You all submitted some great, creative, fun, interesting, and well-thought-out entries for last week's contest, and I wanted to say right off how much I appreciate the work and care you obviously put into these images. I built HeroMachine mostly because I knew there were an awful lot of very creative people out there with visual stories they wanted to tell, but who just lacked the tools to put their imaginations on paper. You continue to show how true that is week in and week out, so thank you for sharing your characters with all of us.
Now, having said that, I had to go through all the darn things and try to limit myself to just a handful to post here as Honorable Mentions, and believe me, it wasn't easy. I gave it my best shot, though, and I hope you enjoy seeing the "Best Of" gallery below.
First out of the gate, I thought Brons' two Nightshades complemented each other well. Both are strong designs and they look great next to each other.
Chase gave us "Blue Hurricane" and "Evil Hurricane", and while I thought the good version was pretty good, it's the bad iteration that really sells the whole project when put side-by-side with his alt. The color changes are striking, even though the basic character designs are so similar.
Another good example of effective color design is from Dazed and Confused, including a nice change of background. What struck me about both of these images is how strong they both are in their overall use of consistent, effective color.
Hammerknight had what I thought was one of the most striking and creative entries this week, which made me really sit back and take notice. He still does things with this program I never would have thought of in a million years.
In a similarly creative vein, I enjoyed Song Bird's duo; the dialog really capped it, I literally laughed out loud.
I now have to put in my obligatory Imp submission. I love the guy's work, what can I say? I don't have any penetrating insights to offer, I just thought both of these guys were cool, and they look like they'd be mirror universe folks, you know?
King Monkey submitted two of the best images I've seen to date yet, each very powerful in its way, and each just that much more affecting when seen as two sides of the same coin. Really nice work on both of these, KM. The mood is totally different, and yet works great for each.
Finally, we come to our winner. I am going to give you two of his submissions because I thought they were both fantastic, either very much deserving of a win. First was his Nazi-turned soldier, which I'll let him describe:
He was our greatest weapon against the Nazi’s but while on a mission in occupied France, the Patriot was captured. He managed to escape but not before Nazi scientists had harvested his DNA. Now Hitler has created his own weapon. Stronger, faster, smarter … perfect.
And next is a killer cover, called "The Magician", which I just loved.
Congratulations, Lawrence! Both of those entries were outstanding, and although you only win one prize, I did want to highlight them both. Well done!
Thanks again to all of the entries. I hope you had as much fun creating them as I did seeing them!
Congrats Lawrence, and everyone else. As I said before that Nazi is very menacing.
I Was Right On Who I Thought Would Win. No Honorable This Week, Darn. 1st Time Since I Started. Next Time.
Congrats Lawrence, I Knew You Were Gunna Win When I 1st Saw The Patriot And Nazi.
Good job all.
Congratulations to all the winners (BTW, I loved the guy suspended in the tank). Can’t wait to see what the next contest will be!
Wow, the winning pics are amazing this time around! Some great honorable mentions, too. Good job everybody!
This competition gets tougher every week. Amazing stuff, guys.
I am moving tomorrow and will probably be without wifi on my desktop for a while, so I’ll be laying out of the picture competitions, but I’ll still be checking out the entries at the library, and expect to continue to be blown away. 🙂
Congrats Lawrence
Yup, those two from Lawrence are probably the best I’ve ever seen. (Although I still like that elf chick and the werewolf from previous contests – can’t remember who did those.)
Good job, man. You definitely deserve the win.
Congratulations, Lawrence!!! 😀 I can’t believe that I got an honorable mention. That’s a first for the character contest. ^_^
Congrats Lawrence!
Is There A Thread That Says The Items That The Winners Asked For?
I don’t have that in one thread anywhere, no, but I do have a text file I use to keep track of it. Here’s what I have for the most recent stuff:
59 Danny Beaty Hangman’s noose with a skull in the noose
60 Niall Mor Wheelchair
1 Loki wizard staff with carved runes
5 Fantasy Damien Turned legs
6 Animalia MartianBlue Jeff Head
7 Spellslinger Abadon dragon sword
8 Your Character Darkvatican ???
9 It’s Elemental Andre Snake headdress
10 Independence Day Timespike The Killer’s mask from Weapons of Fate
11 Black Terror Timespike Logo from Belgian Malinois
12 Image Nineties Fishpants ???
13 Sidekick Kaldath Gauntlet twin krises
14 Sci-Fi Eric Corinthian helmet
Congratulations, Lawrence. The scientist’s reflection in the Ubermensch tube is great.
Lawrence, you are awesome!
Oh wow, when I didn’t see my entry right away I thought that I hadn’t even made the honourable mentions. I only did the Nazi one because I thought the magician wasn’t good enough. Thanks for your comments guys.
Jeff can I please have a skyline like Panama City’s?
http://www.diserio.com/panamaskyline.html
You got it, Lawrence.
Thank you.
I can’t believe that I am in the contest agsin thanks Jeff
Again not agsin my bad
Jeff, don’t forget my portrait for contest 15…
😀
Oh yeah, thanks Imp! Somehow that didn’t make it to the tracking list. Got it now though!
Lawrence, the Patriot morphing into his Nazi equivalent is just brilliant. The images look like three panels from a real comic book.
And mine Jeff! For Caption contest something or other… 😀
Hakoon I have you down as the winner of Caption Contest 55, but I don’t have recorded what item you wanted.
I sent you the e-mail with the pic of my face for a caricature quite a while ago.
OK, got it Hakoon, thanks. I have the picture I just didn’t update the text file that I track stuff with. I’m gonna sit down at some point and do a whole bunch of them.
Thanks Jeff. And don’t rush yourself. We’re all grateful that Heromachine is here in the first place, let alone you taking our requests.
Congrats Lawrence!