The Gift Collage (Episode 100 page)07/2001~I've recently acquired a new computer with video capture, and it occurred to me that image capturing is just not that much fun unless you go on to do something with the captures, and soon thereafter inspiration struck and this collage was born. Took me 2 or 3 hours, but the time just flew... The large jpg version is quite detailed, and works quite nicely as a desktop.
(FEB 2002) In celebration of my finally completing a collage for each season 5 ep, I decided to go back and do another version of my very first collage. I still really like the
original version I just thought it would be fun to experiment and see if I could make a new version that would be very different and yet still very similar, incorporating techniques I've learned in the last 6 months... so I crowded the captures closer together, substituted a few alternates in and played with the colors/sharpness to produce the new version.
Angel Are You Now? collage (Episode 24 page)08/2004~This is a redo of an original spaz-attack thing I made back when I was first getting started in 2001. Pared down and simple. Caps as usual are mine.
The Weight of the World Collage (Episode 99 page)08/2001~I may not have liked the episode that much, but I coudn't resist the impulse to try out this new layer masking technique I just learned, so here we are, yet another collage. (Feb 2002) I finally got a non-staticy capture of the central image for this collage, so I thought I'd have another go at it. A little better, I think. You can see the
old version here.
Tough Love Collage (Episode 97 page)08/2001~Who could resist so many heart-breaking shots of Willow looking sad? Not me, and so I present this collage, otherwise known as "So Very Distraught" (some day I'm gonna do a happy collage. honest.) With all that great orangey hair, I just had to dust some purple about for contrast...
I Was Made to Love You Collage (Episode 93 page)08/2001~See, I told you I'd do a happy collage one of these days! What can I say, tomorrow's my birthday and I was feeling festive ;) April herself was so chipper and the Spring break party so colorful that I thought I'd do something sparkly and full of smiles for a change. So very pink!
The Replacement Collage (Episode 81 page)02/2005~(2001-09-04) If you're wondering if there's a pattern as to which collages I'm doing, the answer is: whatever episodes I happen to have on tape. Thinking I would be in rerun heaven this fall with FX, I didn't save most of this season's until my apartment complex kindly informed me that a new cable company -- one that doesn't carry FX, UPN or WB!
-- would be taking over. Then of course I started recording like crazy. But with "The Replacement" we're nearing the end of my stock. I'm pretty sure all the screen caps I used are Nicholas Brenden as opposed to his twin, but I won't guarantee it! (FEBRUARY 2002) I decided this one needed a little sprucing up too, so I did a little rearranging, changed the colors and added a little noise around the edges. You can see the old version here. (FEBRUARY 2002) wow, I can't beleive this is my 3rd go around, and exactly 3 years later. Swear I didn't plan it that way! you can see the previous version here
Angel Collage (Episode 7 page)
05/2003~In my quest to get collages up for all 12 first season episodes, I've worked my way up to this episode, for which I already had a collage (made in sep 2001). Of course, I couldn't let it stand, nearly 2 years behind my learning curve. And so here's the new and improved version, wherein I actually try to convey a feeling for what the episode was about, as opposed to just smushing as many Buffy and Angel face shots into a small area as I can ;-)
Bargaining (Part 1) Collage (Episode 101 page)
10/2001~It was kinda hard to do a collage for just the episode without bringing in elements from part 2. A bit lacking in overall plan, still there are bits and pieces of this one I like (like the Spike/Dawn corner), so I'm posting it regardless. Maybe I'll be re-inspired at a later date...
Bargaining (Part 2) Collage (Episode 102 page)
10/2001~the subject for this one was much easier... obviously it needed to be about Buffy looking bedgraggled and like she's been through hell...a little lower-contrast than I usually like, but it just seemed to suit the smokey, blurry-vision wandering-throug-burnt-out-Sunnydale Buffy did through most of the ep.
Anne Collage (Episode 35 page)
03/2003~In honor of finishing up all new collages for the rest of the season, I went back and did a new version of this one, replacing the original from october 2001. I've taken a new shiny copy of the semi-profile image of Buffy as my starter image. To suggest her relationship with Lily, I used the shot where she's resolutely trying to walk away from Needy Lily, which is of course also a reflection on what she's doing in the Big City waiting tables in the first place. Downcast Lily anchors the left side of the arrangment and suggests a certain kindredness with downcast Buffy (above, a little hard to see, I must admit) both changing their names and not wanting to talk about home. I've filled in the edges with various other caps of the scenery and texture of the episode, and overlaid both the "anne" name tag and Ken's "come home to Family Home" flyer. The coloring is a black-and-cyan-green-sparked-with-gold meant to evoke the city street at night, in keeping with the importance of the setting to the episode.
Caps used in this collage are courtesy of buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Dead Man's Party Collage (Episode 36 page)
10/2001~When Buffy and Joyce discuss
how to handle Dawn in "Blood Ties" and Buffy says "I wouldn't want my mother and my sister coming at me from all sides" I was
reminded of this Season 3 episode, where she dealt with that sort of thing first hand. And so for this collage,
I thought I'd put Buffy in the middle and have the whole gang surrounding her, all focused on her, and not
in a happy way.
(March 2003) What with all the other season 3 collages looking shiny and new, I just couldn't leave the hideous old version of this collage, so I redid it, in keeping with the original idea, but better.
Becoming (Part I) Collage (Episode 33 page)
11/2001~Thought I might as well do a collage for another old episode while I was waiting for the next installment of new episodes to arrive in my mailbox, and so here it is. Mayhap we should call this one: "Angelus: not a nice guy".
Becoming (Part 2) Collage (Episode 34 page)
11/2001~Since the part 1 collage was all about Angel/Angelus it seemed natural that this one would be all about Buffy. I started with the image of Buffy catching Angelus' sword on the downstroke; the results of using "color burn", lightening the saturation, the median filter, etc made that image so strong, I considered not adding anything else, just leaving a lot of black space. But I ended up deciding to flesh it out by adding some very, very ghostly small images around the edges. They won't show up very much in the small version, but look pretty cool in the larger versions.
After Life Collage (Episode 103 page)
11/2001~Ahh, season 6 eps, that's the stuff! To celebrate the arrival of my next fix by mail (thanks Courtney!) I present you with a collage floating around the idea of "I think I was in heaven... and now I'm not". I really liked the strong diagonal created by the up-looking Buffy and down-looking Spike in opposing corners, so I decided to mute all the other images to put that in releif. I think it came out pretty well...
Flooded Collage (Episode 104 page)
11/2001~It seemed to me that this episode's collage needed to be about Giles and Buffy, more specifically, about Buffy being discouraged and out of sorts with Giles hovering about trying to be reassuring, trying to figure things out. I started with the diagonal line created by the 3 versions of Buffy captured from the final scene, and built around that. I decided to give it a brown, earthy cast to go with the dark green of the top she's wearing in that scene, and the couch Giles is leaning on at the bottom. I added a little texture around the edges to add some interest to the empty areas.
Life Serial Collage (Episode 105 page)
11/2001~So I had the idea that this collage needed to be cut in 4 pieces with each representing the 4 life-styles Buffy tried on. Good idea, I'm not so sure about the execution. I think the problem is that this eps' raison d'être was to be funny, and funny is awful hard to vid-cap. Mostly you just get Buffy making a strange face. Still it's not horrible, so I'm posting it anyway... Gotta put something on the ep page!
All the Way Collage (Episode 106 page)
11/2001~Usually I try to take what I see as the central story of the episode to make its collage, but this time, I'm afraid I just wasn't all that caught up in the Dawn/Justin thing. What was going on with Xander & Anya and with Willow & Tara was far more interesting. So for the collage, I decided to do a triptych kind of thing. A little hard to see in the small size, but looks decent full size.
Once More, with Feeling Collage (Episode 107 page)
11/2001~Like almost everyone else in the known universe, I really liked this episode, so I'm not quite sure why the collage was such a struggle. Maybe because the wide formatting made my screen shots lower in res. Maybe because I couldn't decide on a single subject. At any rate, I may need to give this one another shot somewhere down the line...
