometimes really weird and certain body morphs don't work well at all.
That said, I had a ton of fun creating mine and have no regrets. I won't buy any more, but I do have a fondness for the ones I own.
I’m sorta new to this kind of thing, what are the best other options would you say?
@@chase7629 I'd start by using Reaper's Figure Finder to see if there's already a mini close to what you want. The chef in this video for example definitely could've been a Reaper mini, and would've cost like 3 dollars.
Then probably Eldritch Foundry. Their designs seem closest to the "norm" in the mini industry at the moment. Their number of options isn't as crazy as HF yet, but it's certainly getting there.
Yay new video! Thanks for the smoothing tip! The polygon size has been driving me crazy since I got my printer a year ago. Excited to increase the scale on some prints:) my biggest complaint of dnd minis is that the scale would be better if it were closer to warhammer’s and now I have the power 🎶🤘
Not gonna lie, that roleplaying segment was so engaging that I kinda forgot I was watching a video about Heroforge. Definitely gonna have to check out the podcast.
I'm super stoked that you got the opportunity to play with a podcast veteran! Looking forward to enjoying the campaign!
On a different note, heroforged is fine IMO if you're not looking for more serious/realistic minis. They all feel quite cartoony. I have a few of them and still prefer other offerings. Also yea, very expensive for not the greatest print quality.
It's an honor to play with the cast of the Fartstone podcast
Thanks for the review of HerForge, I was curious about printing them at home.
Also, I'm now suscribed to your adventures in Twenty Sided Realms. Looking forward to listening on my commute.
Nice!!
Id also like to see them add flexibility of gear. Like with cloaks for instance, i want to be able to have the cloak stretch around an arm to conceal the character's dagger arm or something like that.
oh yeah that'd be cool!
Been using hero forge since well before they had their colour printing options, i think they have some of the best customisation options out there!
Loved em, and wen they first hit the market they wore one of a kind but now a days to me they jus don't hold up to what's on the market now
@@reapersritehand what other solutions are there?
I have often thought of using HeroForge for the base figures and then raiding the bits box for some good ol' fashioned converting. Also, digital remixing is a great option.
yup yup! I'm glad I finally downloaded meshmixer :-)
@@GoobertownHobbies awesome, but never forget those down and dirty conversion skills and your loyal bits box.
I was literally thinking the same thing when the lack of equipment/weapon customization was mentioned hopefully would be decent scale wise
@@gregmccormack5709 If you're printing your own (or you friend or local store has a printer you can use), you can finangle it the other way too, printing the mini at a slightly different scale to fit the intended additional pieces.
Happy Holidays Goobs! Thank you for your soothing and insightful content!
Thank you! I was just wondering about this. Didn't search it, and a day later this was recommended to me.
More in-depth than I would of known to ask about
hehehe, glad it all worked out! :-)
So excited to see a video posted, always look forward to your content.
Great video Brent, enjoyed the intro to Twenty Side Realms while also getting some insightful information regarding Heroforge. Really nice to get your opinion on the product!
Hey thanks! :-)
wow this is amazing! I've been wanting to print off an army of turtle men, but haven't found anything that looked good and this does the trick! Thanks Goobertown!
More painting with background D&D please.
Thank you.
:)
I personally just use hero forge for references of my characters, it’s quite fun just for that
oh for sure! very useful :-)
Same
Having just watched your back catalogue and listened to Paint Bravely, I must say the new black photo background is amazing
Thanks! this is all one big learning curve, but I'm quite enjoying that black felt backdrop :-)
Goobertown legit the only one of these channels asking the big questions like "Do these minis have souls? 🤔"
Just wanted to say I listened to the first two episodes of the TSRP podcast while I was painting a chaos space marine and it was good. The minis from this video of yours were appearing in my mind's eye.
As someone who purely uses it for digital TTRPGs, it’s fantastic.
Never bought a physical mini from them.
oh for sure! :-)
wow your dm is amazing, ill be listening for sure. love the chemistry at the table.
right??? DM Travis is great :-)
Something about the chunky design and the poses and the paint scheme reminds me of claymation from the 90s in the best possible way.
right? :-)
I've never had a HeroForge mini take longer than an hour to process. It's strange that they took so long for you. My most recent set of 5 minis took about as long as it took me to switch to the download page to be ready.
Beyond that, HeroForge definitely has an art style that I'm not certain I'm still in love with. The faces, and quite a few of the textures all end up rather... soft. It works at scale, but I can almost always look at a mini and pick it out if it's HeroForge on Reddit.
My other critique on places where they need to expand their options beyond the bows/xbows and back options which you pointed out, is sheaths. If I'm carrying a sword, I want my mini to have a place to put that sword, that fits that sword. The sheath they currently have is comically small, especially if you're rocking the bastard sword. I'd like them to create another half dozen sheaths so I can believe that whatever reasonable size sword can reasonably fit in that sheath.
