This is the big secret I and Makhan have been keeping from you all for weeks.
First, I want to point out this is not a normal wallpaper submission from me.
That is because it is a cooperative. This is a collaboration between twins--Makhan created the background, and I worked
on the mind-numbing detail and the foreground scan. Well, actually we both ended up working on these, but it was
primarily me towards the end. We've decided that I'll submit this version, and if demand arises, a widescreen version
will be submitted by her.
News from my end:
I first conceived of this wallpaper approximately... 33 weeks and 2 days ago, which the observant reader will notice is
the time that I joined Minitokyo. Because I'd been thinking of doing something with the scan that I used in the
foreground since that time, but not until now have I had the skill necessary to do what I properly wanted with
it.
The notion didn't really come up again until not long before I... went missing from Minitokyo (a couple people here will
know why I did), when I first came up with the idea for making a collaboritive effort with Makhan. However, shortly
after that, we lost access to my school's edition of Photoshop, and Photoshop Elements 2.0 was nowhere near easy enough
to use effectively to make it worthwhile.
Since I've come back, I have been using Photoshop Elements 3.0, which is significantly better, and, using which, I now
know of nothing that I cannot do fairly easily that I could do fairly easily in Photoshop CS.
After Makhan started designing with it (about 7 weeks ago), I decided to bring the idea back up. She actually suggested
the idea that we ended up using: A Zdzislaw Beksinski wallpaper.
That being said, we didn't actually use this, because I had already been thinking of using the aforementioned scan to
use it, which was, naturally, a Yoshitaka Amano scan, but we coincidentally reached the same conclusion at roughly the
same time. For my part, I decided to make it both, largely because I was going through the pictures that she'd saved to
her school account and burned to disc before we went to our respective colleges and stumbled across a scan, I believe
originally submitted by Kotter, though I fear it is long gone, due to the purge. It is a piece by Zdzislaw Beksinski
entitled "Babel."
I being the strange, quasi-Christian nut that I am, immediately saw possibilities in it, but not as anything having to
do with the Old Testament. Rather, like my second wall, I chose to focus on the ideas expressed by Revelations, but in a
unique fashion this time.
At any rate, that is my story behind the creation of this wallpaper.
My specs: Probably at least 50 hours of work went in on my end of things. This includes planning, brooding, and
communicating with Makhan about it. Layers? Uncountable, due to the crazy amounts of merging that kept taking place. One
quotation, chosen by Makhan, decorates the top of the piece, which is extracted from a piece by Handel about [gasp] the
Apocalypse!
Makhan's end of things:
Hello! This is Makhan speaking now! XD~
What to say that hasn't been said at extreme length by omni? ^_^ Well, I originally
wanted to make a Beksinski wallie, like he mentioned, and when I came up with the idea of blending Amano and Beksinski
together, it was because in my first Beksinski wall, "Eterne," (which was deleted because it wasn't anime
enough :angry: ), I'd originally thought of combining the two, but it didn't end up working. This time, though, if we
worked the other way around--used Beksinski as the overriding factor, and Amano as a focal center, maybe it would work
out better...? Well, it did! XD
This is a realllly great wallie! I think it's better than anything else either of has
done alone, personally, so I'm thinking twin power really is worth it! Ehehe.
Well, there was a lot of back and forth towards the end, and we kept having to call
each other and argue about what would look better, and what would be better, and what the definition of better actually
was, XD~
Over the last couple of days, omni decided to shut me out a little bit though--he said
he wanted to figure out how to get the... I believe his exact words were how to get the "damned fucker
actually look like he's in the fucking Beksinski!" He gets so frustrated
sometimes. That's why I like him, it's fun to watch, :nya:
Anyway, I think he did a really good job! It looks a little stand outish, but we wanted
it to do that from the beginning. He also extracted Amano. And not just Amano, but an Amano sketch. BOW TO HIM! HE HAS BECOME AN EXTRACTION GOD! XD
I think that's everything... aside from what my dage already mentioned, XP.
So download the wallie! It's sooooooooo cool! Wondertwin powers! XD
I'm happy.
Oh, and specs, or whatever:
My end was probably about the same amount of time as DaGe's, but I'm really bad at
keeping track of time when it's all broken up like that. Though I probably brooded less, that's omni's specialty,
XD . Layers... like him, I have no idea. A lot. Anything else? Can't think of it. So,
anyway. Enjoy!
EDIT: To answer some of the question's we've been getting... No, the figure is not a woman. It is, in fact, Amano's
sketch of Vincent from FFVII.
The "black lines" "pointing" at the text are from the original scan--it's an antenna poking out of
the roof of the central tower.
The text isn't going to change, it's there for a very, very specific reason--and it's positioned the way it is for that
same reason. Believe me, we went through tons of different possibilities for the
text. This was a mutual decision, and we decided it was actually much better this way in the long run.
I'm sorry for any disappointments this may incur, but these elements are not accidental, they were the result of much
thought and discussion, so I hope you'll give them a second chance. Thanks.
The ominous buildings, dreary grey and black, and overall air of foreboding lend this piece a touch of film noir
attitude. Just a little something out of the ordinary.
