Blog – Page 12 – Callidus

Lets Talk About My Next Video – Part 1

October 13, 2014

Wow, 2014 is turning out to be a productive year for me. At this point, I’ve created more material this year than in any other, except 2005. My creative output during those first twelve months was pretty abundant. Of course, I was only doing still images in those days and now I work almost exclusively with animation, and the occasional video.

Judging from some of your comments and emails, you’d like those videos to be more than “occasional.” Of all the work I’ve produced, the three things that people talk to me about more than anything else is Orientation, the accompanying Orientation Screen, and Decisive Results. People really seem to like those and they often ask me when I’ll be doing more.

And, that’s what I want to talk about over the next few blog entries.

I’ve thought a lot about doing more videos. They’re fun to do, the reactions are always fun to read, and I enjoy bringing my particular brand of erotic mind control to life. But, they are also very time consuming. Orientation took a few months to complete. Decisive Results was over a year.

That’s a lot of time. As much as I love working on them and sharing them with people, I don’t seem to be getting more free time as I get older; quite the opposite. I used to do manip requests with some regularity. These days, I have to politely tell people that I’m happy to work on commission but I just don’t have enough spare time to work on things, that aren’t fulfilling my own artistic impulse, without compensation.

But, I really want to do more videos. Which is quite a dilemma given the whole dwindling-free-time situation. I was ruminating on these things earlier in the year when someone left this comment:

kraig

April 12th, 2014 @ 2:29 pm

You should think of making full movies and posting them for sale because your work is top notch and there is a huge market for your kind and quality of work people would pay for it it gladly!

I sat and read it over and over. Wondering if he were right. I’ve thought about doing exactly what he’s suggesting numerous times. But, there were always obstacles. Some were of personal nature, there were legal issues I could foresee being a problem, and there was always that problem of free time. I’m very busy and film making (good film making) takes time.

And then, circumstances went and changed on me. A few months ago, one of my long-running freelance jobs came to an end. That meant giving up a little money I was used to seeing each month. But, it also meant that I had more free time.

I began to think about what I would do with this spare time. Catching up on TV shows or video games sounds like a lot of fun, but we all know I’m a workaholic. I’m happiest when I’m doing something.

And so, I began to think about what I’d really like to be doing with my new-found time…

To be continued

Ridges – New Animation

October 11, 2014

Welcome back everyone. I’ve been working on a commission job this past week so I’m a bit late updating but I hope the wait will have been worth it. Read on for my Director’s Commentary but, for now, please go check out Ridges.

My original round of gas mask manips were really fun to work on. So much so that I promised myself I’d revisit the territory again when the right source material presented itself. Since I’ve been haunting Tumblr recently, I’ve mined a lot of great images that I’ve tucked away for future smutiness.

When I came across this image I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it. The original photographer really paved the way by making sure the inside of the mask was lit so we could see the model’s eyes. I knew I wanted to see what was going on inside the mask. All of my previous manips hinted at the assault of light and sound inside the rubber but now I’d get a chance to show it off.

So, it was very fun to work on in that sense. Thanks for reading, stay tuned for some very big news in the coming weeks and, as always, your comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome.

Escape – New Animation

September 16, 2014

Greetings once more dear reader. I’m trying not to pat myself on the back too much but I am quite pleased with the amount of work I’ve been able to put out this year. Tonight, I’m even more pleased because I can finally put a check mark in the ‘complete’ column for my longest-standing in-progress manip.

Read on for my director’s commentary but first please go enjoy Escape.

I’ve had this image saved since 2007 and have been actively working on it through various drafts since 2008. For whatever reason, I was never able to get the animation of the orbs into a place I was happy with them. In some respects I was probably trying to be too clever. At one point the orbs were making much larger orbits and going out of focus as they entered and exited the focus plane.

Neat effect, but it just didn’t work for this image.

