Face Off Season 11

Cafe Society
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Yeah, I’d be interested in how she pulled that off to be original with the concept. I’m sure it would be fabulous.

They weren’t “eyes” per se, they registered IR and didn’t have a focusing mechanism or lens. They are like the pits on pit vipers - body heat detecting organs that for snakes is an additional organ to help them in low light (night, small spaces like pits). His premise is since his alien arose in caves, it didn’t develop full eyes, but stayed with the pit concept. It’s a concept. I didn’t have a problem with it.

Costume is only really called out when it is exceptionally bad or exceptionally good. Logan’s costume was good for his character, but nothing uniquely creative. I agree that it was a good sculpt and the overall look was good, but the muddiness of the colors washed it out. Look at the contrast between that and, say, Emily’s, with the dark veins on the brown skin that had teal highlights in the face and corners. Look at how George’s was a vibrant yellow with contrasting dark patterns. I agree with Safe for Logan. I suppose I might have balanced him with Emily’s because I didn’t like the overall shape and lack of sculptural detail.

At first I was thrown by the cantina comment, but I think I made sense of it. The cantina scene in Star Wars had a bunch of really strange aliens designed mostly to be as exotic as possible, and only really serve as backdrop to the story. The premise for this episode was to create a “character of the week” type of alien for an intergalactic “congress”. The backdrop characters in the cantina don’t need to be as detailed, as they get little screen time, whereas the aotw character needs enough refinement to stand up to close ups and various angle shots. At first, I really liked his, but when they pointed out the close up details I could see what they meant. I didn’t see Ve’s complaint about the paint job, however, and I agree he should have been Safe except there wasn’t anyone else bad but Evan.

Blake’s Seven? The original Star Trek? Lost in Space?

Agreed. This would have lost most episodes of most seasons.

[quote=“Finagle, post:57, topic:779434”]

Specifically in the Hawaiian god competition – never try to do a fire or lava makeup. I don’t think anyone has ever successfully brought one off in the history of Face Off.

[QUOTE]

I’ve seen one or two, but they are rare. It is a lot easier to get it wrong than right. I’ve seen a lot of wrong on Face Off.

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Okay, Last Week’s Tiki Challenge episode.

Another nice dress for Mackenzie for the opener.

Time to explore Hawaiian Mythology. Choose a tiki statue and create the god or goddess it represents. Oh, and the models this week will be trained dancers, and the costume must stand up to a Polynesian Dance.

George, Kanaloa, God of the Ocean: He’s also the oldest god. George wants to do old age but also fit a sea creature, so he decides to tie it to a sea turtle, which already has the weird old man look. Good starting place. He incorporates a lot of scale patterns from a turtle. George has 9 pieces to apply - that’s a lot of appliances, and they’re silicone, which takes more to lay right. He’s put a lot of work between him and painting.

Emily, Pele, Goddess of the Volcano: Her skin will be magma, with layers of crust breaking off of her, and she’s giving her an inverted Mohawk since the tiki statue has a Mohawk. The sketch already looks iffy - the inverted Mohawk doesn’t look like a good idea. Mr. Westmore points out that lava makeups pass or fail in believability of the lava look. She realizes in the middle that it is going bad, but doesn’t have a good way to start over.* During application, we get a closer look at the texture she molded on the face, and that looks pretty good. That approach all over would have been better than the craft project approach she took.

Tyler, Kane, God of Earth and Stone: His idea is a cowl of a giant rock formation that transforms into bark and vines. Hmm, be careful not to retread old ground. The face is going to be a lot of vine work, blooming into a small tree growing off the forehead. Hmmm, the sketch looks like a bad idea. Mr. Westmore’s comment is to give the face a lot of color to keep away from a human with a lot of face damage. I agree, the early face sculpt is kind of a jumble and hard to read as something specific. Tyler decides he wants a waterfall down the back of the cowl. He’s going for more of an “art piece” for this look. Hmm, I bet that’s a bad idea. He also completes a bunch of prepainting. The look on Tyler’s model’s face is a tell. He tries to mask, but his reaction says “ah oh”.

