Yeah, Miranda just couldn’t handle it toward the end. The continually futzing with the sculpt I think just showed that she couldn’t mentally handle it near the end. I would put Tate and Laura neck and neck at this point with Roy a good distance behind them. I think Laura has the technical edge, slightly, on Tate, but I think Tate has more ambition and creativity in his designs. Roy is a master fabricator, but is not as skilled in the other areas.
I’ll say it again though, if any part of the finale requires beauty, or a clean facial sculpt, Tate is screwed… and it is Laura’s to lose.
If it is a highly detailed, gore or horror make-up: neck and neck with Laura and Tate.
There’s an unacknowleged criteria that the artists are judged on: professionalism. That is, the ability to get work done in allotted time, and deal with unexpected issues (and next week, manage a team). That’s where Tate and Laura have it heads and shoulders above Roy and Miranda - both are utter professionals. Laura has made a couple of references to having a “Plan B”, and Tate never gets flustered. One or both won’t win the competition, but that quality will I think get them work out in the real world.
Roy showed some of that spirit when his mold fell, refusing to quit. But that I think is why Miranda ultimately didn’t make the cut. I will admit my wife and I simultaneously shouted “Yes!” when Glenn called Roy’s name. We’re both a bit sick of Miranda’s whinging. (And of course Roy’s a local boy.) Imagine what the top three will be able to do without having to freaking stop to help Miranda break open her molds…
I think the final three are solid choices, with Tate and Laura being the real contenders.
The one way that I could see Roy coming out on top is if the final challenge really lends itself to one of his big fabrications. Last night was a perfect example of what I’m not wild about with him - I think he’s too fast to go for the big contraption, whether or not it is well-suited to the specific challenge at hand.
I’m glad Miranda is out. I think she is an amazing sculptor. Just about every week, her sculpt has blown me away. However, I think there were a few times earlier in the season where we also saw her paying so much attention to the face/head, and very little to the rest of the character. In those cases, I think it worked to her advantage that either 1. there were still enough other people with poor designs to boot off, and 2. the judges were okay with accepting her work as intentionally minimalist. Now, in light of the past two weeks, I am more of the opinion that she is plain awful at managing her time, and not so hot at strategizing a complete “look” for her characters.
I really loved Tate’s design last night.
I thought Laura’s concept and head were amazing … but the weird bird suit! My husband said the guy looked like he was going to go stand out on the highway to advertise for a fried chicken place. I’m so glad Neville finally remarked on it, because we thought we were going crazy. Overall though, Glenn was right on when he pointed out that Laura really captured a bird/human hybrid with the face, it looked like a bird and it looked like a human.
Oh, very much agreed with this.
Pretty much agreement all around.
Roy went for the big fabrication for the wings, and overall that worked. However, the body as a rubber sculpt was less good - it didn’t flow and bend well. His head sculpt wasn’t bad, and the paint part they criticized was whipped up at the last minute, so with some more time he might have done better.
Laura had a different concept going old and molting, and thus showing off the skin. And Neville made the comment that at first he didn’t like it until she explained the comment about molting, and then it made sense. She got the hybridization in the head and face more than anyone else. Everyone else went bird head on humanish body. But her bird suit was dreadful.
Tate had another awesome amount of sculpt work. However, his colors were too overdone for me. Like they said, it was “muddy”. Things didn’t really stand out from a distance, it cluttered up the look. It would have worked better for me if he cut down some of the gore overload and made the texture of his sculpt stand out better. I do have to say that Tate seems to have timed his peak pretty well. He’s getting into the groove at just the right point.
Miranda did another awesome sculpt, but we saw her strengths and weaknesses. As delphica said, she got buy on less work on the body in earlier challenges either through minimalist designs or by having teammates. But the last couple of weeks it has been time for showing lots of work, and the overall presentation is important, not just one element. I could get maybe going for hybrid wing/arms that don’t really function as wings so they’re not that large, but what she did looked too much like feathers glued to arms. It didn’t convey an intentional design choice that the hybrid couldn’t fly.
If I’m final three, I would still strongly consider Miranda for my team. Put on one sculpt and let her run with minor oversight to keep on schedule, and then work on something else. Especially Roy. If Roy could have Miranda to help with his sculpts, and he handle the fabrication, that would be a way to stay in contention.
Overall, Laura is a planner. She has a well-organized flow most of the time and understands the need to have backup plans to work it out. She has good sculpting and spectacular painting. She’s a little weaker in fabrication, and concept-wise she sometimes is a bit… tame. Tate has big concepts and pushes the creativity envelope, but that hasn’t always worked in his favor, and his paint jobs are a bit washed out and overdone at times.
