Category Archives: Character Design Challenges

The premise of this contest is that over the next number of weeks we will build a team of superheroes and a team of villains. Each week I will supply you with a role, name, or list of powers of one of the team members and you will use HM3 to create the character. The winner each week will win a version of their character created on HM by yours truly.

Your challenge this week is to design the hero team’s archer

Gender: M

Name: Derek Bruce

Age: 30

Home Town: New Orleans, Louisiana

AKA: ?

Powers: Derek’s powers lie in his bow and arrows which are both made of energy and can take on the forms of any energy source including fire and lightning.

Your entry this week should include your rendering of Derek as well as his hero name, and a brief synopsis of how he mastered archery and how he attained his energy bow and arrows.

Please follow the instructions below regarding the naming of entries.

Enter a often as you like!

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. Please keep all submissions PG13: full or partial nudity is prohibited. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warning. Only post characters that have been created solely using Hero Machine, and that you know for certain have never been entered in a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like the HeroMachine :,ImageShack, Deviant Art or whatever);Do not use Photobucket.

• Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
• No copyrighted characters please – they will be deleted.
• Please name your filesas [your name]-[character name].[file extension] before you upload it. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his “Bayou Belle” character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.

Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this).

This contest will close at 9am Eastern on Sunday, June 23rd.

Only four entrants this week, but they are four heavy hitters who all swing for the fences. Well that is enough with the baseball metaphors for today. Let's have a look at all of them.

In 4th place we have Kellkin.

The way you masked the reptile tail onto the body is  a stroke of genius and really adds to the transformation. My only criticism is his apparent size. Guanlong were small and swift members of the tyrannosaur family, and this guy looks a bit lumbering.

In 3rd place we have HerrD

I love seeing your name in the entries because your work always has such a fascinating story within it. Well done sir!

So no we some to the top two...

Ubiquitous Pixel

and AMS

Ubiquitous Pixel: The word Guanlong literally means "five coloured crested dragon" which you got down beautifully, and the markings on the tail and arms are great.  The only drawback is that the choice of clothing seems somewhat random and perhaps unnecessary.

AMS: As always the work is stunning, and I feel like this guy can move...and move fast.The musculature makes sense for the character, and while i love the base colour, It would be nice to have some other coloured markings and a more prominent crest.

So what I would like to do if both Ubiquitous Pixel and AMS are ok with it, is name them both winners, but instead of doing a rendering for each, actually morph these two designs together, taking the best parts of each, and adding some features of my own, to create an all new Guanlong. Let me know what you think guys.

Your prize will appear on the blog later this week.

Thanks to all who entered.

The premise of this contest is that over the next number of weeks we will build a team of superheroes and a team of villains. Each week I will supply you with a role, name, or list of powers of one of the team members and you will use HM3 to create the character. The winner each week will win a version of their character created on HM by yours truly.

Your challenge this week is to design the villainous Guanlong

Gender: M

Name: Wilson Wong

Age: 24

Home Town: Zhejiang Province, China – current location; Vancouver, Canada

Employment: hit man for hire

AKA: Guanlong

Powers: Wilson can, at will, morph into an ultra-violent dinosaur/reptile/human hybrid. In China he became known as Guanlong due to his shocking appearance and the viciousness of his attacks

Please follow the instructions below regarding the naming of entries.

Enter a often as you like!

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. Please keep all submissions PG13: full or partial nudity is prohibited. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warning. Only post characters that have been created solely using Hero Machine, and that you know for certain have never been entered in a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like the HeroMachine :,ImageShack, Deviant Art or whatever);Do not use Photobucket.

• Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
• No copyrighted characters please – they will be deleted.
• Please name your filesas [your name]-[character name].[file extension] before you upload it. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his “Bayou Belle” character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.

Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this).

This contest will close at 9am Eastern on Sunday, June 16th.

Great entries all around this week, but there are two that stand out as pretty damned remarkable.