Logan, Lono, God of Agriculture: He’s lost on how to put agriculture into a makeup. He’s a god that blesses a rich crop and brings water to a desert. The tiki has a pineapple head design, so he starts with a pineapple head shape, with other plants and irrigation. Watch for tacky with the pineapple head. Mr. Westmore isn’t thrilled by it. He gets Logan having to do a rethink. Mr. Westmore suggest duplicating some of the forms of the statue. That’s a more direct approach rather than a taking the statue’s representation to a more literal pineapple look. After rethinking, he decides to ditch the cowl altogether and do a really good face. He’s making a lot of flowers and vines on the face, and a dry desert texture on the head. Logan is worried he isn’t doing enough, then he gets the idea to add tattoos. He happens to have a Maori tattoo, which has the right Polynesian feel, so he plays with that design and elements. Logan begins to feel his character doesn’t look like a God, and he’s not happy with his concept, but he’s stuck, too.

Cig, Ku, God of War: The god for human sacrifice, so Cig wants to go really aggressive and scary. Makes sense. Strong profile, angry face, scars and tattoos. He decides to add Hawaiian texture to the cowl, so he makes a wooden tool from a popsicle stick to cut the sharp corners for the shapes. He has the idea to paint his tattoo art first, then apply the skin color paint. That way, the tattoos look like they are under the skin. Smart.

Okay, time for judging. Guest judge is Lois Burwell.

Logan, Lono, God of Agriculture: The dry desert sculpture on the face is hard to discern as dirt, looks kind of like a skin condition. The sculpted flowers growing out of his head are very well done, but conceptually rough for the challenge. The tattoos look good, but Glen wants more. Lois says too much of everything. OK, I don’t quite follow Ve and Neville. Ve says she doesn’t get how the flowers are part of his skin. Uh, he’s a God? Neville says, “The hybridization of different forms of algriculture into the human physiology didn’t work, and I don’t think it can work.” Then he says, “I like how you approached it until you combined unlike elements in a non-juxtaposable way.” He likes how he approached it with a hybridization that can’t work? Bottom look.

Cig, Ku, God of War: His character looks like a god. The face is menacing, and the paint is well done. The cowl is a work of art, looking like a carved wood headdress. His paint and texturing read as wood, and the detailing is remarkable. But then we know he can do a remarkable amount of detailing from his rodeo clown puppet. If I have a complaint, it’s that it is pretty bland on color. The skulls should contrast from the wood more - maybe make the wood darker. And there isn’t any color elsewhere. a little with the tattoos, but not much. But the character is complete and really fits the challenge and the tiki he was given. Judges love it. Top Look.

Emily, Pele, Goddess of the Volcano: As feared, it looks bad. The inverted Mohawk doesn’t read like a volcano. The model already has a round face, and the sculpt emphasizes the width instead of giving her height. The yellow is too bright on her face, and the fabrication approach was just wrong. And broken rock magma boobies. Bottom look.

George, Kanaloa, God of the Ocean: Very much a turtle-man. Really good appliances and application, really good paint job. Really good wrinkles that look real. I’m just not sure it fits this challenge to make a God. Top Look.

Tyler, Kane, God of Earth and Stone: Wow, his last couple have been knockouts, but this is a disaster. The tangled vines of the face are more clutter than pattern, the eye paint is weird, the rock texture on the head is pretty good though I’m not sold on the lopsided shape, and the tree is a big miss. Then there’s the waterfall off the back. Dumb choices, not god-like at all. “It’s like a miniature water park”, doesn’t feel realistic to have a diorama as a head. “Tyler’s weakest contribution to the show on either season.” Ouch! Safe for some unexplained reason.

Winner: Cig. His was the only God, and looked great.

Eliminated: Logan. Of the bottom looks, he has the weakest record this season. This was a battle between misguided technique versus misguided concept.

Mackenzie is wearing a sparkly cling dress. I like it.

God of possums - WTF? Okay, I can see me saying something like that just to be weird.

  • So what do you do when you’re a day and a half into it and you realize your work is complete crap, that your approach is bad? How does one try to recover? I mean, I can see losing the first day and coming back with a clean concept on day 2 and fast work. But when day 2 is midway through, you’ve got maybe 4 hours to resculpt and mold, or try fabricating, or hack up what you have and apply it in a creative way.
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Where do you see it come loose? I’ve scoured the dance and the after inspections, and can’t see what you mean.

