While our group was there we met Joseph, the Bronze Youngblood. He seemed incredibly humble and shocked to the degree that people were looking and talking about his entry. He is certainly a future Gold winner.
I get that it is a painting competition, but I hate the amount of sculptor/painter collabs. The same sculptor had three entries in the open competition
It's not even allowed, it says on the entry form that you confirm that all is your work. And it says in the rules that all conversions and scratchbuilding has to be done by yourself. I wish people would just stick to the rules.
@@trovarion The question I have is whether you consider these to be invalid in the spirit of the competition or as demonstrations of painting skill? In either case, would you prefer them to be explicitly removed from the competition or for the open competition to be further divided into categories that might be "collaborative category" and the others that you spoke of in the stream.
@@Darksinne in the spirit of the competition. It's stated in the rules it has to be crafted by yourself. You remove the entries. I would not give it another category - that's not the solution and is just over complicating the case. Instead what should be done is: either GW removes the passage from the rules and nothing changes...or they act on their own rules. But this in between "we have a rule but don't act on it" is just....why.
@@trovarion That makes sense. At their discretion they can remove 3D printed models that are simply downloaded and printed, but keep commissioned pieces as if they are more unique work than someone who bought a model from myminifactory.
@@Darksinne that's not what I said though? I would also remove comissioned pieces and only leave the ones in that the painter sculpted themselves (tom hugues 40k ork, maxime's 40k single nurgle marine, etc.).
Fr, I’m sick of seeing NMM being lauded as the be all and end all of miniature painting skill, when it genuinely looks flat and boring 99.9% of the time
This. It looks cool on pictures. But seeing TMM in real looks sick everytime. Especially if you show the mini to non hobby related people, they 99,9% of the time prefer tmm
I did hear that the parents of the youngbloods gold winner was there and had no clue that there son was a good painter, they where asking pepole that is gd winners if it was a good paintjob for his age. Dam, its a great paintjob for a adult
Quality will only continue to rise, it is great to see all the amazing pieces. My favorite was David Arroba's the consistency of the skin was incredible, wish there was a better picture. I loved the fingers and toes, that little contrast is something I'd like to apply.
You know why entries are getting so good these days? It's because creators like you are basically offering everyone the best education in miniature painting that you can get, for free. Kids can sit for hours watching you guys paint and learn, and become golden demon winning level before they get out of grade school. This is true socialized learning. So, thanks to you guys, I'll never win a golden demon. And that's a good thing.
The Nurgle one was my favourite, too (that I've seen so far anyway) I take it this was a conversion, as I've never seen a mini like that in the current range (albeit been away from minis for a little while)
I understand the value of all these very nice smooth transitions but in my eyes they make everything look like it's made of silk. I think some roughness makes for a more realistic effect almost (?). Just a comment on my stylistic preference really
If you notice with the young bloods bronze entry, there are seam lines where the gaps haven't been filled. That will have more than likely put it down to bronze. It would've probably won gold if it was perfectly built. You can notice it on the bottom squig's chin, and the inside of the top squig's mouth. Plus, it's airbrushed and lacks texture.
Im the person that painted the squig and I total agree with you I made a big mistake by painting it then realising there was a massive gap in the prices 😂
I got super angry when i saw all the blown-up over-exposed photos, I'm a mediocre painter but i consider myself a pretty accomplished photographer, and all the amazing jobs ruined by bad photography that ignore basilar rules in photographing art makes me go crazy.
27:50 the base definitely did not look good in real life. The photo looked better than the real thing. I was surprised that it got gold in spite of this. In real life the grass was glossy and very uniform like you mentioned. I guess the judges didn't mind it so much.
the silver youngblood winner cant have been more than 13 as far as i could tell when watching the awards, which is why i think he got it, as he was so young and still did that well
A lot of olive coloured orks in this year's top 3s. If I was looking for a trend, its that the super vibrant, cartoony styled orks are being left behind a little bit.
One thing I really don’t get at all from the judging is how the dreadnought in the 40K vehicle category even placed. Even if you look at close up pictures it looks like high table top standard, the edge highlighting is super sloppy.