So a little while ago, I drug it out and started from scratch. I think I had built it up in my mind to be some sort of apex-manip or something. The source material was so strong and I felt like if the manipulation wasn’t *perfect* it’d make the whole thing garbage. The down-side-schwartz to my perfectionism strikes again.

So this time around, I let go of all those expectations and just treated it like any other manip project. I got the animation where I was happy with it, played with some light effects and then sat down to write.

That part was quite painless as I’ve had six years to write and re-write the story in my head. I knew exactly what I wanted to craft with the narrative when I first saw the image. I’m finally glad to get that out of my head and in front of all of you.

As always, your comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome.

Compromised – New Animation

September 1, 2014

Happy September everyone. Checking in with another update tonight, a new animation from some lovely source material featuring Daft Punk and Milla Jovovich. Read on for my director’s commentary but first, please check out Compromised.

These things start, as they so often do these days, stumbling across a low-res version of this image on Tumblr. I stared at this photo trying to imagine what else, beyond mind control, the original intent could have possibly been. Satisfied that there could be no other intent, I concluded that the original artist intended erotic mind control as the central theme and, therefore, I should help that person out by pushing their work where they already wanted it to go.

So, what I’m saying to the photographer in question is…you’re welcome. 😉

Anyhoo, this picture is the sort that just immediately inspires everything that will follow. The spiral light effect and the general direction of the story formed in my mind quite rapidly. Then, it was just a matter of putting those pieces together.

I must also mention my good friend Tabico because I was quite inspired by the capture sequence that occurs early in her infiltration epic Rogue. The gloves the boys from Daft Punk are wearing suggested a sci-fi angle to the narrative and Tabico’s tale immediately sprang to mind.

A big tip of the hat to her for inspiration throughout the creation of this piece. I hope you enjoyed this latest manip and, as always, your comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome.

Intake – New Animation

August 20, 2014

Welcome back dear reader. I’ve been away for a little while but have also managed to squeeze in some time to complete a new animation that I’m just dying to share with you all. Read on for my director’s commentary, but first please enjoy Intake.

The source material for this image comes from Gatsby’s Whore a tumblr featuring the sexual exploits of a woman named Daisy and her lover (the eponymous Gatsby). He’s also quite the shutterbug as there is an enormous number of quality photos of her; face carefully concealed from the camera.

This image was posted to their blog earlier this year and just immediately grabbed me with the strong composition and her lovely figure. I’m also a fiend for girls in heels, but we all know this. 😉

Anyhoo, I set to work on it immediately, knowing exactly what I wanted to bring to it visually. Whirling colors, endless spirals, and a techy-looking control panel to give some sense of infrastructure to the affair. I thought the image was so strong, I decided it didn’t need a caption. Satisfied, I dropped the finished piece in the “Complete” folder and left it there.

Which is odd because I don’t usually run much of a buffer in the way of work. When I finish something, I post it. But this one sat there for a week while my mind chewed on it. I realized that I really did want to add a caption, I just didn’t have any great ideas.

So, I went back to the project file created a text box and stared at for a bit. Then, I went back to that control panel and stared at that for a bit. I began to think about a row of these stalls with girls being brainwashed in each of them. The idea of an intake facility began to form in my mind. I started writing and the words just poured out. It was one of the quickest writing sessions I’ve ever had, in fact.

So, there you have it. Its an interesting case-study for the intuitive way I often work. Doing things without a specific plan, just leaving myself threads that I can return to if needed. Plodding along until I get to the finish line. In this case, I’m quite pleased with the results.

As always, your questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome.

Answers – New Animation

July 31, 2014

Greetings and welcome back. I have a new animation for you this evening, a wonderful bit of raw-image I ran across on Tumblr. I do hope you enjoy Answers.

This image was the picture that kept on giving. With the model’s facial expression alone, I could have made something work and been very happy. However, I had so much more to work with here. The magnifying lamp above her face, the glass probe pressed to her forehead, the hand holding her head in place. I just couldn’t have asked for more in the way of raw material.