On the plus side, the posing system is really good, and very intuitive. I generally will do an advanced pose on just about every model I do, because it elevates the mini that much more, and makes it that much more "yours"
It sounds like your experience is way more typical than mine, maybe just bad luck with the servers the week I was buying these. But yeah, some of these faces are great right??? :-)
@@GoobertownHobbies I mostly put a helmet/hood on everyone, so I don't really deal with faces as often as possible.
Love the video, goobs! Great work on the paintjobs!
Your work and exploration is deeply appreciated. Keep up the good work.
i adore hero forge ! they have a ton of non human models that make our games more diverse ! they are meant to print small :) love the videos and will continue to watch and paint along
Nice! I can see someone getting addicted to custom building every NPC hehehe
Nice, I haven’t been to waterdeep since eye of the beholder :D ⚔️
exited for you to try dragons forge! its being done by my local gaming store. got my hands on a mini from them for a painting comp and they look amazing alot of variety. You can even have a crocodile with a cannon on its back!
I'm excited too heheheh :-)
Glad to see a new Goobertown video 😊 Even though I wasn’t really interested in the topic, you made it engaging and fun to watch. I would like to see something about choosing colour schemes in the future…
I use their minis in my virtual games on Talespire, and I didn't notice the low polys when importing them into my boards but thank you for pointing that out. I find the real charm in the service is being able to generate hordes of NPCs to suit my purposes from lone civilians to fully themed gangs rather quickly without having to pull my hair out trying to find a mini that's "close enough". There is a subscription/membership that allows you access, the ability to save your own minis as well as the ones others have shared in folders on your profile, import whole entire minis or just their props/poses/clothes/body are all compelling arguments to further invest; but your mileage will vary depending on your use situation,
I like to use Hero Forge to make my DM’s NPCs since we’ve been playing online. It helps me immerse myself and is a great way for getting inspiration for new characters to play. I think the art style is charming and I only buy the characters I play as to “immortalize” them if they die or we cut the campaign short.
Enjoying TSRP and despite me basically never using minis in my ttrpgs, it's going to be a good time watching you try out these different custom mini designers. I am super curious!
I hope our Chazz gets some new swag, but otoh maybe his mom will be hurt if he loses the sweater vest she knit for him. :D
I love these kinds of softwares! It's so fun to make my own characters and I think that it is a great idea.
I love heroforge but I experienced some big triangles on capes. My wait times have been half hour max. I'm glad you did this, I've got 2 credits left to use.
cash 'em in! :-)
"Gnomespringa" might be my favorite D&D based Amish joke.
hehehehehe
HeroForge has very recently gotten a new feature! You can design and have sent a “flat” mini that is made of a sheet of acrylic I think. You can get some really high detail from that on their newer prints
Anatomy tip: The head and shoulders can be segmented into thirds, the shoulders are roughly the width of the head. There are slight variations but even with characters who are particularly muscular, the skeletal structure is consistent.
Glad to see a big Tabletop CZcamsr review a progam I always use!
Really hoping for more D&D miniature videos from you. Thanks!
The aesthetic is certainly looking more than a bit primitive these days and the files are overpriced as a result. The character builder is a definitely a fun time-waster, but I don't see myself ever buying one again, not unless they have at least a 50%-off sale. There's just too many alternatives available these days if you're prepared to trade customization for greater detail/quality.
What alternatives can you recommend.?
@@Lola_Rissa patreon is good, and so is myminifactory, your losing a customized low detail character for $8 and getting say for example 15 high detail multiple styles dwarves for $10
Well that's the price you have to pay for easy customization, you can get better designs for cheaper, but it's not your design
We have heroforge models printed by them, they came in great condition and nearly identical to their 3d models, one has been destroyed unfortunately, never used their color printed minis. We mainly use heroforge to get quick high quality 3d models of player characters, and the amount of freely shared models lets me fulfill npc roles as well
Nice! I haven't seen any printed by heroforge in person, but I was definitely curious, thanks for sharing your experience :-)
@@GoobertownHobbies the one unpainted model is our goliath who unfortunately was also destroyed by a cat, he was our largest scale and the issues with low polygons causing a rough print didn't seem to affect their print, probably an in house solution to that problem
A lot of the chunky pieces sticking out are the older models which were limited by technical limitations on printers at a time, the staff is working on updating the cliffs and details on a lot of them
Phenomenal vid! I've experimented myself with heroforge and fully agree - it was a super fun process, the 3d models left something to be desired but ultimately my players were off their chairs seeing their characters in a mini, which in our case couldn't be an option otherwise. I also absolutely loved watching you paint while listening to the in-game descriptions. Thank you!!
I would love to see a video similar to this once DesktopHero gets ported to Titancraft!