GW needs have a word with their photographer, or whoever post-processed the images for the website, I bet they've adjusted levels of the pictures to make the entire background a perfectly flat white and dragged the black point up too, while not giving the slightest damn about what it makes the actual subject look like. I almost think that they've setup a lightroom or photoshop action to automatically do it on the entire folder of images, given how some of them are so much worse than others (eg, they took a photo of the lightbox while empty (or with a colour matching card in it), and used that to set the clipping levels for the whole batch). Every photo I've opened in Photoshop has had the black and white points obviously clipped in the levels tool, with big black and white point ramps at either end of the visualiser, it should never be like that, they should taper off. Would anyone give the slightest damn if the background was not a perfect white, but the subject was correctly exposed? No ... except maybe whoever wants the images to smoothly blend in with the white background on the website.
Don't know if it has been mentioned here or in the video (might have missed it) but I saw a post on insta saying the 40k winner commissioned the sculpt, and it wasn't his own sculpt. Doesn't take anything away from the win, but it's important to know
@@trovarion actually the 40k orc in Open (by Tom Hughes) was also sculpted by himself. The only winner that was a joint entry was Open’s fantasy orc by Arroba.
Youngbloods bronze is really badly represented from that photo, you can see a little of the blue shadow/tone below carries on to the rest of the right hand side and gives a great lighting effect.
So I might have some insight on the photos. As a former event photographer whom is likely the person taking these photos. In general we do not keep appropriate lenses to shoot minis with. It's not like a super specialized lens set up and let's be real. GW should have told their photographers who were assigned to the golden demon should be prepared to shoot close ups of minis. It's just not having all the needed tools in there bags because normally these would/should be photographed in a studio environment. But the wrong lenses are likely the reason for the shit images. That being said the photos themselves are actually fine outside of the over exposure but the composition is what is terrible and makes the over all images bad.
The problem with Demon this year which was my first attending. The lighting in the cabs were horrendous. It was only when I seen a couple during collecting you could see how good they were.
Looking at Andy's own pictures of the Necron Lord, GW REALLY overexposed the model in the pictures. If you look at his own pictures and video, it's quite a bit darker and the contrast really adds to the smoothness of the blends. GW's pictures really did him dirty.
32:40 with all do respect to the artist, the bronze entry was not spectacular compared to other entries. I don't know why it placed. It looked the same in the case as in the picture.
I'll tell you why youngbloods are getting so good. The Internet. If I had access to the resources available now, when I was a kid, I'd be so much better than I am now.
The lad himself acknowledged that he missed a couple of gaps and mouldlines that aren't visible in the photo. He was marked down for this. I'm as impressed by his humility as I am by his talent.
@@trovarion I thought I had a brother 🥲 joking, but why German tho? Is it like, you favorite/easiest to understand language or are you borrowing your mates pc?
GW on creating your own 3D bases or minis: In a gaming tournament: You'll get banned. In a painting comp: Its all good, and all is welcomed. On a Army on Parade board: Its all good, and all is welcomed. Local GW stores: They believe that anything that wasn't sold from their store is banned and not applicable for whatever competition they run. So much hypocrisy. Thus why these paint comps are complete bullshit, and aside from telling people how awesome they are at painting and loving the work they did, there is no way to truly determine who the best painter is on a global/national scale.
Years of this competition, millions of dollars and they still photograph everything horribly as well as deprive us of multiple angles. GW's incompetence knows no limit.
Why do I feel like ALL of the Bronze winners should have placed higher? The vehicle category is a great example! I hate that the standard is a well polished GW box art rather than creativity. Not in all cases but most. Really bad photography too with either bad pics or bad lighting making the models look photoshopped.
The squad bronze put hours into an awesome backdrop/base and the gets negatively judged on it...whereas the silver and gold are just individual minis stuck on a black block. Ridiculous. The squad should be tied together with the basing/display. Bronze was robbed!
I’m sorry, I love miniature painting & converting is my main passion…..but man….that Plague Marine looks awful, the head looks so ridiculous & just doesn’t fit. Now the paint job is amazing, but that head just ruins the whole piece for me. I genuinely don’t understand why they awarded it.
3D sculpting ruined what this contest was originally all about. There's no innovation or originality here. It's just over detailed show pieces and perfected painting techniques. It's gamer art. It's no longer about the miniatures or the story they tell.
