Hey, everyone!
Anyone here with a flair for character design who'd like to win 20k and a couple of thousand slot tokens?
Then step right up.We, that is Catalytic Productions comic studio, are looking for someone to design the protagonist of one of our short comics. We've bandied around a couple of designs and haven't really come up with anything that takes our fancy, so here's your chance to have a go and take home a decent sum of gold. If we really like your design, we'll use it in our short comic Butterfly's Delight. I'm gonna state here that we won't necessarily use any of the designs submitted to this contest in our comic, but we will still pick a winner regardless. We'll also put your winning entry up on our deviantART group and Tumblr.
Butterfly's Delight is a short, mostly silent surreal/horror comic about a small town which suffers a string of gruesome murders committed by a sinister butterfly. Our protagonist is an ordinary school student and the only one who seems to see what's happening and tries to fight back. Here's an excerpt from the comic script (written by Emihaumut):
Butterfly's Delight
Panel 11
[Camera is right behind Hero, looking outside the window, so you get a bit of Hero on the side, and the playground outside the window. Butterfly Smudge~]
Teacher: so we're going to merge the classes together for the day.
Panel 12
[Close up of butterfly? Optional panel. I think it'd be useful but that's a lot of closeups.]
Panel 13
[Again, optional, but it makes the pages more evenly distributed. We see the questioning face of Hero.]
-Page Break-
Panel 14
[Walking home again. You know the drill. Except…]
Scream: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!
Panel 15
[Hero running towards the sound.]
Panel 16
[Camera's behind Hero again, and we're looking out into the streets. Dead body again. Your choice of death, but I'd prefer something bloody. ]
Panel 17
[Butterfly~ (above the body, I think you know the drill by now)]
Panel 18
[Look of horror on Hero. Waist up would be nice.]
Panel 19
[Camera in front of Hero, looking at him/her straight up as s/he runs away from the butterfly. We see the butterfly and corpse in the background.]
-Page Break-
Panel 20
[Hero, panting inside his/her house, leaning up against the door.]
Panel 21
[Hero walking up the stairs. We could just be looking at his/her legs. There should be a clock somewhere saying it's like 3/4/5 o'clock. Whatever time it is that kids get out of school these days. ]
-Gap between panels-
Panel 22
[Hero with cellphone in hand sitting in the kitchen/dining room. I'd imaging there'd be a counter to sit at. A clock should read about 8 or 9 o'clock.]
Cellphone: Please leave your message after the tone.
Panel 23
[Closeup of the phone. It should be in the text message screen, with Hero sending a message to Mom. ]
To: Mom
Msg: Hey, where are you? I'm gonna make myself some dinner so don't buy me any on your way home from work.
Panel 24
[Hero standing at the stove/microwave cooking noodles, staring outside the window.]
Panel 25
[Butterfly with blood dripping from its wings trying to force its way into the crack between the window and the frame.]
Panel 26
[Butterfly slips in and hero falls over (may take two panels).]
[Camera is right behind Hero, looking outside the window, so you get a bit of Hero on the side, and the playground outside the window. Butterfly Smudge~]
Teacher: so we're going to merge the classes together for the day.
Panel 12
[Close up of butterfly? Optional panel. I think it'd be useful but that's a lot of closeups.]
Panel 13
[Again, optional, but it makes the pages more evenly distributed. We see the questioning face of Hero.]
-Page Break-
Panel 14
[Walking home again. You know the drill. Except…]
Scream: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!
Panel 15
[Hero running towards the sound.]
Panel 16
[Camera's behind Hero again, and we're looking out into the streets. Dead body again. Your choice of death, but I'd prefer something bloody. ]
Panel 17
[Butterfly~ (above the body, I think you know the drill by now)]
Panel 18
[Look of horror on Hero. Waist up would be nice.]
Panel 19
[Camera in front of Hero, looking at him/her straight up as s/he runs away from the butterfly. We see the butterfly and corpse in the background.]
-Page Break-
Panel 20
[Hero, panting inside his/her house, leaning up against the door.]
Panel 21
[Hero walking up the stairs. We could just be looking at his/her legs. There should be a clock somewhere saying it's like 3/4/5 o'clock. Whatever time it is that kids get out of school these days. ]
-Gap between panels-
Panel 22
[Hero with cellphone in hand sitting in the kitchen/dining room. I'd imaging there'd be a counter to sit at. A clock should read about 8 or 9 o'clock.]
Cellphone: Please leave your message after the tone.
Panel 23
[Closeup of the phone. It should be in the text message screen, with Hero sending a message to Mom. ]
To: Mom
Msg: Hey, where are you? I'm gonna make myself some dinner so don't buy me any on your way home from work.
Panel 24
[Hero standing at the stove/microwave cooking noodles, staring outside the window.]
Panel 25
[Butterfly with blood dripping from its wings trying to force its way into the crack between the window and the frame.]
Panel 26
[Butterfly slips in and hero falls over (may take two panels).]
That should give you a feel for the comic, its tone and a bit of our hero's personality. The setting is modern-day, although if you wanted to set it in a different decade (say the 80s or the 50s) to make things interesting, be our guest. We can change up some elements of the setting if we really like your idea. But no historical, fantasy or sci-fi designs please - we'd like to keep this one grounded in reality.
Our hero should be between 10 and 15 years old, but all other aspects of his or her design are up to you - that includes gender, height, weight, hobbies and so forth. The more creative, the better!
The deadline for contest entries is one month from today, the 25th December. (Deck the halls with boughs of holly...) If we don't have at least 3 entries to choose from by then, the deadline may be extended some. Tell your friends! Let's make this an interesting competition :3
Entries can be PMed to me or posted in this thread. The contest judges will be the heads of Catalytic Productions, Emihaumut and enchantedsleeper.
