The character contest challenge this week was to take a common phrase of two words (or three if you could swing it) and turn that into a super-powered pair of characters, like "Hawk and Dove" or "Love and War" or "Cloak and Dagger". A lot of the entries were very good, but the featured pair weren't really a phrase like that. For instance, I think Crinold's "Gaia and Quicksand" are marvelous illustrations, but "Gaia and Quicksand" isn't a saying:
Having said that, I thought the following submissions were great examples of good illustrations that also fit the contest concept. Well done all!
First up are a couple of entries that I thought were very clever or which made me laugh. Gene's "Monkey Business" was a very clever idea of a detective duo with that name where one of them is actually a chimp:
In a similar vein, Mr. Vampire's "Fish & Chips" features a singularly unlikely duo that I thought was very funny:
SongBird's "Ebony and Ivory" was sort of a cross-over for me in that it's funny, but I also think it's a good idea. I know I'd much rather see this pairing than McCartney and Jackson. Plus, bonus points for use of the car. I can totally see this as a "Starskey and Hutch" remake.
Imp turned in his usual strong effort, which might have won if the word pairing were more of a phrase. I think the actual character designs are stellar, with a lot of great detail and personality.
BlueBlazer also turned in two very strong character designs, and their pairing was more what I had in mind, featuring "Smoke and Mirror", a more common phrase rather than two words which are often used together. I especially liked the effect of Smoke's body snaking out of his uniform, that's cool.
KingMonkey turned in "Shock and Awe", which I thought was a good pairing. What nailed it though was the background on Shock, which I think is one of the best I've seen yet.
Rancid won the last multiple-character contest, and he came darn close again this time around, with "Crimson and Clover". Their uniform designs are outstanding, particularly the use of the colored piping that is similar for both of them while still being distinctive on each. I also liked the energy effects behind Crimson, it gives the illustration a lot of interest and depth. Very well done, Rancid, on both!
Finally, our winner. I really liked this illustration's "mood", which is a difficult thing to achieve. Everything works well, from the improvised clarinet to the characters' distinctive personalities to the background colors and font choices. Drummergirl's "Rhythm & Blues" really hit the mark of the contest concept, and is a fun and original composition to boot. Well done, Drummergirl!
As the overall winner, Drummergirl will get to choose either one item or a caricature of her face to be included in the HeroMachine 3 final version. Congratulations!
Thanks as well to everyone who entered, there were some great drawings and I really appreciate your time and talent being shared with us.
The doubles contests are getting boring
Congrats Drummergirl!
my account hasnt been activated yet. its been about a week now
why oh why :{
Congratulations
Rancid–A lot of us have the feeling that the UGO.com guys are seriously out to lunch–some of us have had issues for several months which they haven’t addressed. It’s possible that you have encountered the same bug with the UGO site that some of us long-time members have encountered, in which it treats all our accounts as “not approved yet”. Jeff has tried to reach them on numerous occasions about our issues to no avail.
Thanks for the nod!
Wish I’d had more time to work on others; Rock and Roll, Cats and Dogs, and I wanted to take a poke at the obvious War and Peace.
All great entries!
I don’t mind the doubles so much – not boring, but a lot of work.
So what’s the new contest?
Congratulations, Drummergirl!
Caption contest coming up shortly.
I am working on an alternative to the UGO forums, hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have something ready for you guys.
Next character contest I’ll have something non-multiple for you guys. You don’t want a demented clown going ape on you. Any suggestions are more than welcome for a theme.
@the good Mr. Hebert: I’ve suggested this before: replace a popular hero with a similar hero of our own design(Replace Superman with a man-god, replace Batman with a dark avenger of the night, replace the Flash with a speedster, etc.).
Hey Danny, that’s an interesting idea, but I’d be too afraid of copyright issues, you know? I try to avoid anything related to the Big Two in terms of character designs, even the implication that you could use this to ape (even as homage) one of their characters makes me twitchy.
@Jeff: Understood. How about a contest in which we give a public domain character a make-over?
Congrats everyone. Thanks Jeff for HM3, even if it is only in alpha, I think I’ll be taking a break from the contests for awhile, so keep up the good work everyone.
Oh man, sorry to hear that MartianBlue. Two of your entries this week were in the Finals folder, only to get cut at the last minute due to space constraints. I always like your illustrations, hopefully we’ll see you back some time!
@Danny: I’ve done that once or twice before, I’d be up for it again if there’s demand for it. I had the impression people didn’t like it all that much for some reason, but I’m game for whatever.
pirates or giant robots
how bout a character thats in the style of jack kirby or any other artist or style since we did the 90s which was pretty much liefeld
how bout a character contest for Halloween
I though the point was to have them in the same picture. Oh, and sorry mine didn’t have a background – my computer runs REEEAAALLY slow when there is a lot of stuff in one place, specifically things like Heromachine 3. Hell, I can’t even use the Textures… and I KNOW I could have fun with those…
how bout a character contest warriors of time
Romans,gladiators,Mongolians,Huns,Greeks,spartan
etc
Wow, there were a lot of great entries in this contest. Good job to those who submitted works, and congratulations to the winner and honorable mentions!
Haha lol, I never knew I had to use a phrase as template, and not two words that are linked together.
Thanks for the mentioning even though I didn’t fully understand the rules.
@Jeff, Tis The Season, Why Not A Halloween Theme?
You Know Witches, Scarecrows, Frankensteins, And Wolfmen.
Hallowe’en one would be cool. And, by the time the caption contest is over it will be one week until Hallowe’en!
The Halloween themed character contest is a great idea!
All righty then, Halloween is it for next week after this caption contest. Thanks all!
I really don’t know what to say this. I never expected that I’d win. I would like to thank the polearms for Rhythm’s arsenal. For those of you that want to know that soprano sax was constructed out of a lightsaber handle and a lot of pistol parts.
Thank you so much. It really is an honor.
As for my prize, I’ll think of something.
I was thinking of another kind of a contest, Jeffhebert. What if we try to use HM3 to make a Rob Liefeldesque characte? Granted, you may need to add more pouches into the program to make that work.
It’s been done, Kingmonkey.
Those were some pretty sweet Image homages. I wish I had been here at that time.
@ Jeff is it OK to start working on for the next Halloween character contest
Kyle you can work on whatever you want 🙂 I’ll only accept actual submissions when the contest gets posted, though.
Clover looks cute.
<3