Break out your gears and mechanisms; this week on Face
Off, we are going robotic! The final
five are put under the stress of the future, as they are given the task of
creating a character that will be taking on a job that was once held
exclusively by a human. The idea of
becoming obsolete and replaced by a robot has been a long time core of science
fiction, so in a way this challenge weird-ed me out a tad. I’m not a huge fan of robotics and androids
as it is, too much I Robot I guess, so being confronted by the idea that we can
be so easily replaced is never a good feeling.
The bonus of this challenge is that the artists will be given one extra
day in the lab, seeing as Niko has a difficulty with time management and sculpt
pieces I honestly thought this would cut his usual retort of “if I don’t get
this done, I may be going home.” The
down side to the extra day is that with that much time, each creation had
better be complete.
The boys each select an industry and set to work on their
creations. For the most part this
challenge seems to be about size, as 4 out of the 5 creators are going larger
than life with their designs, everyone except Daren. You can almost taste the displeasure that
Daren has for this challenge; it’s so thick you could drizzle it over pancakes. I think you could some up his reaction by the
most repeated quote of the evening “I don’t do robots.”
In the lab, the creativity seems to have sparked these 5
as the first day didn’t lend too much to talk about. Major fabricator, Rashaad was completely in
his element and with L200 begins to create a huge suit. I have to hand it to him; he is so in tuned
with fabrication that it is a surprise that he hasn’t been awarded a win thus
far. Although, one glance at Tyler’s
station and you start to understand why, Tyler is an energizer and a fountain
of ideas. If ever there was a challenge
well suited for these two to test their skills against each other, this is it.
George, whose last attempt at fabrication with L200 led
to disaster in the anime challenge, has decided he is going to sculpt the
entire creation and do a paint job that will appear like metal. To me this almost seems like it’s adding more
difficulty than benefit because painted foam, still looks a lot like foam. Take a look in the gallery, if you look at
the close up, you can see what I mean.
Foam has a texture that even with an awesome paint it can be very hard
to cover.
On Mr. Westmore’s walk through he points out the major
flaw that you see in a lot of movie robots and that is that there seems to
always be a major human element that gets in the way, usually around the
face. I think this goes back to man
wanting to impose himself as the idea of perfection. Still I am not sure Niko got the hint as it
seems like his is looking even more human in the face. George’s critique was more about the chest
than the face. Trying to apply a set of
blow dryer boobs to his robot left a fun idea but unreadable concept, instead
under the direction of Mr. Westmore he changes it to a single dryer while still
maintain a shape that is decidedly female.
It’s clear whose element this isn’t by the last day of
the build. To say that robots are not in
Daren’s wheel house would be a gross understatement. His creation is as minimal as the others are
massive and in the end looks like a human wearing a helmet and a huge light on
his chest that is paired with an awkward silver cod piece. Niko also struggles with the mistake of gluing
joints together and very rough seaming.
The whole of the creation seems bulky and uninspired with a complete disregard
for any kind of finesse. At reveal it’s
pretty evident whose in the bottom two, even with a fabricated hydraulic pump
that feels like a Hail Mary on Niko’s construction robot.
In fact, it’s harder to pick a top look this week out of
the remaining three inspirations. By now
in the completion, at least in my opinion, this is really how it should be. It is episodes like tonight where we get a
clear view of who the finale will be featuring.
Between the three top looks, all I can say is that while all three were inspired,
it looks more and more like a Tyler and Rashaad show down.
George’s hairstylist was quirky and fun, and there is
never any real rule against making some one smile when it comes to fabricating
a service robot. It was easy to fall in love
with his Jetson esque creation. Each
movement of the make-up brought a little more whimsy to her and I can admit I’d
let it style my hair. What didn’t work
out for Venus however, was the texture.
She was missing that metallic sheen, at least to me.
Tyler’s surgical robot brought a lot to the table giving
the judges a creation that looks like a continuation of current medical
machinery. I loved the idea of the suspended
vacu-form face that gave it a human esque quality which would give a human a
sense of familiarity. In fact if it hadn’t
been for the next creation Tyler would have clearly clenched top look of the
day.
In the end it was Rashaad’s fire fighter robot that
extinguished the competition. This thing
was amazing; there really are few other words to describe the sheer beauty of
all the fabricated pieces. With a large
but well-shaped profile, Rashaad created a robot that demonstrated function
with various bends and an exterior hose.
The paint job alone was a rough and battle weary red that screamed hero,
but to me what sold it was the implementing of the gold eagle design into the
chest. This brought it from a level of
function to a “real” character; you could almost feel pride exuding from the
robot itself. With this master piece
Rashaad finally received his long await, but totally deserved win and I couldn’t
agree more.
As for who went home, in the end Daren’s “I don’t do
robots,” attitude seemed to step on his own foot and the judges decided it was
time for him to pack up. I honestly
believe that he should have gone home last week for his purple disaster, but
then again I’m no expert. Still he put
out great work and as we get closer to the finally it is only going to get
tougher. Good bye Daren, your creep
factor will be missed but I definitely look forward to what you will come up
with next!