You said you're not a fan when people pay someone to sculpt a mini then they paint it and enter it. Literally this is 99% of the competition. Most to all entries are sculpted by other companies/people, then painted by someone else. It's a painting competition after all.
Wrong. A) it's stated on the entry form and in the FAQs any scratchbuilding has to be your own work, not a comissioned sculpt B) You can say it's a painting comp all you want, but if someone sculpts you that iconic artwork that gives you the edge over an equally well painted out of the box mini it is not just about the painting anymore.
@@Aditue Not that I necessarily disagree with the judge's decision, but I don't think age should be a factor in a painting competition if both contestants met the entry criteria for the category. The assessment should be purely based on the quality of the submission and not any external factors.
To me none of the Golden Demon 2023 models were good enough. And I'm not talking about the painters skills but the fact that all models in GD 2023 look like they were from the cartoons or comic books. Not like those taken from the dark and harsh Warhammer 40K or Age Of Sigmar. They look a bit grotesque sometimes as well. Not too realistic. To me the painting techniques are one thing but the skills of how to use them and compose in one realistic model or a scene, choose the color scheme, present the scene to be realistic not cartoonish that's a completely different story. None of the artists from the GD 2023 have that skills in my opinion.
The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare skl.sh/trovarionminiatures05231
While our group was there we met Joseph, the Bronze Youngblood. He seemed incredibly humble and shocked to the degree that people were looking and talking about his entry.
He is certainly a future Gold winner.
i was at the show when they announced it, did you see calebs reaction to silver? dude is so young and already an amazing painter!!
Thank you I really appreciate everyone saying such positive things about my entry🙌
I get that it is a painting competition, but I hate the amount of sculptor/painter collabs. The same sculptor had three entries in the open competition
It's not even allowed, it says on the entry form that you confirm that all is your work. And it says in the rules that all conversions and scratchbuilding has to be done by yourself. I wish people would just stick to the rules.
@@trovarion The question I have is whether you consider these to be invalid in the spirit of the competition or as demonstrations of painting skill? In either case, would you prefer them to be explicitly removed from the competition or for the open competition to be further divided into categories that might be "collaborative category" and the others that you spoke of in the stream.
@@Darksinne in the spirit of the competition. It's stated in the rules it has to be crafted by yourself. You remove the entries. I would not give it another category - that's not the solution and is just over complicating the case. Instead what should be done is: either GW removes the passage from the rules and nothing changes...or they act on their own rules. But this in between "we have a rule but don't act on it" is just....why.
@@trovarion That makes sense. At their discretion they can remove 3D printed models that are simply downloaded and printed, but keep commissioned pieces as if they are more unique work than someone who bought a model from myminifactory.
@@Darksinne that's not what I said though? I would also remove comissioned pieces and only leave the ones in that the painter sculpted themselves (tom hugues 40k ork, maxime's 40k single nurgle marine, etc.).
Arroba's orc on the boar is the best thing I've seen in years. Such a great tribute to the artwork
Hey Trov, I really look forward to these vids after Golden Demon. Let's us in Australia get a feel for the entries. Thanks for doing them.
You can't really tell from the picture but the cracking effect on the Predator tank was amazing - a deserved winner
Totally agree, I was very happy to see it win a deserved first. Though surprised the wraith knight didn't place
Poco realista (parece de mármol en vez de metálico) pero resulta muy bien que es lo importante😁.
I liked that a lot of real metallics placed highly
Fr, I’m sick of seeing NMM being lauded as the be all and end all of miniature painting skill, when it genuinely looks flat and boring 99.9% of the time
This. It looks cool on pictures. But seeing TMM in real looks sick everytime. Especially if you show the mini to non hobby related people, they 99,9% of the time prefer tmm
@@joshallen3165 thats just an opinion.
@@Evilminiature That's just an opinion of people who can't paint NMM themselves 🤣
@@Elfhelm NMM is not difficult to paint lmao it just looks boring. A whole army painted in NMM only looks good from one angle.
