Original Manipulations by Cruxforums Members

[Jollyrei]

Would-be Martyrs in the Arena with Balloons.



"Do they still want to kill us, do you suppose, @Eulalia ?"
"Well, we're naked in the arena, @Barbaria1 , surrounded by nasty Romans, so I would guess, yes. But I think they're not quite sure how to proceed now that the bull is already dead."
"Then we just have to keep the initiative. Distract them."
"Speaking of that, I'm not quite sure what your tactics are, Barb, but you seem to have confused Caesar, at least. He's not sure what to make of you."
"Yeah, I thought the balloons would help with that. I bet he's never seen anything like it."
"I think that's a safe bet. The balloons were a nice touch."
"Thanks! I'm going for the 'not a threat, so we should let them go' idea. Do you think we might get away with it, Eul?"
"Depends who gave you the balloons."
"Jollyrei - you know, thin guy, dresses in black."
"Not a chance then. But thanks for trying. At least we know we won't be tied to the bull."
"The balloons have happy faces!!"
"Yes, a good try. One for the history books. Something to cheer up the gladiators...afterwards."
"Oh shit!"

 

[Wragg]

Even the Earls of Cruxton are nice to people with balloons, irrespective of the provenance of said balloons

Surely Caesar can't be that much of a cad?

 

[Barbaria1]

Giggle snort! Spilled my breakfast tea when I opened this!

FUNNY!!!!!!!

 

[Tmaster]

Jollyrei's pictures are so neatly blended, with close attention to figure scale and lighting, that the results effectively disguise the extent of the work involved. This one is no exception, a number of alternative compositions having been tried before deciding on this arrangement. The background has been extensively reconstructed to recreate the room and conceal several painted figures. This accounts for the large number of layers in the manipulation as well as a convincing sense of character interaction between the individually inserted figures. Nice work, Jolly!

As a footnote to the historical record, Bobindix is evidently cowering behind the door, having previously instructed the girls to harness the fastest horses to the chariot - although he insisted that he never said anything about taking it for a test drive! However, the family history also records how Brennus Wraggetorix obtained both a new racing chariot and a fearsome revenge upon the Lady Barbara...

(Image hosted on DeviantArt Sta.sh. Full size picture - https://sta.sh/01k66hdjycza )​

She's getting away! Quick get after her. Don't let her escape.

 

[bobinder]

Would-be Martyrs in the Arena with Balloons.



"Do they still want to kill us, do you suppose, @Eulalia ?"
"Well, we're naked in the arena, @Barbaria1 , surrounded by nasty Romans, so I would guess, yes. But I think they're not quite sure how to proceed now that the bull is already dead."
"Then we just have to keep the initiative. Distract them."
"Speaking of that, I'm not quite sure what your tactics are, Barb, but you seem to have confused Caesar, at least. He's not sure what to make of you."
"Yeah, I thought the balloons would help with that. I bet he's never seen anything like it."
"I think that's a safe bet. The balloons were a nice touch."
"Thanks! I'm going for the 'not a threat, so we should let them go' idea. Do you think we might get away with it, Eul?"
"Depends who gave you the balloons."
"Jollyrei - you know, thin guy, dresses in black."
"Not a chance then. But thanks for trying. At least we know we won't be tied to the bull."
"The balloons have happy faces!!"
"Yes, a good try. One for the history books. Something to cheer up the gladiators...afterwards."
"Oh shit!"

This is a clever adaptation of Henryk Siemiradzki's 1897 painting, 'The Christian Dirce'. In the original picture, Nero observes the aftermath of a re-enactment of the death of Dirce, Queen of Thebes, on the horns of a bull. The bull doesn't fare any better, judging by appearances.

Jollyrei has altered the painting subtly, so that we almost fail to notice the absence of Dirce. The garlanded bull remains in situ, but substantial parts of the painting have been removed, and the entrance from beneath the stands is relocated some three metres to the left of its original position.

Having spent considerable time and effort stitching the modified picture back together in a seamless manner, the new figures of Barb and Eul are inserted in the foreground. They are now the main subjects of the composition, and their relative scale, saturation and shadows are all consistent with the original painting.

Jollyrei's text indicates that they are having to think on their feet, or in Eul's case, on her knees. Nero appears confused by the balloons, extracted complete with the figure from Caprice's smiley balloons series. The model for Eul looks familiar - I think she has featured in previous Jollyrei manips, although I am unable to identify her. Nice work, Jolly!

