BONUS Post #49 - Unused CinemaScope Showcase Material + Bonus
Some fun bonus material for you all!
If you're not up-to-date on the recent release of @SXCD2719's new version of their Cinema Checkpoint, CinemaScope, then I first direct you to the model's page, and then to my recent bonus post, bonus# 48, which I put up to support the model's release. I talk plenty about the model in the blurb for that prior post, so go read that if you're interested in more details on it. I was also lucky enough to be asked, pre-release, to create a few generations for the model's showcase. In fact, you can find four of my images in the showcase post! It was absolutely my honor to contribute.
Here's a little game: after reviewing my Cinema generations here, and maybe after also getting yourself a sense of @SXCD2719's generations, can you tell which four generations in the showcase post are mine? (Hint: paying even just a little bit of attention should get you a score of at least two.)
Mostly everything above are unused generations for the CinemaScope showcase. (The only exceptions are the last two images, and I'll explain them below the bullet points.) Here's the nuance:
The first two images were never going to be included in the showcase. They were just from my initial playing around with the model, to feel it out. SXCD2719 had asked that any images be in standard vertical orientation (presumably because CivitAI's website presents showcase images in a vertical-card showcase). The first image fails that check by being wide while the second is square. However, I liked the rabbit generation enough to go back and make a vertically-oriented variation, which you can see made it into the showcase!
The next four images—of the alchemical ferret through Princess Twilight—are images I showed to SXCD2719 but I myself ultimately chose not to submit them for showcase consideration. It's not that there's something wrong with them. Merely that I only wanted to submit what I thought were my best results. Also, you might notice the dancing panda image seems awfully familiar. The coconut-shell bra version was always the generation I was going for, but in one particular instance I just happened to get an output with the cosmic bikini—I have no idea why—so I decided to upscale that one also.
The next three images—of the pony relaxing at sunset, the cyberpunk cat, and the naughty nightclub hyena—were generations I did submit to SXCD2719 for showcase consideration, but SXCD2719 elected not to use them. (In other words, I submitted seven total images: the four you see in the showcase, and the three here.) Of all my submissions, the hyena was the only one I was 100% confident would not be chosen for showcase. In my mind, the reason is because she's flashing some titty, and I suspect the goal of this showcase is to have Cinema encouraged for broad uses, from porn to not-porn. To that end, I would agree that the I think the best presentation and marketing decision would be to have showcase pieces as no more than risqué, and always less than sexualized nudity. Even though I believed with certainty that the image would not make the cut, I still included it for consideration because I thought it was one of the best results I had. Be proud of your work, everyone.
That brings us to the last two images.
Obviously, the very last one is just a redux of last weekend's Rarity bonus post. Last time was an experiment in image editing, to gain knowledge and experience. This one was made just in good fun, but the message is still very real to me: this weekend, reach out just a little farther than you normally would. It won't work out many, many, many, many times. But you're stronger than failure. You're better than disappointment. It's worth it for those rare moments where it works out in ways you couldn't have even begun to imagine.
The second-to-last image comes from a Thanksgiving post I was intending to make. After Halloween, Thanksgiving is the next major holiday here. I put up a post for it last year, and had every intention to do another this year. For weeks I've had the post's core idea: I was going to generate an image of a big Thanksgiving feast, ready to eat, but with absolutely no characters around it. I'd write a blurb to accompany it that would talk about how seeing the image gets you to feel things: the hunger, the appetizingness, the anticipation of satisfaction. The point would be that seeing the feast creates desire in you, but what you'd be noticing less is the missing people, whose absence isn't as felt until you stop to think about it. I'd talk about how their presence would something entirely different than the feast. Instead of drawing something out of you, like the feast does, the people fill you: with their joy, and their contentment, and their sharing.
The whole message was going to be love, basically. I did wind up generating the feast image when I was given the CinemaScope Checkpoint, but I don't have the full blurb to share because I never wrote it.
It's just that...
It's that... in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, I had this whole plan for the post, and I liked the idea, and I liked the message, but very suddenly, just before Thanksgiving... the whole thing stopped seeming... right? I still like the message... or maybe the intent of it. There are times for it. But... maybe a big signboard to point out, “Look, even with all this stuff, you're still alone,” wasn't really the kind, caring, tactful message I really want to make, at heart?
Maybe instead, I think, the message should be to be there. To be present in their story. Then you don't need any ‘message’ for it. Then they'll know they're not alone because you'll be there holding them.
All eleven images are hi-res, and therefore found also in the Hi-Res Collection.
“I love you,” is the message. My friends, take care. Be blessed.