OFFICIAL Eorzea's Next Top Model Discussion Thread

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Originally Posted by YunieAura

Herro~ Am I wrong to be bothered that people are still being hung up on the word *model*? v.v
Reading some of last night's posts makes me feel like I really shouldn't have entered
the competition as lalafel. :S Apparently trying for good scenery and trying to do more than
the boring omgimsexy /pose works against me at times because it isn't *model-like*.
It is just a screenshot contest, as already said by Rongi~~!

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I feel the exact opposite of you. I feel like many of us shouldn't have bother to enter if it was just a screenshot contest. I know my computer is no where near as hefty as others. Modeling is just selling a product, not sexiness. For example, most of the time you don't even see a hand model's face. Not saying sexiness doesn't hurt, but then again being adorable seems to work as well.

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Originally Posted by YunieAura

Herro~ Am I wrong to be bothered that people are still being hung up on the word *model*? v.v
Reading some of last night's posts makes me feel like I really shouldn't have entered
the competition as lalafel. :S Apparently trying for good scenery and trying to do more than
the boring omgimsexy /pose works against me at times because it isn't *model-like*.
It is just a screenshot contest, as already said by Rongi~~!

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Girl you are crazy.. every round your shots are amazing and get tons of votes. you are definitely doing something right. just had to say that. :D every round i look forward to your pic

@Yunie

Maybe what I mean by "Model" is different from what you think I mean. Let me explain with two of your screenshots that I feel are polar opposites.

http://i.imgur.com/NQV0Bls.png?1

So in this screenshot you are literally just standing here doing nothing beside having your weapon out. However, your background is great, and you have a decent computer I assume, which enhances the screenshot further. The problem I have with it is you're getting by here because the game is beautiful and you found a place to show it off. This shot can literally done by walking to this location waiting for an Ice elemental to be in the shot and leave. There isn't much thought process in my mind outside of knowing it's a pretty location. I feel you could have done something more interesting with it then just relying on the background.

Fast forward to this weeks.

http://i.imgur.com/TtPTqUS.png?1

This screenshot conveys a lot more then the other one. You had thought process behind it and the focus was on YOU not the background, which made it stronger. Imagine just taking your character to that waterfall and just standing there with your weapon out like the 1st one, that would have been boring and borderline terrible. You had a plan and you executed it by taking the Coeurl and running from it like it was chasing you through a jungle and the photographer happened to capture the event while a waterfall was in the background. The background of this photo enhances the beauty and story of the shot and does not become the FOCUS of the shot.

Being a "Model" has nothing to do with being Sexy or Hot, it's owning the shot and being the focus of the shot, everything in the shot enhances you. You're not just clutter added to the background.

Thoughts but meh

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Originally Posted by YunieAura

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I noticed a comment this round in the voting threads that seemed rather persnickety about their interpretation of what this "competition" is about, so I think I know what/whose comments you're talking about... :/

I don't always vote for you but I think many of your shots are incredibly well thought-out and consistently have an element of interaction and composition in them, so I think you're doing very well! Some people just have a more narrow view as to what they want to see out of a "modeling" contest and I personally think that's a mistake for the medium we're judging here.

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Originally Posted by Kaiyoko

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In the end everyone is going to have a different view of what it means to be "modeling" as an avatar in a video game for this competition. I, for one, don't always vote just on the avatar being the center of attention, but sometimes on how well an entrant coordinates with their scenery. For instance, Yunie doesn't appear to be "doing" much in that first photo, but she fits and coordinated very well with the theme of the round and of her shot - she matches the scenery and her chosen elemental, coordinating all of the colors present into her own appearance for the shot. To me, that says a lot about her thought-process, that she played on the strength of her scene and effectively coordinated with it.

TL;DR, to each their own, and also some people just need to calm down in the voting threads with their underhanded comments >.> Just try not to take them too personally because it's all a matter of opinion.

Bah~~ I wrote a post, but...forum account shenanigans~!!
I know it's about marrying elements of a picture
while keeping yourself mostly in the focus, and it's not always about sexiness!
It's just that voters don't always know that and say things like...
'It's not a cute contest, it's a modeling contest!'
'Too actiony for a model shot!'
'Not a very model-like expression!' u_u
*stomps the word 'model' in the face*
Just letting it get to me because I'm miserably sick I guess!
Thanks guys!

@Vahn ~ Was that Rukira (Cycle 1 model) in your Date round photo? Looked sooorta like her.
@Rongi ~ Np, reply when you can! I know you are busy. Hopefully they help at least inspire some more!

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Originally Posted by Kaiyoko

This screenshot conveys a lot more then the other one. You had thought process behind it and the focus was on YOU not the background, which made it stronger. Imagine just taking your character to that waterfall and just standing there with your weapon out like the 1st one, that would have been boring and borderline terrible. You had a plan and you executed it by taking the Coeurl and running from it like it was chasing you through a jungle and the photographer happened to capture the event while a waterfall was in the background. The background of this photo enhances the beauty and story of the shot and does not become the FOCUS of the shot.

Being a "Model" has nothing to do with being Sexy or Hot, it's owning the shot and being the focus of the shot, everything in the shot enhances you. You're not just clutter added to the background.

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You've said what I've been wanting to say about this competition and this competitors so well. A lot of the weakest photos to me have people just literally standing there and doing some /pose. It's boring. I want people to realize that the environment is there for them to control.

Two of my fave pictures throughout this competition were Vahn's Hullbreaker Isle picture and Maxwell's snow picture with the wolves. Vahn's picture was strong because he was mindful of the fact that he wasn't in that dungeon alone and he used that fact to his advantage while keeping the focus on himself. I loved Maxwell's picture because I felt like he went a step further and incorporated himself into the story. He could have easily just done a /pose while standing there with the wolves. Instead he went a step further and aggro-ed them so he'd have a really interesting shot to take.

What is common between those 2 examples is that they both took elements external from themselves and the background and used them in such a way that their pictures told stories. That is what I'm looking for when I choose pictures to vote for. I will choose pictures which tell stories over sexy/ cute pictures all the time. If I wanted to look at sexy/ cute pictures, I could just take those screenshots on my own characters and admire them in my own time. I want pictures that show that the "models" have actually put real thought into the stories behind the pictures. Stories that let me understand the model a bit better. :/

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Originally Posted by SulwynCaliope

Two of my fave pictures throughout this competition were Vahn's Hullbreaker Isle picture and Maxwell's snow picture with the wolves. Vahn's picture was strong because he was mindful of the fact that he wasn't in that dungeon alone and he used that fact to his advantage while keeping the focus on himself.

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A million times YES!

Vahn's picture is exactly what I mean. It is to date my personal favorite because of all the elements of the photo coming together and he is still the primary focus. It has the movie star on a poster feel. Whether everything was intentional or not is another story.

What I've been wondering about is how some of the competitors have been framing their shots so well, having their characters off-center most of the time. Is it that there's another character always taking the shots, or is there some other way, besides cropping the image, to achieve this effect?

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Originally Posted by Kaiyoko

A million times YES!

Vahn's picture is exactly what I mean. It is to date my personal favorite because of all the elements of the photo coming together and he is still the primary focus. It has the movie star on a poster feel. Whether everything was intentional or not is another story.

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Thanks ;)... it was a pre-planned thing, had an idea and put it into work.

I wanted to mention tho that I am not against "simple" shots. Actually I kind of like Yunie's snow picture better than the waterfall one that you compared it to. My reason for this is, that it's honestly alot harder than you might think in order to get the right angle/lighting/focus in the whole picture at once. 1 tiny mouse slip to the left or 1 misstep to the right can ruin the whole photo, sounds crazy but it's true.

Don't forget that weather effects and lighting only last a certain amount of time in game. So if you want to take a pic at noon, you got like 5 mins before the lighting is completely different. Ciara takes some really nice "simpler" shots and IMO if you can make a simple shot look amazing then it takes alot of skill.

That hullbreaker one took 2 days and 150+ screenshots to finally get the right one lol... I'm sure other models go through tons of photos to finally get "the one" to use.