L-R: Scott Sigler; A Kovacs; Scott Pond
Photo: Bruce Press (http://www.brucefpressphotography.com/)
There are challenges… and then there are CHALLENGES…. and this one was definitely one of the latter.
Now that the excitement of the release of THE MVP by Scott Sigler has died down a bit, I figured it would be a good time to reveal some of the details about what went into creating the dust-jacket.
This particular project presented several hurdles that had to be cleared. First there was the issue of the trophy. Do we use a real trophy? Do we do a computer generation trophy? Do we do a digital composite? Then there was the issues of the alien hands/tentacles? Same consideration: real, 3D model, or composite.
In the end, we decided that while it would take a little longer to pull off, real was the way to go.
And given my crazy initiative, I knew I was just insane enough to do it.
- Trophy: The trophy is built from a combination of wood, a real football, Super Sculpey, and silver paint. (30 hours to build)
- Sklorno Tentacle: Built using a wireframe core and Super Sculpey. (3 hours to build)
- Ki Hand: Built using a wooden and wireframe core and Super Sculpey. (40 hours to build)
- Principle Photography, photomanipulation, and composition: An additional 40 hours.
5 comments
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Steph B
October 26, 2012 at 3:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So that is a real photo, not animated? Wow. Were the colors added digitally? Love the Sklorno tentacle!
scott pond
October 26, 2012 at 5:23 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thanks Steph! Yes, the patterned Ki colors, much of the dirt and blood, and the cuts on the hands were all added digitally. I think at last count I had over 90 layers of modifications in PhotoShop to get the final effect. But without the real photograph base to work with it would have been tough to do…
Scott Roche (@spiritualtramp)
October 26, 2012 at 1:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I shall treasure it always.
Scott Roche (@spiritualtramp)
October 26, 2012 at 1:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That is insane, but very cool/
scott pond
October 26, 2012 at 1:54 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Letter from a padded room: thank you sir. Please, take this aluminum foil hat as a token of my appreciation (and to block the thought signals from our monkey overlords)…