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Not the Whole Truth · FiM Minific ·
Organised by RogerDodger
Word limit 400–750
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Any Sufficiently Advanced Magic
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#1 ·
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
But it wouldn't be make believe...
#2 · 3
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
Alright, time to kick off some art reviews!

I gotta say I kind of love this one because it perfectly captures the first concept that popped into my head when the prompt was revealed. "Is the sun moved by magic? Well, that's kinda true..." The way you've created it is somewhat abstract, but it connected with me the minute I saw it.

What's still confusing me right now is how much of this piece is clipped from pictures, and how much is drawn. That arc reactor-lookin' mechanism behind the sun looks like it was taken from a photograph, but the sun, to me, looks almost like a clay model. That, coupled with the hand drawn lower-resolution background and planet makes this whole thing kinda surreal to me.

I definitely like this, but I don't really know how to critique it. It has a kind of adorable crafted aesthetic about it, like I can almost see the strings keeping the sun and moon suspended in space. Sorry I couldn't give more helpful feedback.
#3 ·
· · >>Pascoite >>GroaningGreyAgony
I've been staring at that thing for five minutes, trying to figure out where it's from, but I just can't place it.

I like the picture, though.
#4 · 2
· · >>Not_A_Hat >>GroaningGreyAgony
>>Not_A_Hat
I would guess this is a model someone actually made out of a moldable material and some scrap pieces.

As art, I love this. I wonder if the moon looks similar from the other side, or if you're saying only the sun is fake, though. This is very clever.
#5 · 1
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
Full disclosure, for some reason, the first time I looked at this picture, my brain just didn't compute it. I almost thought I was looking at some kind of distorted city skyline? It wasn't until somebody pointed out to me in the Discord chat that it was a sun that it clicked for me, and I realized the two smaller circles were the moon and earth. Now, I've got absolutely no idea what made my brain fart like that, and now I can't even see the old, weird perception that I originally saw.

Anyhoo, this is an interesting one. I'm pretty sure that the sun is a photo, but I'm also fairly sure that the earth and moon are digitally painted. Maybe. If I'm right, then kudos for making the photoshopping lines absolutely invisible to me. If I'm wrong and the whole thing's a photo, then kudos for getting earth and moon to come out so perfectly clean-looking.

Overall, neat idea with strong execution of the medium. I'd be curious to know what the metal sun thing is IRL, once the contest is over. :P
#6 · 1
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
Clever and well executed. It took me a bit to grok just what I was seeing, but it was one of those lightbulb moments when it did.

Serviceable composition and nice colors; although it doesn't wind up with the highest beauty quotient, it's still interesting and the mechanism in particular is visually intriguing.

No idea what medium it's in. I'd believe either the model theory, or maybe CG, also. Either way, high props in both creativity and effort.
#7 · 1
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
>>Pascoite Pretty sure you're right; I think I just recognized part of the machine. After taking a second look, I'm fairly certain those dark ridged bits looping it together are zip-ties.

My guess on the method is clay modeling for the sun and planet, a hand-made miniature machine, a hand-painted background (including the 'paper moon' in the alt text), a bit of photography, and some digital editing to bring the pieces together. Looking at the edges on the sun - especially the upper edge - I'm pretty sure I can see jagged bits from quick masking. The planet wouldn't have this because it would likely be shrunk, effectively anti-aliasing it.

i can't decide if the machine is 'shopped onto the sun, or if the models are physically joined... my instincts are telling me the shadow that the machine casts on itself doesn't quite match the shadow it casts on the sun, but... honestly, that's probably wrong. The only thing I can actually point to would be the shadow of the top-most pipe seeming to not fall on the projection sticking out of the sun below it. That could well be a natural lighting artifact, though.

I'm super curious now if that inner glow is an actual light source or if that's digital. The glow looks really real, but the mesh-looking stuff inside doesn't seem to be casting shadows... maybe it's a combination?

This piece has definitely benefited from a second look. I'd love to see a retrospective on how it was made.
#8 · 3
·
>>Pascoite, >>Rocket Lawn Chair, >>Not_A_Hat, >>Pascoite, >>Bachiavellian, >>Caliaponia, >>Not_A_Hat

Sufficiently Advanced Kitbashing

Thanks for the shiny! There was a lot of good art in this round, so earning a medal wasn’t easy.

This is a photo, albeit one that has been massaged in Photoshop. Everything in the image is a real object.The moon, planet and rim of the sun are made from Sculpey. The background is black paper, with sparkly spangles on it for the stars.

I considered making the Solar Mechanism from Sculpey as well, but decided to use instead an assemblage of found objects. I used to love kit-bashing, the practice of combining parts of several model kits to create new forms, and this woke up a part of my brain that I haven’t used in a long time.

>>Not_A_Hat was right about the cable ties - well spotted! They are of black plastic, and after bending them into shape, I used a gold Sharpie to color the highlights. Other parts used included (spoilered if you want to try to guess after looking at the closeup images):

A Burger King ashtray, wire nuts, plastic shelf supports, wire sculpting mesh, half of a bronzed plastic caster, cassette tape reels, various round or spiky bits from old hard drives, gears from old toys, etc.

Here’s a box of similar parts that I didn’t use.

This is all mostly stuck together with haste and double sided automotive tape. I cut a hole in the center of the rare antique ashtray to let the red light from the sun shine through, and this creates the inner glow visible through the mesh. the shadow on the sun is an error I didn’t spot as I rushed to make a clean image I could post.

A glass hemisphere with rim, that was once a light bulb cover in an oven, served as the base for the sun and helped light to shine through the whole thing. I backlit the sun later with a cheap LED light.

Having created all this, I then had to photograph it, and I had a miserable time with the unorthodox lighting and keeping everything in focus. With the deadline closing in, I wound up combining the best images in Photoshop and color correcting them there.

Thanks again, and see you all next round!