Tabula Rasa Collage (Episode 108 page)
12/2001~ Ah, that's better, back to one subject. It's amazing how much easier that makes it! Of course there was other stuff going on in this ep, and I might have to make a separate Giles/Buffy one for it one of these days, but I think Willow's complete lack of comprehension of anything Tara said to her made her the core of this episode and hence the star of the collage. And after the letter-boxing from last ep, it was nice to get a lot of really nice clear close-ups...I'm especially happy with how the Tara corner turned out. If you look very carefully, you can see that there's actually 2 images there, the main one and then a profile facing the edge of the image.
Smashed Collage (Episode 109 page)
12/2001~I just couldn't take it. The original collage I made for this ep just jumped out at me everytime I loaded this page and reproached me with its hideousness (well, maybe that's a bit of an exagerration for dramatic effect. It wasn't quite hideous. I just didn't like it). So I made a new one. I got this idea of folding and refolding a piece of blank paper and carrying it around in my pocket all day, and then when it was good and crumped, I scanned it in and overlayed it to add some "distress" (isn't what they call it on the Home & Garden channel? Making new stuff look old and junkyardy?) to my majorly simplified layout. And viola, the new version is born. Check out the old version and see if you agree it's an improvement. Still not one of my favorites. But better.
Buffy vs. Dracula Collage (Episode 79 page)
01/2005~Redone Jan 2005 to replace a 3 year old collage I'm no longer pleased with. Going for a bit of dark gothic death/romance conflaggeration with this one....
Wrecked Collage (Episode 110 page)
12/2001~This texture stuff is fun! Since I'll never in a million years be able to paint anything decent, playing around with electronic textures is probably the closest thing I'll get... plus, bonus, good way to disguise less-than-perfect screen shots. I cleaned up some of the really distracting whorls that happened to fall over peoples' faces, but I liked the ones on trippy-Willow's closed eyes, so left those intact... not that you can see that in the thumbnail, but check out the 450X300. This is definitely one of my favorites.
Out of My Mind Collage (Episode 82 page)
02/2005~ remade with DVD captures and a few years more experience...
No Place Like Home Collage (Episode 83 page)
03/2005~new version replaces the original from 2001. I couldn't resist the Buffy-with-glowy-ball image, it just really appeals to me and makes a great anchor point for the composition. I thought about using a closeup shot of Glory, but in the end, since this was Glory's introduction, seemed appropriate to have our first glimpse of her as a distant red-clad figure.
Family Collage (Episode 84 page)
03/2005~Another redo of an old season 5 collage. Great simplified, and reduced to a sort of stark almost mournful look to really bring out the emotion.
Fool for Love Collage (Episode 85 page)
12/2001~There was just so much going on in this episode that it seemed appropriate to have a lot going on in the collage too, so I have a lot more captures than usual in here (making each individual one of necessity smaller). Obviously I've divided it up into the 4 "stages of Spike" covered in the episode, but perhaps a little less obviously I've got a woman in each, moving diagonally up from lower left to upper right. I wasn't a hundred percent sure what colors to use, but I think these work fairly well...
Shadow Collage (Episode 86 page)
07/2005~Another redo. Wow, has it really been nearly 4 years since the original? Yep, it really has. For this version, I wanted to include all three major plot lines, with an emphasis on Joyce's illness. The sickly green and purple flesh tones work nicely to emphasize that, I think.
Listening to Fear Collage (Episode 87 page)
01/2002~For me, the most important scene for this ep was that last pre-surgery scene between Buffy & Joyce, and so for the collage -- with the exception of the Dawn image -- I pulled all my captures from there. When I had the basic layout, I felt that it was too plain, flat and uninteresting to leave everything photo-clear, so I overlayed some texture and started playing with fragmenting it with different sized and shaped translucent boxes, and here we are. A little more abstract than I usually go, but not bad...
Into the Woods Collage (Episode 88 page)
01/2002~This collage is perhaps a bit lower-contrast and dark than I'd like, but everytime I tried to brighten it up, it just looked silly. The episode *is* dark, there just didn't seem any escaping it in the collage... I was originally going to overlay the sillouetted "Buffy/Riley about-to-kiss" capture over everything else and make it much bigger, but it was too hard to see what was going on, so instead I tucked it in that little black spot above Riley's shoulder. I'm still playing with the idea though, maybe I'll find a better way to execute it later...
Triangle Collage (Episode 89 page)
01/2002~I just couldn't help going for a literal triangle in this collage with Xander, Anya & Willow at each corner. And then something about the slant off that off-kilter triangle I had used and the sci-fi-ness of Olaf's troll look slipped me off into the land of Star Trek. A little flare here, a little spacy color modulation there, and viola...
Checkpoint Collage (Episode 90 page)
01/2002~This one was looking fairly blah until I started messing around with special effects. I used the same technique I used on "no place like home" collage to create "wind" but then I applied a ripple filter & a difference blend to it to give it that kind of flamey look. I also used a toned down version of a "sketch" technique I just learned (if you have photoshop try it, it's cool: put a duplicate layer on top of the original one, invert its colors, set the blending to "color dodge", and apply a bit of guassian blur). Then I muted all the colors to a brownish gold and played with the levels. Ah, much better!
Blood Ties Collage (Episode 91 page)
01/2002~Originally I was planning on making this collage about Dawn AND Buffy, but I guess Dawn wanted the spotlight all to herself this time...I applied the "poster edges" filter around the edges and background and merged that with a crackly texture, but left the faces pretty photo-realistic for a kind of drawing-come-to-life look. I'm pretty pleased with the results...
Gone Collage (Episode 111 page)
01/2002~At first, I was a little at a loss for how to do a collage about an invisible girl. Then I decided that that last image of Willow & Buffy sitting on the curb would be a good starting place. To emphasize the whole forlorn and tired thing I stretched the curb out into the distance, and then I started layering very translucent images around the edges, tweaking the coloring and adding a little texture to try to retain the lonliness of the curb portrait despite the addition of a bunch of other images.
Crush Collage (Episode 92 page)
01/2002~Well, not the best collage I've ever done, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of how to work special effects in without being too abstract. I'm afraid I'm a bit old school that way in that I like art to look like stuff. What I've been doing of late is getting the layout, making a duplicate copy and adding textures, filters, etc, and then fading it into the main version by increasing the transparancy and using masks to block the effect off the more salient facial features. I think it goes a long way to blending different images with different lighting and backgrounds together...
The Body Collage (Episode 94 page)
01/2002~It seemed pretty obvious to me that this collage needed to be simple and subdued. So I used just 3 images, and made them all fairly transparent, and low contrast, and low-saturation, with a grid-like pattern overlay mixed in with some noisy-staticy dissolving.
Forever Collage (Episode 95 page)
01/2002~I really liked the lighting change on Buffy's face as she stood after the funeral with twilight descending fast. So I decided to recreate that atmosphere for the collage as a whole.
Intervention Collage (Episode 96 page)
02/2002~I just couldn't decide what the most important aspect of the ep was to emphasize in the collage, so I had to do another one of those schitzo collages divided up into sections. That last short scene packed such a punch that I decided to put caps from it front and center. I think making it narrower than the top and bottom portions works well, adds interest. I also added some light framing lines over everthing to try to tie everything together.
Spiral Collage (Episode 98 page)
02/2002~There was such a whirl of activity and action is "Spiral" that I wanted to try to make the collage as dynamic as possible. And it's a sure sign that I've been reading too many quilt books & magazines when the first thing that comes to mind when "dynamic" and "design" are mentioned together is to set a block on point with contrasting sashing! But I did it anyway, and I actually think it worked pretty well. I'm especially pleased with the "actiony outdoors" sashing/frame effect. Which got me thinking, if this collage was a quilt, what would it look like? Now if I could only find a yard or two of those last few fabrics I need for my current *non*-electronic quilty project...
Waiting in the Wings collage (Angel the Series: Ep 57)
02/2002~There was just no way I was going to be able to resist all those gossamer ballet caps I got from "Waiting in the Wings". The full body shots were too small to show detail well, so I decided to make the whole thing pretty abstract to turn that into a strength rather than a failing.
The Real Me Collage (Episode 80 page)
01/2005~(Feb 2002) Nothing too special here, just my standard "grab a few caps, throw 'em together and add filters/textures to the space between" collage. Still, they were some nice clear caps, so I'm pretty happy with the results. The pink of Dawn's shirt and red of Harmony's lipstick suggested the pinkish-red tone I opted to give the collage as a whole. (Jan 2004) current displayed version is a redo, with the usual simplfy and clarify tactics.
