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#illusion #illusionist #magic #magicalgirl #photographer #photoshoot #magiciansassistant
Published: 2017-01-19 21:15:52 +0000 UTC; Views: 7039; Favourites: 28; Downloads: 154
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Carefully, Quinn folded her jeans, threading them gently through the frame of the coat hanger, before hooking it on to the back of the aged wooden chair. She took a second to smooth down the red cocktail dress she had slipped into moments before, and confirmed that it's two straps were firmly secured by their clasp at the base of her back. Satisfied she slowly opened the Shoji screen, and stepped out into the unknown.Mina was stood in the middle of the small studio, inspecting the lights that she had spent the last 20 minutes setting up. She clasped her hands, deep in thought, everything seemed more or less ready to go, there was just one more thing. As she heard the shoji screen door bump and grind open over the rough concrete floor, she turned her head to see Quinn emerge from the small changing area, resplendent in her new outfit. Of course Quinn was that final thing. A beautiful assistant, ready to submit herself to the magic of Mina's employer.
"You look gorgeous darling! Mr Edwards has fine taste, but then he always did know how best to costume his assistants to show off his illusions."
Quinn smiled, "Thank you. Is that it?" Quinn gestured towards the brightly painted cabinet set up in the midst of the lights.
"It is indeed. Mr Edwards take on a classic. He sends his apologies, by the way, he desperately wanted to be here today with us, unfortunately he's been called to London at short notice."
"Nothing to serious I hope."
"As best I could figure, something that should be descending from the gods, isn't. Still, he's sent me detailed instructions on the use of the prop, and the promotional images he requires for his potential clients. Have you worked with one of Mr Edwards props before?"
Quinn looked faintly embarrassed, "No... I answered an ad he'd placed for a model."
Mina shrugged, "Not a problem, it's not like this is a live performance. We can break the illusion down piece by piece" Mina smiled, at her own subtle pun, but it appeared to have gone over Quinn's head. The model was more than a little distracted. She had moved over to the illusion and was running her hands over it's smooth painted surfaces, "And you, have you worked for Mr Edwards before?", she asked. "As a photographer, many times. As an assistant, no."
"So have you ever been in one of the boxes?" Mina laughed, "A long time ago." Quinn turned to face the photographer, her interest piqued."Really? How?"
"Oh, a friend. She had an... interest." Mina explained as she made her way over to her work bench to retrieve one of her cameras. "She's how I know Mr Edwards. I believe she acquired her very first prop off of him, courtesy of one of his associates."
Quinn smiled, admiring the photographers lithe physique, as she leaned over the bench. "Well I'd have loved to have seen that 'performance'!"
Mina laughed. "Oh it wasn't very good, neither of us really knew what we were doing. Although you know how things are these days, there are probably pictures of it on the internet. Anyway shall we begin?"
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Comments: 22
luckydog123 [2017-01-21 00:12:33 +0000 UTC]
Oh man, this looks intriguing
I for one don't mind the lens flare. It's rather stylish here.
I have a guess for the illusion at hand... I'll wait and see if I'm right
And where is this Mina from?? We've seen her in one of your previous sets... Perhaps with different looks?
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Escrillium In reply to luckydog123 [2017-01-21 02:48:12 +0000 UTC]
Well it was a couple of years ago, she's grown her hair out since. Still has the same pair of sneakers though.
escrillium.deviantart.com/gallβ¦
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luckydog123 In reply to Escrillium [2017-01-21 09:03:18 +0000 UTC]
Ohhhhh! Changed her hair color too
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mattdjedi01 [2017-01-20 16:05:55 +0000 UTC]
Ah! Excellent! Can't wait to see what happens here!
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j145035 [2017-01-20 09:21:34 +0000 UTC]
I like the reference to your earlier set. Great plot setup for the rest of this set. Just wish I had checked your page a few days later so the rest of the shots would be there. First world problems...
You're renderings are the gold nuggets of the internet Escrillium! Keep up the great work!
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Escrillium In reply to j145035 [2017-01-20 17:10:05 +0000 UTC]
You're gonna hate me. I'm planning on drip feeding the shots out over the course of a month or so. The upside of that is it means once the set finishes you'll have less of wait until my next work turns up, given that these sets generally take 3 to 4 months to produce.
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magicshoppe [2017-01-20 02:31:14 +0000 UTC]
I can't tell what the object looks like through all the lens flare. Move some of the lights out of the view of the camera if this is the least lens flare.
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Escrillium In reply to magicshoppe [2017-01-20 04:11:57 +0000 UTC]
Well given I very deliberately positioned everything in this shot to make the illusion unidentifiable, I'll take that as a compliment
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magicshoppe In reply to Escrillium [2017-01-20 09:39:09 +0000 UTC]
It also makes the characters unidentifiable. Which is the magician and which is the "assistant"? No clue.
There's a door handle in the extreme foreground. Is someone entering the scene through that door or is that not even a door handle?
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Escrillium In reply to magicshoppe [2017-01-20 17:04:31 +0000 UTC]
Did... Did you read the text that accompanies the image?
Ah irrelevant. Again none of the 'issues' you've flagged are anything to do with 'lens flare', which I understand is not something everyone is stylistically keen on. Some folks just hate the flare, and that's fair enough, if we all had the same tastes the world would be a much duller place.
I do also appreciate your attempts at critique, but at this point you might want to hold fire until you've seen a couple more images in the set. Please bear in mind that this is the first image in a series of 20 plus. The fact is you're not supposed to know a whole bunch of things at this point in the story, and since at this point you don't know what you are, and are not supposed to know, providing a useful critique of the work will be problematic at best. That said once you have viewed the work in its entirety I look forward to your feedback.
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magicshoppe In reply to Escrillium [2017-01-20 22:01:53 +0000 UTC]
Actually, I read the text after posting. I usually hold off on reading these multiple part posts until they are done. That requires less rereading later when trying to remember what the story was about. I must be in the middle of over a hundred stories counting tv shows, webcomics, comics, books, etc. I don't need to pile on to that memory drain.
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QuinnTheAssistant [2017-01-20 01:35:42 +0000 UTC]
Oh, I have wandered into a set up here... Β I am on edge for what's to come. Β Interesting, intriguing story and colorful image set up.
And holy lens flare indeed- I love it. Β
I will profusely thank you Escrillium for featuring Quinn as assistant in one of your pieces throughout this series. Β Β Β
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1classybadger [2017-01-19 22:53:51 +0000 UTC]
magic show directed by JJ abrams.Β
but seriously looking forward to this set
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Escrillium In reply to 1classybadger [2017-01-19 23:38:05 +0000 UTC]
Well I do like to play with different lighting styles, and yes in this set there may be a couple of very JJ Abrams-esq shots Not all of them mind, unlike Abrams I have some self restraint
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Escrillium In reply to jonberry [2017-01-19 23:38:47 +0000 UTC]
Terrifyingly this is the version of the shot with the least amount of lens flare
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Escrillium In reply to jonberry [2017-01-20 04:23:09 +0000 UTC]
Well aside from the original raw render. Daz doesn't do lens flair naturally. But for the shots in the sequence where I've deliberatly added it in post, I start by generating the flair using the correct camera lens size, light output, and distance from camera to generate a relatively accurate flair simulation. I then adjust and tweak settings until I find it aesthetically pleasing. Given the size and power output of one of the lights in this shot and it's angle from the camera... Yeah realistically, one of the flairs should be significantly larger!
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