A scanner darkly

[Diva]

I just saw the trailer for this it looks awesome.

cast includes Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson. I think there is an international law that says all cyberpunk movies have to have Keanu or something.

The story is originally by PK Dick who also was the author of Bladerunner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), Minority Report

Check out the trailer here (http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wip/us/med/scanner_darkly/scanner_darkly_a_tlr2_qt_700.mov) if you are interested

[biomechanic]

I would've lost my mind if I'd had to rotoscope that

[Diva]

I know - but it looks really cool. I suppose that it will allow for a lot of funky effects too

[dozer]

lets hope its not complete shit. blade runner, total recall and minority report have only been loosely based on dick's novels, this time its the whole shebang.

[Cassa]

I found the book really difficult to read, he writes like a child with ADD

[dozer]

take that back

[druckfugged]

Cassa's right.
All imagination, no technique

[FatherShark]

I would've lost my mind if I'd had to rotoscope that

I'd love to find a decent photoshop tutorial which shows how you can somewhat replicate that effect, but have as yet had no luck.

[BlueBoy]

I found the book really difficult to read, he writes like a child with ADD
Explains why I can devour his books.

[Diva]

Cassa, I went to Swancon last year because one of my fave authors, Tim Powers, was the guest of honour. Tim was a friend and flatmate of PKD for a while, and one of his 3 protogees (the others were James Blaylock and J W Jeter, who are also both sci fi and fantasy writers). He was at uni when his english teacher asked if anyone in the class had room for someone to crash for a few weeks. Powers volunteered his couch, then discovered it was Phil after he had been deported from Canada for drug possession I think. They hit it off, and stayed flatmates for a few years until Tim got married.

Anyway, he told some great stories about PDK, but I think you are basically right. When asked what Phil's politics or beliefs are, Tim politely answered that it depended on what day of the week you spoke to him, they changed continually. He also had a tendency of marrying messed up women who he thought he could 'save', then having messy divorces (he was married 4 times I thnk). Apparently he also admitted that a lot of his work was crap - he was writing a book in a week during the 50s, some years publishing more than 50 stories.

My fave story was about the time in the late 70s when he rang Tim and announced that God had spoken to him and he now had the power to absolve sin. Upon Tim's enquiry as to just who, exactly he had managed to absolve during the afternoon, he got the following response "Well, you were out, and Jeter is a protestant and got all offended. So I've absolved the cat." The following day he had lost the power, so Tim never got absolved by him.

makes me giggle. as if a cat thinks it needs absolution anyway.

[dozer]

he was very messed up, but i enjoyed reading this, from wiki.

At one point, during an encounter with VALIS, Dick learned that his infant son was in danger of perishing from an unnamed malady. Routine checkups on the child had shown no trouble or illness; however, Dick insisted that thorough tests be run to ensure his son's health. The doctor eventually complied, despite the fact that there were no apparent symptoms. During the examination doctors discovered an inguinal hernia, which would have killed the child if an operation was not quickly performed. His son survived thanks to the operation, which Dick attributed to the "intervention" of VALIS.

[Diva]

I think Tim told us that one too. Something about VALIS anyway. Tim is one of the characters in that, the catholic guy David (although he says it is only like him until halfway through the story and then changes).

I'm pretty sure VALIS was also being written during the time of the absolution story.

[biomechanic]

I'd love to find a decent photoshop tutorial which shows how you can somewhat replicate that effect, but have as yet had no luck.

You can either use Adobe Streamline, trace it in illustrator, or use Flash's "Trace Bitmap" function (which is a bit messy, you'd have to clean up the paths in Illustrator) - then overlay it on to the real photo. Drop the opacity to 95-99% (maybe even choose a different blending mode) - or perhaps you could select a large brush with about 1-5% pressure and mask out certain parts of the image to let the real image show through just slightly