Doublemeat Palace Collage (Episode 112 page)
02/2002~The amount of time I can stand having learned a new trick and not having used it on a collage yet is about 2 seconds. And so, I pronounce the official beginning of the era of the custom brush with this collage. Many, many thanks to Val of Touchstone's Art for sharing her wisdom with me,
and to Nocturna of Dirty and Grungy Brushes Bureau for creating the wonderful brushes I used in this collage. Between the two of them, they may well have created a monster. (and btw, X-files devoté or not, you must see Val's art!) This collage started getting interesting around the time I started playing with curves & exclusion blending to flatten out the images and selective colors to give it that kinda brownish-greyish-pink feel. Then I used the Angled strokes filter in conjunction with a texture overlay to swirl everything together. And only then did I let myself play with the custom brushes to dirty up the edges. Need a little more practice, but lots of potential there, can't wait to experiment more!
Dead Things Collage (Episode 113 page)
02/2002~With so many Buffy-close-up scenes in this ep, I decided to try to make a very dense collage and use as many of them as I possibly could. I stayed fairly close to the original colors (yellowy bronze scenes, candle-lit crypt scenes, blue night scenes, neutral end scene), and used a difference blend on a filtered and partially masked copy to darken the shadows. I used a couple of Nocturna's grunge brushes to darken the edges, and my very first, very own brushes to lightly distress the central image. Those got a bit lost in the shrink down to 450 wide, but add interest to the desktop version.
Older and Far Away Collage (Episode 114 page)
02/2002~I get the feeling we're not going to be seeing many smiles in the next few eps, so I thought I'd include a few in this collage while I still could... of course since in typical Buffy birthday ep fashion, the trauma does eventually kick in, I've got a little of that too, over on the edges. I didn't play with the coloring of this very much, just used the radial-blur, noise, unsharp mask & angled strokes filters to tie everything together.
As You Were Collage (Episode 115 page)
03/2002~I'll admit it, this one was kinda thrown together. I felt like this collage should be about Riley, seeing as I will always refer to this ep as "that episode where Riley came back". But honestly, the Riley stuff wasn't all that interesting (and let me just say that I'm *not* one of the anti-Riley club, I liked him from the beginning) which I forgive because he's only back for one ep, how much interesting stuff can you do? Anyway, back to the thrown-together collage. So I went with a kind of graphic look, by blending in a sketch-filtered version over the normal version, and than applying a bit of graphic pen filtering, reducing the saturation to near black and white and otherwise playing with the levels. I thought a little grid for the empty areas would be appropriate given the techno-gadget references. And there you have it. But never fear, I do plan on tackling the Spuffy elements of this ep in a different piece; I'm slowly pulling together a new little site for multimedia things that don't fit in this one, hoping to launch in the next couple of weeks. I'll post the URL here when it's ready, and it will surely include the aforementioned B/S piece, plus other goodies. Bet you can't wait ;) Gotta find something to do during that long no-new-episode desert coming up!
Hell's Bells Collage (Episode 116 page)
03/2002~Otherwise known as the "Poor Anya!" collage... there were just so many poignant
shots of Anya looking heartbroken that they
kinda squeezed Xander out of the picture. Oh
well! I used some copied blurred layers applied with soft light & overlay to give everything a kind of soft glow, and then some of Vered's wonderful "watercolor" & "old paper" custom brushes to add a little texture. The shot in the top right corner was already quite gold as captured, so I decided to extend that golden glow to the nearby captures.
Normal Again Collage (Episode 117 page)
03/2002~When I first started working on this collage, I thought that I was going to use all those crazy-Buffy extreme close ups as some sort of background to the medium-distance crazy-Buffy shots, but it got so interesting that I decided to just leave it as is. First I blended the images together using layer masking and a little judicious copy-stamping, then I played with colors and filters till it looked more or less as you see. Then I used some dust & scratches custom brushes to scuff everything up, plus some brushes from enfest.com to tear into the edges. If you want to see another piece I did based on this ep, check out the lyric gallery of Tangled Synthesis.
Entropy Collage (Episode 118 page)
06/2002~Why do I have the urge to start humming "I'm back... I'm back in the saddle again"? oh yeah, because I haven't added new art to this site in F O R E V E R. Ah well, hopefully the new piece will make up for it, I'm rather pleased with how it came out. I credit inspiration to Kim (XFilesEffects) for the overlaid outlines and horizontal screen lines and Marina (Deuce) for the idea of bending a rectangle until it looks like a TV monitor and sticking images on it, both of which seemed apropos for this episode. I also used the motion-blur filter, selectively masked, to blend the images together and give it some motion. The coloring for the non-monitor portion of the collage was actually done in a sort of novel way for me; I did a control-alt-~ to select a luminosity mask, and then rather than fill it like I do a lot for making sepia-tones, I selected "stroke"
on a new layer instead. Played with the layer blending options (think I finally went with "soft light", can't remember) until I got what you see.
Seeing Red Collage (Episode 119 page)
06/2002~I dragged my feet on this one quite a while, before finally deciding that even though it was only the last 30 seconds of the episode, Warren coming in and laying waste was going to have to be the focus of the collage. For the rest, I chose screen shots from the other main arcs for the ep (Willow & Tara, Buffy & Xander, Spike & Buffy), and played with the colors and blending until I had a soft light glow. I also applied the distort filter to warp some screen shots into a circle which you can kind of see haloing Warren's head. Then I drew in the rays coming from Warren's gun using the lasso tool (set to polygone) on its own layer, set to overlay. I also added a lens flare over the mouth of the gun to add to the radial feel.
Lie to Me Collage (Episode 19 page)
06/2002~This collage was created for this week's Imaging Buffy Challenge; since the challenge was to create a collage for "Lie to Me", I just had to add the results to this site... Lemme just say that the crystal clear DVD caps provided by Laura & Val for this challenge have seriously got me lusting after a DVD-ROM drive of my own! The collage itself is fairly straight forward, just layered images, and tweaked the coloring a very little bit. Once I had the basic layout, I copy pasted the whole thing onto itself, flipped it horizontally, reduced the opacity and masked out bits and pieces to try to give it a little more mystery and depth befitting the whole "secrets & lies" theme of the episode. I chose to focus on the main issue of the episode: the Billy/Buffy dynamic, with supporting roll to Angel's secret past with Dru & Buffy's discovery of it.
Villains Collage (Episode 120 page)
06/2002~I started out by piecing several captures of Willow absorbing the books as the camera pans up into a whole picture of her (though I made the head a little bigger than it should have been, for effect) and then I diced it up into the little floating rectangles as seen, and started layering in other screen caps and stock images of lightning around the edges. Played with the coloring a bit to give it a stormy wild sort of feel, and added the grungy border to add to feeling of doom, gloom & destruction. Finally, I floated some text (Willow's spell invoking Osiris) over to the left to go with the pictures of the books.
Two to Go Collage (Episode 121 page)
06/2002~As soon as I started thinking about what to do for this collage, I knew it was going to revolve around that great bit where the camera zooms in first on Buffy and then on Willow just before they're about to have at in earnest, Buffy looking stunning & determined, Willow with that wonderful wicked smile. So I plunked those down right away, center stage, and then started adding the other images from there for supporting roles. I used a layer of semi-translucent brown set to "darken" to start off my differentiation of the bands at the top and bottom, and tweaked the levels. I added the "ancient text" bit on the left, and the lightening coming out of Willow's hand and also lightening and texture in various other parts using overlaid stock images, mostly from gettyone.com, set to "dodge" or "screen" or "overlay". Used some custom brushes to tear away at the top & bottom, and also the top and bottom of the "Buffy-Willow-closeups" strip across the center.
Grave Collage (Episode 122 page)
07/2002~I wanted to make Xander/Willow the focus of this collage, but since this was also the final episode of the season, I wanted to include the other threads that came together during that last musical-montage too. (Spike just didn't fit in with all the bright daylight caps, so I left him out altogether) I started out with the placement more or less as you see, but without the lines, but it seem kinda blah, so I started dividing it up and coloring things differently -- seemed appropriate since the characters themselves were not all in the same physical location for the big finale.