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Left pectoral. There’s a bit, about 2 fingers wide, with visible skin that’s lighter than the cowl or the painted skin around it.

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I still don’t see a lifted edge. I can see where the cowl ends, but if you look at the close inspections, you can see he put scarification texture in the edge line to help justify it. This is most visible in the morph image. I see where there is a curved tattoo line and between that and the cowl the skin is a bit paler than other areas he painted, but if you look at when he steps to the center for the conversation, there are several areas that are lighter and other areas that are darker. There are also shadows from feathers. Maybe some of the color ran, but it doesn’t look that way.

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Okay, catching up with the semi-finale episode…

They go on top of a building and pick a “blueprint” of an iconic style of architecture, and design a gargoyle that fits in that style. Gargoyles. Oh, and they have to have wings.

Tyler, Victorian: Victorian architecture has an intricate look, with every nook and cranny decked out with detail. Tyler latches on to the shapes in the British Parliament building, and decides that’s the way he wants to go. He’s going to do an archangel gargoyle made of stone or granite. He starts sculpting a lot of curves and points. Tyler works face the first day so he can line up elements to the cowl on the second day, and he puts a lot of effort into that. Tyler applies the face and cowl, bases it out in white, then goes in with a dark wash to pick up all the nooks and crannies for shadowing to bring out the details on the sculpt. He then airbrushes over that. His is starting to look really cool, and that’s without the paint even done.

Emily, Art Deco: Clean lines, repeating geometric shapes, lots of polished stone or metal, and lots of eagles and people in robes, so she goes for an eagle/human hybrid in robes in brushed gold. I kinda like the forehead shaped on her face sculpt, but Mr. Westmore comes along and says the nose is too small and not birdlike enough. Art deco has huge beaks. So that throws Emily for a loop, she has to “start all over”. I don’t think that’s what he said, just fix the nose, but okay. For the wings, she starts with some oversized fans and cuts them to make a fan pattern for the wings. Then she ends up laying panels over the wings until there’s no part of the original fan visible, so it doesn’t seem she really needed them at all. I guess, though, it created a framework for the structure, so that’s useful. Emily struggles to get the molds finished and cleaned out on day 2, and Tyler jumps in to help. The molds turn out a little rough, but she thinks she can make the damage look like weathering to the metal.

Cig, Russian Renaissance: Lots of vibrant colors, shapes, textures, and the domed spires, it’s all wild. The challenge is to make wings that look cool, not hoaky. He goes with a living creature gargoyle face with the domes on the head and shoulders and everything done up in vibrant colors and patterns. He once again makes some popsicle stick stencil tools to cut the consistent intricate patterns in the cowl and shoulders. That’s a lot of complex work, again. Lots of color painting.

George, Deconstructionism: George doesn’t know what Deconstructionism is as an architectural style. But studying it for a bit, he decides it is a big middle finger to the establishment of what architecture is supposed to be, so he tries to use that approach to designing the gargoyle. Everything will be twisted and asymmetrical, and he will have two different sized horns. Everything will be painted as metal. Mr. Westmore points out the curvy mouth might read as comedic - something George really needs to avoid. It’s reminiscent of the stone puppet face. Also, the curviness of the throat area reads more fleshy than metal sculpt, so angularize it out. George spends a lot of time on the sculpts and molding, so he is late getting to wing fabrication. His first attempt at curvy metal slab wings is heavy foam with armature wire to hold the shape, but they don’t really work and are too heavy. His second approach is to shape warbla plastic sheets, but that doesn’t work for him, either. Running out of time on day 2, he finally grabs a sheet of L200 foam, sticks it on the harness, and paints it silver. It looks like a big curvy slab. Then he works on the horns, trying to make a big horn to look like wrapped steel cable. Yarn is a good method to simulate braided cable, but the horn itself is kinda clunky and unaesthetic.
Judging time.

Emily, Art Deco: Her gold colored gargoyle is very stylish. She does a great job using the rough spots from molding to look like weathering, the paint application really makes it pop with dark shadowing and gold highlights. The eagle face looks great, and the wings are especially spot on with their shape really fitting the Art Deco look. The curves and shapes are striking, and the profile is great. The judges think the lines are graceful and the bird is a great choice. Ve says it looks like it could have walked off some of the building elevators in New York.

