I wonder if Glenn read this thread. He appeared to have showered.
The biggest surprise this week was Nicole winning… both because she had previous been eliminated, and because I didn’t think her work was as good as either Roy or Laura, who seem pretty established as front runners.
Alana going home was not a surprise at all, and I think she overperformed getting as far as she did.
A decent challenge this week… this season has actually been VERY light on the traditional horror. And where’s the body painting challenge?
Just watched the kids-picture episode.
Anyone else notice the distinct lack of Mr. Nobody-understands-my-crappy-style geek-with-a-mohawk-guy? 
The green guy was good, but looked more like a mask than makeup to me. I was surprised not to see eyestalks on the spider/vampire guy, since they were the major feature of the drawing.
I’ve been pulling for Sarah, but I think this thing will come down to Laura and Roy.
So glad to see Rod leave. Not only was it another similar head, but the whole “eats through the nose” thing didn’t work. The nose-mouth just looked like a big nose and normal mouth, and then there was another random big mouth down below.
I enjoyed this week’s episode too. Dr. Seuss has such an iconic style, it was interesting to see them approach the challenge.
Poor Alana, she was hosed from the get-go with her poor character choice. But I totally understand. Usually when they are picking a character inspiration, they have some visual cue to help, but this time they just had the name. Now maybe Roy was familiar with Sleep Book enough to know what the characters look like, but I certainly am not. So without the book to look at and without knowing how they are presented visually, Alana picked based on whatever whimsical fashion she had left. How was she to know the offt doesn’t have discernable features and is so dreadful?
Poor girl was doomed from the start. First she doesn’t have an idea, and burns almost a whole day without a concept. Then she finally gets a concept, but isn’t executing it the way Ve thinks matches her concept, so she mangles the sculpt. And the fat suit to represent the oversized body? Dreadful. Her paint job - disaster. As much as I rated her on past performance, there was no way to save her this time. Her’s was the worst makeup this week, hands down. Her lack of experience finally doomed her.
I was really glad for Nicole, that win helped justify her return. I wasn’t keen at first on the excessive curlicue hair, as it was more dramatic than the book image, but her final product looked pretty good and very Seussian, so the end result was a success. Even Glenn was happy with the way her fakefur suit turned out, so that’s definitely something.
Roy had some excellent work as usual, but it didn’t look much like the image in the book, and as Glenn said, “I’m not sure it’s Seussian, and I’m not sure it’s human…” so there’s that.
Laura had an interesting sculpt and some fabulous paint work. I’m not sure it really felt Seussian myself, but it was very good technical work and had a good look. Though the tail needed to be longer. Much longer.
Everybody seemed to go for baked in expressions, which as we know can be a serious problem in movie make up. Nobody got dinged on that this week.
I was surprised by how poorly Sarah did on this challenge. She didn’t do any body suit mods, which is her strength, the hair didn’t convey the visually distinct look in the book, and the face sculpt looked rough and mangled. Fortunately for her Alana crapped out completely.
Derek didn’t do much better. The nose sculpt was fine, but the hair went from a great idea to a disgusting mess. And the body mods he did looked like a pillow stuck in the suit. Not very natural at all. And the paint job was a mess. I’d have rated his slightly below Sarah’s, which means it was only a little bit better than Alana’s disaster.
While both Roy and Laura had some better overall technical elements, Nicole’s felt the most like the Seuss aesthetic. And that was the challenge, to make it Seussian.
They mix things up, so it will be the finale this year. Or something.
I observed that Joe wasn’t there for the chance to come back. He was disqualified for walking out, so he probably wasn’t given the opportunity.
Movie makeup often includes masks.
I was expecting that and a very spidery look, but Nicole apparently went with the verbal description her kid gave rather than anything from the picture.
Yes, if he wanted to convey “eats through the nose”, he needed teeth in the nostrils or something.
Good analysis.
Alanna’s problem is that she still requires supervision, and validation from outside sources. Once she lost Rod, the other contestants (who ARE competing against her, despite all the comeraderie) wouldn’t flat-out give her ideas and direction. Once she lost that, she lost focus, and couldn’t get her act together.
