May Challenge Winner

May is almost over! How the heck did that happen? It feels like the month started last Monday. I guess we had to make up for all the time we gained in March, which never ended.

Voting is done and it wasn’t even close this month – the winner for Passing the QuaranTime by a landslide was Malkovich and Neisha!

Congratulations, and stay tuned for the June challenge shortly. In the meantime, I’m going to need to figure out how I can put a vaguely NSFW image at the top of the website without it getting reported to SE.

FFXIV Image
Malkovich and Neisha

Classic Cycle 12 Winner

It is time, everyone! After eight grueling weeks of deadlines, frustration with battle poses, arguments about composition, and the occasional lucky shot, our judges and the community have combined their mathemagical powers to crunch out a winner.

To all of the models of Cycle 12: Thank you for putting yourself out there and sticking this through to the end. I know it takes a lot of confidence to submit your work for critiques, and sometimes the feedback you get isn’t always what you wanted to hear. But ENTM is all about doing your best, and making your best a little bit better every week. You are always part of the ENTM family, and welcome to come back and try again during our other cycles and our monthly challenges. I’ve seen the growth from all of you over the last two months, and I’m proud of what you all achieved.

This was one of our closest cycles yet, and it all came down to the final round. Even I didn’t know who was going to win until last night when I closed the votes!

The winner of Eorzea’s Neo Talent Management Classic Cycle 12, with a total score of 151.6 and the final two weekly wins under his belt, is Yomu Kazul! Yomu was also the community winner for Cycle 12, thanks to a strong series of 2nd and 3rd place finishes most weeks. Congratulations on becoming our newest S-Rank model, and the first male Au Ra to claim the title!

In second place, with a total score of 159.6, we have Rymmrael Bhaldraelwyn! Rymm gave Yomu a run for his money this entire cycle, with a weekly win during Round 4 (Wide Open Spaces) and strong finishes most other weeks.

FFXIV Screenshot
Wide Open Spaces

In third place with a score of 175.0 on the dot, we have Elessia Sedai of the Fat Cat Chronicles, who also came in 2nd place overall for the community votes this cycle. Elessia won Round 5 (Day Job) and kept toe to toe with our other models every week this cycle.

FFXIV Screenshot
Day job

All of the beautiful shots from Classic Cycle 12 will be permanently archived here on the website to inspire future models. In the meantime, if you haven’t auditioned for Scenic Cycle 2 yet, go ahead and send in your landscape photos!

Classic Cycle 12 Round 8 Winner

Our final week of Classic Cycle 12 asked our models to throw on a band and a wig and change up their entire look. Some of our knights became princesses, some of damsels became heroes, but everyone found a slightly different look and tried it on.

The voting was close as always, but the community and judges all agreed that Yomu Kazul’s transformation into a Sin Eater was the most on point for the theme this week. This is not the kind of makeover any of us want to experience (supposedly it is very painful) but Yomu’s gold accents and careful composition made it exquisitely beautiful for us to look at. Congratulations!

FFXIV Screenshot
Yomu

And that’s it! All twelve models survived until the end, but only one winner will be announced later today.

In the meantime, please go look at our call for photographers for Scenic Cycle 2 if you missed it, which will be hosted by our very own Odharnait Greene.

Scenic Cycle 2.0 – Photographers Wanted!

Holy heck and a half!

Is that Ona typing up an announcement?
IT IS!

I am so excited to

1st – congratulate the winner of Classic Cycle 12! Thank you for allowing me to judge you (AWKWARD JUDGING STARE) and for sharing your images with us!

2nd – To host the upcoming Scenic Cycle 2.0!


Problem is, I need photographers (not models, because you’re not going to be in the images) willing to sign up for a 6 week cycle that involves LANDSCAPED images instead of models. The cycle will run from June 13, 2020 and culminate on July 19, 2020 with the Winner of the cycle announced!


This cycle is Vanilla – No Mods, Re-shade, Touch-ups, Pact with Rumpelstiltskin…


For those who are interested, please submit the following via my Discord DMs (Odharnait Greene):
Your name and server, and 3 images with the following themes:

1. Weird Weather (Umbral wind, Umbral Static, Gloom, Beyond Time, Concordance, Core Radiation, Darkness, Demonic Infinity, Dimensional Disruption, Dragonstorm, Eruptions, Eternal Bliss, Hyperelectricity, Irradiance, Louring, Multiplicity, Oppression, Quicklevin, Revelstorm, Rough Seas, Royal Levin, Shelf Clouds, Smoke, Tension, Wyrmstorm)
2.
Seaside
3.
Zoneline – Must be taken directly across a zoneline using cinema frame

All entries are due by June 6, 2020, at 10pm EST.
Photographers will be announced June 7, 2020.