A very fun piece to work on.

Now, I’ve got a few other projects keeping me busy and I’ll look forward to sharing those with you throughout the month. I also have a very, very big project in the works. Something I’m quite excited about. Something that many of you have suggested and asked about. It will have to stay a tease for now but I’ll be talking much more about it in the coming months.

Stay tuned and, as always, your comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome.

Another Tease

April 12, 2014

I’m horrible about not posting for ages and ages. Partially because I’m ADHD and partially because it takes time to do what I do and when I don’t have anything finished, I don’t have much to post. So, I’m trying to shake things up a bit today with a tease of something I’ve been working on here and there.

I have an idea of what the finished product might end up being but I’m still working on all that. This was just a quick experiment to test a couple of techniques that I’m thinking will end up getting used in the final piece. I’ve included a “PG” GIF alongside the full-monty version, for those who might be interested in sharing to locales where nudity is an issue.

Please to enjoy and imagine.

Catching Up

April 6, 2014

Hi all, hope all is well with you. I’m checking in today with a brief update that’s mostly geared towards getting my gallery here updated with all the new work I’ve done recently. I started actually posting to my tumblr blog a month or so ago and ended up being really motivated by the experience.

As a result, I turned out a surprising amount of work in a very short period of time. I’ve actually completed one more entry in the first four months of this year than I had all year in 2013. Or course, one of last year’s manips was a twenty-plus-minute video so…that may be a factor. In any case, the gallery is now stocked with all of the work I’ve done over at tumblr in addition to a brand new piece that I just finished!

Cultivate is inspired by all the best sci-fi mind control fiction that shows us what happens when pretty girls get too close to nefarious-flower-type-things. Its taken from a photo series featuring the lovely Justine Joli and has some of the best trance faces I’ve seen from her.

I’ve often talked about stealing facial expressions from one photo to use in another, but this pic was really a difficult proposition because I had so many great options. Here’s a pic of all the faces I had to choose from:

See? A lot of great choices there. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the manip(s). I’ve got so many things I hope to get to this year, hopefully my spare-time meter stays in the green long enough for me to get to all of them. Thanks and, as always, your questions, suggestions, and comments are welcome.

And I’m Back

January 13, 2014

Happy 2014 everyone! Its been a while since I checked in but I’ve been hard at work behind the scenes on new material and I have four, count them FOUR, new pieces of work to show off. Three I actually put up before the new year but if you haven’t checked the gallery in a couple weeks, then they’re new-to-you.

First up is a little something I worked on over the holidays. Since the bound subject already had some electro-play nodes attached, I thought the pic would lend itself well to the addition of a VR mind control rig. I was also struck by the shallow depth of focus, which I thought would make for a fun challenge to match with the brainwashing apparatus.

Finally, I really enjoyed the contrast between the bondage and the sub’s muscular physique. That juxtaposition is full of interesting drama vis-a-vis mind-over-muscle tropes. Trilby explored that idea a number of times and its something that always struck a chord with me.

Next up is an interesting two-for-one kind of thing. I was wandering around on Tumblr a while back and happened across an animated GIF of Sasha Grey lying on a couch and blinking in a drowsy, maybe-she’s-being-hypnotized kind of way. In fact, I think the poster even captioned the photo to that affect.

Part 2 of My Interview is Online

November 3, 2013

Hi all, just checking in with a quick update to let everyone know that part 2 of my interview is now online. This segment deals with my various influences, my approach to my work, and a bit of advice for those looking to do their photo-manipulations.

Do check it out and please let thrall know if you enjoyed the interview. I had a great time and I’d love to see her continue on interviewing others in the mind control fetish community.

Quickly, I’ll also add that I’ve been fixing some bugs on the site today and trying to get everything back to 100% after the move to the new hosting provider. If you do spot anything that doesn’t appear to be working as it should, don’t hesitate to contact me and let me know.

Callidus

Mind Control Fetish Art