George, Deconstructionism: First impression, the “wings” look like crap. Even though the style is a lot of warped metal sheets, this is a bit too direct. Also, the giant gold horn is a miss. Even though odd, misshapen, out of proportion parts are appropriate, this just doesn’t look good. But the sculpts for the face and head are interestingly twisty and interesting. The paint also has some blue highlights to offset with all the silver. Overall there are some good elements to fit the style, though some real rough points. Neville calls it bold. The gold horn is jarring. Neville says the sculpting really fits the style. Neville also comments the wings were so simple, it looks like he threw them together in the last minute. Well, he kinda did.

Cig, Russian Renaissance: This has a really good distance read, with the minarets and the vibrant colors feeling right. Up close, the face reads appropriately fleshy with the chin and nose reflecting some architectural elements. I really like this one. His wings turned out pretty good, too. Glen is enamored by the element in the nose as something that ties everything together. Ve observes that the patterns are different on all the minarets.

Tyler, Victorian: His gargoyle looks amazing. The sculpting is awesome, the paint job is magnificent (again), the wings read very well as sculpted stone, it all is coherent and beautiful. There’s just one catch - it doesn’t really read Victorian. It feels more Gothic to me, though Glen says it seems more Art en Vogue. Victorian is more straight lines and peaks and intricate filigrees. Lots of woodwork and bright colors. Lots of straight lines. He got too set on one building and then didn’t really catch the salient elements from that one. So while he has an amazing piece, it misses the point of the challenge - to fit the architectural style assigned. Ve also observes a similarity of form to all of Tyler’s faces, being pointy on the chin. She would like to see something different out of him.

Winner: Emily. Yay!

Second in: Cig.

Third in: George. Even though his was a little messier than Tyler’s, Tyler missed the point of the challenge by not getting the architectural points right.

Tyler: “My gargoyle may not have been Victorian enough…” Meow.

Okay, I missed out on my usual handicapping because I was running behind, and checking in with Wikipedia kept giving me spoilers. “NO, I don’t want to know that Emily wins the next episode. And Tyler gets eliminated? No way!”

Here’s how their records shook out.

Emily: 5 Wins, 4 Tops, 2 Safes, 2 Bottoms.

Cig: 5 Wins, 1 Tops, 6 Safes, 1 Bottom.

George: 4 Wins, 2 Tops, 5 Safes, 2 Bottoms.

Tyler: 5 Wins, 3 Tops, 3 Safes, 2 Bottoms.

Emily clearly has the best record. Tyler actually has the second best record, and last week he was just ahead of Emily. However, he missed the point of this challenge, and it cost him. Cig’s got a slightly better record than George.

However, as we saw this week, with the level of talent it really is anyone’s to win, though I think Emily and Cig have a slight edge on George. All George’s wins came in partnership with Cig, and he has one more individual Bottom than Cig, who was Safe.

I wish Tyler had made the finale simply because the quality of his work has been stellar. I understand why George gets rewarded for taking a rough challenge in Deconstructionism and making it work, when Tyler missed completely. But individually, I think Tyler’s work has been better than George’s.

Mackenzie’s dress is a lovely black sequined number. Shiny.

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Got behind due to TiVo doing weird things.

Irishman, great summaries as usual! Thanks!

Tiki: It felt like none of them knew Hawaiian gods, not that I do, and that was the big problem. I agree that lava is never the way to go. Not knowing any of the gods, I found this one tough to say if they got something close in feel. Going on technical ability, Cig’s was best, although I wouldn’t have minded if the skulls had popped more.

I also don’t get all of Neville’s comments. I miss Patrick in times like these where his comments try to be high brow or perhaps explain something using big words, and it comes out gibberish.

Architecture: I’m really torn on this. I do think Emily deserved the win and that Cig’s was a very good choice for second place. The minarets were impressive. However, even not getting the architecture right, I think Tyler was a better fit than George for the finale. As Irishman said, George’s wins have been with someone else, not on his own. To win, the others will have to do poor work AND George will have to his best. While I get dinging Tyler for similar work before and the architecture, it was still better. Ah, well.

Okay, after reading up on Victorian, I still don’t “get” it. I have looked at images, read some stuff, and even contrasted it with gothic and it still doesn’t stand out as obviously different. Not sure why. So, I would have struggled with this as much as the wiki challenge.