Lessons Collage (Episode 123 page)
09/2002~As interesting as some of the other stuff going on was, I decided that the Buffy/Dawn/Highschool bit was the central plot line that I'd try to invoke in the ep collage (Check Tangled Synthesis for others) So I picked a close up of Dawn and a close up of Buffy that I liked, and then supporting shots of each, and then a shot that conveyed "school" (Dawn standing up in the classroom) and another to reflect the monsters of the week and placed those all diagonally across from each other. The background is a shot of the mostly empty corridor with the lockers in it.
Beneath You Collage (Episode 124 page)
10/2002~For me, this episode was really all about the climactic final scene, but it didn't seem right to have a collage that's supposed to evoke the whole episode focus on the last 3 minutes, so I decided to just avoid it all together. But watch Tangled Synthesis, I will definitely be doing at least one new piece based on it in the near future. And check there now for a full sized version of this collage and more technical notes about its creation.
Same Time, Same Place Collage (Episode 125 page)
10/2002~How this one ended up with a sort of deranged Christmasy feel, I don't know. Maybe it's the candles? I'll just slap "Season's Greetings" on it and be set for the holiday season... I orginally wanted Anya and the Xander/Dawn/Buffy team to play a roll in this collage, but it just wasn't working, so I stuck to the Willow/Gnarl duet...
Help Collage (Episode 126 page)
10/2002~Nothing too amazingly original here... I just started with one of my favorites of the Cassie caps I had, from the initial interview in Buffy's office, and it was already so light compared to the other caps I wanted to use that I decided to emphasize that and make it kinda ray-of-light-glowy to hint at the whole second-sight "touched" thing...
Selfless Collage (Episode 127 page)
10/2002~The old-film effect on the Sjornjost flashbacks seemed a licence to go with a film theme, so I decided it was at long last time to use those cool custom brushes I picked up ages ago from damn apple. I also used some "old film" grunge brushes by Touchstone
Him Collage (Episode 128 page)
11/2002~I decided I couldn't do justice to the funny that was the last couple of acts with the four way swoon-fest, so I just stuck to illustrating the basic story: Dawn falls hard for the Big Deal Jock, but Buffy gets in the way. Colors were inspired by Dawn (Buffy's) cheerleading outfit and the letterman jacket. The individual caps were mostly put together in my normal blurred-mask way, but a few layers were set to screen and laid over others (ie one of the "Dawn-dancing-with-RJ" and the "Buffy- leads-RJ-into-empty-classroom"). I used a bit of a pattern I made myself for texture around the edges.
Conversations With Dead People Collage (Episode 129 page)
11/2002~well, nothing to shockingly original here except perhaps the sheer number of caps. 29, to be precise. I think that may be some sort of personal record... usually I like to pick the dominant story of the episode and use that for the episode collage, rather than making a schitzo collage trying to convey too many things at once, but in this case, there really wasn't any clear decision in my mind as to which of the "conversations" was most important, so I decided to try to work them *all* in there. Hopefully the result is not too chaotic, or least, chaotic, but not incomprehensibly so. I'm hoping that that the strong image of Demon-Thing-Cassie will anchor the piece, snagging your attention first and then leading you to delve into the murky overlays throughout the rest...
Sleeper Collage (Episode 130 page)
12/2002~I'm not 100% satisifed with this one, but as frequently is the case, I'm tired of messing with it, and I'm not dissatisified enough to warrent keeping it to myself, so up it goes.
I do really like the sweep starting with "spike coming down stairs", arcing around to "spike profile" , "Spike cowering in a corner" and ending with "First Evil Masquerading as Spike". And I like the Buffy image, with the brick arc behind her. It's the middle part and the Spike image I'm a little iffy about. The problem was mainly Buffy's bright sweater, which I had a difficult time getting to blend with all the other dark images where it was cut off. So I put that line there and tried to echo it elsewhere so it didn't look too out-of-place. I liked the expression in the Spike cap, thought it went well with the Buffy one, but I think it was a tad to small to stretch up to the size I had to to get it balance with Buffy. Couldn't find any I liked better though, so I'm sticking with it...
Never Leave Me Collage (Episode 131 page)
12/2002~I knew I wanted to focus on Andrew & Spike in this ep collage, so I just picked a few caps of each and spread them about. It was a little weird, because the Andrew stuff was so light-hearted -- except for that final bit where he gets pulled through the wall -- and the Spike stuff so *not*. Still, I just had to include the freeze-frame shot where Buffy comes into the room and finds Anya pounding on Andrew and Xander nursing a bruised jaw, whether or not it fit the tone... Then I started filling in the gaps with a few others (the Harbinger, a close up of Spike's blood on the symbol, the symbol opening a seen over Spike's shoulder, Buffy coming into a room, trying to figure out what's wrong). Then there were these two large blank areas, left and right, so I found a close up of Spike for the left one and a close up of Buffy for the right one.
I leached the colors out and went for a tinted sort of look, and then started applying some filters to abstract the areas between some. I overlaid two copies of a stock image of some streaks of light, and applied the noise filter to add some flatness. I used the unsharp-mask filter with a very small radius and a high amount to further increase the grain.
Bring on the Night Collage (Episode 132 page)
01/2003~Not too much to report here... I thought each one of the "blast from the past" guest stars should be represented, so I picked a cap of each I liked and started moving them around the edges of the canvas. That made it by definition face-heavy, so I decided to counteract that by creating a sense of space in the middle with the cap of Buffy wandering alone just before she's attacked by the Uber-Vamp. Willow in the throes of the spell was cool looking, so I put it up in the corner, and given how central to the plot he was, I had to include an Uber-vamp cap. A brief cameo by the proto-slayers at the top filled in that little bit of available space, and then the left corner was left for battered Buffy (while she's sitting alone in her chair, before she goes in to give her speech) with battered Spike superimposed over her. Oh, and the sunrise from after Buffy escapes the pit was a good transition between the darkness of the dru cap and the brightness of the Willow cap, so I stuck it over there. The coloring was mostly already there, I just heightened it, bringing out the blues in most of the image and the orangy bits in the upper right corner. I added a bit of motion by using the motion blur filter in conjunction with one of the distort filters to add a wave to the blur on a partially masked layer.
Showtime Collage (Episode 133 page)
01/2003~I started by positioning "Buffy with attitude" in the upper right, and opposing he with "Sulky Evil Not!Eve" in the lower left corner, with one of the more interesting UberVamp caps taking central stage between them. Then I started positioning other caps to represent the episode. I was originally going to represent each of the Potentials invidually, but there weren't enough squares to do that and still have some action/story shots, and I didn't want it going all Brady Bunch, so I settled for a few group shots instead. I would have liked to work Kennedy and Dawn and some closer shots of Giles and Anya in, but it just wasn't going to happen... In my last attempt with this boxy method, I put only one screen cap per box, but this time I experimented with multiple caps per box. I added the flood lights to the uber-vamp box, the running girls to the Spike box, the sunset and not!Buffy to the Eve box, a Buffy profile to the sunset box, and a stock image over in the corner of the uber-vamp box, adding a glow radiating from his finger. I used the "stained glass" filter and the "texture->sandstone" filter to tie all the disparate squares/rectangles together.
Potential Collage (Episode 134 page)
02/2003~Nothing too fancy to report here. Just selected caps to try to cover the dual "training the Protos" and "adventures with Dawn & Amanda" story-lines. A little work with contrast and glow, a few little bits of texture introduced with dashed lines and dots and call it done.
The Killer In Me Collage (Episode 135 page)
02/2003~Despite the other 2 story lines getting air time in this ep, I decided to focus exclusively on the main story: Willow and her budding relationship with Kennedy and the season 6 legacies all that stirred up.
As soon as I saw that shot of Willow coming around the corner with the gun in her hand, I knew that was going to be *the* inspiration shot, the one that got me started. It was just so lovely and indirect, with great coloring. And I fell in love with the Willow kissing shot (eyelashes!) so those very quickly went in opposing corners and the rest where just filled in around them. For a change, I intentially left little bits and pieces of the cap edges showing in my blending. Texture was added with some of my own brushes.
