Tyrias Next Top Superstar Feedback Thread

Kit, I thought your shot was gorgeous this round. However, you've almost always had very close-cropped images, and while this time it was a good thing, sometimes you can add just a little extra spice to your picture by showing more of the background. It's good to take the same picture (the one you're satisfied with) and play around with the cropping, even making some rather extreme ones. That way, you can see what would work and what doesn't.
For example, usually wide cropping makes the picture look more dreamy, calm or all-encompassing. It gives the character meaning, by showing where she is and how she fits into it. However, it doesn't suit pictures where the character's actions are the main point, because those actions tend to disappear into the background. Close cropping helps to create claustrophobia and uneasiness, as well as letting you focus more on your subject rather than her surroundings.
I like the shot you posted here better than the one you had for the contest. :3 Sure, the background has a lot of small things in it, but in this assignment it doesn't matter that much. The important thing was to show your favourite location and yourself.

During TNTM cycle 1, when I was competing, my primary problems were poor cropping and bland poses. However, even bland poses can be made a touch better if you're not afraid to experiment with cropping.
My shots in this assignment were very wide on purpose. It clearly showed the surroundings, bringing more importance to the character and the area she was in. She looked less out of place because the background was visible enough to back her up.

Bland standing pose, but I like how it looks like her armor is moving in the breeze and the background really supports her role:


Apparently, the bridge moves in the breeze too:


She's checking out the location for the story with a critical eye, while holding her text on her hand:

Right so after the near miss this week, here's the story and shot that ended up on the cutting room floor. While I prefer this to the one I submitted, there are too many "pictures" in this story which is why it was reworked.

She was tired, she ached and she was running out of arrows. Tasha paused for a minute to scour the grassy, fertile hills below, looking for the road and the Charr. The beauty of the waterfall and river nearby, along with the hazy red afternoon sun and the trees in their Autumn colours, reminded her of Ascalon before the Searing. Her thoughts flew back to her childhood – her mother’s screams as the Charr rampaged through their home, her father telling her to hide as he grabbed his bow. A shout from behind her brought her back to the present day and the task ahead. She looked at the source of the voice and sighed – Mhenlo, Cynn and Devona were helping the villagers along the path from the pine and snow covered mountains to where she stood. Not all of them would make it to the next outpost, she knew that. She’d told them that and yet they still came. All she’d wanted to do was to find her lover, and that had turned in to a fight for her life.

Her grey eyes returned to a point in the horizon amongst the trees, before tracing the dirt road back toward her. There was a group of Charr approaching them fast up the hill. Tasha shouted to the others as she picked up her bow, chose a broad headed arrow and aimed at the Shaman. She thought of everything she’d lost and everything she still had to lose – the fight, her lover and her life. As Devona drew level on her race into battle, Tasha closed her eyes, thought of home and fired…

Thank you Rosemary! That was so insightful and generous of you to share with all of us! I have to say, you are a class-act all around I forgot that you were in TNTM! I stumbled across the threads all at once for the first time when I found Stalker's posting so I kinda forgot who has or has not done this type of thing before...all I know is I was the noob coming in lol...and I totally learned a lot from your post! TY <3

I had so much fun hanging out with you in LA!!! Here are only a couple of my fav's of the pics we took wonder if all the squash serum gave us alcohol points.../ponder Nevertheless, how fun it was to share the excitement the results with you! I appreciate u putting up with my hyperness lol.

Haha, I had fun hanging out in LA too, Kitiara! Here's hoping our Halloween party will be as much fun! I like being hyper too (one of my vices is that I tend to enjoy blabbing too much) and I'm just really glad I got to know another contestant. You were great company, and I really love seeing your submissions in the contest!
I really started missing the parties and interactivity between contestants in the previous contests, because one of the best parts has always been meeting new people.

Tasha, hmm... I think I like this version of your text better. The beginning part goes with your shot quite well, letting us see her surroundings and a more peaceful mood in both text and picture. Gotta say that your picture this round was absolutely gorgeous in colours and location. <3

Heya Tasha!
I liked this version too It seems to draw the reader in more...and yet seems more accurate to your picture.

The only thing that I might have expected would be your bow since it is mentioned a couple times (which I know we couldn't have one in pic) so it maybe would've caused an issue...I thought your picture was stunning too...I really loved the one you submitted, color was just wonderful - i must say your eye for color is your trademark & strength (listen to the noob ramble lol - like I'm so pro ha ha)

I look forward to what you do in the upcoming assignment! It's gonna be screen shot heaven lol

So when do we find out who won that costume contest. =P

Patience is a virtue.


