Ecrans Transparents: 'transparent' Mac screens. An homage to Magritte.

March 29, 2005 12:01 AM

The Human Condition. A Mac-based homage to Magritte. [via]
posted by Slithy_Tove (20 comments total)

some of those are better than others. Some of them are done by people who clearly understand color and photography and the recursive properties of both. Like the first one. Really incredible. I'm now going to go home and do this.

thanks.
posted by shmegegge at 12:13 AM on March 29, 2005

Excellent! I think I'll give it a try myself.
posted by kenchie at 12:14 AM on March 29, 2005

Flickr: Transparent Screens
posted by mr.marx at 12:53 AM on March 29, 2005

Here's a video from the site (embedded QT). Thanks for the link, Slithy_Tove: great stuff.
posted by louigi at 1:27 AM on March 29, 2005

So, so cool.
posted by ori at 1:52 AM on March 29, 2005

Those are nifty. And the idea really caught fire because of Flickr. Yet another reason to love it.
posted by panoptican at 2:10 AM on March 29, 2005

ok, i get the stills, but the video has to be a fake. it's much too perfect. there's definitely manipulation afoot.
posted by Silky Slim at 4:44 AM on March 29, 2005

Yes, that video required a few double takes. I don't believe it can be real either.
posted by Thoth at 6:20 AM on March 29, 2005

The video is a very nice piece of fakery, easy enough to do with After Effects and a tripod. I have to admit, I'm a bit puzzled by the popularity of the transparent desktop meme. It's a cute trick and all, but it seems to be EVERYWHERE this week.
posted by Scoo at 6:34 AM on March 29, 2005

Fabulous... but how the hell did someone manage this one?

*weeps for the poor cat, glued to the bedspread*
posted by taz at 7:02 AM on March 29, 2005

That's pretty cool. Is the trick all in lining up the second shot with the first?
posted by mkultra at 7:02 AM on March 29, 2005

taz, i like this "imperfect" one. the cat has s a mysterious extra paw, breughel-style.
posted by Silky Slim at 7:28 AM on March 29, 2005

I've been out of the loop. When did these come out? Is it only available for Macs?
posted by mic stand at 7:29 AM on March 29, 2005

There's a very good chance that someone put hours of work into making those shot legitimately... but there's also a very good chance that someone put a few minutes of work into a food screen mask for the PowerBooks and pasted in a treatment of a regular photograph of a desk, or what have you.

Either way, I was blown away. Gusto mucho.
posted by squirrel at 7:38 AM on March 29, 2005

I think that one could put together a pretty decent one in half an hour or so, particularly if you have a tripod or are working with a laptop screen that you can easily fold out of the way. (Heck, I did this in about three minutes; it's not terribly great (I need to work on lighting and the line of the wallcovering), but it was fun.)
posted by Vidiot at 7:43 AM on March 29, 2005

Fabulous... but how the hell did someone manage this one?

*weeps for the poor cat, glued to the bedspread*

Taz, the cat behind the screen doesnt have to be in the same position - only the part thats showing has to line up - the backend and tail.

These were posted to MacBidouille, a French Mac Site run by this guy. He then started posting some of them to Flickr where they were noticed and others started joining in after w00kie sobered up and created a group (as linked by mr. marx above) Within a day, every site on the Internet was linking to this.

I guess I could have posted this myself five days ago...there's something fun about this in that cheap illusion kind of way, like seeing a good card trick.
posted by vacapinta at 8:01 AM on March 29, 2005

Yeah... I see what you mean, now. Too bad I just wasted all that glue on my kitty....Kidddding! I'm kidding!
posted by taz at 11:10 AM on March 29, 2005

Yeah, this shot only took me about 30 minutes. You can adjust for bad cropping of the background by taking the ensemble photo from a different angle/position to match the four edges. Color correction is then the harder part.
posted by themadjuggler at 11:24 AM on March 29, 2005

my votes for best execution: 20,29,41,45,49,52
posted by pmbuko at 12:56 PM on March 29, 2005

Mac people are so friggin annoying. Did'ya ever have to actually work with one?
posted by HTuttle at 9:34 PM on March 29, 2005