Category Archives: Character of the Week

Me last Friday: "Ok, I'm going to make a concerted effort to try and feature someone new for this weeks COTW."

Jeimuzu the very next day:

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……….

………………...

I'M SO DONE!!!!

No actually, hang on a minute, not done yet.

Jeff can we HOF this one too?

Ok, now I'm done.

Gallery: Jeimuzu's World (incidentally, I've just decided I'm moving there indefinitely).

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You know, the other day I realised that I've featured the same four people on COTW for the last 5 instalments (3 of them in one go at one point) and, of course,  I've failed to not feature one of them again this week. But in a nice twist, I'm going to feature someone new as well, because both characters deserve a spotlight. We all already know about Ubiquitous Pixel here on COTW, he can pose in some amazing ways, his shading rocks and, in this picture particularly, he sure knows his way around a pair of wings (just look at the bit where the two wing items join). So yeah, UP have another COTW nod.

Gallery: My Collection Of Creative Imagination

Now, on to our other featuree, this time from Skoul. This one is full of attitude. The sneering face, the uber flashy mane of hair (which is shaded to perfection), the badass costume (which is both understated and flashy at the same time) and the pose. Then you have the lighting. The light source is shown perfectly just by the highlighting. You can tell that the light is coming from the top right of the character, just by where the highlights lie on the characters body. I love the way that the light is really intense on the right but then gets more faded as you cross to the left (which is very noticeable if you look at the legs). Great job.

Gallery: Skoul's Mind

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You know, I must be the only person on the forums who thinks "Oh good, Candruth and Jeimuzu haven't posted anything this week, that means I can do something different for COTW". Or I would think that, if I actually ever got a chance to. So, Jeimuzu has posted another of his series of mech masterpieces and, of course, it's a masterpiece. The design, the item usage the colours, the shading, the background, everything. I mean look at the feet. The face. The clouds (which weirdly might be my favourite bit). So sorry to everyone who wanted to see someone different featured at some point, blame Jei.

Gallery: You should all know this by now

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Well, that's a relief. As you can undoubtedly tell from the title of this weeks post, I've actually managed to pick a single picture for this weeks COTW, after two weeks of not being able to choose between multiple pics. Not that there was a deficit of awesomeness at all (just look at the Also Awesome section for proof), it's just Ubiquitous Pixel has stolen the show this week. And because of that I am also going to put one of his pieces in Also Awesome as well, because it was so hard to chose between the two. Nevia The Archer showcases an incredible pose, one of the most inventive I've ever seen done on HM and, as a picture on the whole, it was only bettered by one picture this week. That picture of course being Guardian Angel. This picture is awesome. The shading and highlighting is striking (to put it very lightly), the pose just furthers this. It's an odd thing, but this picture actually emanates power. It's kind of intimidating, like he's about to lay the smack down on someone and I don't want to be in his way when he does. Even though his face is covered, the way the head is tilted and how the eye is narrowed really gives the mask expression, which in its self is impressive. And do I even need to mention the wings...

Gallery: My Collection of Creative Imagination

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Ok. For once, I'm actually at a loss as to what to do here. I thought last week was going to be an anomaly, one week where everyone was on such amazing form that it was almost impossible to decide what would be COTW. But it seems everyone had other ideas and I'm left with a bit of a conundrum. You know how last week I said I had 10 different images that I could have chosen from? This week I've got so many images open in new tabs that I can't fit them all on to the tabs bar at the top of my page. But that's not the biggest problem. No, the biggest problem is that, out of all of those images, there are three that stand out and I can't in all good conscience chose one over the other two. It is not possible.

I know last week I was on about sitting there for hours trying to decide, but this week no, not going to do it, because I will not be able to decide. You can't make me. So I'm just gonna leave it there, we can have a three-way joint COTW for this week and I'm gonna go hide in a corner somewhere, binge on chocolate and pray that next week everyone goes a bit easier on me.

Candruth- Rossus

Gallery: Candruth's Characters :3

Jeimuzu- Mech Suit- Stratus X

Gallery: Jeimuzu's World

Lull-carae- Sweet Death

+masking diagram for how the body was made, just to blow everyone's minds a bit more.

