Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.I've started the pdf even though we are still 10% behind on donations. And a slap on the wrist for Apostate for posting a Full Size image! And 10 Hail Marys!
Creepy indeed, but oddly wonderful too. The slight movement of her eyes and lips sparks the imagination and it becomes easy to imagine what might be going on around her to spark those facial movements ... the gathering of the crowd, the preparing of the crucifix, thoughts of her final hours on this earth ...Hi Bob, Alice animated by application program deep-nostalgia interesting
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This app, Deep Nostalgia, is designed to animate photographs of your long deceased ancestors. Creepy is the right word!Ok y’all are really creeping me out now
Thanks very much, Cypher - and congratulations on the first video production of Rylsky's 'Tiempo'.Hi Bob, Alice animated by application program deep-nostalgia interesting
Thank you bb, brilliantly detailed analysis as always. The manips are excellent, and what a subject this provocatively gorgeous creature makes.Happy Birthday Alice
13 May 2021 - 33 years old today
(Image hosted on external site)
Alice celebrates her birthday this year by returning to the Ay Petri plateau to admire the peonies. Whilst the picture has all the familiar indications of being from 'Freedom' by Valery Anzilov, in fact it owes very little to the Femjoy series, apart from the obvious inspiration behind its creation.
The background contains the characteristic features of the Ay Petri plateau, including the limestone outcrops and the brilliant, red peonies which are in bloom at this time of year. These were photographed by Mikhail Makeev, who captured the scene shortly after 7 pm on 10 May 2012. Alice's session took place soon after midday, five years earlier, with the sun almost directly overhead. The sunlight in the new picture is at a lower elevation, and the figure of Alice is intended to reflect the softer, evening light.
The manipulation contains twelve layers, five of which are blending filters. There are seven individual components, which are:- main figure, face, right hand, peony in the right hand, rock beneath the left hand, left hand shadow and the background. To achieve even colour blending, each layer is influenced by an 'average' (in this case, olive green) blending filter, set at very low opacity. The peony in Alice's hand is a token acknowledgement of the original 'Freedom' series, and is an authentic Femjoy component, being the same flower she is seen holding in this Anzilov picture -
The manipulated figure of Alice is derived from the series entitled, 'Break' by Vadim Rigin. Whilst this was produced from an indoor session, the illumination is by natural light coming through a window. Anzilov used flash photography on Ay Petri, to lighten the dense shadows being cast on Alice's face and body. Rigin's series avoids the use of flash altogether - there are no telltale highlights from flash reflections in the subject's eyes in any of the pictures, and Alice's pupils are dilated in response to the low lighting conditions.
As one of her most prolific photographers, Rigin shot eleven series with Alice (Rylsky alone exceeded this total with her). I have noted previously that Rigin is a rapid fire photographer, and some of his series can almost be joined together as stop motion animation sequences, with the model visibly moving from one pose into another. As far as I can tell, the 93 published pictures from 'Break' were shot in something like seventeen minutes, at around 6 pm on 20 April 2007. I believe Rigin also shot the series, 'Olga' and 'Hostel' on the same evening, in the same location - and possibly 'Mirror' into the bargain. If this was the case, he was plausibly hoping to publish four series from a single one-hour session with Alice.
I decided to use a standing figure from 'Break' but I also wanted to use the smiling expression from a reclining pose in the same series. Joining a face and figure from the same series helped to ensure consistent lighting, and the combination figure was initially produced as a Rigin 'fake', retaining the 'Break' background. The first two pictures shown here were blended to produce the third, which became the figure source for the birthday manipulation.
The combination figure was extracted via layer masking and the colour of the skin tone was adjusted to suit the new outdoor environment. Inserting the peony required the right hand to be repeated in the upper layer. All components were filtered and balanced for consistent colour saturation in the hope of achieving a realistic effect. Alice wore her navel jewel and her favourite shade of pink lipstick in both 'Freedom' and 'Break', so no modifications were required in respect of these details. The next thumbnail opens the new picture, 'Alicia Paeonia tenuifolia 2', in high resolution -
I wonder if any of Alice's actual presents today involved as much time, care, and thought as Bob has put into this beautiful image?Happy Birthday Alice
13 May 2021 - 33 years old today
(Image hosted on external site)
Alice celebrates her birthday this year by returning to the Ay Petri plateau to admire the peonies. Whilst the picture has all the familiar indications of being from 'Freedom' by Valery Anzilov, in fact it owes very little to the Femjoy series, apart from the obvious inspiration behind its creation.
The background contains the characteristic features of the Ay Petri plateau, including the limestone outcrops and the brilliant, red peonies which are in bloom at this time of year. These were photographed by Mikhail Makeev, who captured the scene shortly after 7 pm on 10 May 2012. Alice's session took place soon after midday, five years earlier, with the sun almost directly overhead. The sunlight in the new picture is at a lower elevation, and the figure of Alice is intended to reflect the softer, evening light.
The manipulation contains twelve layers, five of which are blending filters. There are seven individual components, which are:- main figure, face, right hand, peony in the right hand, rock beneath the left hand, left hand shadow and the background. To achieve even colour blending, each layer is influenced by an 'average' (in this case, olive green) blending filter, set at very low opacity. The peony in Alice's hand is a token acknowledgement of the original 'Freedom' series, and is an authentic Femjoy component, being the same flower she is seen holding in this Anzilov picture -
The manipulated figure of Alice is derived from the series entitled, 'Break' by Vadim Rigin. Whilst this was produced from an indoor session, the illumination is by natural light coming through a window. Anzilov used flash photography on Ay Petri, to lighten the dense shadows being cast on Alice's face and body. Rigin's series avoids the use of flash altogether - there are no telltale highlights from flash reflections in the subject's eyes in any of the pictures, and Alice's pupils are dilated in response to the low lighting conditions.
As one of her most prolific photographers, Rigin shot eleven series with Alice (Rylsky alone exceeded this total with her). I have noted previously that Rigin is a rapid fire photographer, and some of his series can almost be joined together as stop motion animation sequences, with the model visibly moving from one pose into another. As far as I can tell, the 93 published pictures from 'Break' were shot in something like seventeen minutes, at around 6 pm on 20 April 2007. I believe Rigin also shot the series, 'Olga' and 'Hostel' on the same evening, in the same location - and possibly 'Mirror' into the bargain. If this was the case, he was plausibly hoping to publish four series from a single one-hour session with Alice.
I decided to use a standing figure from 'Break' but I also wanted to use the smiling expression from a reclining pose in the same series. Joining a face and figure from the same series helped to ensure consistent lighting, and the combination figure was initially produced as a Rigin 'fake', retaining the 'Break' background. The first two pictures shown here were blended to produce the third, which became the figure source for the birthday manipulation.
The combination figure was extracted via layer masking and the colour of the skin tone was adjusted to suit the new outdoor environment. Inserting the peony required the right hand to be repeated in the upper layer. All components were filtered and balanced for consistent colour saturation in the hope of achieving a realistic effect. Alice wore her navel jewel and her favourite shade of pink lipstick in both 'Freedom' and 'Break', so no modifications were required in respect of these details. The next thumbnail opens the new picture, 'Alicia Paeonia tenuifolia 2', in high resolution -
Thanks for all the positive responses to this year's birthday celebration picture, especially from so many fellow manip artists who are acquainted with Alice as a source of creative inspiration - and DP has also presented us with a charming, musical contribution which I have now heard for the first time.
You do know that's Barb ?? Don't you....?! LolMmmmmmm ! The day when I'll meet Alice / when I meet Alice ...
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