Faith, Hope & Trick Collage (Episode 37 page)
02/2003~Doing all those Valentines has put me in the mood to do some episode collages for old eps, and since I left off 2 eps into season 3 last time, I thought I'd start with Faith, Hope & Trick. And in a shocking turn of events, I decided that the collage should focus on, wait for it... Faith, Hope & Trick. Of course, since Faith is by far the most interesting and persistant of these new characters, she got the spotlight on the collage. Just layer/masked everything in, played a bit with the lighting/color and called it a day. For these older episodes, I think I'm going to use other peoples' captures rather than going through and making my own. The ones used in this collage are courtesy of sounds of silence, buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Beauty & the Beasts Collage (Episode 38 page)
02/2003~This ep is another victim of my suddenly renewed enthusiasm for episode collages. Again, as typical with episode collages, nothing too exciting to report in terms of techique, I just gathered some key images, masked them, and moved them around until I liked the arrangment. A few glow/coloring techniques and voila, done. Caps used in this collage are courtesy of buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Homecoming Collage (Episode 39 page)
02/2003~I just adored the image of Buffy in her fancy dress leveling a gun, so I decided to make that large and central, though in retrospect maybe the quality/size doesn't quite support that for the desktop version (available on TS)... ah well, it looks fine on the 450x300 version, so I suppose that's the most important thing...I don't usually like to include text on episode collages, but I made an exception by using a cap of the "slayerfest" logo from Trick's video. Once everything was blended together, it still seemed to be missing something, so I added the little sparkles using a stock picture. Caps used in this collage are courtesy of sounds of silence, buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Band Candy Collage (Episode 40 page)
02/2003~'twas very tempting to make this the "all about Ripper" collage (and I may need to get back and actually *do* that at some point) but I managed to get Joyce and her hilarious offering off the hand-cuffs, a suitably devious Ethan, and even a little Snyder in, so I'm reasonably proud of my restraint. I used the cutout filter and a stock picture to add a little texture. Caps used in this collage are courtesy of sounds of silence, buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Revelations Collage (Episode 41 page)
02/2003~Couldn't resist the classic "Ms.Post with Glove" pic, and kinda built from there. I really liked the main shot of Faith, and it quickly decided it wanted to be the center-piece, followed by the Xander/Faith/Giles shot, which I think does a nice job of summing up the crisis of the episode. And then Buffy and Angel got snuck in around the edges. I added a little texture by using bits of other caps' backgrounds (bits of wall, etc) floated at light opacity here and there, and also by adding a green color wash in the upper left corner and a blue color wash in the lower right corner.
Caps used in this collage are courtesy of sounds of silence, buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Lover's Walk Collage (Episode 42 page)
02/2003~Deciding which caps to use for this one was a trial; there are at least a half dozen
wonderful collages in this ep, and I couldn't do them all in one piece, though I fully intend
to go back and have another stab later on... Meanwhile, since this is suppose to encompass
the whole ep, I tried to hit the major theme, friends vs lovers
("friends? how could she be so cruel?") that Spike brings up, both for himself and
the unseen Dru, then of course for Angel & Buffy and Willow & Xander, both struggling
to keep their hormones in check with little or no success. So I started with the classic "Oz & Cordy
walk in on Willow & Xander" shot. Couldn't resist the Spike/Willow shot on aesthetics, and am justifying
it based on how integral her kidnapping is to the plot. Also loved the "Buffy helps Angel up" cap
since that's what sparked Spike's "oh, yeah, you're just friends" speech. And the smiley "Spike's got his groove back" cap just *had* to anchor the corner. Finally, loved the Spike/Angel/Buffy wanderings, so had to include that. I added texture by using bits and pieces of the backgrounds of other caps here and there. Also using the film grain filter and unsharp mask as well as the usual glow stuff.
Caps used in this collage are courtesy of sounds of silence, buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
The Wish Collage (Episode 43 page)
02/2003~Funny, once you allow for the delicious vampWillow/vampXander images, which I didn't want to allow to run away and dominate this collage, there are really surprisingly few static images that call out to be included. I guess because other than that mesmerizing duo, what I always remember about this episode is the final "every one dies ironic deaths" scene, and that's all about motion and very difficult to capture. So instead of trying, I found me a nice angsty Cordelia, and a nice tense altBuffy and an interesting Master image and used those to anchor. Couldn't resist the despairing Giles profile and then finally gave in to those vampWillow/vampXander urges and included 2 over on the right. Caps used in this collage are courtesy of sounds of silence, buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Gingerbread Collage (Episode 45 page)
02/2003~It was easy to decide what needed to be in this collage: Joyce, Buffy/Willow, demon children and the MOO Mob. Assembled the caps threw them together, heightened the yellow from all the flames and then by accident ended up with a slight purple cast in the shadows, which I liked, so I emphasized it as a nice constrat to the gold/orange. I used the angled strokes filter to add a bit of texture.
Caps used in this collage are courtesy of sounds of silence, buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Amends Collage (Episode 44 page)
02/2003~Oddly enough, I had trouble getting Angel into this collage. I was immediately taken with the framing of the shot of Buffy & Giles researching, and then found the perfect Evil Smirking Jenny to anchor that arrangement and after that I floundered around trying to figure out just how to get the object of all the attention in. Finally I decided to go with a capture of him sleeping, plus a few of the things he dreamed about down in the bottom right corner, and to hint at the suicide-attempt and magic-snow bit in the top right corner. Coloring was a no brainer, it had to be blue. And I used a stock pic of some stars to add the little snow-like dots. Caps used in this collage are courtesy of sounds of silence, buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Helpless Collage (Episode 46 page)
02/2003~ I really liked the shot of Buffy with the cross, such a nice blend of desparation and battered determination, so I started with that. Then had to hit the other major players in this ep, namely: Giles, Quenten, Kyrek & Joyce. I used a lot of bits and pieces from other caps with boarded up windows, walls, blinds, etc to fill in texture here and there, and then started playing with the colors, which wanted to go brownish.Caps used in this collage are courtesy of sounds of silence, buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
First Date Collage (Episode 136 page)
02/2003~I tried to work the Xander story-line in here, but it just wasn't going to fly. My attempts to work the Giles-has-a-cow story-line in where abandonned even faster, leaving us with what is to me the heart of this episode, the Wood/Buffy/Spike triangle. I found which caps I wanted to use relatively quickly and started working on blending them together. The coloring/texture went through a lot of permutations before ending as you see here. There was originally going to be a lot more texture (introduced using some custom brushes I made) but you can't see much if it anymore, after I covered everything up with a layer of white and then started brushing bits of it out on the attached layer mask.
The Zeppo Collage (Episode 47 page)
02/2003~I started with a cap of Jack, sporting a deliciously maniacal look, and grafted on an image of his 3 zombie goons. Then of course I needed to include Xander in there somewhere, so I found a cap of him with the ax and a great determined look on his face. From there it was just a matter of working in some caps around the edges, the ticking bomb up in the upper left corner, the "cruisin'" shot down at the bottom right, and of course the infamous Faith/Xander liason snuck into the upper right corner. I overlaid a shot of the car set to screen and a few other bits and pieces of various caps here and there for texture. Caps used in this collage are courtesy of sounds of silence, buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Bad Girls Collage (Episode 48 page)
02/2003~I really liked the "Faith tempting Buffy through the window" shot, and knew I had to include the deputy mayor's death and jabba-the-demon to accurately summarize the episode, but from there, I was a bit shaky. I shouldn't try to do collages for eps I haven't watched in a while, it's hard! Though lately my will to PS and get s3 collages done has outreached my will to sit down and rewatch the s3 dvds. What's up with that? I definitely need to see more Faith eps to prep for the new Angel. Only 9 days left! Anyway, back to the collage, I'm not entirely satisfied with it, though I do like the general area of the bottom left corner and the line of vampire minions over by the almost mermaid-like green-haired Faith... Caps used in this collage are courtesy of sounds of silence, buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Consequences Collage (Episode 49 page)
02/2003~Another one that gave me trouble, though I think I like the end result better than that of bad girls. I wish I coulda worked Xander and his near-death experience in, but he just wouldn't fit. Loved that shot of shackled Faith I ended up using over on the right, that was the first image I selected. Closely followed by Angel talking to her, I really liked that one too... The rest were more arbitrary, the Buffy one coming rather late in the game (for a long time I had one of her crying, but it just wasn't working aesthetically)
Caps used in this collage are courtesy of sounds of silence, buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Doppelgängerland Collage (Episode 50 page)
03/2003~I think I managed some restraint, yay me! The temptation when doing a collage for this episode is of course to pack it full of alluring Vamp!Willow! shots of every shape and description. Given however how key Anya is to getting the ball rolling, and her eventual status upgrade, I wanted to work her in. Also? really liked that shot I used of her sitting at the bar! But the main image I started with was the depressed-Fuzzy-Willow one in the right corner, since really this episode was all about Willow's unhappiness at being reliable dog geiser doormat person. And then the beautiful evil-smile Vamp!Willow! went off in the opposite corner and the rest worked in around there. I used 2 background caps -- one of the empty warehouse where Vamp!Willow! appears and the other of the street she walks down when she first arrives in our Sunnydale -- to add texture and lighting.
