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I've made it a goal of mine to make March of 2021 better than last year. Of course, with what's developed in the world since March 2020, that doesn't seem so difficult. On this page, you will see why this is the month when I developed the final project of the entire RLBFB series (i.e. the series of non-team photos) the most.
Real-Life BFB |
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Main info • Production info
Yearly overview • Show timelines (Timeline of RLBFDI • RLBFDIA • RLIDFB • RLBFB before and after the split • RLTPOT • Extra scouting) • General timelines (pre- and post-1950) Differences from Pencil 2.O • Aesthetics • Methodology (Names • Nationalities • Heights • Ages • Colours • Accessories • Team portraits) • Beyond the 64 TL;DR: Info • Timeline of the final project (part 1 • part 2 • part 3) |
Conceptual stage[]
It is currently March 3rd, but work on this part has been going on since before last week. I've written a chronology on my computer and am now sharing it with anyone who is interested.
19 February[]
I discover Artbreeder and begin to question whether the old team photos need to changed.
20 February[]
After running the 擬人化-passed composites of Pencil and Pen (in their Pencil 2.O forms) through the website, I decide to go for it. It is a decision inspired by wlot28's post of a picture of the AB-generated Final Fantasy 7 cast.
21 February[]
On the TEAM PORTRAITS page, I announce that the information for the team photos I had earlier provided is now out of date, and put the finished results of my AB demo on the page as well.
23 February[]
I make a plan to include 擬人化-passed Profily, Winner and Price Tag in the final project. For this reason, sorting the contestants by team is no longer feasible, and I shouldn't call them "team portraits" any more.
Light development stage[]
24 February[]
The order of the contestants is based on the relationship of the preceding one to the subsequent one. This was determined by the numeric values of the interactions between all contestants until BFB 16—in other words, who has positively interacted with whom the most. Add a few asocial wildcards at the end and you have every contestant who has ever competed in an RLBFDI series. Even Evil Leafy, or Alelsatan as you'll see.
25 February[]
The layout for the pictures is fixed, destined not to change—each rounded box is not made into an object in Flash. Still, I'm quite happy with the result. I've kept elements from the old team photos I'd made in January[1], but re-arranged them to allow space for more things, such as a larger picture of the object contestant they represent[2] and a short description… of which I have to make over sixty.
26–27 February[]
I spend these two days writing short descriptions for each character, making sure they don't resemble the Official Character Guide in the slightest. (These are humans I'm dealing with, not objects!) It's harder than you might think because I also have to ensure that they can fit in the box without overflow; the intercharacter spacing must not be less than –0.8.
28 February[]
I change a few descriptions and modify the text colour of the male contestants, but most importantly I add something new: competition information. Their placements in each series are now included, as well as the seasons themselves in which they competed (or simply appeared). This makes it harder for me to want to post it now because it contains some spoilers about the new BFB, such as the contestant who wins.
Heavy development stage, pre-AI[]
1 March[]
The beginning of the transfer—and the month that arguably the most important bits will be worked on. I didn't delete the old team portraits for several reasons. One of them was my prediction that I'd get the period aesthetics messed up beyond recognition. Will I be right?
I've neutralized the colours in the background into a vague mix of off-white and the team colours (as mentioned earlier). Now it looks as though each contestant is standing in front of a blank backdrop. Because so many images were used in the original composites that it's impossible to tell where the boundary is between background and, say, shirt, I had to be blurry in my estimates.
2 March[]
This was the creative part. I had set the composites against the monotonous background, and that would be considered complete by January standards. But now that I'm using Artbreeder, it would be quite strange to get all the pictures processed and then add an old-style hairstyle; the reverse would obviously be better.
Some time in February I had decided on early 1971 as the time when the contestants' photos were "taken". Not only is it a rather idyllic time without any drama (it was the middle of the break after RLBFB 12), but I really like the aesthetic of that era. These months say they're a part of the seventies, but the hippie influence of the previous decade was extremely strong—I can never tell school photos from '71 from those from the late sixties.[3]
That's why I spent a night yearbook hunting. This was a lot easier than I had imagined. In fact, about 90% of the hairstyles in these images come from yearbooks from the first half of the seventies (especially 1971 and 1972). A few (e.g. that of Dora or Simon) come from various years in the the sixties, while others (e.g. those of the guys with long hair) are from later in the decade. Overall, I was surprised at the quality of the pictures! They are mostly from the Internet Archive, where people upload their old yearbooks to be digitized and seen by people who are interested in the past. I'll forgive you if you think they look like wigs, especially in their pre-AB format.
Anyway, when those didn't suffice, I settled on looking at vintage beauty advertisements or even videos from the same time period, particularly ones that showed various Afro-textured hairstyles that were missing from the contemporary yearbooks—there were many more choices than the simple "globe", as it turned out.
By the end of the day, I had finished and had an appearance (or a combination of appearances) that vaguely matched the aesthetic of each contestant whose timeline I had posted on the AESTHETICS page.