Interested in ENTM? Join our ever growing community!
https://discord.gg/wtUxMRs

Classic Cycle 12 Round 8 – Crystal Makeover

Welcome back for our final round in Classic Cycle 12! All twelve of our models have made it to the finish line, which is a huge accomplishment. Be proud for sticking it out until the end and never missing a shot – persistence is always the key to winning ENTM.

The models have spent the cycle showing us who they normally are, so this is the round to show us something different! Crystal Makeover is one of my favorite rounds in ENTM. For this round, the technical requirement was “Must use the band make up from the aesthetician and also have hair different from audition headshot.” Of course, the shot should go beyond just shock value and also be good on its own merits.

Here’s our beautiful models showing us their new looks for this final round. After looking at the gallery, rank the images in the google poll below, with the strongest at 1 on down to number 12.

If you are unable to see the Google Poll above, please >>click this link to view it on the Google Poll Website.<<

Voting will be open until Tuesday, May 26th at 11:59 PM EDT!

May Monthly Challenge Voting

It’s that time again and for the challenge in May, our community was asked to take a screenshot showing how they are Passing the Quarantime – how they have filled their time with different activities now that normal time has gone out the window.

We had six entries this month. Please review the images below, and then vote for your favorite in the Google poll at the bottom. Voting will be open until May 29th!

The surprising conclusion to YouTube Cycle 3!

Hi everyone! We had a surprise present from our founder Rongi Pongi, who is thankfully alive and well and managed to find time to finish up YouTube Cycle 3’s grand finale video due to the lockdown in Japan.

It has been a long time coming, but we finally crowned a new S-Rank model today: Esmerelda! Esme finished YouTube 3 with no eliminations and four first place finishes.

Thank you to Rongi for finishing up YouTube Cycle 3.

YouTube Cycle 3 Grand Finale

Classic Cycle 12 Round 7 Winner

Hi everyone! Adding this via an auto drop because I’m going to be at the doctor all day today. For the challenge last week, our models were tasked with showing off some Battle Glitter and giving us a flash action shot with lots of sparkles. We got to see a lot of fun ideas with this round, since opponents were optional and it was all about the shinies instead. But we had a clear winner this week, with the judges and the community agreeing, and that goes to Yomu Kazul for his throwback vaporwave poster. Congratulations!

This looks straight out of the ’80s, as Omega’s eyeball looms from the background and our hero shows off his battle flames. The poster effect is enhanced by the limited color palette and grainy filters. I’m tempted to slap a movie title on it and print this one out. Nicely done!

FFXIV Screenshot
Yomu

We have ONE MORE WEEK for ENTM’s Classic Cycle 12! Also please stay tuned for news about our next cycle, which will be opening up for auditions in the next few weeks!

Classic Cycle 12 Round 7 – Battle Glitter

Hi everyone! We’re in the home stretch for Classic Cycle 12. Our models have all stuck with us for this competition, and I’m so proud of everyone for pushing through so far.

This week’s challenge was Battle Glitter – an action shot where a model was for an “Action shot, does NOT need visible enemy. Flashiest attack you can make.” If Boss Monster was our technically challenging battle round, this one was meant to be the artistic one. We know the XIV engine’s battle system can be stunningly beautiful, and here’s our models showing it off to its fullest!

Please review the images below, and then vote for your favorite in the Google Poll. Voting is open until 5/19/20 at 11:59 EDT.

If you are having trouble seeing the Google Poll embedded above, you can go to it directly >>>using this link. <<<

Classic Cycle 12 Round 6 Winner

Hi everyone! Last week’s challenge was for our models to take a mount and go get a picture while riding it. This is a scenic round with a technical challenge, since balancing out the mount, the model, and the background requires careful composition and attention to detail.

Our judges had a really tough time ranking this round, because every single shot was outstanding. But at the end of the scoring, we still had a clear winner and the community and the judges agreed for only the second time this cycle! Congratulations to Yume Aawkot for taking home the prize this week.

This shot looks like a poster straight out of my childhood. The careful use of filters allows the mount to pop right out of the background, despite the similar coloration, and the hunter themed glamour ties everything together. I think more than one of us might be adding this shot to our ENTM background rotation. Click on the picture for the full size version!

FFXIV Screenshot
Yume