Enemies Collage (Episode 51 page)
03/2003~As soon as I saw that cocky half-grinning shot of Faith in the mayor's office, I knew that was going to be the star of this collage. I also wanted to include the mayor since this is the first episode we really start to see his working relationship with Faith. I would have liked to have fit in a shot of Buffy with Faith, but after 3 completely different re-arrangments of the caps, I had to admit it wasn't going to work, so I substituted the Buffy-looks-horrified-Angelus-vamps-out shot instead. And may I say how much I love the mansion? The floors, the walls, the fireplace, all full of textury goodness to add interest in between bodies and faces....
Caps used in this collage are courtesy of buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Get It Done Collage (Episode 137 page)
03/2003~I rather liked the visual style of the Buffy-quest sequence, so I started with images from that... and then to round out the episode summary aspect of the collage, I selected shots of the two other people wrestling with issues of power/darkness, Spike & Willow, and added the SiTs and Cloe/First and Book!Dawn for good measure... The dividing diagonal line was used to group the images together by real-world vs vision-world, which works thematically, but more essentially was necessary because of they very different quality of light between the two sets of caps...
Earshot Collage (Episode 52 page)
03/2003~I decided I wanted to focus on Buffy's travails rather than show Jonathan or the lunch lady, though I'm hoping the clock-tower, in addition to being pretty, is a solid reminder of how the episode ends. I selected the other caps, all with a nice indirect gaze -- Giles mirroring Angel -- and blended them together. I used a few other caps to add a bit of texture here and there, then played with the colors.
Caps used in this collage are courtesy of buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Choices Collage (Episode 53 page)
03/2003~Faith & her knife and Willow sneaking a peek at the books of ascention were the first images that really grabbed me for this one. I also liked the nice visual reminder that the plot of this episode was kept rolling around by ownership of the Box of Gavrok provided by the image of the box. The rest evolved from there. This was another one of those ones for which the layout gave me trouble, and I had all the composite images completely rearranged 3 or 4 times before I felt it was balanced enough. So lots of zooming way out so that it was just a tiny thumbnail, or walking way away from the monitor and squinting, trying to see if the weight was distributing well. Which btw, I recommend to anyone who hasn't it tried it; something about shrinking things down really helps determine if the arrangment is working...
The Prom Collage (Episode 54 page)
03/2003~It was tough work reminding myself that "less is more" while working on this one. There were so many purty b/a images to play with, Angel's dream wedding, dancing at the prom, etc, that the temptation to cram them all in was quite strong. But at its core, this episode was about letting go, and so in the end, I managed to convince myself to stick with the 2 "post-break-up brooding" images the show gave us... then I filled in the center with the lovely shot of that church aisle leading out towards the daylight/future Angel fears in his dream and various other bits and pieces of scenery around the edges. Caps used in this collage are courtesy of buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Graduation Part 1 Collage (Episode 55 page)
03/2003~I don't know why this one gave me so much trouble, but the one you're seeing is actually the 2nd one, after I completely scrapped the first version not once but twice, and I'm still not all that thrilled with how it turned out, though it's a vast improvement. This part 1 of graduation is when the big Faith/Buffy showdown goes down, I thought their confrontation should be the focus of the collage, with Angel's wounding in there to remind us what was at stake...
Caps used in this collage are courtesy of buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Graduation Part 2 Collage (Episode 56 page)
03/2003~After the frustration that was Graduation part 1, it was nice to have this one go smoothly. As soon as I spotted that dramatic Mayor cap, I knew I could find a suitable counter-point Buffy shot, and build around that. Which I did. Actually started trying to learn how to use curves to manipulate the image rather than just levels/selective-colors like I usually do, so played a bit with that. Then used the ink-outlines filter to add a little pizzazz here and there.
Caps used in this collage are courtesy of buffyverse.info & Jessica's Captures. Many thanks!
Storyteller Collage (Episode 138 page)
03/2003~'Course, it was painfully obvious that Andrew and his camera were going to have to take center stage in this collage. So I selected a few caps I liked and started scattering them around. I used a teal/blue sky stock image to add coloring. It was only at the very end that I decided that day-glow green was the way to go for this collage. I added some texture/interest by drawing the black line/triangles on with the straight-edged lasso tool, stamping over the corners with some of my self-made custom brushes and selectively applying the pointalize filter.
Lies My Parents Told Me Collage (Episode 139 page)
04/2003~Typical ep collage stuff, pick the caps, blend 'em together, use a few background bits to tie 'em together, and play with colors. After that, I used the "texturizer" (under the filters menu) to apply some burlap texture.
Dirty Girls Collage (Episode 140 page)
04/2003~Had a little trouble deciding where I was going with this one, since I wanted to include both Faith and Xander as key players, but their parts really had nothing to do with each other... so I compromised by just having dramatic shots of each, throwing in the girl-in-the-road as a reminder of how it all started, and of course Caleb and his knife and Buffy and her despair. I used the sketch halftone pattern filter to add some texture, and also a bit of the "find contour" filter. At the last minute, I decided to super-impose that same piece of scanned paper I used way back middle of season 6 on the 2nd version of the "smashed" collage-- this time to better effect I believe -- since I was reminded of its existence by a request for it...
Empty Places Collage (Episode 141 page)
05/2003~I would have liked to have fit Faith in here, but it just didn't want to work. The collage had a mind of its own, wanted to be about Buffy's aloneness and isolation, and every Faith image I tried to include just diluted that, so I decided to leave her out all together. Technique wise, nothing new, just blended the images together using masks, tied things together with background/scenery caps and played with the coloring/glow until I liked the end result.
Welcome to the Hellmouth Collage (Episode 1 page)
05/2003~Willow was my problem child this time around; none of the caps of her I have wanted to play nice with the others I definitely needed to include. So I'm leaving her out. Sigh. However, I did have fun working in those icongraphic caps from the very roots of Buffydom, the "vampyre" book, the Master lounging, the silver Cross-in-a-box, the library.
Out of Mind, Out of Sight (Invisible Girl) (Episode 11 page)
05/2003~This is actually the 2nd completely different version of this collage. The first one was okay, but I just wasn't satisfied with it. I'm happier with this one, though not perfectly content.
Anyway, thought I'd take this opportunity to feature Cordelia looking pretty, and Buffy looking sadly in her direction, since this episode played up Buffy-as-outcast angle. I thought using the yearbook picture of Marcy was appropriate given her invisibleness through out the episode. Most caps are from the now defunct buffyverse.de, and the rest are from buffy.rainingdreams.org.
The Harvest Collage (Episode 2 page)
05/2003~Is there an image that screams "the Harvest" more blatantly than Buffy-in-Blue, letting you know in no uncertain terms with a steely determined stare that she's one badass super-chick? I don't think so. So that's where I started, setting her opposite her adverseries, Luke and the Master. I also wanted to include something showing the beginnings of the Scooby gang, coming together and doing research, so we get the little library group cap. And of I really liked the shot of Buffy sneaking out the window after her mom grounded her, which seems to sum up a lot of the mother-daughter drama to come, so I snuck it in the corner.
The Witch Collage (Episode 3 page)
05/2003~This went together pretty quickly and straight-forwardly. I really liked the shot of Amy in the lab with Xander & Willow lurking in the background, so I built around that. The gold of the statue and the color of the uniforms suggested some yellow accents, and the green was a nice complement...
