From another planet: A Jim Henson Creature Shop Challenge Recap

This week in the creature shop we join our top four creators, who are both excited and stressed with a spot in the top, and final three hanging in the balance.  Everyone is taking it to heart, and in very different ways.  The most notable reaction to the position is Ben.  Now, I like Ben and believe he is insanely talented; however he has a real problem with failure and critique.  You need to be okay with both in the arts.  In the first half of the episode all he wants to do is sulk about his bottom finishing “boldermunch” and it’s hard to feel bad for him because in the last episode’s first half he was sulking about Melissa’s win.  All in all, I think he listened closely to the idea of “If you aren’t first you’re last.”

This week’s challenge was a multiphase piece that required the designers to first create an alien and then an outer housing that works as a disguise for the alien.  So basically, an alien within an alien, in three days, no problem, oh and they must be mechanized and be able to reveal on camera.  I swear, when they said they were going to make them work for it, they were not kidding, especially when you have people like Melissa, who had no previous experience with a mech before now creating blinks and shifts.  I’m so beyond proud of her.

The person completely struggling in the shop this week was Jake, and this really was too bad because I like Jake and his want to be more cerebral in his approach.  His problem lies in his execution, and I think it comes from having a finished product and then trying to work back a story instead of designing the backstory and building off of that.  This week’s alien was no exception.  First the shell’s face was way too small for the opening, and although the judges didn’t say anything about it, I caught glimpses of the alien inside before the reveal.  Now, not to say that it was a bad piece, the mouth and eyes were quite lovely actually.  He used a kind of flat black on the eyes which really sold the other worldly appeal and the pallet on the inside really helped with the character, however it read as too much time on small nuances and not enough on the picture as a whole.

Robert’s alien was by far my favorite this week.  I really think that he brought the challenge home with the amount of finishing that was put into both phases of the character.  The outside of the alien looked in no way human, and really that’s what I want sometimes, I don’t want to feel like all life is shaped like it is on our planet.  But, when the head opened, if you are familiar at all with Farscape… The alien was a tug on the heart strings!  It really was its own little personality that gave you a sense that there was attitude and life.  The accessories alone made me smile, as he just won me over completely.

Melissa’s adorable creation came with the plus of a well hidden head.  I love her fabrication techniques and her ability to craft a well thought out plan in fabrics and raw materials.  Also, her paints are stunning.  Still there were a few issues and those really hurt her in the strong turn out this week.  The biggest, was that her alien seemed to have a floating head in such a wide opening.  It really would have benefited from some kind of shoulder or perhaps a narrower opening.

As for Ben, the real whinner of the week, I really didn’t like his design until it came closer and I got a second look at the show.  Sometimes you just have to watch it again to really appreciate the work that someone has put into a creature piece.  The color is what put me off the most I thiunk, it read so dark and yet just dingy and gross, and not in a good way.  Still, his sculpt in the articulated mouth and the paint job on the eyes actually made this a top contender and in the end his fully puppet-ed mouth assured him another victory.

Sadly, this is a week I hate because you have to say good bye to someone talented and this week we say toodles to Jake.  While I think he has a prosperous future in the industry, I do believe that the right decisions were made and am happy about the top three.  I can’t wait for the finale next week, Go Melissa!       

Look to the sky: A Face Off Recap

We made it to the finale!  Last night was the season finale of Face Off and in the spirit of the competition, it promised to be daunting and grandiose.  In reality, however I was quite underwhelmed, not unhappy, just disappointed.  The spotlight challenge was written in the stars, quite literally as the final three were asked to create two rival alien species that inhabit a constellation.  In addition to displaying a full newly discovered race, the artists are asked to incorporate lights into the design and make sure they are prepped to do a full athletic dance routine.  The finished products will be preforming an ensemble piece to “Lift me up” by DJ Ruskco.

 

With such “simple” demands, it seems only fair that they get some help for our three remaining hopeful as they bring back some of the more popular members of this season’s Face Off family.  In teams of three, each dives head first into sculpting their two dancing celestials.  It seems that the biggest lynch pin is going to be in the lights themselves and how to integrate them into the design.  My opinion, I would think it would be easiest to figure out the light plan and then building the creature around it, still the question is how much to use and where.

 

Tyler and his team of Graham and Chloe set to work in his tradition of trying to get the faces run in the first day of Lab work.  Unfortunately, due to the light placements, they run out of time and Tyler seems crushed.  He has never, not run a mold in day one, and I can say that his ability to do so up to this point was a huge advantage.  Still, the creations themselves show promise.   Tyler decided to go with differing color palettes from male to female, making his male a deep red color with sharp angular features.  The biggest success however, is his treatment of the male’s body which looks organically hollow and shows great with the strings of red dreads.  His female had a beautiful color treatment of blues and lavenders but, as for the overall shape I found her to be lacking a real sense of complete thought.  They made her more feline, and with the constellation Leo it made sense but she seemed so much smaller than the male and therefore drowned out by him. 

 

George decided to go with a coruscation theme with his aliens from the whale constellation, and with his team of Corrine and Niko set to work on building the two races based on a lighted center.  Now the idea shows promise, however the problem George ran into is twofold.   First, the two aliens looked the same; there was nothing to distinguish differing races such as shape or color of skin.  The lights were different colors; however the second problem lay with heavy chest paint so you could barely see the lights let alone the color.  The face sculpts were beautiful, in fact on the close up I really enjoyed their face features but there wasn’t enough variation to really set one a part from the other.

 

Rashaad, however had the short straw of the lab experience this week.  With his team of Daren and Cat he set to work on his two Ursa Major dwellers only to have a major production melt down when his females face mold didn’t have time to set, therefore making it impossible to run foam and forcing him to use poly foam.  With the dance requirement, poly foam is a huge set back because it doesn’t move as freely but, he has come too far to give up now and decides to give it his all.  What comes of the gamble is a happy accident as a melted mold yields a scar looking face, I love unplanned details!  As for the duo in final looks, these two are amazing!  The male has a blue and purple paint that accented a beautiful sharp and aggressive sculpt.  He read every bit the imposing figure and the body was a beautiful muscular sculpt that the pervious werewolf had lacked.  The female, however outshined all of that, quite literally as she was the only one that had a light effect with a bioluminescent cranial structure.  Yes, she had a glowy head.  She was practically angelic with a sharp yellow paint that made her really pop into life.

 

After the display it was time for the dace, in which they turned the light off.  Sa all the TV viewer got to see was poorly lit shadowy figures that really didn’t display anything.  Talk about a disappointment.  I really dislike dubstep, so being forced to listen to it and knowing that I’m missing out on an amazing performance really ticked me off. 

 

In the end it was Rashaad’s beautiful female that really took the prize home.  His reaction, I don’t think there could have possibly been a more genuine display of happiness and I couldn’t help but feel it for him too.  Here’s proof that if you want it and push hard enough, anything is possible!  The real beauty of the moment was the excitement that Tyler and George had for him.  I have never seen such gracious runner ups and slowly my faith in humanity was a bit restored.  Great job Rashaad and we hope to see more and more of you in the future!