Some of you may remember my character "Weed Killer" (that's what I've named him) - the Max Headroom parody character I experimented with not long ago. If you haven't seen him, please check out the short video here: Weed Killer Gone Wrong

I'm working on another installment of the character, this time more humor oriented... in my own sick-minded kind of way.

In the original video, the character appeared in green monochrome shading, to simulate that he exists in an old early 80's 8-bit computer with limited monochrome display capabilities. But this green look along with the fact that I used ASCII text as the background and not lines (like in Max Headroom), made a lot of people think it looks more like something out of The Matrix than anything else, which was unintended. Some liked that aspect of it. Others said I should change the color scheme because it detracts from what I'm trying to do.

I really like the green monochrome look. That's how computers looked when I was a kid and this character is supposed to exist in that kind of environment (old, 8-bit computer). I know no such character could exist in such a limited computer, but he's not meant to be fully explainable. I'm playing the sci-fi card there.

I thought of having him look more like he was generated on a Macintosh computer - he'd be black & white with a slight bluish tint, and instead of shading, I would have used patterns like on the old 80's Macs. That might not display well in different sizes though (when the video is scaled down to be more internet friendly).

Today, I found myself playing with the idea of him being generated in old school 8-bit color. The background would be red, yellow, and blue (color of the lines in Max Headroom) and the character would be colored using 4 constant colors instead of the 4 shades of green. What I came up with reminds me a little of imagery seen on Radio Shak computers and kind of what some imagery on a Commodore 64 looked like back in the day. The upper image is the original monochrome color scheme, the lower is the experimental color color scheme.

8-bit - that's the look I'm going for. The question is how. I want the character's look to be fun, cool, and 8-bit looking. I don't mind if he looks a little Matrix-ish, but would rather people not instantly associate him with The Matrix over other things.

I'd really appreciate any opinions and insight anyone can offer me. I'm having a hell of a time getting past the look of the character. If I am to produce more of these as sort of a micro-series, I'll need to get the look settled in soon.

Thanks.

Boingo_Buzzard Wrote: You could Rotoscope him, like in "A Scanner Darkly" (*ducks* JUST KIDDING!!!)

Boingo_Buzzard Wrote:Hrmm... I like the second image, but it doesn't overly scream 80's to me. I can see why people would associate green with the Matrix. The monochrome monitors I used were always yellowish tint on a brownish screen. Maybe you could try that? Or pixelate out the second image some more to give him more of a "iconic" feel. Hehhe.

I didn't like the 2nd image all that much at first, but it's starting to grow on me. But you're right - it doesn't really convey the 80's computer look all that well. It's just color limited.

I thought of doing an amber color version, but I wasn't sure if many people associated that with the old 8-bit computer days. Then again, the green was more associated with The Matrix than 8-bit computers.

I thought of doing the pixilated look thing but that might wash out too much detail in the face. I was worried that it also might just look like I stretched out something really small, thus causing the pixels to look big.

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it!

Please, if you have additional ideas, post them too.

Sketch Wrote:Hey Todd, can you shoot me a larger image screen cap? I wouldn't mind trying out some colors schemes and mabey some digital effects to age the digital look. Just to help you out. I like the color in the background in the second image better, though the color effect on you makes it look like an old black and white image that has been colorized.

Sure - I'd love if you could come up with something cool and usable!

Check your e-mail in a few minutes. I'll send you the multi-layered TIF file for both images. The colors each exist in their own layer. The only thing that was colorized in the 2nd image was the background. Otherwise, the layers were just colored different colors. It will make more sense when I send you the images...

EDIT: I just re-read your post. Ok, I get what you meant with the colorized thing now. abortion pills online abortion questions cytotec abortion

Sketch Wrote:Also Todd, how hard would it be for you to actually record the video while it's playing on a tv monitor? I can just imagine your video starting with the tv switching on and at the end with you doing your crazy tounge face and the tv switching off. Also, you could present other segments of stuff you've done almost like channel surfing and even comment on things like newscasts, complete with static breaks and the classic screen glitches that give the old tv monitors their wonderful personalities. That is one thing that made Max such a great digital personality, was that he was basically a tv screen that interacted with everything surrounding him, er his box.

Funny you mention that - I had intended on showing the character on my vintage 80's Apple //c green monochrome monitor at some point. I thought that would better explain why he's green and the look and all.

I can shoot the video while it's playing on an actual TV set, BUT there's some serious quality loss in doing that. The colors end up looking not so good, often with the brighter colors appearing whitish and darker colors looking almost black or indistinguishable. That may be because of my camera though - it's not exactly top-of-the-line.

I can simulate TV channel switching on the computer though... actually, I'd have to play with it a little.

Anyway, I've sent the e-mail with the source images attached.

Looking forward to checking out what you come up with. Take your time - no rush. I appreciate your spending time on this!
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Sketch Wrote:Cool. Just got the email and am saving to the laptop so I can try some experiments. Come Igor, it's off to the lab with the digital imagery! MWAHAHAHA! *Thunder cracks in the distance* Yes master... yes!

** gulp **

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Sketch Wroteo you have Adobe Photoshop Todd?

Yes, that is how I made the two images.

The TIF files I send you should open up in PS with PS layers in them.

I use PhotoShop 7.0.

If you are using higher, try and make sure the things you do are backward compatible.

Sending you the first round of images Todd. I've tried to deconstruct your image in various ways to see what happens. Got to make some use of some photo backgrounds I've been dying to do something with. Wheee!

One thing I've noticed so far with the image is getting it into enough of an abstract look that it doesn't look like an actual photo, similar to Max Headroom for they used the plastic suit, hair, teeth, and alot of makeup to make it look less real and more computerized.order abortion pill abortion pill buy online where to buy abortion pill

I looked at some Max Headroom images on Google, and he looks to have more than an 8-bit color palette. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to mirror Max Headroom's approach to colors?

redrain85 Wrote:TheReelTodd, I actually like that color image a lot. I don't know about other people, but it reminds me a lot of old school 8-bit computer graphics with its limited palette.

Thanks!

That is exactly what I was going after - the limited colors and kind of offness to the way they were used. Often, colors weren't used in exact ways, but more for their light/darkness value because of the limited colors.

Sketch Wrote:One thing I've noticed so far with the image is getting it into enough of an abstract look that it doesn't look like an actual photo, similar to Max Headroom for they used the plastic suit, hair, teeth, and alot of makeup to make it look less real and more computerized.

Yeah. I would have LOVED to recreate the actual plastic old-school 3D animation look of Max, BUT I don't have the means by which to pull it off. That is why I decided to work within what I could accomplish and aim it toward something that I could pull off. The cyber-dancer in my On the Cutting Room Floor of Oblivion video seemed like a good place to go - that whole old green monochrome limited video look. In fact, I used the same process on the original Weed Killer as I did on the cyber-dancer. Nothing like recycling PS actions!

Traahn Wrote:I looked at some Max Headroom images on Google, and he looks to have more than an 8-bit color palette. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to mirror Max Headroom's approach to colors?

Oh yes - Max Headroom was ahead of his time. He was well beyond 8-bit computing. At the time, he was well ahead of what real computers could generate in real time. His look though, was very similar to what high-end graphics were capable at the time - a kind of plastic look where everything was shiny. But I couldn't pull that off, so I started playing with ideas of what I could pull off and the green monochrome thing was my first avenue.

All in all though, I do kind of like the idea of an old-school computer generated image - older school than Max... at least in some ways.

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