Teacher's Pet Collage (Episode 4 page)
05/2003~I thought the shot of Buffy looking at the broken glasses from the professor she hadn't been able to save, one of the first in a long line of people she won't be able to rescue in the nick of time, was poignant and important enough to include, even if this really was a Xander-heavy episode.
Never Kill a Boy on the First Date Collage (Episode 5 page)
05/2003~ this one gave me problems... I just wasn't really seized by any of the caps, so it just ended up sorta mediocre. Ah well, I guss they can't all be inspired...
The Pack Collage (Episode 6 page)
05/2003~Working the "Evil Xander Smirk" shot from just after he's hyena-ized was more difficult than I thought it would be, but it just had to be done, it's really *the* shot that summarizes that episode for me...
I Robot, You Jane Collage (Episode 8 page)
05/2003~A little simpler than I normally go for, but it seemed to cover the essentials: Willow, Demon Robot, computers. Next!
The Puppet Show Collage (Episode 9 page)
05/2003~This episode was such a balance of funny and creepy that it was hard to know which way to go in the collage... so I tried for a bit of compromise, with the coloring reminiscent of the bright lights and sparklyness of the stage...
Touched Collage (Episode 142 page)
05/2003~Not sure I'm happy with how scattered this turned out, but then again, the episode was all over the place, so I guess it's not unfitting. Couldn't really think of a way to visually depict Faith's gradual assumption of a leadership style undistinguishable from Buffy's, so instead I thought I'd go for illustrating the various attempts to connect, each time trying to chose a moment where we see the connection being forged. And personally, I thought the mayor's interaction with Faith was just as important if not more so then her physical interaction with Wood, so I had to squeeze him in there in the corner. I used various scenerey shots from the episode (girls with flashlights, the bomb-containing-box, the mystical ax) to tie things together.
Nightmares Collage (Episode 10 page)
05/2003~Would have been fun to include all the nightmares. The Evil Clown, in particular, beckonned. But it was just coming out too scattered and mishmashish when I tried it, so I decided to simplify and go with the Billy/Buffy connection.
Prophecy Girl Collage (Episode 12 page)
05/2003~This one actually went together pretty easily. I started with the shot of Buffy overhearing Giles and Angel, learning of her prophesized death. I really liked the prophile shot of the master, and it seemed to fit very well right next to the Buffy image, so I placed that one next and then filled in the rest from there.
End of Days Collage (Episode 143 page)
06/2003~P>Another kinda scattered episode that made it hard for me to decide what needed to go in an episode collage. So I ended up deciding that the plot-y action-packed ending was going to be the focus. After blending the images together, I used some brushes from insomniac brushes and also some of my own for a little texture here and there.
Chosen Collage (Episode 144 page)
06/2003~Given the tone of the episode, I wanted a collage that was all smiles, so of course I started with that final image of Buffy from the end, pairing it with Willow's blissed out smile and accenting it with the other big feat of triumphant magic, Spike's divine lawn sprinkler act. I filled in Faith and the other slayers around the edges and added the Empty Road of Limitless Promise in the corner. I added a lot of yellow to try to give it an exhuberant feeling, and used the sketch -> half tone pattern filter to add pattern here and there.
City Of Collage (Episode 1 page)
07/2003~I know, I still have tons of BtVS episode collages for s2 and s4 to do, and I'm aware of the demand for s4 AtS ones, but I can't resist shaking things up a bit with some s1 Angel pieces. Helps keep me motivated... Caps for this one come from Buffyverse.info and buffycaps.be, with some very light use of a few custom brushes from insomniac brushes. I also used some stock pics of city sky lines here and there for atmosphere.
Lonely Hearts Collage (Episode 2 page)
07/2003~Still in that Angel season 1 mood, so went with the flow and did the next episode, Lonely Hearts. For now, I'm trying to make these a recognizably linked series, so I went for a similar feel in the arrangement, fonts, and textures. Blue seemed an appropriate color to go with, echoing the universal loneliness that allowed the Monster of the Week to pick up new hosts at will; but the possessed girl in her red dress however wanted some attention, so I let her stay bright. Caps for this one come from Buffyverse.info and buffycaps.be, with some very light use of a few custom brushes from insomniac brushes. I used some stock pics of bottles, half-empty drink glasses, smoke, and night club decorations to fill in a little texture here and there.
In the Dark (Episode 3 page)
07/2003~Okay, one more s1er before I go play with something else. Didn't take me long to decide on the images I wanted to use and the coloring, but the arrangement was an entirely different matter. There were 2 completely different layouts (and quite a few variations on each) before finally I decided this was the best I could do. I'm still a little unhappy with the floating head prominance, but I could find any midrange shots with such perfectly appropriate expressions, so that's how it goes.... Caps for this one come from Buffyverse.info and buffycaps.be, with some very light use of a few custom brushes from insomniac brushes. I used some stock pics of warehouse lighting fixtures and structural ceiling beams to fill in a little texture here and there.
I Fall to Pieces Collage (Episode 4 page)
07/2003~ After all the trouble the looming heads of the last one gave me, this time I decided to make sure that wouldn't be an issue by not using any head-shot closeups at all. For texture, I used multiple copies of one particular screen shot from near the end of the episode (where the disembodied hand is unlocking the grate to get into Angel's apartment) because I really liked the hexagon tiles and the horizontal-slat gratings. I also found some EKG printout pictures (the MotW being a dr, this seemed appropriate) at gettyone.com and a world map at frenchtextures.com to add bits of half-seen interest in between images. And that same scan of a brown paper bag that I used in primative in conjunction with a few custom brushes from insomniac brushes to add even more texture. The original caps are from buffyverse.de and buffycaps.be
Rm w/a Vu Collage (Episode 5 page)
07/2003~huh... my notes for this one seem to have dissappeared off the face of the earth. Or at least off the face of the server. Weird. So um, let's see, what did I write? Something about the saga of how much trouble I had working around the central image of Cordelia I wanted to use. And how I used a stock image of a painted wall for texture. And how the original caps are from buffyverse.de and buffycaps.be. 's all I can remember!
Sense and Sensitivity Collage (Episode 6 page)
07/2003~What I love about this episode is how very well it mixes the genuinely funny with the genuinely serious... for a while I was trying to cram both rather loudly in there, but it wasn't really working, so I went over to the pathos, with just a goofy expressio on the sensitivity trainer's face to remind us that oh yeah, there were some hilarious hijinks going on... For texture, I used a few images from the triberadio stock image collection and a custom brush from insomniac brushes. Original caps from The original caps are from buffyverse.de and buffycaps.be.
The Bachelor Party Collage (Episode 7 page)
07/2003~Not much to say about this one... I just found a picture I liked of Doyle and of Harry and of Doyle and the fiancé at the bar during the bachelor party, and tossed them together. The orangey hue of Harry's sweater suggested the color scheme. The stripes are from blinds in the background during the scene where she shows up at AI.
For texture, I used a photo of old paper from the triberadio stock image collection and a custom brushe from insomniac brushes. Original caps from The original caps are from buffyfanfic.de and buffycaps.be.
I Will Remember You Collage (Episode 8 page)
07/2003~I decided there were enough collages out there of teary Buffy promising never to forget, so I decided to focus more on the rare glimpse of Happy Angel we got instead... And the Oracles, well I liked the Oracles, so here they are, looking cool and dramatic. For texture, I used a photo of old paper from the triberadio stock image collection and some screenshots of the various clocks shown in the episode and of the Oracle's shiny entry hall, and custom brushes from insomniac brushes. Caps are from buffyfanfic.de.
Hero Collage (Episode 9 page)
07/2003~Yet another in the "AtS Season 1" series... it seems like I've made a zillion, but I'm not even half done with the season yet... sigh. I have this thing about matching sets, so expect more as I continue working on the season! Anyway, not much to say about this one, except that blue was suggested by all the cool night-street scenes in the episode.
For texture, I used a stock photo of some smoke and custom brushes from insomniac brushes. Caps are mostly from buffyfanfic.de, with one or two from buffycaps.be.