As I said above, I don’t think George can pull off a win without the others doing bad work. I don’t see that happening. Again, I’m amazed at the increase in skill each season, although these are all stars, such that bottom looks now would be safe or better in earlier seasons.

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I think Tyler’s design was excellent, but I agree that it didn’t read “Victorian”. At least for houses, Victorian architecture tends to be fussy. It’s got tons of finicky details and lots of ornate fretwork. Without having the least bit of an architecture background, I’d say that Victorian architecture celebrates the advent of relatively inexpensive materials due to the industrial revolution combined with the availability of machinery and really inexpensive skilled craftsmen. Gothic architecture is full of arches, but Victorian is full of peaks and intricate scrollwork (gingerbread). Lots of maintenance, but who cares when you can hire a caretaker for room, board, ten pence a week and a day off every Whitsuntide?

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I loved Emily’s, it looked fantastic. As to the Art Deco-ness of it, Ve mentioned the NYC elevator doors, and I definitely agree with the comparison. Neville mentioned that the wings were the most Deco part of the gargoyle, and that is true. Good win for her!

Now, Cig’s … I didn’t like this as much as the judges. He obviously did A TON of work, and the painting was very precise and he captured all the forms and colors of Russian Renaissance, so I’m not arguing with that. However, I wasn’t wild about it because it looked like he stuck a bunch of onion domes on a person and called it a day. In the past, we’ve seen judges ding people for such a literal translation of a challenge. Glenn was very into the face and the forms on the nose, but the painting on the face seemed muddy to me. I was very surprised this was so high.

George’s was a tough one. He was obviously struggling with the concept of Deconstructionism, and it’s probably a tough one because I suspect that most people don’t have an instant image of Deconstructionism the same way that they can immediately recognize a Russian cathedral, for example. But even after all the trouble he was having, the face and head absolutely nailed it. Horns awful, wings awful … but that head taken on its own, that was probably the best single thing on the stage.

From the beginning, I was watching Tyler and thinking “but what is Victorian about this?” and he didn’t express any doubts about it, which made me certain he was heading down a bad path. But as I thought about this more, I’ve come to the conclusion that his style was the most challenging, because Victorian covers such a wide range of things. It’s really more about a time period than a clearly defined style, and within that period, neo-gothic buildings like Parliament were indeed very typical of the era. However, in terms of pure visual translation, that probably says more about “gothic” than what we think of as “Victorian” (especially in the U.S., where I think most people would think of Eastman-style or Queen Anne-style buildings, like the Painted Lady houses in San Francisco). So if I was designing a Victorian gargoyle, I would go with something with a lot of design elements based on that fancy gingerbread trim. This iteration of Victorian is also very shingle-y, so having the gargoyle’s wings crafted to look like a cascade of shingles might have also sold the concept a little better. Stone, even though there are plenty of Victorian stone buildings, wasn’t the best choice, because another feature that runs through a lot Victorian architecture is highlighting details through color. In closing (boy, that got long), I think George got a lot of credit for making the most of a challenging assignment, but I think the show/judges/producers underestimated the difficulty/ambiguity of Victorian. Overall, though, it was still extremely good as a generic gargoyle, but not good enough for the penultimate week on Face-Off. In terms of quality of work, I thought it was better than Cig’s, and better overall than George’s (if you look at George’s as a whole and not only the head) … in terms of meeting the challenge, though … clearly the least of what was on stage.

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Not even the whole head - the face was fantastic, but the horns were atrocious. They’re worth, IMO, a bigger drop in points than Tyler’s failing to capture the Victorian feel - they fail to catch the feel of the style (yes, asymmetry and all, but Deconstructionist buildings don’t generally randomly change materials for one small section, and generally use the same sort of forms all through the structure), and were ugly as sin…in a way inappropriate to the admittedly kind of funky style.

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Definitely! The head MINUS the horns. The horns threw the whole thing off. For all that Decontructionist buildings look random, they are really intentional.

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That’s probably the strongest argument for why Tyler should have beat out George for the finale. If neither fully captured the style, then the overall quality has a higher value. However, George did take a very difficult style that most people don’t have as common a feel for as the others, and he did wonders with the overall head shape - minus the horns.