We have three solid contenders, and it will come down to the specifics of the challenge.
Anyone else think that Laura’s bird head looked like Peter Boyle?
A bit.
Finally caught up to real time on the DVR, so now I can open this thread. 
Reading from the beginning reminded me that Miranda won several challenges. It seems to me, not that her faults caught up with her, but that she self-destructed — kind of the makeup equivalent of getting the yips.
I loved Roy in his first season. IIRC, he won about half of the challenges, and all his stuff was wonderful. I had him pegged as the winner, and was amazed when he was eliminated in the next-to-last episode.
This season? Ehh. Other than the stacked midgets, nothing of his has been outstanding, and some has been bad. Very surprising.
I agree completely with everyone else’s assessment: Laura is technically perfect and esthetically beautiful, but not as imaginative as Tate.
Who wins will depend on what the challenge is and how well they manage their respective teams.
So why did he do so well on the Foundation Challenges, but not able to capitalize on the Spotlight Challenges?
Hi! I haven’t watched this show, so don’t know much of what’s gone on before.
But I caught the bird/human hybrid episode. Then, naturally, I fell asleep before the judging. Can you tell me which concept won? I personally liked the macaw best, for the colors, but mostly for the way the eyes looked…
Tate and his Vulture won top looks on that episode.
Glad that the final required a ballet, theatre makeup. It was time to give the monster makeup a rest. All three finalists did really well. I did agree with who the judges picked.
Congrats to Laura.
I liked Tates’ makeup best, but I agree that this sorcerer’s makeup was a little off. Those things on his shoulders were supposed to be smoke stacks, but looked more organic, like stalagmites. But Laura seemed to have her act together from the beginning… there was less running around and fewer disasters. She had her idea well thought out, supervised others well, and just implemented it to perfection.
Her obvious skill in all facets made her an easy and deserving choice. And while Tate is more imaginative, its not like Laura is a desert of imagination. I loved, loved, loved, the wizard’s face that Laura did. Tate’s Swan was remarkable, but the Wizard fell just a bit short. The smokestacks were a nice idea executed poorly. I just did not dig Roy’s makeup that much, to be honest. It was fine, but definitely third best, IMO.
I have been cheering for Laura all season, so I was so happy she won. That said … I don’t think this was her best work, even though it was very, very good. I didn’t LOVE this as much as I’ve loved a lot of her other work. I thought the Swan was a little … clunky, a bit thick through the middle, with the elaborate chestpiece she created. It was a neat look, but it took away from the delicacy of the dancer. Her Sorcerer was terrific, and her two characters went together the best of the couples.
On a personality level, I just love her – I think she’s really together, professional, and never goes for any drama.
Roy was my husband’s favorite all season, and I see the appeal. But the finale confirmed my opinion of him that’s been growing the past few episodes – he seems lost, and resentful, if the challenge doesn’t immediately fit with his style of making a complicated fabrication. He wasted a lot of time dithering over how to make the challenge fit his style, instead of figuring out how to adjust his style to meet the challenge (which I think would be a big thing for a professional). His swan was okay, I really liked the Sorcerer and liked the concept of bringing the swan motif to the Sorcerer’s costume … but I don’t think it was appropriate for the ballet (the dude took that part off to dance).
Tate’s Swan was the best, omg! But I agreed with everything the judges said about the Sorcerer. The head thing looked more Medieval than Industrial Revolution, and while I get that Tate was trying to go for a dirty, corrupted kind of look, I agree with the judges that it ended up looking more like a hobo.
We marked January 14 on the calendar already.
I think Laura deserved to win, based on her track record, but honestly, they pitched her a slow one right up the middle on this challenge. Ballet? Italian Renaissance? Poor Roy. None of his strengths were called for. You can’t really do a big, elaborate build on something that someone has to dance in.
I wasn’t as wild about Laura’s sorcerer as everyone else appears to be. That weird angular cowl look (alien? elf? generic evil being?) seems to crop up way too often in Face-off creations. It was very striking and did have a period feel to it, but why does every being on Face-off have to be some refugee from some dungeon dimension?
I liked Roy’s sorcerer best, with the Fu Manchu mustache (although the armor, frankly, given the time constraints, looked to be cheesy cardboard). But there wasn’t quite enough “swan” in his ballerina. Tate’s ballerina was striking and I think the wizard would have been fine if it had been played as evil and dashing rather than befuddled.