 

[Jollyrei]

Jollyrei has altered the painting subtly, so that we almost fail to notice the absence of Dirce. The garlanded bull remains in situ, but substantial parts of the painting have been removed, and the entrance from beneath the stands is relocated some three metres to the left of its original position.

See? I knew Bob would catch that stuff. I do try to alter things so that people don't notice, but it's a fairly popular painting around CF (has been used several times in manips, including a couple of times by me), and Bob's got a pretty sharp eye.

Jollyrei's text indicates that they are having to think on their feet, or in Eul's case, on her knees. Nero appears confused by the balloons, extracted complete with the figure from Caprice's smiley balloons series.

To be quite honest, I liked a number of the photos from Caprice's balloon series, and I was damn well going to somehow work one into a manip somehow. (Actually, I think I did an earlier manip with another photo from the series somewhere - likely a Cruxton Abbey manip of some sort.). Naturally, there has to be a sort of humour element (martyrs didn't normally carry balloons, to my knowledge), so a short absurd back story was needed.

The model for Eul looks familiar - I think she has featured in previous Jollyrei manips, although I am unable to identify her.

The model for Eul is again Sheri (or Anna, depending on who is taking the photo) - I used the same model to represent Eul in a couple of previous manips. (Actually, Eul could tell me if it looks like a reasonable model to use for her - I'm going on various tidbits of description and depictions/renders that she has sort of endorsed from other artists in the past.) This is a new cutout of Sheri, which I thought had a sort of Romanesque hairstyle (like I know what girls did with their hair in ancient Rome ).

 

[bobinder]

The model for Eul is again Sheri (or Anna, depending on who is taking the photo) - I used the same model to represent Eul in a couple of previous manips. (Actually, Eul could tell me if it looks like a reasonable model to use for her - I'm going on various tidbits of description and depictions/renders that she has sort of endorsed from other artists in the past.) This is a new cutout of Sheri, which I thought had a sort of Romanesque hairstyle (like I know what girls did with their hair in ancient Rome ).

Thanks, Jolly - Sheri's name is familiar. She makes a plausible model for Eul, and I believe Boundheat's Sabina Casarova also provides a good likeness.

​

 

[palosanto]

the descent from the cross

 

[Eulalia]

Would-be Martyrs in the Arena with Balloons.

View attachment 1493316

"Do they still want to kill us, do you suppose, @Eulalia ?"
"Well, we're naked in the arena, @Barbaria1 , surrounded by nasty Romans, so I would guess, yes. But I think they're not quite sure how to proceed now that the bull is already dead."
"Then we just have to keep the initiative. Distract them."
"Speaking of that, I'm not quite sure what your tactics are, Barb, but you seem to have confused Caesar, at least. He's not sure what to make of you."
"Yeah, I thought the balloons would help with that. I bet he's never seen anything like it."
"I think that's a safe bet. The balloons were a nice touch."
"Thanks! I'm going for the 'not a threat, so we should let them go' idea. Do you think we might get away with it, Eul?"
"Depends who gave you the balloons."
"Jollyrei - you know, thin guy, dresses in black."
"Not a chance then. But thanks for trying. At least we know we won't be tied to the bull."
"The balloons have happy faces!!"
"Yes, a good try. One for the history books. Something to cheer up the gladiators...afterwards."
"Oh shit!"

Well, we're supposed to be martyrs, aren't we? And part of the job spec is rejoicing while we're being martyred. Chin up, girl! Give them a nice wide grin!

 

[thehangingtree]

the descent from the cross

Till I read the title, I thought that is a hell of a lot of guys just to get her up there!!!

 

[Wragg]

the descent from the cross

I think that is a wonderful image, thank you, @palosanto

 

[Jollyrei]

How much do you know about how the universe works? Physicists, cosmologists, philosophers, psychics, astronomers, astrologers, etc. all have their theories and views. Greek mythology would have us believe that the Earth is carried around the universe by the giant, Atlas. Well, I have done some what I will call research, and personally, I think it might be a bit more interesting than that.

 

[Barbaria1]

How much do you know about how the universe works? Physicists, cosmologists, philosophers, psychics, astronomers, astrologers, etc. all have their theories and views. Greek mythology would have us believe that the Earth is carried around the universe by the giant, Atlas. Well, I have done some what I will call research, and personally, I think it might be a bit more interesting than that.

View attachment 1507157

And I’ve been told to take care not to drop anything …. oooops!!!

