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Escrillium β QPS 001
#grandillusion #magic #zigzag #zigzaglady #zigzagwoman #zigzagillusion #illusion #illusionist #magicalgirl #modelling #photographer #photoshoot
Published: 2017-01-23 01:11:18 +0000 UTC; Views: 9737; Favourites: 51; Downloads: 190
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Description
With the slow grinding of steel wheels, on aged runners Mina slid shut the large wooden door to the studio, cutting off the last of the warm glowing daylight that had been streaming in through the portal. The studio, now illuminated by only the ring of high power lights surrounding the bright red cabinet set up in front of the photographers backdrop, took on a cold, sterile hue. Quinn shivered. Was it the cold, or the thought that she was about to participate in an illusion that she had received no training, nor instruction in the use of. Quinn studied the magical contraption as Mina performed a final check on her equipment. The cabinet looked familiar, bright red, with three doors; on each was embossed part of the stylised outline of the woman the box was designed to contain, and she was that woman. Quinn shivered again."Okay then," Mina pipped up, breaking Quinn out of her revery. "Let's start with some nice simple poses with the box." Quinn nodded in agreement and stepped between the lights, standing next to the box. She placed her hand on it's side feeling the smooth finish of the gleaming red paint.
Snap.
Snap, snap.
Mina's camera fired in rapid succession as the photographer started to work, moving in the darkness beyond the lights, only her voice and the cameras constant retort, gave Quinn any indication of her location. "Excellent Quinn, now just move your arm a little higher." Snap, Snap. "And now turn," Snap, Snap, snap, "And look to you left... Excellent" Snap, Snap, Snap. 'It's just like any other shoot' Quinn thought to herself as she settled into her routine, 'Absolutely nothing to worry about.'
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Comments: 13
I just love an old-fashioned Zigzag Girl box.
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Holy crap dude, this looks so awesome!
I must say, that is one great looking zigzag. With the painting and oval face-hole? That is so great.
(Plus what a pleasant surprise! I had a guess from the first photo that it's either the illusion you said you were designing yourself, or it would be macabremagicians new zigzag. How lovely to see it was sort of both! 
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Thanks for the kind words. The design on the doors isn't actual 'painted' (that would have involved me learning how to do textures 
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The texture of a paint job isn't as important as actually seeing this design on a rendered prop. I've been waiting for this for a LONG time, so again, you have a big fan with a lot of appreciation here
(BTW, I don't know if you've seen, but I sent you a private note about a week or so ago)
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Well as something of a technician I'm somewhat inclined to disagree over the importance of good textures to a render, but I totally get the main thrust of your point, and agree wholeheartedly. When I decided to build the illusion I did um and ah about how I was going to do the doors, did I want to enable the prop to show off the assistant inside in ways that the real world illusion could not? Well yeah I kinda did, but it's such a design classic, that in the end I decided to go with an approximation of the original ZZ door motif. I consider it quite fundamental to the identity of the illusion. Without the contrasting outline, it's just an upright center cut, a disembodied, or a miss-made with a piece missing, not a zig zag. Unfortunately the way I modeled the doors means they hate being adjusted in terms of width and height as it distorts the image on the front in a variety of very unpleasing ways
Oh and I'll check back through my notes, see if I can find your communication.
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That is one fine looking Zig Zag and Quinn isn't too shabby either.
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Thanks. Took a bit of time to get the ZZ up and running, hopefully the engineering won't disappoint as the set progresses.
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Yup, just a typical shoot for a model. What could possible go wrong? Β
That zigzag is so pretty looking. Β It's almost takes away from Quinn. Β 
That camera view finder is just plain cool. Β I didn't know prop could do that. Β
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Absolutely nothing will go wrong. Everything will go according to plan. Unfortunately No ones told Quinn what the plan is, but hey, I'm sure you'll do fine
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Wow, that viewfinder shot is impressive. Is that a native feature of the camera prop, or did you have to insert a different shot into the camera screen texture?
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Little from column A, little from column B.
So there's a Daz camera tied to the prop, so All the view finder shots are what the camera 'can see'. The way the cameras surface groups are broken up I could have rendered the view finder image first, then set that image as the surface for the camera screen, so that it would then render out in the final shot. But I didn't do that.Β
I wanted the view finder to cast light on the photographers face. So instead I set the viewfinders surface to be an emissive light source, then composited the view finder image in post, with a couple of effects to make it glow, and blur the image to an appropriate amount to match the depth of field in the shot.
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