I used Heroforge to make models for christmas gifts, and I did notice a difference with older items and newer ones. The older parts seem to have that polygon issue you mentioned, but when i used things that were more recent, they look so much better. I'd probably say stick to newer items to avoid those issues.
Good advice on the "buy without a base" for home printing. Thank You.
Me and my friends use these to get screenshots of characters that look a lot more like what our pcs look like than some art you found online.
Been using Hero Forge for years, I love it!
Love the implications we got withing the first 2 minutes of meeting your character too bad his model wasn't as stand out as the chef who was my favorite and the barbarian won me over with the faces when I wasn't too sure about that belt
You are back!!!!! 🥰
Gotta add an off topic comment. I recently got back into painting and one day I tried holding the brush the same way you do. I had always thought it looked awkward but it was surprisingly steady!
My only complaint about heroforge is if you pay them print the mini for you, you should also get the stl file.
I mean, not everyone wants to download a sizable 3D model when all they wanted is to order a mini model to place on their desk. However, it would be nice if they gave you the option to do so if you purchase a printed model from them.
Dude, you may not have sculpting experience, but I think that amazing paintjob more than make up for it. 😍
I do think it's worth noting that Hero Forge are constantly updating everything about their service. Since the release of this video, there are new features that greatly increase the customisable options for character appearances, there are dozens more assets available and the stl files are of a much higher quality. I'd be interested to see you do an updated video (if you haven't already) on how Hero Forge compares now to your first experience of it
I don't have a 3D printer yet but thank you for the tip of smoothing the polygons. But when it comes to processing the STL file I think you might be at a very active time while many were purchasing files. When I purchased 6 files it took no longer than 15 minutes for me.^^ Great Video like always none the less.
I like heroforge for very specific kinds of characters. I would say it nails a good bit of customization options when creating. One of my main gripes is the body types of for female characters I guess don't quite feel right? sometimes the neck is off, or the shoulders, or the hips. It doesn't quite nail that aesthetic very well and I've heard the same complaint from several of the female players I play with.
Interesting! our only female so far is a gnome, so we didn't test those models out as much. A few other people have had a similar comment, thanks for sharing your experience :-)
Duuuuudddeeee having Brent in your DnD game is GOLDDD 😂🙌
well at least I'm having fun hehehehe :-)
I have bought a few minis printed from Heroforge, and I like them very much. They do have the fragility issue of resin minis, but we're all adults and treat our minis with care.
One player bought a color-printed mini, and the only thing I would say is that the mini would benefit from the judicious application of a little wash treatment. Particularly the face and hair.
Good to hear your experience, thank you! :-)
Hi there Brent, I know this is a bit too late but there’s an easier way to do what you wanted with meshmixer,and maybe it would be useful to you or someone else in the future. Apologies in advance if this wall of comment text is too confusing to be of help.
To start with it’s always useful to click the edit button on the left, then generate facegroups for your model.
Click the select button on the left, or press S and then if you double click facegroups you can select them easily
You can add more to your selection by painting onto the mesh with the select tool. If you hold cntrl you can deselect areas or use the scroll wheel to radiate in or out your current selection.
Select the areas bothering you then either use the Remesh or Smooth operations under the select edit and deform menus that appears at the top left next to the bar.(different to the edit button in the left bar, I have no idea why it’s not called something else to be less confusing)
I hope this helps someone.I use meshmixer a lot for digital kitbashing as I find it so much easier to get along with than blender for that purpose.
Thanks! I tried something similar, but I had a bit of a problem accidentally smoothing out bits that were supposed to stay sharp, like the borders at the belts and such. It's all a big learning curve, I'll get there eventually. I appreciate the help!! :-)
About that phylosophical "does these have a soul" thing I think that despite us complete amateurs using said tool, you're designing (from a preset of pieces, sure, but still) a miniature that's gonna be unique, made specific for a character that you have in your mind. If you would ask me I would say that has more of a soul than a mass produced miniature made by the Michelangelo of digital sculpting. Not that they don't put "a soul" in their creation, but I think as long as you have a connection to the character you're bringing to life in the website, your mini is gonna have a soul
I'd love to see a review of the competitors too
oh for sure! :-)
I hekin love heroforge - its amazing for those one of a kind npcs and player characters (and with some trivks like posing horns, tails or additional hands you can achieve really amazing stuff!)
Welcome back!
I've used a lot of Hero Forge minis and they are great. Takes some practice to print them well, but they have been great once they are dialed in. Lychee slicer has almost been 100% with their auto support too.
“He looks like a D20” 🤣
Through the first listen, I didn't catch the hints that Chaz was likely the one responsible for burning down his school. The second time I heard it I listened more closely and man, that was really funny. I wonder how many of the other players would have caught on to that. When Brent said, "This has absolutely nothing to do with the arson, but..." At first, I took him at his word, now I think I know better.
Oh chaz is a very good boy! You can trust him :-) Fire IS fun tho...
Allegedly, mind you