It looked scarily like a gourd on top of beanbag.
I think Roy lost out because the original instructions were to make a Seussian-Human hybrid, rather than just a Seuss character. In the judging, they evaluated purely on Seuss characteristics. Roy’s was a great hybrid, but not entirely Seussian.
I really disliked the painted fun-fur. It looked messy and unkempt.
And why in the hell did Erick flatten the hair like that? Totally messed up the character.
Ding ding ding, you nailed it! She was a basket case until Sarah calmed her down, and she needed someone else to tell her what to do. Alanna floated this far in the competition with just enough guidance and calming and teamwork (hand injury event) that her execution was adequate.
I’m trying to think about that critter. From the look on the page, I thought about something resembling a dandelion, with the light fluffy feel and the pointed little tufts. But I have no idea how to create that look. I also think a balloon suit would have been better than a huge bulge in front.
It didn’t feel all that human hybrid to me. It did have a “realistic” feel vs a cartoon feel, with the textures he chose. He made some kind of purple apish thing. Put it in a yellow suit to suggest the yellow color on the page. Laura also went for the more “realish” feel to the face. In the end for both, the “hybrid” overshadowed the Seuss elements, and the contest was ultimately a Seuss challenge.
Nicole’s didn’t look too bad, and Laura had decent striping on hers, but yes, painting on fun-fur is very tricky because the paint changes the texture and makes it clumpy, and color choices have to coordinate.
Yes, Derek started with an interesting concept with the hair and making the hair serve as the ears, thus the human aspect. His nose was subdued but reminiscent of the Seuss nose. He had a good concept for the right blend of Seuss and human. But he screwed it up with overpainting the hair, which changed the texture from hair to a gelled mess, then he didn’t take proportion to the face into account, and the chin hair was an odd choice. The body suit looked like an afterthought, rather than a construct to change the body shape. Add a muddy paint job, and you get the second worst result.
Like I said, his results are all over the map. He was top look on the Dishonored challenge, this one he was very nearly eliminated. That’s the story of his performance.
Interesting week… cyborgs!
The elimination was a no-brainer, it was very clearly the weakest design. I loved Derek’s integration of the car parts into his cyborg, and the one central eye-thing was cool! And I liked the exposed brain and scalp-flap that Roy did.
The final three should totally be Nicole, Roy and Laura, anything else would be a travesty.
This episode was pretty challenging, and showed the things they really need to focus on.
Nicole won it this time with a smashing and sexy design. It was interesting that the judges noticed a change in the quality of her work and asked her about it, which she attributed to changing from being nervous and trying to do what she thought they would like to trying to do more of her own ideas. That has been a consistent point I have seen. The judges want to see originality, creativity of vision, something new. It happened Season 2 with the Wizard of Oz challenge and the guy who made the Scarecrow, and how he modified his original head to fit the group’s opinions, then got called out by Glenn for having had something better in his concept.
When they started gushing over her, and said they wanted to take her to ComicCon with the model made up, I declared her the winner. Then they started talking about Derek, and it slid back the other way, but only 60/40.
I myself didn’t care as much for the 1 red eye face piece, but the crafting he did in the rest of the outfit and the integration of parts was skilled.
Interestingly they called out Roy on once again going big with his fab, but I thought he did a very good job, and he even integrated the zombie makeup this time and it looked great. He needed a little push in the design phase to not go overboard with the robotic arm attachments, which I think was the right call. He had a concept for a suit that animates a zombie. The robotic arm extensions didn’t fit that concept. It’s interesting that the judges are getting turned off by it. That seems to have kept him from winning this one, and could impact his success if they have a preconception that colors their opinion of his work.
Laura’s design was a mess, mostly because she didn’t have a clear vision. She got caught up trying to to change her concept, and went through three iterations. That in itself was making hers a mishmash. Couple that with her looking at Roy’s work and deciding she needed to go bigger. No, she didn’t, and she shouldn’t be making decisions based on him, when they tell him to go smaller. Anyway, she still had some good makeup work, but her construction was sloppy and unorganized. The shame is I really liked the originality of her second concept, the futuristic guy where robot parts are like tattoos, glammy body enhancements for style. That was more original than the future solider, either in the desert or the city. I’m not sure what Glenn’s reservation was about that idea, but she should have stuck with it.
