Tuesday, March 2, 2010

MultiPass Mystery

There are a few details of the MultiPass that have remained elusive to me, despite my persistence. I'm sure if I had my hands on a real pass, all would be revealed. Until then, I have to work with screen captures and other bits of reference.

There are two or three issues with the pass that I describe as "irreconcileable", because I cannot figure out how a detail can make sense in one design and not another. Hard to explain really. Let me demonstrate.

Here's the "money" shot of the pass. Check out the part circled in yellow. There's clearly SOMETHING going on here. Looks like maybe there is another layer on the bottom "arm" that goes along the bottom of the pass graphic. Like it is raised up above the rest of the pass.



Similarly, on David's pass, we see some kind of something going on right there that again makes it look like there's an additional layer to the top of the pass.



But then, in my most reliable photo that is VERY high def, I don't see that thing at all.



I was originally tempted to dismiss what I saw in the book scan photo as a printing artifact. Or perhaps when they were laying up the artwork for the book, the had to cut a couple of photos together to make that one. Could be a million reasons why it would show up in the book that way.

But then when I saw a similar detial in David's pass, I was really thrown for a loop.

There is of course the chance that of the multiple passes made for the movie, there were differences between them. So maybe the one in the book scan is the same one that david uses, which is different than the one sitting on Korben's bed side table. Either way, there's NO WAY you can convince me that there is any kind of rounded edges or beveled arm on that one sitting on Korben's desk. That is stacked styrene, plain and simple.

In the end, I modeled my final design after the one on the bed side table.

1 comment:

David said...

There is definately something going on in that area. I am wondering though if it could indeed be a raised area on the bottom arm.
What causes me to wonder is not the vertical strip you circled in the first two pictures but, rather, the left end below the shadow on the third. In the 3rd shot - it looks almost like a ramped edge but neither of the other photos has this. The other joins also look square - why would they have a ramped corner in this one spot only.
In the third photo, on the top-left corner, it is a bit more blurry but it also seems to hide the left edge of the raised piece.