The response to Character Contest 62, which challenged you to create a template available to everyone who uses HeroMachine 3 for a Fantasy Warrior, was huge. My sincere thanks to everyone who entered, I am once again humbled by your creativity and skill.
I've broken the results into two sections, male and female. I went through and picked out my favorites, limiting it to one entry per person in the interest of fairness even though there were some (Felipe S. Card, Scorpidius, Sutter Kaine, and several others) who had two or more I thought were outstanding. I ended up disqualifying any that had the arms in a non-standard position (that was one of the contest requirements this time around), and although I picked out several Templars initially (PyroDude760, Myro, and a few others), I ended up leaving them off at the end because they were all just too similar.
But hey, I've done the hard part, now you get to do the even harder part of picking a winner! After I show you all of the Finalists, I'll have a poll where you can vote for up to five (5) entries you think would be great templates to show to new users as a starting point. Polls close at 8 am Mountain Time on Wednesday when the entry with the highest total number of votes will win.
You can use whatever criteria you like for voting, of course, but as for me, here's how I looked at the initial entries:
- Is it awesome to look at?
- Is it relatively easy to duplicate or pick apart so the newbie can figure out how to do it on their own?
- Does it say "Fantasy Warrior" to me when I look at it?
Without further fanfare, I present the many Finalists for the Male Fantasy Warrior template for the first half of Character Contest 62:
Arioch:
Atomic Punk:
Blazing Tornado:
Captain Brass:
Coolness is for Cool Kids:
DBlade:
Felipe S Card:
Hammerknight:
Iflyte:
Imp:
Jordan Xord:
Kaldath:
Martian Blue:
Mashlagoo:
Me, Myself, and I:
Nakiato:
Scorpidius:
Sutter Kaine:
xXBladeXIIXx:
And now, the poll! Remember, you can vote for up to five (5) entries, but you can only vote once. Good luck everyone! Polls close at 8 am Mountain Time on Wednesday.
My view of the ballot is missing some names. For example, neither Jordan Xord nor Mashlagoo is there. I just see Arioch, A. Punk, Blazing T, Captain B, Coolness…, Iflyte, MM&I, Nakiato, Scorpidius, S. Kaine
Hammerknight’s isn’t on the list? what gives?
Am I going blind or is there an entry in the poll for DBlade but no picture for me to look at?????
YEA! I did it!
Apologies for the screw-ups, HeroMachinists. The missing poll entries should now be showing up. I also added one for xXBladeXIIXx and one for DBlade that were accidentally filed in the Female post.
Fantastic work by all! My favorites are Sutter Kaine and Kaldath,but they all look great! Good job everybody!
Now that DBlade and xXBladeXIIXx’s images are up,I would have to rate them with Sutter Kaine and Kaldath!
I feel really bad I left them off at first, even though it was only up for like half an hour. Still, if I were smarter, I’d have prepared both posts ahead of time, checked them thoroughly, then posted them both at once. Live and learn. Or don’t, as seems to be the case with me.
I did good I think.
Uggh, mine here is the least appealing of all my entries. I can see why it might have made it here though because it was the simplest. Still, not the best of the bunch.
When will the winner be picked
Coolness is for Cool kids (11)
Polls close at 8 am Mountain Time on Wednesday when the entry with the highest total number of votes will win.
@MMI: How did you pull off the masking with both hands? My trick is to use two Blunts. No, not those kind. ;p
I have one full color Blunt that I Mask to the Right Hand. I place a second Blunt Item in the same position. I set the colors to 0 (Transparent) then Mask it to the Left Hand.
It works pretty well, actually.
The Atomic Punk (13)
It depends on positioning of everything. I do it differently on almost every image that I have one object that needs to be masked into two hands. In this particular case they were actually two separate items that I masked so there was no special trick.
Here is an example of other methods I’ve used which might come in handy. Let me know if that makes sense. If not, I can do a much more detailed recipe to show you.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6781672/Recipe/Two%20Handed%20Masking/Two%20Handed%20Masking.png
The Atomic Punk (13) I should add also that I’ll occasionally have two or three of the same item layered exactly on top of one another to mask to separate objects. I often only mask to one of the actual hands. The other objects are usually masked to whatever shapes fit the area around the other hand.
Wow! I am in. And the other entries are very good. Good luck to all.
These entries are the ones I thought were the best of the best. Everything is great in them, I just found minor nitpicks(mainly preference).
1.MB | Not always do I prefer my entrants, but this time I did. That’s not to say it’s better than anyone elses, just my personal preference concerning design
2.Felipe S Card | The pattern on the cape | Suggestion = try a different mask
3.Sutter Kaine | If anything the legs seem kinda bare, but not really either
4.Kaldath | Shoulder Pads/Plate Armor | Suggestion = try different mix of either or both
5.Captain Brass | Armor overlaps wristbands | Suggestion = different wristbands
I hope I’m not offending anyone with these minor observations, I’m mainly trying to point out what helps me chose my favorites. As the program’s age grows so does the talent, thus at the lvl the entries are, it’s quicker and easier to pick out the one or two thing(s) I don’t like instead of everything I do.
Girl vs Boy – I think the girl set had more competition for top quality entrants, but I think the boy set over the girl set in the 5-5 vote 4 against 3.5 score personally
I consider it an honor just being nominated!
A big thank you to everyone who decides to drop a vote my way!
It’s awesome that I was included, especially since I consider myself a total newbie. I was actually relieved to see a contest that required the “basic pose” since making elaborate poses has always been my weak point.
Cool to see all the “masking” tips on here. I’ve never really understood how that feature works.