3 March[]
It seems that at this point I would be finished. These images were ready to be sent to Artbreeder as soon as I purchased the full version.
But there really is a bit more to do.
- I finally created composites of Jessie [Price Tag] and Venera [Winner]. Since they don't adhere to the binary gender expressions present in the phenotype composites, I had to mix and match different styles that belong to men and women until I found a delicate balance between the two. I know earlier I mentioned that non-binary people are not limited in their self-expression[4] (to the extent that cis people are), but my headcanoning a slight form of androgyny is a solution that would bother the least number of people.[5]
- To make sure that no contestant ends up with a blotch remotely resembling an overgarment,[6] I've made their shirts concrete entities… and colour-coded, too!
- I took G.P.'s AB-processed photo and played with the "gender" slider until I settled on a few archetypes.[7] Then I removed everything above his/her/their chin and pasted the resulting images accordingly.
- The colour coding won't be seen in the final set of images as their clothes will be recoloured to suit their object colour on the show. This tradition I've adopted from observing the 擬人化-passed BFB characters on DeviantArt.
- Don't worry about that, though, because the team colouring will be recognizable in the colour of the background. It's still based on the colour of their team rooms in BFB 12. Rather easy to remember: The Losers' background is orange (or yellow), Team Ice Cube's in light grey, iance's in purple (or pink), Free Food's in red (or magenta), Death P.A.C.T.'s in deep blue, Team Giashiaohcmaodhma's in green-grey, Beep's in mint green and ABNTT's in light blue. Meanwhile, the RLTPOT debs will be against a yellow-green background.
- I also added facial hair to some of the male contestants, but only if they had the 'stache-beard combination that I knew AB would recognize. If he wore a moustache but no beard, I should enter him into the machine as is and add the hair later.[8][9] Being from the 1970s, the yearbooks had a lot of guys with beards (just like today, hmm), and I could change the colours a bit and insert them into the portraits just like that. If that wasn't necessary (like with Ady or Lothar), I just emphasized the stubble on the lower face.
4 March[]
- I've run the pictures of the composites through a couple of age-determining websites (like this, this and this), and it turns out that many of the contestants look older than they really are. The website correctly guessed that they—at least the composites—are in their twenties. But imagine what it's like when Rocky, who is supposed to be 16, is told by the computer that he looks like he's 31. Fortunately (and this is why I did the whole age thing), Artbreeder has an age slider, so you can make someone look older or younger as you like.
- The background still looks a little messed up, no matter how bright its colour is. Maybe it's because the AB-processed image from which I got the neck and shirt is a very light blue-grey, only compatible with a few teams. Maybe it's because parts of the background from the original composites (e.g. a shirt) are still visible, but behind the blue background—it makes the image look like it's really AI-generated, and not the good kind.[6] Whatever it is, something needs to be done.
- Changed the new background and lightened the old background to match the colours I'd detailed for the teams in January.
- Also corrected some of the contestants' necks by removing part of yesterday's overlay so it doesn't look like their heads are sticking out like those Egyptian paintings, and I added freckles to Barbara and Eugenia,[11] something I'd forgotten to do yesterday.
- Finally, I sharpened the faces in the images, since they're still a little blurry on account of their being from composites and stuff. Apparently it makes it better for AB to process, too. Tomorrow I'm planning on merging the "neck-and-shirt" layer with the "composite" layer so I can properly fix them.
5 March[]
- I deleted (or at least put into disuse) the newer team portraits; I saved each contestant's picture individually so there's no need to batch-edit them. For the individual photos, I removed any evidence of another person posed next to them, so that AB won't get confused and come up with a monstrosity in its place.[6]
- This means I can no longer replace people's hairstyles! Just proof that I'm serious about sending these guys to AB as they are now.
- Also removed the beastly necks I accidentally gave some of the boys. I used the Liquify feature to make them look more natural. Except the one belonging to Simon, you know, because viva la steroids.
6 March[]
I now have a title for everything: The (unofficial) RLBFB Contestant Yearbook![12] I had spent most of today working on the image that will be seen at the beginning of the set, even though I haven't yet bought AB (and therefore haven't started any of the final pictures). Just wait, it's going to be a colourful mess.
Also added the source photos (the ones that are to be fed into the machine) in small boxes above the first entry in the "yearbook", sorted in alphabetical order. I'll post a blurry preview so you know what you're going to be looking at.
7–12 March[]
Not related, but I did the line analysis for the latest TikTok compilation, the video that was released yesterday.
Some minor cosmetic changes are being made this week in preparation for when I can send them to the machine, most of which won't be noted here: who would want to know that I've just corrected Joaquin's sideburns so that they no longer go around his ears?
Other stuff:
- On 12 March, Florence officially became Flora in all occurrences.
