BEg2 refreshing my memory of the DeepArcher splash screen

Michael Bailey michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com
Mon Mar 28 07:43:13 UTC 2022


“A splash screen comes on, in shadow-modulated 256-color daylight, no
titles, no music. A tall figure, dressed in black, could be either sex,
long hair pulled back with a silver clip, The Archer, has journeyed to the
edge of a great abyss. Down the road behind, in forced perspective, recede
the sunlit distances of the surface world, wild country, farmland, suburbs,
expressways, misted city towers. The rest of the screen is claimed by the
abyss—far from an absence, it is a darkness pulsing with whatever light was
before light was invented. The Archer is poised at its edge, bow fully
drawn, aiming steeply down into the immeasurable uncreated, waiting.
            What can be seen of the face from behind, partly turned away,
is attentive and unattached. A light wind is blowing in the grass and
brush. “Looks like we cheaped out and didn’t bother to animate much,”
Justin comments, “but look close and you can see the hair rippling too, I
think the eyes blink once, but you have to be watching for it. We wanted
stillness but not paralysis.”

This was created by Cassidy, the maybe-not-12 (that was a quip) but
underage (as Maxine notes in seriousness) artist for the splash screen.

It reminds me of Sagittarius, but also the Fool tarot card.

& Cassidy refers to an external, unknown, source of inspiration similar to
that cited by the woman who drew - what was it, the Thoth deck?


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