Beketov

This is definitely something different from your norm and I like that you're trying some crazy stuff out to see what sticks, kudos for that. The colouring is pretty crazy but works decently well. I would like to see maybe a bit more darkness on his right side (our left) to make the lighting work better contrast wise but it's not bad. Text is unfortunately a bit of an eyesore here. Not really sure what I would do to fix that but it needs a bit of something to work better; the black bar just stands out way too much. Maybe just go with a bigger font; just the last name, in balk, and slap it on the shoulder with some effects to blend it in a bit.

This is definitely different and original which I like. The BG is clean and simple, lighting is subtle but works. Text is a pretty major focal point but I think that works here. Render blending and effects are the main concern in that neither seems to exist. I think a render with a white jersey may have worked better to keep the flow from the text. Maybe try incorporating some of those lines into the render to help it blend. It feels like a good piece with a render slapped on which doesn't work perfectly unfortunately.

Gotta agree with Jack on this. Everything seems to be on point effect wise; great text, good stock work, nice colouring, but then it all gets washed out under some kind of grey smog. Get whatever is creating that effect out of there and replace it with some proper lighting and curves layers to get this properly exposed' it will make a world of difference I promise you.

I really like the look you are going for here, just not sure you fully committed to it. The Clean BG works but is a tad under-contrasted IMO which makes the strong lighting not stand out as much as it could. The effects look really nice but their colours are a tad desaturated and could pop more. Lighting and text are both really well done. Overall I like the idea, but small changes would make a big difference here.

Normally I would say pick one for grading but with the new review system I think posting two versions is probably fine. I would like to see something in the middle f these two personally. I think the stronger colouring and lighting of the first one really works but the brightness is up a bit too high so the contrast looks better in the second. Get some contrast going on with a curves layer or two and it will really help. Try getting the lighting a little higher as well so it's not right in his eye, that should make it a bit less distracting. I think the text is okay but try to get the kerning (the space between the letters) down a bit and maybe add some extra bits of text to make it pop a bit more. Overall, pretty good start but needs some more work.

Vote?

Great, I'm now being outplayed by CPU players.

One of these days, I'll get a win.

Just gonna get this back on page 1

It's the Sharpe curse, I've never once had a good rookie year. I've gotten used to it haha

Your welcome, I exist to pad the stats of others apparently

That's basically the point I'm at. I should have just stopped doing PT's to stay in the VHLM and get an extra season. Coming into the VHL under 300 TPE is a death sentence for goalies.

Just download avast. Completely free (just need to register yearly) and it works better than any other anti-virus I ever saw.

Definitely not against Stockholm. Why was I riding pine against Riga but starting against Stockholm?

I'm not even blaming you, the last line of my above most was mostly in jest. We could be entirely wrong as well, but I do remember having a discussion about morale early on and deciding that it would make things feel too random so we turned it off. That decision may have been reversed at some point though; or never existed in the first place and Kendrick and I are just not remembering things well.

I recall this as well but sadly the search function is off on the original board so I can't just search for the word "morale" to find it easier. No way am I searching through all Scotty's posts just to prove Jardy wrong.

I'll give this a formal review later but just wanted to let you know that this is probably one of the sexiest pieces you have ever done. I would jizz all over that colouring if I knew how to make it myself.

I mentioned the story behind this to Jack but figure it's fun for everyone. I had 3/4 of this sig done and my Photoshop crashed trying to load a plugin. I got lucky and it recovered the piece with only 2 layers lost but this was REALLY close to not existing.

I think the best thing for elimination is to put up 1 vote with all 4 pieces and eliminate two this week and then have a 1v1 battle for top spot as the last challenge. With that said, if it ends up me vs. you in the final week and you make the challenge "no blur" I will cut you

The player build guides have always said to do that but, honestly, I've never been able to tell if it makes a difference or not.

I honestly expected you to kick my ass with that. I'm really surprised more people don't like it

3-2 Titans

Vikings Meute Legion Americans

I know he worded it as a joke but using something non-league related as a PT is actually a pretty big deal... @DollarAndADream