| » Forum Index » The Friday Challenge » Topic: Challenge 1121: The vending machine |
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Posted on 11/09/26 08:30:53 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7214 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1121: The vending machine
First to order from the vending machine was Ben Boardman, with a remarkably lifelike image. The menu on the screen, the crowd of onlookers, the robot serving the breakfast, the spilt mess on the floor – and above all the falling coffee cup – just brilliantly composed. The only (tiny) error is the position of the wheels on the grey suitcase, but this is really a fantastic image. What a way to start the week! It’s sugary snack time for lwc, with a very jerky screen. And we have a moose in the background! Good to see the still image too so we can catch the detail. I like the image with the girl bending to retrieve drinks, with the slight breathing motion on the man. And is that CCTV in the background? Not sure why your vending machines all seem to have malfunctioning screens. I do like the alka-seltzer dispenser, with its bubbly animated screen. Stay somewhere else, says DavidMac – but why a magazine at an angle, rather than a squared-up poster filling the frame? (Incidentally, the “overweight lady” in lwc’s post is British – I photographed her in Suffolk.) The Grand Prize Draw is an old joke, but it still works. Of course it’s a vending machine, rather than a poster display board. Did you really play that Gracie Fields song voluntarily? Crikey. The gremlin entry is truly magnificent: the darkened room, the opened machine, the gremlins with their shopping cart, all immaculately composed. Best of all, of course, is the spanner in the works. It must have taken you ages. Aha! Max Headroom! For those unfamiliar with him, Ant Snell’s entry pays homage to a groundbreaking 1980s TV show. I like the way you’ve used Plastic Wrap to simulate his plastic body. Very entertaining. Enjoy your travels, and take your camera. A gloriously bored-looking receptionist from dwindt, the blue tint highlighted by the hole in the glass (complete with thickness!) at the bottom. She does look great, but why is she a drawing rather than a photograph? I was wondering what Mariner would make of this one, and I wasn’t disappointed. The removal of the vending machine has been expertly realised, with great attention to detail. That’s a mighty crowbar! I like the backlighting on the woman in front of the window. Excellent. |
Posted on 11/09/26 08:48:24 AM |
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Mariner
Renaissance Mariner Posts: 3421 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1121: The vending machine
Hey, Steve, high praise for a chage! Thanks. |
Posted on 11/09/26 09:33:31 AM |
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dwindt
Realism Realiser Posts: 1178 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1121: The vending machine
Thanks Steve. Government services, incompetence etc. makes me see situations through a satirical eye. Must be Roger Waters and Gerald Scarfe's fault. _________________ The grass is greener on the other side of the fence because there is more $hit there. |
Posted on 11/09/26 12:32:42 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6497 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1121: The vending machine
Well now here's an oddity. When I finally managed to get your image (using a different browser) and loaded it into Photoshop for the next part of this post I got his message: 
Photoshop did go on to load it OK but it seems there is something unusual going on with your JPG file itself. Your flickr links have always worked perfectly except for this one single occasion. I am wondering if the problem lies not in the link but in the JPG itself and if this is why Safari linked to a blank page and the image wouldn't display here. Is it possible you inadvertently changed a setting in Affinity's export without knowing? Anyway we'll see what happens next week.
Micheal, I had such difficulty accepting this that I just had to put it to the test ……………. ………….. and you are quite right!! But, subjectively, to my eye, it still looked far too big! So I started to look closer to see if there was a reason for my impression. There is an element of illusion or perception at play. When I examine closely it's not quite a direct cut and paste. It is indeed the same width but you have somewhat reduced its height which makes it proportionately slightly wider relative to it’s height. So it is in effect a bit wider than the original. I think the fact that you have rotated it slightly towards us seems subjectively to aggravate that impression. That is of course, mostly subjective but, to defend my corner a little bit more objectively, there is another element at play. You have moved the machine further away. I think simple vanishing point perspective indicates it should be quite a bit smaller in its entirety. Put the two together and there was an itch I just had to scratch. 
Sorry Michael, I am not throwing stones. I think far too highly of your work for that. I know how meticulous you are and, as Steve said, this is a terrific image!  _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 11/09/26 12:36:40 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6497 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1121: The vending machine
Now this is really bizarre! I Attached an image to show what I was tlking about and FLICKR's not linking to my own image either! _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 11/09/26 12:49:47 PM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3745 Reply  |
Re: Challenge 1121: The vending machine
For some reason I saw the screens to be indeed, malfunctioning. And besides. it was the easiest to make... thanks! |
Posted on 11/09/26 12:52:33 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6497 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1121: The vending machine
Hopefully this may work. It's a link not an embed. Seems to work here. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 11/09/26 1:18:36 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6497 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1121: The vending machine
'Cos it was more fun to do.
So I discovered from Loyd. Just shows the danger of judging books from covers. Combined with the very motel like reception (and Loyd being American) it just screamed America!
For me it's always been the 'Blackpool' joke.
I was eight (and a half)!
Inventing a good machine interior was time consuming and, oddly, the trolley was quite tricky. I was really stuck on this one to start and then I thought of "The Borrowers" a book I loved as a child. They transmuted into gremlins which seemed more suitable in this context. Thanks Steve I really had fun with this. _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 11/09/26 1:41:26 PM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3745 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1121: The vending machine
Both work here. |
Posted on 11/09/26 2:46:45 PM |
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DavidMac
Director of Photoshop Posts: 6497 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1121: The vending machine
I think the Gremlins don't like that I have been making fun of them ........ _________________ The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it ....... |
Posted on 11/09/26 3:28:12 PM |
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lwc
Hole in One Posts: 3745 Reply |
Re: Challenge 1121: The vending machine
No they don't......... 
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