To my eye, neither of Laura’s creations was the best in show, but together, they harmonized best.
I’m thinking that although there’s no overt prize for the most “top looks”, I’m sure that’s taken into account in the judging.
I think they chose the right 3 people to make the finals, and I don’t think any of them is going to have too much trouble finding a gig after this series.
Roy was a bit lost for concept because it was ballet. He had to choose between Ming Dynasty and Roaring Twenties, so I can see why he went Ming Dynasty. He was a bit thrown with the Swan/Sorcerer pairing, and I like that he rethought it and came up with the Alchemist/Gold motif. Alchemy fit better than mechanical for the period. The Swan concept was excellent, and he did something interesting with the model’s face to make it look more Chinese. I agree building up the dancer’s midriff made her a little stocky rather than graceful, but his pair was a good pair, the gold color accent to the white worked, the feather hair was great. My biggest complaint was he made that complicated “armor” for the sorcerer that had to be removed for the performance. That’s gotta cost points in my book for accomplishing the challenge. When the model has to take off part of the makeup/costume to perform, you shouldn’t have included it in the first place. It’s one thing to have a cloak or mask that gets removed along the way, another thing to set aside a big piece of the visual look before beginning.
Tate had the most overall concept in my mind. When seeing the three ideas being fleshed out, his story was the most cohesive to me. The tweak of making the swan mechanical was a good improvement to fit his motif. And I liked where he started and the concept for the sorcerer. I was a little questionable about the swan head on the arm thing, but the judges loved the intentional asymmetry and the uniqueness of the approach. I think the head and arm could have been a bit lighter gold to match the feathers - they seemed a bit dark, almost black. The head shape could have been a bit better IMO.
But the real troubles lay with the execution of the sorcerer. His outfit read more Renaissance than Industrial Revolution - he should have been wearing a Victorian Style coat and hat, that would have come off better. The face looked vacuous and empty rather than menacing and powerful. And the chimneys being brick looked more rock-like than smokestack, reading more like castle towers than chimneys. Also, Michael Westmore warned him about his paints always being dark and muddy - and I agree. But avoiding that he went more brown and dusty rather than sooty. That I think was a bad design choice.
Laura’s concept was strange to me. First, she said sorcerers to her always have big pointy shoulders. Where did she get that idea? The image I always have of sorcerers is a robed guy in a pointy hat, with stars and things on his robes and hat. Unless it’s Gandalf in all grey/white. Pointy shoulders? Second, the outfits didn’t really read Renaissance to me. I didn’t know how to place them, but it didn’t seem to fit the time period. Third, the non-human head shapes and colors did not feel like it fit the challenge to me. I mean, the sorcerer’s cowl and face were very striking and the greens and golds was beautiful and the detail was exceptional (Miranda’s contribution evident), but that didn’t say Rennaisance Sorcerer to me, it said Alien or Demon. Similarly the shapes on the Swan’s head.
I was at first thrown by the choice for the Swan’s chest sculpt, with the collar bones pulled in. Seeing it with the wings forming on the shoulders helped. I do think that Laura’s paints and sculpts were the most striking, and they were cohesive and really felt as a pair.
So the choice for win came down to flaws in three different ways. Roy for having stuff that had to be removed, Tate for having a Sorcerer that didn’t match the period, and Laura for a fantasy motif that seemed out of place IMO for the challenge. Given the cohesiveness and artistry and beauty of Laura’s product, I guess that’s a good reason to give her the win.
So with this outcome, Roy broke into the top 3, bettering his outcome from before, and Laura won, the only real status improvement she could have had. In fact, this season was 2 more weeks of regular competition (12 weeks vs 10 weeks in Season 3), and yet her stats were still 2 Wins/5 Highs for both seasons. And she got a Low this time that she didn’t get in Season 3. Like I said, there wasn’t a lot of room for her to have a better result, but she managed to make it worthwhile (besides just showing off her abilities more).
Tate’s overall record was better, but he also only had seven weeks of regular competition in Season 1. Still, he pulled his wins all in the last half of this season, peaking his performance when it counted. He can be proud of his showing.
All in all, good results for all of them.
Very happy with the results.
Very happy with the designs.
Very happy with this season.
VERY VIOLENTLY ANGRY ABOUT THEM SHOWING SO GODSDAMN MUCH OF NEXT SEASON, AND NEXT SEASON’S CREATIONS. BASTARDS!
You didn’t have to watch.