I did hear that the parents of the youngbloods gold winner was there and had no clue that there son was a good painter, they where asking pepole that is gd winners if it was a good paintjob for his age. Dam, its a great paintjob for a adult
Maybe the folks should take an interest in their child's hobby. Otherwise they'll have a future school shooter on their hands
Quality will only continue to rise, it is great to see all the amazing pieces. My favorite was David Arroba's the consistency of the skin was incredible, wish there was a better picture. I loved the fingers and toes, that little contrast is something I'd like to apply.
Albert's AOS single mini gold....my goodness those colour and light placements. Mind blowing.
Its great to see you look at the terrain also, as i specialise in natural and nature sceneries for terrain and panoramas
You know why entries are getting so good these days? It's because creators like you are basically offering everyone the best education in miniature painting that you can get, for free. Kids can sit for hours watching you guys paint and learn, and become golden demon winning level before they get out of grade school. This is true socialized learning. So, thanks to you guys, I'll never win a golden demon. And that's a good thing.
Mephiston diorama is absolutely BRUTAL also. amazing lights on the horrors.
Does anyone know what dragon lizard miniature was used for the winning entry for duels by Matteo Gallo?
That dragon creature looks amazing.
"Don't shoot till you see the white of their eyes."
"But sir! They don't have eyes!"
"Did I stutter?"
That Nurgle model looked fantastic
The Nurgle one was my favourite, too (that I've seen so far anyway) I take it this was a conversion, as I've never seen a mini like that in the current range (albeit been away from minis for a little while)
It was fully hand sculpted by the painter!
I understand the value of all these very nice smooth transitions but in my eyes they make everything look like it's made of silk. I think some roughness makes for a more realistic effect almost (?). Just a comment on my stylistic preference really
If you notice with the young bloods bronze entry, there are seam lines where the gaps haven't been filled. That will have more than likely put it down to bronze. It would've probably won gold if it was perfectly built. You can notice it on the bottom squig's chin, and the inside of the top squig's mouth. Plus, it's airbrushed and lacks texture.
Im the person that painted the squig and I total agree with you I made a big mistake by painting it then realising there was a massive gap in the prices 😂
I got super angry when i saw all the blown-up over-exposed photos, I'm a mediocre painter but i consider myself a pretty accomplished photographer, and all the amazing jobs ruined by bad photography that ignore basilar rules in photographing art makes me go crazy.
Basilar rules?
@@Magmadon *basic rules
Seguro que GW sí las tiene en cuenta a la hora de hacer sus fotos para las cajas y la página web 😏.
@@Magmadonorry guys I’m italian, “basic rules” is “regole basilari” i mixed the words😅
@@SmallStorms haha alright, thanks for clarifying!
27:50 the base definitely did not look good in real life. The photo looked better than the real thing. I was surprised that it got gold in spite of this. In real life the grass was glossy and very uniform like you mentioned. I guess the judges didn't mind it so much.
I absolutely love the Gold winner in the duel category, my favorite of the covered entries.
the silver youngblood winner cant have been more than 13 as far as i could tell when watching the awards, which is why i think he got it, as he was so young and still did that well
Bronze in Youngbloods was one of my favorite entries of the entire competition.
Great breakdown. Totally agree about the photos, very hard to judge when they're so washed out
That plague marine looks so good in the other picture. When I first saw it I didn’t like it much at all but seeing the other picture it’s incredible
Then, the credit goes to the camera dude I think.
@@leeedward2574 no
"Drew say oops to, Ray!" - Sam & Mark
🍸🧐
A lot of olive coloured orks in this year's top 3s. If I was looking for a trend, its that the super vibrant, cartoony styled orks are being left behind a little bit.
GW need to hire Maxime to sculpt new DG models. That marine is absolutely beautiful, paint job aside
All of these are so sic. Well done you guys. Thanks for showing us them.
The elf is one of the best works of art i remember, if not the best.
Arroba painted several of the Neko Galaxy box arts
I wondered where this livestream went!!! 😂
One thing I really don’t get at all from the judging is how the dreadnought in the 40K vehicle category even placed. Even if you look at close up pictures it looks like high table top standard, the edge highlighting is super sloppy.