Her saving grace was Sarah, who was even more lost on concept. Sarah mentioned her mennonite upbringing and limited exposure the sci fi, which severely hampered her in this challenge. She little idea what a cyborg should look like, and she had no clue what any of the parts she scavenged actually did, and no way to visualize them having a function. She was hosed from the get go, with no visual references for ideas or inspiration, and that kept her from sculpting with a purpose, or making the parts have a thought to their role. And she mostly glommed onto wires protruding everywhere.
Yes, Sarah was the weakest link. Derek has been surprisingly good this last couple episodes, which means he’s still a contender. Laura had a surprise low spot, but should rebound. Roy, the forerunner of this game, has gotten some feedback that suggests the judges may be building a slight bias against him and his style, which is great news for the others but sucks for him given his skill doing everything so far.
And Nicole is in top form. This is going to be a tight last couple episodes. I wonder if the finale comes down to which members they get on their teams, rather than the performance of any of these contestants.
Darn it. The old dude bit the dust. The one I’ve enjoyed all season. He’s obviously the most experienced and talented. If I was making a movie today, then he’d be the one I’d trust with my minimal budget.
I’m beginning to think these Reality/talent shows have a bias against middle aged contestants. I’ve seen several voted off the Voice too. I think it’s because they are experienced and set in their ways. These judges want the younger, talented contestants that can still learn and improve.
I skipped a few episodes. What was the Red haired lady talking about? She said that she went home and worked hard to improve??? Did a contestant drop out and she replaced them? Whats up?
Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit!
NO fucking way that Roy should have gone home! All Bullshit! Nicole got to go home for two weeks, rest up, get her head back, and then come back to the game. There’s NO FUCKING WAY she should be there. Roy should NOT have gone home! Its fucking insane!
Godsdamnit. I loved this show. Now I’m going to be so pissed it’ll be hard to watch. Absolute bullshit.
Yeah. Nicole was voted out. She was out for two weeks, then was voted back in.
The judges seemed so critical of Nicole’s work. They pointed out several issues.
With Roy the only big issue was some hair coming out an ear hole. That guest judge kept praising his sculpting skills. I thought Roy was in the finals for certain.
These show’s judges always confuse me. I just know Roy always seemed to do great work in every episode I saw. It seems so wrong to screw him out of the final.
Didn’t he also have tusks coming out of the cheek? They called him on that too. But all the designs were good – the judges had to make a tough call.
Roy likely was dinged for not listening to the judges. Last week, he was basically told to stop fabricating and he did it anyway.
Something else was going on there. Nicole’s work was amateurish, cartoony, and not very Grimm at all if the current crop of Wessen are anything to go by design wise. My best bet: Roy got an offer he couldn’t refuse from a studio or a decent FX house.
I agree that Roy probably should have stayed and Nicole shouldn’t simply because she got a second chance. But I am still rooting for Nicole because she is a local and kinda cute.
No, he didn’t fabricate anything. He did make some poor design choices this time.
In one sense, I am shocked. Roy has been such a consistent performer and has such knowledge and ability and has pulled off such amazing things, it is a shame to see him gone. On the other hand, I kinda had a feeling this was coming. As I said, the judges had created a negative impression of him from the last few weeks, and I really think that is what got him sent home, over any specific problems with this design.
I felt like this challenge was a race for last place. Each contestant had problems and design glitches. There was some good work, and some problems with each design. I was hard pressed to rate any of them superb, but none of them were disasters.
I don’t think any of them were particularly consistent with the esthetic of Grimm. Roy’s was closest, which makes sense since he said he actually watches the show.
Laura made her weird bug thing. For me, that was a big WTF, because I didn’t know what the hell it was supposed to be. She had some really good technical skills in how she built things, but the overall design confused and annoyed me. The judges opted to reward her technical accomplishment rather than punish her incoherence. I guess they saw it as originality, but I saw it as inability to form a cohesive concept.