Gallery: Lull-carae's works

And incase that wasn't enough for y'all, there's even more below the jump…

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You know, it's an odd feeling when you're happy that you've got a group of people doing their absolute best to make life difficult for you. Because that's how I felt deciding this weeks COTW. Honestly. Just to give you an insight into how I do this post, on Thursday evening I sit down and go through all of the galleries that have been posted on in the forums from the week and open up all the pictures that I could do in new tabs, so I can just click through and compare them (plus then I can just copy the link into the Add Media box for the picture). Not including this tab, I've got 10 tabs open at the moment, each containing a COTW worthy picture. How am I meant to decide?

I mean, at the moment I'm so torn. Just looking through them all you've got the amazing block lighting from Yautja's FireAnt character which is just staggering and complements the flat, earthy colours of the costume so well. But then you've got Candruth with her standard, high, high standard in shading and attention to detail (just look at the reflection of the character in the blades). But then AMS comes along with some truly stunning shading of his own, plus some crazy body shaping and gorgeous water effects. And then we have Ubiquitous Pixel with one of the most intense action poses I've seen done in Heromachine. You've got cool costuming from Funkmachine and Son4, great shading from Linea and Anarchangel and horrifying creepiness from Lull-carae. Plus Jeimuzu seems intent on making me quit heromachine by being just too awesome to handle. So who do I choose?

*A long, long time later*

Dammit you lot why do you have to be sooo good.

I have reached a decision. Even though there's only one of me, the vote wasn't unanimous, but we're gonna go with it. I'm gonna say this weeks COTW is Spirit Of Spartacus by Ubiquitous Pixel. The chest may look a little odd and it might be a bit rougher round the edges than some of the other candidates, but I dunno, even amongst such distinguished company, this was the one I kept coming back to.

Gallery: My Collection of Creative Imagination

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This weeks decision for COTW was very tough. It was never in any doubt who would get the nod, but choosing which picture was the tricky part. Lull-carae has been on a role this week, posting 4 pictures this week that I could have done this post on, whether it be for reasons of lighting, posing, effects, symbolism, but in the end I decided to go with this one, because it just ties everything that I mentioned together very nicely. You have the dark and moody lighting (something which Lull has made somewhat of a trademark), the laid back pose (which is simple but I give props for actually making the arms/ under-arms work, which isn't always as easy as you'd think), the tired expression, the discarded chains and shackles and the blood splattered bandages and scars that the character supports, it all tells a really interesting story just from this one picture. And that is never a bad thing.

Gallery: Lull-carae's works

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I'm sorry, this is ridiculous. Does this not look like it was hand drawn and coloured rather than created on Heromachine? I mean, I see bits I recognise from the 'machine, but the way they're put together defies all logic. Those of you who remember the original COTW run know that I'm a big fan of Jeimuzu's work, but this one takes the biscuit, cake, confectionary isle and the whole damn store. How long did this take to do anyway? I guess we now know what Jei was doing in the few months he was away from us. And if you would care to share exactly how you did that shading Jeimuzu-senpai, it would be much appreciated.

Oh, and Jeff, if you're reading this, HOF at all? I think it deserves it.

For some reason I feel like watching Neon Genesis Evangelion….

Gallery: Jeimuzu's World

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I say it time and time again, you can do so much by just keeping it simple. This weeks COTW just proves my point. It's a basic forward facing pose, no fancy posing tricks. The costume is one colour and there's only 4 colours used in the entire composition, including skin and eyes. And whilst there is shading, it's not especially elaborate or intricate, it's more "put a highlight there, put another there" (apart from the face, which is brilliant, what you can see of it of course). But add all of this together and the result is amazing. It's not flashy, it's just good. And that's all that matters.

Gallery: Wolf Master's Character Gallery

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So, on Monday, this new guy starts a thread on the forums and starts filling it with work that literally causes peoples heads to explode… Hang on, didn't I do this once before, for Valyndril? Oh well. Either way, I'm a bit stuck, because I actually don't know what piece to highlight here. I whole-heartedly suggest following the link below to Roga Monk's gallery. Some, No, All of the the stuff in there is amazing, but just to give you a taster, here's the first picture that Roga posted. And this isn't even the best one, I just couldn't decide which was...

Gallery: Roga Monk

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