Character Design Challenge #186 – Elemental

earth_air_fire_water_eyes

Ok folks, this week your CDC Challenge is to design a character based on one of the four elements: earth, fire, water or air

There is no limit on the number of entries. Please read the contest rules before entering, have fun and good luck. The contest will close at 9:00am Eastern on Sunday, September 11th.

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).

Pop Quiz – Skull-Duggery – Results

This week's win goes to Melmo44 for this absolutely exquisite entry.

Melmo44-Sugar-Skull

Well done, and thanks to all our entrants.

Character Design Challenge #185- Out on a Limb – Results

Congrats going out to HerrD for his take on what would make the perfect treehouse! Well done you!

HerrD-DreamTreehome_zpsyg5yobfp

Pop Quiz – Skull-Duggery

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Your Pop Quiz challenge this week is to design a Sugar Skull.

You only get one entry so be creative, and above all else, have fun!

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;
  • The image must be new and designed specifically for the Pop Quiz;
  • No copyrighted characters please – they will be deleted.
  • 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 at 6pm Eastern on Sunday, September 4th.

Album Review: Sabaton- The Last Stand

Hey everyone, Melmo44 here. I’d been debating what to do, subject-wise, for my first post, when a surprise showed up in the mail on Monday.

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And, that pretty much made my decision for me. It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the band, even going so far as to use them as inspiration here on Hero Machine more than once. For anyone not familiar, Sabaton is a Swedish power-metal band whose lyrical content is based on military history. They tend to gravitate toward the two world wars, but also dedicated an entire album to the Swedish Empire (Carolus Rex) and another to songs reflecting the ideas of Sun Tzu (The Art of War). As the title implies, The Last Stand is an album detailing various last stands and last ditch efforts throughout the history of war. So with that, let’s see what we have. Do bear in mind during this review that I don’t really have knowledge about the technical aspects of music so I’m looking at this from an aesthetic perspective; how it sounds and how it makes you feel when you listen to it. Continue reading

KHU

Hey Folks, Just a quick update on my current health status. Good news is, I got results from a culture my doctor took last week and I am MRSA free, On the little bit good, little bit bad news front my doctor has decided to extend my disability for  nearly an additional month due to the wounds caused by the toe and bone amputations on my foot. So instead of returning to work in 3 weeks on Sept. 20th I am currently slated to return to work on Oct. 17th pending additional evaluation and completion of my Hyperbaric treatments. So there you have it, not a lot to report this time around but things for the most part are heading in the right direction.

The List: 5 Things The Star Wars Prequels Did Right

We all know the Star Wars Prequels. Three of the best films ever made, with excellent dialogue, a fantastic dynamic between it two romantic leads and no-one has anything bad to say about them. Well, that would be the case if we lived in Bizarro world, but unfortunately we don't, so what we instead got was a confused mess with an awfully wooden lead, stereotypical and racist characters that annoyed everyone and midiclorians. But that's not to say the films were all bad, all three films had definite good parts. And I've managed to cobble together a list out of them. I'm only doing 5 this time, because a lot of the good bits I've found can fit under certain banners, so rather than stretching the list out to make 10 or so, let's just go with 5.

Warning: Opinions ahead. Don't let them get you angry, anger leads to the dark side.

Continue reading

Character Design Challenge #185- Out on a Limb

Capture

Ok folks, this week your CDC Challenge is to use the tree template in the photo above to design the treehouse of your wildest dreams.

There is no limit on the number of entries. Please read the contest rules before entering, have fun and good luck. The contest will close at 9:00am Eastern on Sunday, September 4th.

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).

Pop Quiz – Best Foot Forward – Results

This week's winner is HerrD for his tongue planted firmly in cheek take on the challenge, Absolutely brilliant. Well done!

HerrD-FabledFootwear_zpspm0elkzq

Character Design Challenge #184- Shocking! – Results

Well this was a tough one. Very hard to whittle these entries down this week, and I have changed my mind half a dozen times already, and will undoubtedly again after posting this! So here goes nothing...

Honorable mention go to Cliff's Thor and Worf''s Lightning Girl.

Cliff_Shocking_Thor_Fox_zpsmdfpxmvg

Worf-Lightning-Girl

And this week's win goes to Xinmodic's Living Bolt. Great use of colour although I would be interested to see it with less...if any...black. But it is certainly effective.

Xinmodic-Living Bolt_zps7ycm5rdj

Thanks to all who entered.