First off images are to be posted, then everyone who attended gets to vote who had the best.

Sorry, I needed to get some sleep before putting up the photos.

Anyway, here it is!



For a larger picture of the entries, along with who dressed up as what, please click here. A great big thank you to everyone who participated! With your help, the costume contest is a success!

Everyone is allowed one vote per person. You are not allowed to vote for yourself. Because this is an open contest (where the organizers are also participating ) I hope that everyone will post their vote to this thread instead of through PM. Please no hard feelings about publicly showing your vote, this is just for fun and not very serious! However, if there is a problem with posting votes here, then I will get us a judge.
Voting ends on SUNDAY, 6 pm GMT. Ample time to get those votes in, and it will go nicely with the results from the main contest.

Prizes:
1st place - 2 ectos and random Halloween items.
2nd place - 1 diamond and random Halloween items.
3rd place - Halloween items.

Thank you again to all the participants, and looking forward to seeing the results!

wheeee! posh halloween costumes! (the green dragon thingy is my nec, btw )

Me votes for .... ROSE!! (Rosemary Marron) - because I love that scarecrow costume

Awww, I missed the costume contest. I have hot little number going on and I didn't get to show her off

Happy Halloween though

Somesone should start a seperate Halloween Costume thread.

I think you can post your Halloween costumes in the Halloween screenshot thread, since it's not exactly being swamped with posts right now.

And, after some careful thought, I vote for Lokii! That mask of hers made her look quite... robotic. And somehow the idea of a robotic monk amuses me.

i missed the costume comp but never mind here was how Tidus faired out after a visit from the mad king

Wow, i love Rose's! And Ashlings! Aw damn, Im so biased with Ritualists! My votes on Rose for this one though, that scarecrow costume is great.

Tidus I love it! What a fun shot! I had expected (hoped really) we'd have a Halloween assignment, yours could have been a great submission ha ha!

The party was super fun you guys!!! We had a great turn out and actually there were more people that attended that didn't do the costume contest. I was glad we had a so many show up. I had lots of fun with our little party contest (Gratz again to Tender Wolf for finding my hidden guild hall pet - a turtle) and sync dancing... and to our beloved Australians, had I known you even considered attending we would have been glad to adjust cuz we <3 U!

Hey if anyone took SS at the party will you guys post your best group shots? Or any fav shots really. I was too busy shooting off all the fireworks, champagne, ghosts-in-a box, blah, blah etc. Most of the time my char was a giant candy corn but if you see Kitiara in human form please pass it on to me thx!

Last but not least, I just have to give my vote to Ashling cuz she looks like that armor was made for that mummy mask ha ha! It's amazing to me that someone can wear such an ugly mask and make it look cute! There are definately a couple others that look great and I hope to see them get 2nd and 3rd Btw, I didn't really consider myself an entrant but wanted to get a shot with my little girl (her char is Pinkie Poo in the pic w me) This contest was her idea so I wanted her to get her pic in with us

Thanks for helping me throw the party Rosemary! It was a blast Okay now back to work for me! /runs off to obsess over next audition...

Oh so many good shots! hehe I've got a few that I took. Here they are:

My ranger (scarecrow)
My mesmer (witch)
Ashling Fey (mummy)
Clotho Moria (reindeer)
Eryn Shadowbane's necro (dragon)
Pinkie Poo (dragon)
Queen Kitiara (jester)
Rosemary Marron (scarecrow)

Sorry if I got anything wrong! hehe And Kit, I did get that shot of you out of candy corn costume.

And as for my vote, I have to say that I love Ashling's mummy costume! So she gets my vote, with Rose a close second.

Since I cant vote for myself. The Bloody Murderous Snowdominatrix. I'll have to vote for Perynne's scarecrow rit. =)

Was unable to attend as the party was on while I was at work... but had I been there Jules would have shown up in this:

I vote Ashling, just because that costume fits together so well. :P

Here are a couple of pics I managed to snap at Halloween:


*scuttles off to panic about this week's assignment*

AWESOME Ashling ty! Yay a pic I can keep of Kiti

Looks like you got a lot of votes (including mine) and I think you're neck and neck with Rosemary you Rits kick butt at everything!

