Mon, April 14, 2003

As Ken Ralston will tell you, the key to good visual trickery is not to be noticed at all. This isn't really possible when you're doctoring images for a fake sports-news site, but at least you can elevate subtle precision to an art.

Well, that's what I do anyway.

Last week, it was "O-Rod," the genetic hybrid between Ozzie Smith and Alex Rodriguez, which was cute and challenging and masterfully executed, but nothing overwhelming. This week, Athletic Reporter's co-creator Joe Mulder called upon me to replace half a dozen protest signs with new anti-Tiger Woods slogans. This was more challenging than the "Sign of the Week" feature I do for the site each week, because it was more signs with more lettering all of which had to be erased and then replaced in a way that looked good for perspective. Not to mention getting all those tricky shadows and wrinkles to come out right.

Surf on over to athleticreporter.com and check it out. (After this week, you'll need to use the site's search feature to find the article about Tiger and the Masters.) Pretty good, eh? Nothing short of genius if I do say so myself.

I'm particularly proud of "Make bogies not par." It was one of the strongest signs Joe wrote, but I still put it in the back. One, because it's funnier if the audience has to discover it and two because it was worded in such a way that if part of it was obscured, you knew what it said anyway. Not that the main banner isn't spectacular in its use of shading and distortion to achieve the realism needed, but I am particularly fond of the faint, blurry "bogies not par" sign because it's so damn subtle!

Okay, enough self-congratulation. I just wanted to bask in that one, because it's been a long time since I had regular homework, and I'm enjoying all the Photoshop challenges Joe throws at me – particularly when I can meet the challenge as deftly as I have this week!

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