- Also on this day, I watched the new BFDI music video "Just Push Through It". I love the way that they made the otherwise speaking characters sing so perfectly—we've gone a long way since Cher's "Believe". And it's so cute! I now have a reason to consider Hsioojomjasodsmaojdad as my favourite BFB team again.
13 March[]
Today's the day, or at least it's supposed to be. I still have to work out a formula to make this yearbook look as authentic as possible.
Pre-purchase[]
You know how more people frown than smile in old yearbooks? According to a UC Berkeley study, that's only true for the pre-1945 era. In the 1970s, most people in their senior class photos looked temporarily happy, just like an idealized version of today.
Earlier this week, I analysed the freely available yearbook of the Alton High School (Illinois, near St. Louis) class of 1971, the year the RLBFB photos were allegedly taken. I noted the gender of each student and whether they 1️⃣ smiled and 2️⃣ looked happy, determined by the curvature of their lips. Yes, that sounds like something no one would have thought about at the time,[13] but that's exactly what I did. I didn't really know them anyway, so what's the harm? Here are my findings:
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It's nothing formal. We can still conclude a lot of things from it, like that women smile more than men do (gender rôles?) or that truly happy people have been around for at least fifty years, but that requires big brain energy and I've no time for that right now.
That's because I found out that Artbreeder doesn't work that way. A computer can't put a smile on a picture of a face with 100% accuracy without it looking a little disingenuous, and neutral smiles don't work the way they do with actual humans. I tested this by playing with the sliders I intended to use for the contestants' facial expressions, namely the ones that control happiness, anger and mouth openness.[15]
I used G.P.'s picture for the testing process.[16] Why not Penelope's? Because she's smiling in her AB portrait and it would be rather difficult to remove that without distorting her further. I would have used Stefan [Stapy]'s photo instead because he already has a neutral expression and he's the most representative of the multiracial RLBFB cast (even if G.P. doesn't tend to sunburn[17]). As the rest of the cast have not yet been uploaded to the website, though, I had to go with the next best option.
Then I plugged in[18] a bunch of equations to account for the smiling or happiness rates of the 1971 high school students. These equations aren't relevant now because if I try to explain it, it will probably take up the rest of the page, but let's just say I tried to get the proportions as close as possible.
I'm not going to do any more extra work until I actually buy AB, and that's a promise.
Post-purchase[]
Okay, I'm having way too much fun. I've uploaded a couple of photos to the website that aren't related to RLBFB, and they've turned out rather nice. I just have to adjust them so that the blur doesn't take over. This will be great.
Notes[]
- ↑ But never posted, ha ha.
- ↑ Their poses were already created in January, but changed a little later. You can see a slight evolution in art style in the way I'd drawn the limbs.
- ↑ Been mulling this kind of thing over for a while: If the world weren't as bad as it is right now, you'd probably look back and think that 2020 and 2021 were just extra years of the 2010s.
- ↑ In other words, androgyny is not required, but it is common. A number of people on this thread go into further detail about it.
- ↑ I knew I'd be doing something wrong anyway, but if I were to give them a totally masculine/feminine expression, it would probably set off the same misgendering alarm bells as the people who refer to Taggy as "she" or Leafy as "he" do. Then again, the 1970s were known as a time of blurring gender boundaries. Remember David Bowie?
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 I've seen what those AI's can do. Sometimes it can get pretty creepy.
- ↑ Why him? Well, there really wasn't much choice (you can only upload three pictures to the website for free).
- ↑ Just like glasses, hair ribbons and other accessories.
- ↑ A lot of the phenotype composites consist of both hirsute and hairless men, resulting in unsightly stubble for the end result… but that can easily be removed.
- ↑ The oldest looking contestants, with and without the hair modifications, are Leo, Simon and Lothar, all blonde.
- ↑ About 4.5% of people in the world have freckles. Considering that two contestants in RLBFB have them, this seems to be a number that corresponds to reality.
- ↑ Why not call it a yearbook? That it details their personality traits, competition statuses and heights makes it great for future reference.
- ↑ And those that did were probably ostracized.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 If someone was really angry with their mouth open, I would have recorded it as HS (Happy Smile) or NS (Neutral Smile), depending on the intensity. At that point, there is really no difference in appearance to the other expressions.
- ↑ For "Happy", "Angry" and "Mouthopen", I set absolute minimum/maximum values of –0.25/+0.50, –0.30/+0.35 and –0.30/+0.55 respectively (represented as percentages). The further you deviate from these values, the less recognizable (and more uncanny-valley-ish) the image becomes.
- ↑ And if you notice, I've changed his look since his Cro-Magnon-influenced debut from the TEAM PORTRAITS page. Now Maja and Penelope won't call him so "fat-like" (BFB 16: 3:14).
- ↑ I get it, he's Italian, which is, like, peak diversity by mid-20th century Hollywood standards, but this isn't Bandstand. RLBFB still has Black, Asian, robot and stick figure contestants.
- ↑ As of 10:20, still hasn't been done.