Oh well, I’m not sure a moon serves any function… sooooo

 

[mp5stab]

Do y’all think that ai has most supplanted the manipulation game? Photoshop plus some stable diffusion (Krita has a SD extension built in, hint hint) seems to provide better results than any amount of extra images to add in. I wonder when AI really starts making a dent in 3d art to…

 

[Wragg]

How much do you know about how the universe works? Physicists, cosmologists, philosophers, psychics, astronomers, astrologers, etc. all have their theories and views. Greek mythology would have us believe that the Earth is carried around the universe by the giant, Atlas. Well, I have done some what I will call research, and personally, I think it might be a bit more interesting than that.

View attachment 1507157

Damn!

Just when I'd got my telescope focussed on something interesting... there's a total eclipse of the moon by a left shoulder.

 

[Loxuru]

How much do you know about how the universe works? Physicists, cosmologists, philosophers, psychics, astronomers, astrologers, etc. all have their theories and views. Greek mythology would have us believe that the Earth is carried around the universe by the giant, Atlas. Well, I have done some what I will call research, and personally, I think it might be a bit more interesting than that.

So, I finally understand! A crescent moon is in fact when 80-90% of the moon is hidden behind Barb's tight little?

Science is even Moore fascinating than I thought!

 

[phlebas]

Do y’all think that ai has most supplanted the manipulation game? Photoshop plus some stable diffusion (Krita has a SD extension built in, hint hint) seems to provide better results than any amount of extra images to add in. I wonder when AI really starts making a dent in 3d art to…

I was thinking that, but at the moment I am playing around with some limited ai tools and finding that almost everything requires some post generation work. Sometimes multiple generated images can be canibalised and added together to make one acceptable image.

I don't think ai is quite there on its own yet, but traditional photomanips may well be done for

 

[Jollyrei]

I don't think ai is quite there on its own yet, but traditional photomanips may well be done for

I don't know. I think it's all in what you want to do with it. I'm having a good time with photomanips still. Not ruling out some sort of AI assistance, but it's not a big priority right now. People still paint pictures with oil and acrylic, and there's a guy who does charcoal drawings that you can't tell are not a B&W photo. Not sure what the point of that is, actually, but I guess you can make art in whatever medium you choose to work in.

 

[fallenmystic]

Do y’all think that ai has most supplanted the manipulation game? Photoshop plus some stable diffusion (Krita has a SD extension built in, hint hint) seems to provide better results than any amount of extra images to add in. I wonder when AI really starts making a dent in 3d art to…

Actually, it was something I’d been thinking about for a long time but chose not to discuss since I was making enough controversy with AI at that time. But probably things have changed since then, now that we have a few AI artists with distinct styles and skills among us whose works many enjoy without heated arguments.

My take is that it depends on the purpose. However, I assume most creators chose this particular method for the level of realism that is traditionally not easy to achieve with traditional 3D tools. In this case, I think AI would definitely be a far better tool in both the quality of the output and the easiness for the artist.

In fact, it’s best to use AI in a similar way that you’d make a photo manip work. The only difference is that you don’t need to search the internet for pieces but you can generate them in a way you want them to be.

You can even use AI to enhance the consistency of existing manip works to make them look more realistic. Anyone who has some experience with photo manip would know that the most difficult part of it is maintaining overall consistency, either by searching for the right pieces or by doing post-process work. Photos you can find on the internet have different combinations of lighting conditions, lens settings, perspectives, and so on. Mixing them in a single image introduces many inconsistencies, which is why you can perceive them as “fake” unless the author has god-tier skills in detecting and editing them out painstakingly. Even just changing the light direction of an existing photo requires significant time and effort if you rely on traditional tools.

But if you generate those pieces, or post-process an existing photo manip work with AI, it’ll automatically fix those problems (not perfectly, I should add, but it usually does a far superior job than most skilled people can do it by hand, and only in a fraction of time that they would need.)

So, if you’re making photo manips for realism or want to convert your existing works to look like photos, I would highly recommend switching to AI tools, like the Krita plugin @mp5stab mentioned above.

I think the only valid reason not to switch other than personal preference (which is a perfectly good reason, by the way) would be the case you intentionally want to keep the inconsistencies, using the distinctive look they create as a part of your original style, like montage, for example.

One way you can try is using resources like CMCK to compose a crude base image and run it through AI. There can be many different approaches and tips regarding the process. If you need an example or guidance, I might be able to provide some.

 

[mp5stab]

That’s very well true, but consider for us it is not the result than the process. The up and coming artists just want to see crux. They’ll make it however they can with the tools that are simplest to them. Means a lot of ai and a lot less photomanip.