So I did the standard “look up on Wikipedia” for Victorian architecture, and it turns out there are a variety of styles that the Victorians used.

Tyler took the British Parliament House as his inspiration, but that is Neo-Gothic. Something “Neo” anything suggests it’s not the best representative for a new distinct style. If you look at Jacobethan and Queen Anne, you see stone and brick buildings more appropriate for the style. Victorian architecture also was the first to start using steel as a major element, and was the birth of the skyscraper as well as suspension bridges.

I wouldn’t have done a granite gargoyle, I would have gone for colors and lots of detailed shapes. Delicate woodwork trim, maybe brick elements, and as suggested, shingle wings in a peaked style. Maybe folded like bat wings, but made of shingles - giving the peaks.

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The finale this season is only 1 episode, not 2.

The challenge tonight: create a pair of characters for a Kung Fu movie (short), to match a script provided. Director is Jeff Wolfe, president of the Stuntman’s Association. This movie will use elaborate wire fighting. The characters will each have a unique animal inspired kung fu style. The challenge is to make the characters reflect the animals of their style.

Teams:

Emily - Tyler, Adam, Gage - Crane vs Mantis: Before even seeing the script, they start conceptualizing their duo. Emily wants the Crane as old and wise versus the Mantis that is young and cocky. Jeff mentions that they both learned from the same master but went different directions as a key element to the characters. Emily decides that the old crane will pull back her loose skin into a bun. Meanwhile, the mantis’s head will have shapes reflecting Asian dome hats.

Cig - Logan, Evan, Melissa - Tiger vs Dragon: Evan proposes an old, wise Tiger and an aggressive younger Dragon, and they have been fighting for centuries. Wait, am I sensing a theme?

George - Ben, Rachael, Keaghlan - Eagle vs Snake: George thinks snake scales are kind of boring, so he wants to incorporate lizard patterns. Hmmm. And then the Eagle is going to be along the lines of a vulture. ??? I guess both have the advantage of being more creative in look than the expected forms, while still being of a class. Let’s see how it works out. George has his team get the Eagle cowl out the first day, so he puts Rachael to work on day to building a feather wig so the feathers are laid individually and can move around. That’s awesome.

All three seem to be doing a good job of dividing up the work while maintaining aesthetic control over the final products. Kudos to that. Good use of teammates skillsets, but making sure the final product meets your vision. Stand or fall on your own ideas.

And I noticed something weird - on day 3, Emily seems to have 2 sets of Crane cowls and two sets of Mantis cowls waiting for her. That’s weird enough, but the two Mantis heads appear to have different patterns. Also, the mantis cowl is way too large for the actor. I guess they didn’t have individual head molds on these and just had to make do with what was on the shelf?

So assembly teams are staggered so the filming will be staggered. This time it’s only 2 hours, and all filming will be on the same day. Looking at things in the lab during application, all of the textures are intriguing and well done. Everything seems to be shaping up well. Well, Crane is kinda weird, but still. However, I’m not thrilled with some of the color choices. Emily does Crane in gray. Cig starts the Dragon based in red, then brings it back to colors of purple. Purple? George does the Snake’s head in red with green underlying the face. And then they bring the red back to purple as well. Odd.

On Set:

Emily: When they start showing on camera, all the colors are muted. The gray for the Crane gets dark and muddy. It’s hard to make out the textures she laid in. Also, I don’t get the red for the bun. I googled images on cranes, and while many have red on them, it is feathers, not skin. So I’m confused. The brighter yellow greens on Mantis get darker, so they work better. Then she realizes her mistake - the antenna for Mantis. She only has the one set installed, and her actor is flopping around on the ground. She’s worried if they break she doesn’t have a back up. Fortunately, they hold up.

Cig: He has a similar problem with coloring. The dragons’ purples get deep and dark. However, the variation and mix with golds gives it a better read than just a solid color. Their Dragon definitely reads scary. Tiger looks pretty good, and they film some fighting.

George: George’s Eagle looks pretty good in the scenes with Dragon. But Snake also gets washed out in shadows. The purples get so dark you can’t see any detail, just a big lump for the head. The feathers on Eagle move really well.