Similarly I don’t get 40K squad 2nd place, looks like high tabletop even when looking at pictures from the artist
I watched the livestream. Just came by to like and comment bcos Trovarion told us to,
GW needs have a word with their photographer, or whoever post-processed the images for the website, I bet they've adjusted levels of the pictures to make the entire background a perfectly flat white and dragged the black point up too, while not giving the slightest damn about what it makes the actual subject look like.
I almost think that they've setup a lightroom or photoshop action to automatically do it on the entire folder of images, given how some of them are so much worse than others (eg, they took a photo of the lightbox while empty (or with a colour matching card in it), and used that to set the clipping levels for the whole batch). Every photo I've opened in Photoshop has had the black and white points obviously clipped in the levels tool, with big black and white point ramps at either end of the visualiser, it should never be like that, they should taper off. Would anyone give the slightest damn if the background was not a perfect white, but the subject was correctly exposed? No ... except maybe whoever wants the images to smoothly blend in with the white background on the website.
Honestly man, as an adult seeind kids do such incredible work is pretty damn inspiring
Don't know if it has been mentioned here or in the video (might have missed it) but I saw a post on insta saying the 40k winner commissioned the sculpt, and it wasn't his own sculpt.
Doesn't take anything away from the win, but it's important to know
That’s a blatant lie. Maxime did sculpt his marine by himself.
@@trovarion actually the 40k orc in Open (by Tom Hughes) was also sculpted by himself. The only winner that was a joint entry was Open’s fantasy orc by Arroba.
@@Heimdall1987 that's the one I am refering to, I don't know why my brain put it into the 40k universe.
@@Heimdall1987 you know what, I will actually delete all my comments and let yours stand so they clear up the confusion.
I see my mistake! The ork freebooters were the collab not the nurgle one. I knew I'd seen one of the entries, but I'd just confused which :)
The YB winners are really impressive!
same favorite!
Youngbloods bronze is really badly represented from that photo, you can see a little of the blue shadow/tone below carries on to the rest of the right hand side and gives a great lighting effect.
Could you please give me some feedback on my entry and why you think why it couldn’t make into the last decisions from the judges? 😊🙏🏽
The way every other thing does it is the prior winners become judges.
There is a real problem of snowball effect with name recognition.
what a plethora of hyperskilled artists. the AoS single fig podium is frickin unbelievable...
I do not understand the category distinctions between Squad, Diorama and Duel nowadays
So I might have some insight on the photos. As a former event photographer whom is likely the person taking these photos. In general we do not keep appropriate lenses to shoot minis with. It's not like a super specialized lens set up and let's be real. GW should have told their photographers who were assigned to the golden demon should be prepared to shoot close ups of minis. It's just not having all the needed tools in there bags because normally these would/should be photographed in a studio environment. But the wrong lenses are likely the reason for the shit images. That being said the photos themselves are actually fine outside of the over exposure but the composition is what is terrible and makes the over all images bad.
The problem with Demon this year which was my first attending. The lighting in the cabs were horrendous. It was only when I seen a couple during collecting you could see how good they were.
that has been an issue for 20 years, I don't expect they will ever change it haha
@@trovarion everything just looked washed out. On a plus not it made my entry look great 😂
I walked away with nothing tho
Would be nice for the judges to provide their reasoning. Less room for friendly nods.
1:00:56 gives me st george vibes
Looking at Andy's own pictures of the Necron Lord, GW REALLY overexposed the model in the pictures. If you look at his own pictures and video, it's quite a bit darker and the contrast really adds to the smoothness of the blends. GW's pictures really did him dirty.
32:40 with all do respect to the artist, the bronze entry was not spectacular compared to other entries. I don't know why it placed. It looked the same in the case as in the picture.
Why do they use a white back ground instead of black!!
Like you said all the light and white doesnt do the colours and painting any justice!!!
I'll tell you why youngbloods are getting so good. The Internet. If I had access to the resources available now, when I was a kid, I'd be so much better than I am now.
The Squad Bronze the Grey walls washed out the troops.
Better than the Oscars... *grabs Popcorn*
Is it me or is there no sound?
Must just be you, I heard him just fine.
I am the guy who said Small Scale bronze is Frodo‘s house. It is the truth.
Every time you comment on the overexposed pictures. Its crazy how they havent addressed this yet.
