OFFICIAL Eorzea's Next Top Model Discussion Thread

[Wings]

Hey, thanks for the critique, Wings! Now, this contest is all about learning and improving... I chose to answer this because those points noted struck a memory bone... I was indeed looking very hard for a means to occupy more space of the shot, and didn't learn about the 0 camera angle trick until AFTER I submitted the shot. Imagine my face when I heard about it, and was like "oh wow... REALLY, I can do that? LOLZ". As for the lock-on, I ALSO didn't know you could use while NOT having the character looking at the focus lock-on target (the reason I didn't go with it). So, yea... each week I'm learning new tricks!

My colleague models and Tyriont are being AMAZING to this newcomer here, and every shot will surely be better than the last! Hopefully I'll stick around for a couple more weeks and will have a chance to delight you in a better way, it's been amazing to be a part of this contest! <3 Cheer for meh!

(Replying here instead of the voting thread to keep that one clean :3)

That's the whole reason I gave my critiques the way I did, in the hopes of giving ideas as well as understanding why I voted the way I did! I entered Cycle 3 knowing about those tricks thanks to following this thread - there have been some how-to posts throughout it - but I still learned something new almost every round. Round 6 was probably my most complicated shoot (apart from the final one that I never actually finished since I got eliminated), because of all the things I wanted to do: a closeup shot, offcentered, with an emote. Sounds so simple, doesn't it?

First I figured I'd use a Lala friend as a camera, sitting on the table. Unfortunately the Bismarck is FULL of invisible walls, not being able to be on the tables one of them, so I'd have to take it myself. Unfortunately (again) if you have something targeted you'll automatically turn towards the target if you initiate an emote. I almost scrapped the idea and did a completely different shoot, but it kept gnawing at me. There had to be SOME way to do it...

If only I could start the emote, target something behind me, Lock On, turn the HUD off, then take the shot (and hope I get it at the right motion in the emote)... It would have to be one of the longer emotes of course, since it's a lot of steps, but as long as you don't fiddle with the camera when unlocked, it'll return to the position you adjust it to have during Lock On, so you can decide how it should look before starting the shoot. Turns out my fingers just couldn't keep up with all of that. Too many steps, and the emote was over by the time I had the HUD off. So I started digging through the Macro commands, and after a lot of frustration over the things I wanted not being available, I finally put together something that would take care of half of the steps, making the timing still tricky, but possible. This was the final result. I used that macro again in an unsubmitted alternative shot for Round 7, adding a facial emote and Face Camera into the mix.

What I want to say is, this contest is an amazing way to really push yourself and get all bubbly with inspiration since you're working against and at the same time together with the other models. Creativity breeds creativity ♥ But it can also be extremely stressful, so be careful!

I really wish everyone the best of luck, and I hope there are no hard feelings over the feedback I gave.