Category Archives: Character Design Challenges

For this weeks contest I want you to design something musical. It can be a band, performer, instrument, genre characterisation etc. doesn't matter as long as it has something to do with music.

No limit on entries, good luck and have fun.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: 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 warnings. 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.

Apparently, there is a special celebration coming up for you guys across the pond. So, I thought it might be a good time to do a contest that I'm surprised hasn't been done before (just a take a few minutes to let the irony of an Englishman giving you a fourth of july contest sink in).

This week I want you to design a character that represents one of the 50 states that make up America. Doesn't matter what you do, just so long as it is connected to a state in some way. I know a few people have done things along these lines already, so I know this should be good.

There is a limit on entries this week, but I doubt anyone will reach it. You can only do ONE ENTRY PER STATE PER PERSON, so you can only do each state once (so there's a limit of 50 entries, but I'm not expecting you to do them all).

It'd be nice to see every state represented. If we do I'll make a map using my favourites for each state at the end of the week. But anyway, good luck and have fun.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: 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 warnings. 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.

Ok, for this weeks character design contest I want you to give me your interpretation of a god from mythology (none of the major world religions please, we don't want to cause offence, unintentional or otherwise). However, I'm going to give one rule......

NO GREEK/ ROMAN OR NORSE GODS

They've been done to death. There are plenty of other pantheons to pilfer from.

As I said, it is your interpretation, so it doesn't have to be historically accurate (you can do modern day superhero versions if you want), but keep the theme of whoever you're doing and please make sure I can tell who it is (links to wiki pages may help, I don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all mythology).

Anyway, you have until Sunday. No limits on entries. Have fun and good luck.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: 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 warnings. 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.

Ok, for this week's character design contest I want you to design the best 'Leader/ Ruler' character you can. I'm not thinking of like a "team leader" I'm thinking "World Leader" (yes with capitals). So, I want Kings, Queens, Emperors, Tyrants, Presidents, Dictators and Religious Rulers or any variation of the above that comes to mind. They can be from the past, the future or the present, from a fantasy realm, a sci-fi realm, a real or fictional country (just so long as they are your own creations and not recognisably a real-life person). Just make them awesome.

No limits on entries this week. Have fun and good luck.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: 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 warnings. New rule: characters entered for these contests must have been made specifically for these contests (just to make sure no-one accidentally posts something they have entered into another contest previously).

P.s.- I'm giving up on the naming policy because so many people (some of whom I know for a fact know how to do it properly because they've done it before) still don't get it right, and just as long as you give your work a clear name and I can tell who its by from the name in the comments, I'll just rename the file when I save it. HOWEVER, this only applies to these contests, djuby may not have a similar policy for the Pop Quizzes.

So, this week I want to challenge you a bit more than usual. Therefore, what I want you to do this week is to create a comic book cover for one of your own original characters using heromachine and only heromachine. In addition to the normal rules, there are some extras just for this week that need to be considered.

You Must Include: A Title Line (i.e. The Amazing Spider-Man), A Company Logo (i.e. Marvel Comics Group), A Price, An Issue Number or Story Title (i.e. Spider-Man No More). 

You don't have to include things like a barcode or the comics code authority seal, but to be eligible to win you must include all of the above.

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ONLY SUBMIT NEW CREATION FOR THIS CONTEST, as any creations I have seen before will not be counted.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: 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 warnings. New rule: characters entered for these contests must have been made specifically for these contests (just to make sure no-one accidentally posts something they have entered into another contest previously).

All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like the HeroMachine forums,ImageShack, PhotoBucket, 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 files as [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). See this post on how to get the direct link for most sites.

Incase anyone is stuck on how they can do a cover on heromachine, after the jump I've included some covers by machiners on the forum that I think work quite well.

Continue reading →

Howdy Partner. For this weeks contest I want you to design me a mash up of the Wild West genre and another genre of your choosin'. It could be sci-fi, fantasy, historical, superhero, anime/manga, steam-punk, cyber-punk, 70's cop show, I'm not all that fussy, just make it good y'hear. Y'all have until noon on Sunday.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: 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 warnings. New rule: characters entered for these contests must have been made specifically for these contests (just to make sure no-one accidentally posts something they have entered into another contest previously).