Judging:

First we get to watch the movie. I’ve got some real problems, even though they have nothing to do with the costumes and make up. Rather, it’s in blocking and motion. First, when Dragon makes his entry, he is standing sideways to the Tiger, Crane, and Eagle. He starts his monologue in profile before turning to face them. There doesn’t seem to be any reason for that placement. Why did he walk up on the group and turn sideways to start talking to them? Second, when Dragon does his big flip to kick Tiger off into the bamboo, he spins counter clockwise through the air and kicks downward, but Tiger goes spinning up, back, and away. I suppose the spin is the correct rotation, but the direction is all wrong. Third, when Tiger comes flying in from behind for the attack on Dragon, the actor is clearly swinging pretty wildly. They do some judicious editing because in filming he really looks out of control, but it still seems off. He’s zooming in on a curved path. How? He’s not supposed to be on wires, he’s supposed to be jumping in from behind.

Anyway,…

Emily: The Mantis colors played pretty well in the movie, and Ve likes the colors and shimmeriness. Glen observes they stylistic nods to “Asian flair”, and that’s exactly how Emily describes it. He also notices more detail in the grays on the Crane than I can make out.

George: In the movie, the greens on the Snake face are a bit more visible and read a bit better. Glen is impressed. I still think the purple was the wrong way to go. However, the Eagle is excellent. Ve observes how the feathers flare during movement.

Cig: The Dragon’s colors read much better in the movie. The colors are muted without being muddy and washed out. The golds contrast with the purples to make a good dynamic read. The Tiger has age spots melded that form the stripes in the skin. He had a great old age makeup with the hybridization. Awesome. The detail and variation in the Dragon’s face and chest are excellent. Glen calls them the most sophisticated we’ve had on the show.

Winner: Cig. His pair were standouts from a standout season. George did much better than expected, and Emily did some great work.

Mackenzie’s final outfit - gold and shimmery.

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I think Cig might have had an edge on this one, just because Dragon vs Tiger seems more inherently interesting than Crane vs Mantis or Eagle vs Snake.

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Great summary as usual, Irishman. Thanks!

I have to admit, I wasn’t impressed with many of the makeups. As Irishman said, it either looked washed out or lacked detail. Each had one that I liked and one that I didn’t or didn’t think worked well for the story, for some reason, but I can’t point and say why.

The film was only okay to me. Something about the makeups and the story didn’t work for me but, again, I can’t say why. Watching the film, I kept waiting for MST3K to show up.

I do think they all did well managing their team and their time. With only one episode, it could have been edited that way, because it felt a bit fast with filming time. However, I think I prefer that over two episodes. Or maybe they will do a ninety-minute finale at some point if they think they want a bit more time.

I also agree that Cig did have an advantage with his pairing. His was the best, so I’m happy with the result.

Now I want to see the judges do another build and I wouldn’t mind a Face Off special on where previous contestants are and what they are doing. Speaking of that, I watched a BuzzFeedBlue video where the guy hired a bounty hunter to find him and he went to Keaghlan Ashley for a disguise! I also see that she was the key makeup artist for a fan made short, Severus Snape and the Marauders, which is an excellent short!

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As noted by Ve, Tyler never really stepped out of his comfort zone this season; certainly not as much as George did by taking an architectural style he had never heard of going in. All things considered, George knocked it out of the park! Except for the horns.

77

Just got around to watching this. Honestly, I don’t know if the fix was in, but Cig got to design the main bad guy and the main good guy. The only ones with speaking roles and only ones that had any prominent face time in the mini-movie. How could he not win? We barely saw the other characters and when we did, they were either in shadow or were moving so fast that none of the details of the makeup could be appreciated.

That said, I don’t think the Emily’s crane photographed very well. With the bun and the gray/aqua coloring, it looked kind of blobby and ghoul-like on film, and the color scheme didn’t seem to fit with the other characters. That might have been the lighting on the set, though.

As usual, George got kind of screwed on his character assignments. It’s almost impossible to stick an eagle’s beak on a human and not have it look silly. And one can’t help but wonder how come Snake creature has hands.

I really did like Cig’s dragon character. I thought the tiger was somewhat weaker, possibly because with all the scarring, the tiger’s distinctive markings weren’t that evident.

All told, a good season, but maybe a bit more predictable than most, with the forerunners becoming obvious early on.