Category Archives: Uncategorized

Character Design Challenge #313 – Hitting The Road

Your Character Design Challenge this week is to design a post apocalyptic method of transportation. It can be a plane, train or automobile, or anything else that gets you from here to there. It should also include examples of masking, highlighting and shading.

There is no limit on number of entries this week. Please follow the instructions below for naming your files.

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. 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 :,ImageShackPhotoBucket, or whatever);

  • Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
  • 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 on Sunday, March 19th at 9:00am Eastern.

Character Design Challenge #311 – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Results

Great turn out again this week, with some awesome entries!

Honourable mentions go out to RobM for his Cavalry Captain...

and Herman Smellville for this hilarious entry. Brilliant!

Runner up this week goes out to AMS. As always, beautifully rendered, and the face is truly great!

And the winner this week is Kellkin for Bonnie Bandit. From top to bottom this is fine work. The pose, the handling of the textile and belt/buckle details are top notch.

Please join me in congratulating Kellkin, and thanks to all who entered.

Character Design Challenge #310 – Classic With A Twist – Results

Holy crow! Evidently folks love a Grim Reaper challenge! So great to see so many people show up to the party.

So here we go...

Honourable mentions go to Kellkin for the stunning Lady Reaper. Great pose and handling of the costume elements...

and to Xinmodic for the hilarious Reaper Bunny. Brilliant!

Runner up goes out to Cliff for his unique approach and stunning shading and highlighting.

And the win goes to Christi S. This piece is so creative in it's approach to the character, and in it's use of masterfully placed highlights. There is a sadness in the character's face that is really unique.

Please join me in congratulating Christi S on the win. Well done you!

Thanks to all who entered.

Character Design Challenge #309 – A Valiant Effort – Results

Firstly, I have to say, you folks don't make picking a winner easy at all, and this week was no different. The best part for me is seeing how different artists interpret the challenge - always a surprise. Plenty of great works to choose from - not to mention a surprise novel 🙂 - so here we go!

Honourable mention goes to Primelionstar for his version of Arthurian royalty decked out for battle.

And this week's win goes to Meniukas for his early tribal piece. Nice to see you entering contests again. Welcome back, and well done you!

Please join me in congratulating Meniukas on the win, and thank you to all who entered.

Character Design Challenge #307 – Biomechanical – Results!

Honourable mentions go to CantDraw and Kellkin.

This week's win goes to Lull-carae or this stunning piece of character design. There is something hauntingly beautiful about this piece. Well done you!

 

A Winner Is Not Us: Adapting Video Games Into Film

Hey, everyone. Today I wanted to talk about something a little different. I know there was both a new Power Rangers and a new Logan trailer last week that I probably should be discussing, but thinking about those and other, upcoming movies has made me think a lot about movie adaptations. Now I’m not here to say that there is some sort of epidemic of movies adapted from other material, because this has quite literally been happening since the beginning of film. And adaptations run a long gamut in quality as well, it’s not all either good or bad. But there is one particular genre of film adaptation that just never seems to quite… get there. I refer, of course, to the much-maligned video game movie. So, in honor of the release of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter this past weekend, let’s see what if we can make some sense of this.

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Anticipated Movies of 2017 Part 1: January to June

Hey everyone! We’ve looked at the movies of the past year and now it’s time to look ahead! This is pretty self-explanatory so let’s just jump right in. Here are my anticipated movies from January to June of 2017.

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Character Design Challenge #304 – Masterworks – Results!

This week's winner is HerrD for this remarkable take on the source material. Brilliant!!! Well done you! Nailed it!

Please join me in congratulating HerrD on an amazing piece of work.

Character Design Challenge #304 – Masterworks

Your challenge this week is to recreate a portion of The Scream by Edvard Munch using HeroMachine. There is no limit on number of entries this week.

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. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warning. Only post characters that you have either created for this contest specifically or you know for certain have never been entered to 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 :,ImageShackPhotoBucket, or whatever);

  • Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
  • 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 on Sunday, January 15th at 9:00am Eastern.

Character Design Challenge #303 – The International Legion for Justice: Phase 3 – Results

This week's winner id Kellkin, Very dynamic pose and good attempt at displaying her powers.