I have to say, hat's off to Bob for his kick a@@ assignment cuz it's a great way to see what happens when we all get plowed with potential shots and all the decisions that go into it. Hardest assignment yet EEK! (i love a good challenge /lawl)

Oooh, the voting situation is really close!

And yes, I agree with Kitiara. This is the hardest assignment yet, because we have to do so many shots from so many different genres of movies. I got mine done today, just because I won't be home tomorrow... and gah, do I wish I had that one more day to tweak some of the submissions. I really had to rush a few of the screenshots, although there are a few shots that I'm really, really happy with too.

Loving the challenge, but hating my poor brain turning into mush. Sleep now to make it aaaaaaallll better.

lol no ele's at the party?

Hiya guys

Checking in here and there, excited to see pics (as usual heh heh), so I figured someone else maybe wanted to see "something". So I decided to put up an outtake.

This is my only outtake, I figured it couldn't hurt to post this kind since you don't see really anything revealing for the judges Hence the post...must have deleted hundreds of these "blocking the camera"...literally...well, that and butt shots of uncooperative animals lol. It was a great lesson learned and one hell of an assignment challenge

Ah, animal butt-shots. I've seen my fair share of those this week too :P Pets are awful to work with!
Most of my outtakes this week are at the actual locations I took my final pictures, so I can't really post anything at the moment =[ I have a few to put up once the results are out though.

And finally, here are the Halloween costume contest results (finally)!

The winner is:


Second place: Rosemary Marron
Third place: Lokii Dia

Thank you for all the contestants! The voting on the forums was quite even, but then a surprise vote dropped in from Kitiara's daughter. Congratulations to the winners! Please get in touch with me either ingame or here by pm for your prizes. I'm in Europe, so it might be tricky to manage times without some previous planning.

Thank you Kitiara again for the great Halloween party. And thanks for the nice comments on my pictures! From now on the contest is going to get really fierce, but I'm very happy I'll be able to compete with such a nice person as you. You definitely give life to this contest with your enthusiasm and energy. Out of your shots this round, I think I liked the Turquoise Queen the best - you look very regal and every inch the Queen you are. In Eden's Web, your armor choice is absolutely perfect. The dragon also adds a nice touch, and the background only emphasizes your character. Great shot! Your Grenth X shot was really interesting, although I agree with the judges that it's a bit disappointing to see most of you cropped out. Still, that's a very hard screen angle to get and I think you did a good job of getting yourself and the Grenth ghostie in the picture clearly. Your Kill Jill shot is great too! I dunno, my first thought when I saw the assassins was that you were fighting a group of femmebots... but I think that would suit Kill Jill just great. XD Lovely location and you steal the spotlight even from scarcely clothed ladies.

Ashling, wow... your Kill Jill shot totally owned all of the Kill Jills this round. My jaw literally dropped when I saw the shot. It's very reminiscent of the style in the original movie and I see you even managed to fit Gogo in there. Out of your other shots, I really enjoyed seeing Eden's Web and Dwayna's Kiss, they were the most like how I imagined the movie would look like. You really did a great shot for the latter - it was a tough subject to catch as a shot, but you pulled it off wonderfully. There's lots of emotion in the screenshot and the colour choices fit the theme perfectly. Your other shots were also great as themselves - perhaps not quite how I'd see the movies, but refreshing and skilled by themselves.

Tasha, your beach picture rocked! Wow... so many people, and it really did look like a shot from a teen movie. I'm really sad to see you go, as your shots had some of the most beautiful scenery and colour schemes. Please keep on posting here, showing off your beautiful ranger?

Tender Wolf, can't wait to see what you come up with this assignment. XD I love seeing how different people interpret past assignments and how they would have done it. Your story was interesting to read, and your shots were good. A couple of tips for you: try not to let anything cover your character's face, unless it's intentionally there to create mood. A character's face is usually their most emotive part in the picture (even if GW only has a few set expressions for characters), and covering that will easily make the screenshot look odd. Also, pay attention to cropping. I love the lower picture you submitted, but the cropping is perhaps a little too tight... after all, sometimes the best way to make a character shine is to show their surroundings. Not too much, but not too little either. Experiment with different crops, even making several differently cropped images of the same picture and then choosing the best one. Also, pay attention to the lighting. In these shots, it's not too dark, but usually it's best to have your character face the light source (so that their shadow falls behind them) and then take screens that highlight the face with light just the way you want it to. It's important to have light, as pictures with too much shadow on the character's face can look bland.
Great shots so far, can't wait to see what you come up with next!