Roy had his snake thing. I agree the wig was a bad decision. It didn’t look right, and it covered some of the sculpting and paint he’d done for defining the snake shape of the head. Plus, peircing the hair through the “ears”, if that’s what they were, was an odd choice. But the killer was the fangs in the cheeks. What snake has fangs through the cheeks? Also, I think snake fangs have a different shape. But that was mitigated by his great style of making scales, his great paint job, and his great eye for molding forms and lines. It’s just the finish obscured the excellent parts, and I think they had a bias against him that colored their judgement unfairly.
Derek had his raptor beast. It was interesting he went dinosaur raptor over bird raptor. He incorporated feathers and talons, so he got those elements from the scene. He had a creative color scheme instead of being drab. I’m a little disappointed in the mouth, it looked like and added on feature rather than incorporated from the beginning. He was too hesitant on his original concept, and I didn’t think it conveyed as well. The boots were clumsy, but oh well.
Nicole had some sort of wolf beast, a “blutbad” on Grimm. Doing a female was great, but I had issues with her sculpt. The chest and ribs had anatomical issues for me. The face was intriguing, but the front hairline was a little too obviously fake. She also went gray with the skin, and it felt a bit dark, almost like the vampire that got her eliminated. And yes, her werewolf was definitely different than the Grimm aesthetic. Fortunately for her, the criteria didn’t include being consistent with what the show has done. She went far more wolfy in the face than Grimm does. On the other hand, there was an early episode where a women went full transformation to a bear, so they haven’t been completely consistent themselves.
It’s sad that Roy lost out. I don’t see that what he did was worse than any of the others. But I don’t see where any of them stood out as particularly better or worse. I’m not sure who I would have eliminated based on this project. Based on my preferences and past experience, I would have eliminated Derek, but that’s my bias.
As far as the remaining three, I think any of them can win it, as they’ve all had wins fairly recently. It feels to me like Derek is getting more credit than he deserves, and I feel like they are inclined in his direction. But with wins by Nicole and Laura in the last 3 challenges, it is pretty open. They’ve said really strong things about Nicole since her return, and Laura is one they’ve rewarded consistently all show long, and she won this round.
The winner of the finale may just come down to what teammates people have. In particular, I will be closely watching the team Roy is on.
One more observation on the show, they really were pushing Grimm pretty hard. Not only was the Spotlight Challenge themed on the show, but they brought in three different people from the show: Silas Weir Mitchell (aka Munroe) to kick off the challenge, a make up person for creative evaluation in mid development, and then a producer for the final judging.
I would not hold that as a criteria unless everything else were dead even. If Roy hadn’t put fangs through the cheeks and hair through the “ears”, he might have been safe, even if the hair was a bad choice in itself. He otherwise had some great techniques on display.
Nicole might could have gone home over the sculpting issues and the colors. That would have been reasonable. But they’ve been very impressed with her products since her return, and that impression probably also played a role as much as the negative bias against Roy.
I like Nicole and Laura. Derek seems like a nice guy, but I’m not quite as thrilled with is work as the judges seem to be. Given how things went last season, that suggests that Derek is going to win. 
Ve said something along the lines of “he tried to not fabricate anything but couldn’t help himself and fabricated anyway” so he must have fabricated something.
Ve seemed to be talking about the wig. That doesn’t equate to fabrication to me, and it is evidence to me that Ve was letting her bias overrule reality.
Roy made a mask and cowl. He used a blend of materials. He made the sculpture using fishnet stockings to create the pattern for the scales. He then painted the thing with a very nice pattern and color scheme. His sculpture blended to the curves of the actress, and he got good remarks from Neville Page on that.
Then he added a wig. The comment we saw for his motivation was to humanize the critter. But he was having trouble styling and attaching the wig. So rather than ditching the wig, he decided to poke holes in the sides of the sculp to feed the wig through, to help the style an help anchor the wig. Bad call. He got dinged for it.
But there was no fabrication in the sense they’ve been using the word throughout the show.
Derek’s talons in the boots was more fabrication than Roy had.