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This one had a gif:

I'm sure it's beautiful, Crank, but I had to turn it off extremely quickly, because it really strongly brought on my completely ridiculous phobia of clusters of lots of things close together. Isn't it stupid? This is very rare in my experience. Still, might be worth mentioning just in case anyone else here is similarly afflicted

Fallible wrote:I'm sure it's beautiful, Crank, but I had to turn it off extremely quickly, because it really strongly brought on my completely ridiculous phobia of clusters of lots of things close together. Isn't it stupid? This is very rare in my experience. Still, might be worth mentioning just in case anyone else here is similarly afflicted

I take it you're no fan of the stippling technique for creating halftones in ink drawings...?

Strangely, that doesn't elicit a strong response. I've yet to work out the odd specifics of what triggers it, but that top video made me feel sick and inexplicably panicked.

I have to admit I didn't like it either. I admire the artistry of both the dance and the computer rendering, but I don't like the sum of the two. In some way it reminded me of Gunther von Hagen's plasticised cadavers, which he likes to pose in an assortment of flayed states. (Shudder).

Ah yes, I saw a programme on him. Bit weird.

Fallible wrote:Bit weird.

...to say the least!

I liked the fat, golden one.

Mike_L wrote:I have to admit I didn't like it either. I admire the artistry of both the dance and the computer rendering, but I don't like the sum of the two. In some way it reminded me of Gunther von Hagen's plasticised cadavers, which he likes to pose in an assortment of flayed states. (Shudder).

That's what I want done to my body.

Fallible wrote:I'm sure it's beautiful, Crank, but I had to turn it off extremely quickly, because it really strongly brought on my completely ridiculous phobia of clusters of lots of things close together. Isn't it stupid? This is very rare in my experience. Still, might be worth mentioning just in case anyone else here is similarly afflicted

That's a new one, obviously irrational, but then that's what phobias are all about. Do things like ant beds, crowd shots at like a rock show or football game trigger this? Does it require movement of the clusters? Possibly movement with apparent agency? Something had to initiate the phobia, some weird association. Like ants eating a corpse, that could look vaguely like the living animal made of little bits moving around with seeming intent.

Anyways, you're being afraid is related to what I was thinking while watching it, especially the ones with strings/ribbons or dots with nothing solid underneath, that these effects would be fantastic in horror/sci-fi thriller type movies. There is something eerie, something to raise the hairs on the back of the neck, in seeing seemingly human, or humanoid, dissolving, or just moving and shape-shifting, even merging with another. The most visceral feeling like that that I get due to special effects is something I first saw in Jacob's Ladder, where Tim Robbins kept perceiving people with their heads shaking back and forth, like a 'no' shaking, but extremely fast to the point of blurring. It's a technique I've since seen used by numerous directors/special effects guys, and it still elicits a pretty deep unease. It isn't always the head, or just the head, doing the shaking. I'm unaware of seeing it used before Jacob's Ladder, but whoever came up with it first had a great idea.

crank wrote:

Fallible wrote:I'm sure it's beautiful, Crank, but I had to turn it off extremely quickly, because it really strongly brought on my completely ridiculous phobia of clusters of lots of things close together. Isn't it stupid? This is very rare in my experience. Still, might be worth mentioning just in case anyone else here is similarly afflicted

That's a new one, obviously irrational, but then that's what phobias are all about. Do things like ant beds, crowd shots at like a rock show or football game trigger this?

The ants would affect me, crowds much less so, although we had an ad on TV here recently where skin was represented by hundreds of naked bodies all crammed together, which I couldn't watch. There was also a picture I came across of a skull which apparently showed the effects of bone cancer - I'm not sure about that, but the bone of the skull itself was made up of hundreds of very thin outward-facing spikes, again all very close together.

Does it require movement of the clusters?

No, although I find some moving images unbearable too.

Possibly movement with apparent agency? Something had to initiate the phobia, some weird association. Like ants eating a corpse, that could look vaguely like the living animal made of little bits moving around with seeming intent.

The only incident I can remotely link it to was something that happened when I was about 8. I was playing in my grandparents' driveway, and accidentally killed a spider I was examining. It turned out to be a pregnant female, and I'd killed it in such a way as to expose the hundreds of eggs inside its abdomen.

Anyways, you're being afraid is related to what I was thinking while watching it, especially the ones with strings/ribbons or dots with nothing solid underneath, that these effects would be fantastic in horror/sci-fi thriller type movies. There is something eerie, something to raise the hairs on the back of the neck, in seeing seemingly human, or humanoid, dissolving, or just moving and shape-shifting, even merging with another. The most visceral feeling like that that I get due to special effects is something I first saw in Jacob's Ladder, where Tim Robbins kept perceiving people with their heads shaking back and forth, like a 'no' shaking, but extremely fast to the point of blurring. It's a technique I've since seen used by numerous directors/special effects guys, and it still elicits a pretty deep unease. It isn't always the head, or just the head, doing the shaking. I'm unaware of seeing it used before Jacob's Ladder, but whoever came up with it first had a great idea.

Yeah, I know what you're referring to. I don't remember seeing the effect before that, either, but something similar appears in The Matrix number 3, when Neo is invading Agent Smith's body. I can see how use of this kind of motion capture/CGI would be very effective in the situations you mentioned; although I don't think I'd watch. I love a good scare when I know I'm safe, but the phobia makes me think I'm not. I'm thinking about seeing if I can work on getting rid of it, but it doesn't affect my daily life that much, so I haven't got around to it yet.