[Palomine]

Between 15 and 20 years ago, when Anthony Cotto's FTP site was the de facto hub of the nascent BE community, and shortly before the BEA was formed, BE-related imagery was pretty hard to come by.

Aside from the fact that we were all limited to dial-up to access a still-young-and-primitive web, our computers were much less capable than they are today... so what little content there was tended to be low resolution and somewhat modest in scope. On top of those constraints, the fact is that the state of the art (of BE imagery including morphing, headswaps and other methods) was itself fairly new and y0ung... so a good part of what was available tended towards the 'primitive' end of the scale, though even much of that early content was charming and appealing in spite of those limitations.

One of the bona fide founding masters of the BE art was Spike. Exact dates elude me at the moment but his career, which ran to well over a thousand images, spanned from the mid/late 90s through the start of the last decade. His output wasn't just prodigious, it was was also artistically impressive... from his earliest works through to his last. His 'morphs' were actually not morphs per se... from what can be seen in his images, as well as from having read posts about and by him years ago (including a few in this forum) his technique involved actually painting on top of the original photos, rather than warping, shrinking, pasting, etc... This lent his images an idealized artistic quality not unlike some portraiture spanning the Baroque and Rococo periods.

While we're privileged to have so many talented BE artists sharing their work with us today, including a few who've inarguably achieved levels of mastery and prominence equal to (and in the eyes of many, even surpassing) Spike's, it's still worth a look back at one of the founding fathers of BE imagery... I'm sure many of our newer friends will never even have heard of Spike before now, let alone seen any of his thousand-plus images.

So, without further introduction, here's what I believe to be the very first image Spike released within his 'main series' ...image number 1, created sometime in the mid to late 90s I think... based on what's probably the most iconic photo of Darlene English. I'll follow-up with the last Spike image (highest numbered within the main series) I can find tomorrow, once 24 hrs. have elapsed. Other information about and artworks by Spike are welcome!

 

[Palomine]

And here we have the highest-numbered file from Spike that I could locate... I'd be surprised if it were actually the very last work he produced within his 'main series' ...given how filenames are so often manipulated as they get redistributed online. Also, I had the impression that the main series ran up into the 1200s (maybe 1216?) and almost certainly not into the 20,000s as the attached image would suggest. Thus, it's quite possible that it's not only not the last Spike image, but that it's actually from earlier in his career.

Regardless, Ashley Juggs seems unperturbed by her new burden.  

[leaf]

I don't have anything to contribute, but I wanted to give P a fist bump for mentioning the ACotto days. Praise to you, sir!

/resume lurk>

[Kopy Kat]

I remember Spike. I feel old now. *goes to play with Hot Wheels* Vroooom vroooom!

[splodge]

I remember (fondly) the ACotto days ... back when I thought Anna Nicole Smith was impossibly huge =) But I don't remember Spike. But then I've never much been into morphing, just big boobs =)

[Palomine]

And though lower-numbered than the last one, I think this one is actually closer to the end of his 'main series' of images.

[Palomine]

Alicia, one of the earliest active users at the BEA (perhaps the first official BEA Princess?) was a popular subject for Spike's talents.

[Palomine]

As with our good friend Alicia, Spike often worked repeatedly with favorite subjects. Here's a selection of his Lisa Phillips material:

[pedonbio]

The very first pictures that we would now call "morphs" I found in the newsgroups the same year I got that most fabulous ever </sarcasm> computer development, Windows 95. *SIGH*

It couldn't have been more than a year or so later that I discovered "R&D" ("Research & Development") maintained by, I believe, the late doggo.

[TheZookie007]

Spike, indeed, was an early master of the form. His shiny boob renders are quite distinctive. He's sort of like the BE Banksy

[Palomine]

Bumping this to bring Spike to the attention of any of our newer users who aren't familiar with his impressive body of work. Yet.

Edited later to add an attached image. Of his over 1,000 artworks, Spike did only a small handful of hardcore images (one of Stacey Owen attached) and perhaps a dozen (or two) oral pix. Such images seem to make up less than a couple percent of his entire oeuvre.

Again, what's so impressive about his work (aside from how imaginative and prolific he was) is his artistry... all artists develop their own personal techniques, and his seemed to be to simply paint onto the underlying image... not an easy task. IMO, in no way does the painterly quality of the enhanced portions of the final image (aka the lack of photorealism seen in the best traditionally-produced morphs) detract at all from the impact of his work. If anything, his very unique results render him even more worthy of recognition in the pantheon of the BE greats (again, JMHO).

PS: if we don't already have one, somebody should start a thread chronicling the best examples of video morphing: it's a relatively small sub-genre (given the time and effort required) so perhaps its finite nature would make it an attractive topic for a thread? Cheviot and Ooze3d come to mind immediately of course... though there are a handful of other notable and talented artists who've dipped their toes in that particular pool too. A brief explanation/outline of how video morphs are made (using Elastic Reality or After Effects or a tool with similar features to keyframe an animated warp distortion over time and then the use of by-hand or matte-delimited pull-through cloning (from the unmorphed to the morphed frame) to restore the distorted backgrounds) would be great to include... such a thing might encourage a few brave souls to try their hand at it (fingers crossed ).

[Palomine]

And another bump with another one of Spike's Stacey Owen pix, given the recent activity in the thread about her: http://forum.bearchive.com/index.php/topic,9982433.msg10277492.html#msg10277492

[pilotblaze]

I have a big folder of these from circa 1997.
Not all of them start with spk.

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't it he who coined the name "neuskin"  or something like that, for his painting technique that includes notable breast veins?

I like this one...  Hope you all do too.

-D'Artagnian

[Palomine]

I keep losing track of running threads like this (that I mean to keep updating). Sorry 'bout that.

Here's the BEA's very first "Princess" (for all intents and purposes) Alicia, as envisioned/enhanced by Spike's unique talents. Alicia was also one of our first members to pass away IIRC. Some people gave her a hard time (for various reasons, as dolts tend to do ...the forum was a rougher place back then) but we were lucky to have her here while we did IMO.

Spk00951 Alicia by Spike ULd GF spike