Harpy version 2 by Kellkin...

and Raptor by AMS

Both provided great back stories really interesting powers, and are beautifully rendered. And so...as much as I hate doing it...|I am calling it a draw (pardon the pun).

You both will receive versions of your designs. They will be posted to the blog later this week.

Thanks to all who entered.

The premise of this contest is that over the next number of weeks we will build a team of superheroes and a team of villains. Each week I will supply you with a role, name, or list of powers of one of the team members and you will use HM3 to create the character. The winner each week will win a version of their character created on HM by yours truly.

Your challenge this week is to design (and name) the hero teams’ winged warrior.

Gender: F

Name: Lucy Diamond

Age: 30

Race: African American

Home Town: Los Angeles, CA

Employment: CalTech Biology Department

Education: Doctorate; Biology; Harvard

AKA: ?

Lucy’s suit is a living bio-mechanical organism that fuses with her DNA. Once the fusing is complete it allows Lucy to sprout either organic or mechanical wings at will. Both sets of wings come with a unique superpower – beyond flight obviously.

So your entry should include…

Lucy’s hero name, how she acquired her suit, and the superpower she gains from the wings that you include in your rendering.

Please follow the instructions below regarding the naming of entries.

Enter a often as you like!

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. Please keep all submissions PG13: full or partial nudity is prohibited. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warning. Only post characters that have been created solely using Hero Machine, and that you know for certain have never been entered in a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like the HeroMachine :,ImageShack, Deviant Art or whatever);Do not use Photobucket.

• Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
• No copyrighted characters please – they will be deleted.
• Please name your filesas [your name]-[character name].[file extension] before you upload it. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his “Bayou Belle” character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.

Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this).

This contest will close at 9am Eastern on Sunday, June 9th.

Great job again this week folks

Honourable mentions go out to Greggory Basore and Mark Williams.

Greggory: Love the top half of the costume, the bottom half seems less resolved.

Mark: Like the costume, love the hair, hate the whip mostly because it disappears inside the corset. Just my opinion. Watch your layers.

Tied for 2nd place this week are AMS and Worf.

Choosing between the top three was really tough this week.

AMS: really well thought out. The face is lovely and the hat is a great touch. Shading is spectacular, as usual.

Worf: really like the stance and the attempt to display her powers. She is, however, a bit overdressed to my eye. The hair and boots are amazing!

And the win this week goes to...

Continue reading →

The premise of this contest is that over the next number of weeks we will build a team of superheroes and a team of villains. Each week I will supply you with a role, name, or list of powers of one of the team members and you will use HM3 to create the character. The winner each week will win a version of their character created on HM by yours truly.

Your challenge this week is to design the villain teams’ second in command.

When Seth met Natalie Luxford he fell hard for her. Employed at a seedy strip club, Natalie managed to keep most of her clothes on, and still made more money than any of the other girls. She modelled herself after people like Bettie Page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bettie_Page and Dita Von Teese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dita_Von_Teese , her performances harking back to the classic ladies of burlesque. After sharing a bottle of Jack with Seth one night after her show, she spilled the beans to him on how she made so much money; from a young age Nat had the ability to control the minds of others, altering their perception of reality. This explained why Seth had woken up so many mornings to discover that the previous evening’s take was gone. He was smitten…and intrigued. He could see how having Nat around could be very useful in recruiting his team as well as in committing crime. When he asked Nat to join him, the promise of a partnership that could make her rich was just too good to pass up. She adopted the moniker Pin Up and became not only Seth’s partner, but in many ways his protector.

Please follow the instructions below regarding the naming of entries.

Enter a often as you like!

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. Please keep all submissions PG13: full or partial nudity is prohibited. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warning. Only post characters that have been created solely using Hero Machine, and that you know for certain have never been entered in a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like the HeroMachine :,ImageShack, Deviant Art or whatever);Do not use Photobucket.

• Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
• No copyrighted characters please – they will be deleted.
• Please name your filesas [your name]-[character name].[file extension] before you upload it. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his “Bayou Belle” character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.

Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this).

This contest will close at 9am Eastern on Sunday, June 2nd.