Wednesday 6 June 2012

GF's Rosetta Stone

I have the good fortune of spending a good part of my life in Cambodia. Khmer culture is reknown for its monuments, and in particular for the amazing stone bas-reliefs that ornate its countless  angkorian (and pre-angkorian) temples.

The mastery of stone carving has survived, and skilled artists are still sculpting elegant Budhas and generously breasted Apsaras.

You may recall Grim Fandango's famous "mural" that was gradually lighten up as the player progressed through the story. This mural, originally designed by Peter Chan, was imitating a stone carving containing  clues and pointers of the world and unfolding story of GF. It's an absolutely amazing piece of art. According to Tim Schafer :  
After Peter Chan created it, he dutifully handed the original over to LucasArts Marketing, where it probably got shoved into a closet and forgotten about. I’ve tried to get my hands on the original for years, but I think it’s just gone.  It might have even been thrown out when they moved to the Presidio. :( 
 (source: Double Fine(tm) forum here)

Sometime ago, a couple GF fan, elbiolin (LucasForum) and Laserschwert, laboriously managed to "restore" a high resolution rendering of this artwork from some pixelized screenshots...


Laseshewert's "restoration" of Peter Chan's mythical "mural" (CG, click for details!)

I downloaded his high res file, printed a poster, and went in a little carving shop located in a small street of Phnom Penh. When I unrolled my poster, I could tell on the face of the shop owner that this was the most unusual commission that he had ever received. He looked at me, puzzled, wondering what could possibly be my religion. Of course, a cultural chasm (not to mention the language barrier) did not help to explain the nature of my condition.

He asked for three months, but called me back after only four weeks. While on my way, I got myself prepared for a big disappointment. He could not have possibly completed this piece in just a month. I was not even sure that carving this piece was actually possible. There are so many layers of depth, so much details... this was plain silly!

I arrived at the shop, and Mr Choum Sophek was waiting for me. A plate of sandstone at its feet measuring 110cm large, 38cm high. With the help of two of its staff he turned the stone over to reveal its sculpted side and I went... speechless.

Mr Choum Sophek (& co) actual carving (sandstone, click for details!)
I am now the proud owner of this improbable artifact:
First conceived and drawn by Peter Chan somewhere San Francisco, lost in some bottomless IP vault at LucasArts, laboriously restored in its original splendor as a computer graphic by GF fans, and finally, 15 years later, carved into a 40kg piece of sandstone in Cambodia by the descendents of the Angkor Wat builders. What a fantastic journey! Peter Chan's masterpiece has finally reached its own Ninth Underworld... in my living room!

Oh by the way, I intend to use this carving for the Opening of the movie (panning through the details in extreme close-up, in stop-mo, but under natural light in order to get some natural flickers as a special "intemporal" effect)

17 comments:

  1. Incredible - GF Compatibility Technician and Technical Writer

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  2. I'm speechless. This is incredible. - GF enthusiast :)

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  3. If you don't mind saying, I'd love to know what it cost and whether it's possible to get in touch with the guy that did it to see if he can do it again. Please contact me via my G+ page: https://plus.google.com/103160726357262243744/about

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  4. Holy cripes, that is amazing. Please, please share the details on costs.

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  5. It was a wonderful trip paved with talented people to achieve that.
    You've made tons of jealous people all over the world :o)

    - A videogame programmer with sadly not link with GF

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  6. Really, really wonderful. Even its existence leaves me speechless - I couldn't even imagine seeing it in its real size, in a living room... O.O :D

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  7. Really, really wonderful piece of art. When a man wants something... I was always impressed with determination such as yours. Congrats and respect to you, dear sir!

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  8. Awesomeness. Thanks for preserving this masterpiece.

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  9. Wow. This is incredible. Please share more details! (how much? Where? when? who?) I would almost make a trip over to cambodia just to get this!

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  10. Amazing sir.. Just amazing.

    You have to give us some sort of indication over costs.

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  11. This is unbelievable! I think I'm a big GF fan because I made a t-shirt but WOW! Hats off to you sir that is awesome indeed!

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  12. Just a little correction: While elbiolin DID in fact create a version of the mural from lowres images (http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=177422version) the high-res version you've used was actually restored by me, using scans by BeleG (http://forums.scummvm.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=9818).

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    1. Hi Laserschwert,

      I stand corrected. From the timeline of these postings, I assumed (wrongly I realise now) that your poster was in fact based on the original restoration of ebliolin. As you can see, I take credits very seriously and will amend this post shortly.
      By the way, I am a fan of your work and you would have recognized from the pics of my studio one of the poster that you have created, duly framed with pride. I take this opportunity to thank you for your great work in this community.

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  13. You're very welcome :) Also how rude of me to not bring up your mural, because it's friggin' incredible! Well done!

    And regarding the Grim poster, don't thank me, thank Chaosman who was not only nice enough to go through the effort of scanning his original, he was also brave enough to peel it out of it safe and sound frame in the first place. ;)

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    1. I have edited my post and corrected the due credits. I stand corrected again regarding the Grim Poster. I am all getting mixed up!

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  14. Nah, it wasn't too mixed up (although my nickname in the caption now is ;) ). After all I DID clean up Chaosman's scan - but that was just pixel pushing, while he did the real-life labor.

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