Youngbloods bronze is light years ahead of the silver, really mind boggling result that makes me question the legitimacy of judges
The lad himself acknowledged that he missed a couple of gaps and mouldlines that aren't visible in the photo. He was marked down for this. I'm as impressed by his humility as I am by his talent.
wait trovie..... are you german? or why is your pc in german?
I'm from Austria.
@@trovarion I thought I had a brother 🥲 joking, but why German tho? Is it like, you favorite/easiest to understand language or are you borrowing your mates pc?
@@TariTG austrians speak german?
@@trovarion idk
@@TariTG good talk.
GW on creating your own 3D bases or minis:
In a gaming tournament: You'll get banned.
In a painting comp: Its all good, and all is welcomed.
On a Army on Parade board: Its all good, and all is welcomed.
Local GW stores: They believe that anything that wasn't sold from their store is banned and not applicable for whatever competition they run.
So much hypocrisy. Thus why these paint comps are complete bullshit, and aside from telling people how awesome they are at painting and loving the work they did, there is no way to truly determine who the best painter is on a global/national scale.
Years of this competition, millions of dollars and they still photograph everything horribly as well as deprive us of multiple angles. GW's incompetence knows no limit.
Why do I feel like ALL of the Bronze winners should have placed higher? The vehicle category is a great example! I hate that the standard is a well polished GW box art rather than creativity. Not in all cases but most. Really bad photography too with either bad pics or bad lighting making the models look photoshopped.
The squad bronze put hours into an awesome backdrop/base and the gets negatively judged on it...whereas the silver and gold are just individual minis stuck on a black block. Ridiculous.
The squad should be tied together with the basing/display.
Bronze was robbed!
👀
I’m sorry, I love miniature painting & converting is my main passion…..but man….that Plague Marine looks awful, the head looks so ridiculous & just doesn’t fit.
Now the paint job is amazing, but that head just ruins the whole piece for me. I genuinely don’t understand why they awarded it.
You can see that the painting is amazing and yet don’t understand why they awarded it? Weird.
The overexposure makes it look almost pure white. Look at the non-overexposed photo Trovarion shows, the head looks cohesive and normal in that one.
They really are terrible photos of great models.
The scratch build is wonderful.
3D sculpting ruined what this contest was originally all about. There's no innovation or originality here. It's just over detailed show pieces and perfected painting techniques. It's gamer art. It's no longer about the miniatures or the story they tell.
They all look very samey in the NMM and blown out highlights
The 40k single winner was just....ewww not good
Those AOS ones were incredible
You said you're not a fan when people pay someone to sculpt a mini then they paint it and enter it. Literally this is 99% of the competition. Most to all entries are sculpted by other companies/people, then painted by someone else. It's a painting competition after all.
Wrong. A) it's stated on the entry form and in the FAQs any scratchbuilding has to be your own work, not a comissioned sculpt B) You can say it's a painting comp all you want, but if someone sculpts you that iconic artwork that gives you the edge over an equally well painted out of the box mini it is not just about the painting anymore.
I didnt believe any of the young bloods
you have to wonder why gw's photographers are so bad. it really takes away from the miniatures.
Youngbloods bronze was so detailed compared to the silver one...
Dare I say it's even better than the gold one tbh.
At least for me.
Take age difference between those two participants into account. As far as I know Silver was 10-12 years old, bronze much closer to 18
@@Aditue Not that I necessarily disagree with the judge's decision, but I don't think age should be a factor in a painting competition if both contestants met the entry criteria for the category. The assessment should be purely based on the quality of the submission and not any external factors.
@@Aditue judges have no idea how old participants are.
@@Heimdall1987 Thank you for clarifying, I didn't know that.
To me none of the Golden Demon 2023 models were good enough. And I'm not talking about the painters skills but the fact that all models in GD 2023 look like they were from the cartoons or comic books. Not like those taken from the dark and harsh Warhammer 40K or Age Of Sigmar. They look a bit grotesque sometimes as well. Not too realistic. To me the painting techniques are one thing but the skills of how to use them and compose in one realistic model or a scene, choose the color scheme, present the scene to be realistic not cartoonish that's a completely different story. None of the artists from the GD 2023 have that skills in my opinion.
🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸😜