Play "police sketch artist"

March 13, 2002 7:50 AM

Play "police sketch artist" with this Flash project. You can select from dozens of different noses, jawlines, eyes, hair, and so on to create an image of your friends or foes. It's harder to recreate someone than you'd think.
posted by acornface (65 comments total)

This is the coolest ever. Thanks acornface. Now I know why they never catch criminals with these things.
posted by Hildago at 8:42 AM on March 13, 2002

No! No! No!
Please can we call out the "correct day for posting police" please - This looks to me like it should have been posted on a friday, when i can spend the whole day messing around creating silly face and not just several hours! - great post!
posted by monkeyJuice at 8:48 AM on March 13, 2002

Wow... great tool, great link. I have managed a modest resemblance of my self, but I doubt anyone could recognize me from the sketch alone. I couldn't draw my boss to any degree of resemblance. Is it just the limited options or just me?... I'm sending this to a few graphic artist friends to find out...
posted by talos at 8:48 AM on March 13, 2002

If you're curious what I look like, go to the site and load "ColdChef." That's basically me, except I don't have as much of a mullet. Man...all the "hairs" are really fucked up on that site. There must be a lot of 80's criminals wandering around.
posted by ColdChef at 9:10 AM on March 13, 2002

If you try this, save the face under your MeFi name, so we can find you easily.

On further review...I look NOTHING like the sketch of me.
posted by ColdChef at 9:12 AM on March 13, 2002

I didn't try to make myself, but I think I did a fairly good job of recreating Edward Furlong (Terminator, American History X.) It's saved under my MeFi name as author, and well, Edward Furlong as the title. Putting these faces together is amazingly hard.
posted by headspace at 9:15 AM on March 13, 2002

Not bad, headspace. He looks like he's about to knock over a liquor store. Very realistic.
posted by ColdChef at 9:17 AM on March 13, 2002

please dont laugh at my physiognomy i beg off you

monkeyJuice
posted by monkeyJuice at 9:22 AM on March 13, 2002

Twenty bucks to the first person that can make a good Miguel, Mathowie, or Dong_Resin!
posted by ColdChef at 9:23 AM on March 13, 2002

odds on this site wont be here to-morrow morning
posted by monkeyJuice at 9:24 AM on March 13, 2002

matthowie2002 - i swear this hasnt been taken with a digital camera
posted by monkeyJuice at 9:27 AM on March 13, 2002

I canceled out before I realized you could save it there. But I took a screenshot, so if you care what I look like, click here. Please note, though, I'm much prettier IRL.
posted by jpoulos at 9:28 AM on March 13, 2002

We have a winner! Jeez, this is fun. Yeah, this should have been saved until Friday. I'm getting NO work done today.
posted by ColdChef at 9:28 AM on March 13, 2002

Dammit to Hell! How did everyone else get the head and hair and jaw to work right? I look like a damn hobbit!
posted by ColdChef at 9:31 AM on March 13, 2002

I am a fucking idiot. I didn't know you could move the pieces around. Let me try again.
posted by ColdChef at 9:33 AM on March 13, 2002

Man, I look exactly like this except with cheekbones and nasal bridge and a lot thinner hair. I couldn't draw my wife though. Is there a section of the site with feminine facial features I didn't catch?

Funnily enough, my best moustache would be a fu manchu...
posted by mblandi at 9:35 AM on March 13, 2002

Ok... I had a go at a self-portrait - with a lot of help from Joe, my five year old son. Saved under my Mefi name like ColdChef suggested.

Nice link acornface, a cool bit of Flash alright.
posted by jiroczech at 9:36 AM on March 13, 2002

right-o. I've saved myself under my MeFi name. Similar, but not quite right. Didn't have my glasses and I've biffed the proportions somewhere, but at least it looks more like me than oh, say, Carrottop or the Queen Mother.
posted by warhol at 9:36 AM on March 13, 2002

I saved as Danelope. It's actually surpringly accurate, though they don't really have my eyes.
posted by Danelope at 9:37 AM on March 13, 2002

I keep ending up with Cokie Roberts.

Keep an eye on that chick, she's trouble.
posted by dong_resin at 9:43 AM on March 13, 2002

I've got mine. Pretty accurate, I guess, but there were no ears, and I've got two earrings in my left ear. I'm least happy about the nose.
posted by starvingartist at 9:47 AM on March 13, 2002

I had a dream last night about a girl I don't know who died in the dream, and I was able to recreate her face in the thing before the memory fades from my head. Strangely, it was only te minutes ago, but she is four pages down in the list.
posted by donkeymon at 9:49 AM on March 13, 2002

halfway through my masterpiece ("if Miguel and Dong had a baby together") the site crashed and now it won't load at all.

Well. Back to work...
posted by ColdChef at 10:05 AM on March 13, 2002

halfway through my day the site crashed.

Well. Back to sleep
posted by monkeyJuice at 10:08 AM on March 13, 2002

Site's back up now, it seems.
posted by Danelope at 10:10 AM on March 13, 2002

[This is good].

The site loaded up just fine for me, and I was able to save my pathetic attempt at a self portrait using my username.

Thanks for the link acornface!
posted by thewittyname at 10:15 AM on March 13, 2002

oh man, ColdChef...that is great.

mine is close...but i couldn't get a goatee scaled down enough to make a soul patch.
posted by th3ph17 at 10:29 AM on March 13, 2002

super sweet. great site!
posted by tomplus2 at 10:35 AM on March 13, 2002

oh boy, what fun! those crazy russians and their silly hairstyles! ha ha!
i wish all the hair salons and cosmetic surgeons in the world would have this online.
hi, yes, i'd like my chin a little wider, please. and yes, my eyes need to be much closer to the top of my head. eyebrows? yes, get rid of those. oh, and while i'm here, could i have a ridiculous beard, please?
i see also that the fonz has resorted to petty crime. the shame.

coldchef, i shat my pants when i first saw your pic.
posted by nylon at 10:37 AM on March 13, 2002

*wishing there was a "delete" button on that site*
posted by ColdChef at 10:42 AM on March 13, 2002

Okay - mine came out actually very good. Lookup name "kokogiak". Great link acornface!
posted by kokogiak at 10:45 AM on March 13, 2002

damn, it keeps saving extra stuff with my John Belushi sketch.

great fun link. hope it stays around for a while.
posted by th3ph17 at 10:46 AM on March 13, 2002

I'm in. I couldn't find the precisely right beard, but i found my eyes right on. Sadly enough, they're not the same size in real life either.
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:55 AM on March 13, 2002

i tried a mathowie2002 (only one t).
posted by David Dark at 10:58 AM on March 13, 2002

Is it just me, or is the saving either not working or taking forever?
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:15 AM on March 13, 2002

"Miguel as a Student"

my version of a young miguel's college ID
posted by th3ph17 at 11:22 AM on March 13, 2002

More Miguel....
Name- Mc24 / Author- Mc24
Coldchef-- Paypal will do fine, lol
posted by Eric Lloyd NYC at 1:47 PM on March 13, 2002

I can't seem to load any of your grim visages.. administrator please hope me, et cetera.
posted by Hildago at 2:44 PM on March 13, 2002

I can't find a hairpiece in this thing that resembles mine. Where's the short cropped hair with a mildly pronounced widow's peak? And if I still had my ponytail, fuhgettabahtit!

Ufez, it's not just you.
posted by ZachsMind at 2:55 PM on March 13, 2002

checkout Mathowie2060 . .hehe heeh .. just kiddin mat.. dont ban me or somethin ...
posted by adnanbwp at 3:10 PM on March 13, 2002

I've made my mugshot - it's called MCX - except for the nose it's pretty good actually.
posted by cx at 3:50 PM on March 13, 2002

I prefer the Mathowie 2050. Very Shel Silverstein.

"So, what did you do at work today?"

"Oh. I just sat around and made faces."

Oh, and make sure to check out The Phil's "Woody Allen". Hilarious.
posted by ColdChef at 4:06 PM on March 13, 2002

There I am under Hildago.
posted by Hildago at 5:12 PM on March 13, 2002

I'm up under my mefi name. Everything except the nose is right, I even made my glasses slip down (annoyingly so I can't see), the way they always do.
posted by nprigoda at 5:56 PM on March 13, 2002

CAN'T.GET.TO.SAVE....
HOPE.ME.
posted by goneill at 6:11 PM on March 13, 2002

Keep my mug out of this! Bah, I look nothing like those guys. I keep trying to save ColdChef but it crashes when it sees the likeness. As for The Phil, well my lawyers and the William Morris Agency will be in touch. ;)

This is great fun, acornface, thanks.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:20 PM on March 13, 2002

i'm on there now 'milkman'
they didn't have a soulpatch, so i gave it a sort of 'last year' look.

and the jawlines are whack.
posted by milkman at 9:27 PM on March 13, 2002

I saw an "MEC" in there...Miguel? Was that you?
posted by ColdChef at 9:32 PM on March 13, 2002

After more time than I'd care to admit, I just can't do it. I couldn't make myself or my mom, and I didn't even try my best friend. I don't think that it's very suited towards making women's faces.
posted by Dreama at 9:50 PM on March 13, 2002

I saw an "MEC" in there...Miguel? Was that you?

Good, huh?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:10 PM on March 13, 2002

Apparently not even the most dastardly of thieves have figured out how to have hair disheveled quite like mine is. I brim with pride.

I'm in there as "Antwon". It's a decent first-approximation of my appearance, I guess.
posted by youhas at 10:47 PM on March 13, 2002

Not a lot of girl options, really. My eyes slant up, so none of the eyes were going to work...and all of the jaw lines seemed to have that 5-o'clock shadow action...plus the hair...omg, like I'd be seen like that in public. :)

Ergo, sorry, no Dejah police sketches. :) But still, a darned fine link. Many hours will be wasted here. :)
posted by dejah420 at 12:42 AM on March 14, 2002

okay, is hair #50 Conan O'Brien's hair?
posted by gohlkus at 12:44 AM on March 14, 2002

I can't figure out how to save mine.
posted by bingo at 9:24 AM on March 14, 2002

I can't figure out how to save mine.
posted by bingo at 9:24 AM on March 14, 2002

me neither bingo...
posted by goneill at 10:00 AM on March 14, 2002

Ok, I figured it out...my monitor is so mall that I didn't realize I had to scroll right to get the save options (upper right part of screen).

So, I'm in there as "bingo." My most prominent features are my cheeks, which I can't find a way to include, and oddly what I've depicted is more like myself 20 lbs heavier, which was not so long ago. But you might be able to pick me out of a crowd.
posted by bingo at 10:05 AM on March 14, 2002

er, so "small" not so "mall." somalia? never mind.
posted by bingo at 10:07 AM on March 14, 2002

...although now it takes forever to save...and someone i'm talking with in IM says he can't load anything either...we must have overwhelmed it...

I guess I'll just keep that browser window open the rest of the day until it goes back up. I don't want to have to go through making my sketch again.
posted by bingo at 10:10 AM on March 14, 2002

As always, late to the party, but there it is, a quick and dirty me, under my Mefi ID. I haven't looked at all of you, but I have to agree that ColdChef's mug shot is scary. But I still love you Chef!
posted by qbert72 at 2:34 PM on March 14, 2002

you guys - i got it to work - honey - now you can see my face!!! but check goneill2...
posted by goneill at 4:13 PM on March 14, 2002

I'm gonna say this one more time. I am an idiot and I couldn't make it work. That's why I look like a Hobbit.

And Goneill: You are beautiful. Just as I knew you'd be. BTW, Your CD is in the mail.
posted by ColdChef at 5:37 PM on March 14, 2002

Oh, and Miguel should find a better host for his Página não oficial, I'm trying to look at him and the photo is taking forever to download! Come on, Miguel, you can do better than that!
posted by qbert72 at 6:10 PM on March 14, 2002

chef - i had a really good picture of myself - and then it wouldn't save a la stupid flash stupid me took 35 hours creating it with the help of my entire office...

Your cd is not in the mail my sweet, but it has been given a lot of thought, and will be wonderful!
posted by goneill at 10:10 AM on March 15, 2002

I thought I had saved mine, but now I can't get the site to run a search or list alphabetically without freezing up my computer. It's saved under author: bingo, picture: bingo; I noticed that someone else had saved a picture named bingo, which is definitely not me.
posted by bingo at 3:14 AM on March 16, 2002