Parting Gifts Collage (Episode 10 page)
07/2003~I didn't want to quite give away the two twists in the story, so I tried to just hint at them without outright showing them... the color was suggested by Cordelia's green shirt... For texture, I used custom brushes from insomniac brushes. Caps are from buffyfanfic.de and buffycaps.be.
Somnambulist Collage (Episode 11 page)
07/2003~With all the images of old newspaper clippings in this episode, I thought I'd go for a newsprint sort of look. I had some trouble finding caps that spoke to me of the main players in our little drama, but after some initial frustration, I think in the end it turned out satisfactory, if not thrilling... For texture, I used custom brushes from insomniac brushes. Caps are from buffycaps.be.
Expecting Collage (Episode 12 page)
07/2003~Having done a lot of "Victim Cordy" so far this season, I thought this was a good opportunity to use a shot of "Possessed Cordy" with all its steely determination for this one. And for some reason I found all those girls in white nightgowns incredibly creepy, so decided to throw that in too, plus a nice full-body shot of Cordy drinking blood from Angel's fridge, lest you forget which episode this is, and a subtle sillhouette of Cordy kissing the demon surrogate up in the top corner. Purple seemed to enhance the creep-factor, so I went with that...For texture, I used custom brushes from insomniac brushes. Caps are from buffycaps.be.
She Collage (Episode 13 page)
08/2003~This ep's certainly not much to write home about, so tried to emphasize the visuals instead and aimed for a cool superhero vs antihero look, with the purple skin tones contrasting with the yellow/orange highlights. And flame of course because of Jheira & Co's little habit of burning people up. For texture, I used custom brushes from insomniac brushes. Flames are from gettyone.com. Caps are from buffycaps.be and from sounds-of-silence.
I've Got You Under My Skin Collage (Episode 14 page)
09/2003~I really liked the shot of Wesley with the book and the cross, so that was my focal/inspiration shot. Couldn't leave Angel out, though, as he was more the focus of the episode, so found a suitable exorcism-shot for him too. Filled in some texture around the edges with stained glass from gettyone.com. For texture, I used custom brushes from insomniac brushes. Flames are from gettyone.com. Caps are from buffycaps.be and from sounds-of-silence.
The Prodigal Collage (Episode 15 page)
09/2003~Since Kate's relationship with her father served to dredge up all those memories of Angel's father, I wanted to cover both in the collage. The shot of Angel's father is from Liam's funeral. I've also got a bit of the funeral itself over on the left, and of course Darla vamping Angel over in the bottom right corner. Kate finding her drained father and Angel arguing with his before heading off to become Darla's victim rounds out the picture. Caps are from Lessa at seaimpins.com. For texture, I used custom brushes from insomniac brushes.
The Ring Collage (Episode 16 page)
09/2003~So here's the Ring, color scheme inspired by the bright lights and coloring used in the actual episode, though exagerrated, of course! Caps are from Lessa at seaimpins.com.
Eternity Collage (Episode 17 page)
09/2003~This actually went together surprisingly quickly. I really liked the cap of Rebecca draped over the couch and it fit really well down in that corner, which dictated that Angel be in the other corner, and I found a handy image of "Angelus" in vamp face to put there, and filled the rest in around. The gold color just sorta happened, it just seemed like the thing to do... Caps are from Lessa at seaimpins.com. For texture, I used custom brushes from insomniac brushes and some stock images of rock from my Big Box of Art collection of stock images.
Five by Five Collage (Episode 18 page)
09/2003~ lost a lot of my stock pics when the harddrive crashed (some may be backed up on CD, haven't checked yet) but not this folder of photos of graffiti I'd originally collected (from gettyone) for a Connor piece that never happened, and it just seemed an appropriate complement for the dark images of Faith we have in Five by Five, so I went with it. I also borrowed a piece of an earlier draft to make a book-mark of, which you can see on the bookmark page (lyrics from the song that plays while Faith dances, Living Dead Girl by Rod Zombie) Custom brushes from insomniac brushes. Caps are from buffyfanfic.de.
Sanctuary Collage (Episode 19 page)
10/2003~Nothing too special to report here. Just thought the Triangle was what I wanted to focus on, so naturally we have Faith, we have Buffy looking all stony and Angel, caught in the act of comforting Faith, conflicted. I used some stock images of clouds for the texture as well as the usual custom brush from insomniac brushes. Caps are from buffyfanfic.de.
War Zone Collage (Episode 20 page)
12/2003~Having just finished up a Lawyer!Gunn desktop, and feeling the need for some relatively low creativity PS playing, I decided to get back into the saddle and work on at least one of the 3 remaining Angel season 1 collages. One of which happened to be War Zone, our introduction to Gunn. I decided to focus on Gunn/Alonna, with Angel just a shadowy presence in the background... Caps are from seaimpins.com plus the usual brushes from insomniac brushes.
Blind Date Collage (Episode 21 page)
12/2003~I finally got myself a DVD drive, and after installing it last night, had to celebrate by making caps, naturally. I was already up through 1.20 with the Angel episode collages, so I thought I'd make the choosing what to do first a litte less overwhelming by just going with "next project in line", which worked out quite nicely given that 1.21 was our first big Lindsey episode. I departed a little bit from the standard format I've been doing for the season 1 collages, but not by too much. I just left out the grunge brush texture I've been using and added a little braille for texture instead; seemed apropos what with the blind assasin and the blind children...
To Shanshu in L.A. Collage (Episode 22 page)
01/2004~My shiny new DVD-rom drive started calling to me again, so I capped the next Angel episode I didn't have a collage for yet, To Shanshu in L.A.. Nothing too extraordinary to report here, just a generic collage showing the Monster-of-the-Week, what he did to Wes & Cordy, Angel brooding about it, and a snatch of the final scene with the Box. The text peeking in here and there is naturally the shanshu prophecy.
Judgement (Episode 23 page)
07/2004~Been busy, busy, busy, but doing another episode collage seemed a low-key way to at least pretend I'm still going full steam with Photoshop... caps are my own, and I used the "improver" plugin filter from xero. Normally, I wouldn't have Angel looking like he's charging a helpless girl, but in this case I thought it worked well with the episode -- with its exploration of what happens when you charge in and mistake who your friends and enemies are -- and I liked it visually, so in it goes.
First Impressions Collage (Episode 25 page)
09/2004~one that actually fell right together for a change. The two main caps are from the final scene between Gunn and Cordelia. Caps are mine.
The Freshman Collage (Episode 57 page)
01/2005~New year, new episode collages! nothing fancy here, just a basic illustrating of the story of the episode, ie, Buffy feeling alone and not up to the task of college, life and slaying of the resident queen vamp Sunday.
Fear Itself Collage (Episode 60 page)
02/2005~Mission statement for this one was pretty easy: go for the scary/creepy. caps are from buffyscreenshots.com (downloaded a while back, obviously!)
The Harsh Light of Day Collage (Episode 59 page)
01/2005~pretty pedestrian all in all, but I did rather like the idea of Spike smirking down as Buffy succumbs to Parker's guile. I would have liked to have worked the Anya/Xander subplot in, but it was just too much to convey simply...
Living Conditions Collage (Episode 58 page)
01/2005~A really simple arrangement, but I liked the sort of book jacket hint-and-fakeout style.
Beer Bad Collage (Episode 61 page)
03/2005~I don't know if I'm really all the way happy with this one... but the amber glow works for me, and I love that shot of Buffy, delighted at the sacred pouring of the beer, so, well, close enough!
Fool for Love Collage (Episode 85 page)
03/2005~A second try at an ep collage for this episode, replacing one from 2000. Tough work trying to fit each of the 5 women who shaped Spike's life and unlife, but it went much smoother once I realized it was really more important to include them than to include a lot of Spike himself.
Wild at Heart Collage (Episode 62 page)
06/2005~Just a simple little collage featuring the key players in this week's drama. Caps are my own.
The Initiative Collage (Episode 63 page)
06/2005~Another easy episode collage. I immediately knew that given that this was the episode with the big reveal (though it's hard to remember that for the first 6 episodes of the season we didn't know about Riley & Walsh's involvement with the commando sightings! or what the Initiative was.) I had to feature Riley, Walsh and the initiative compound. Plus throw Spike in there for his key role in getting us a lab rat's eye view of the place.
Pangs Collage (Episode 64 page)
06/2005~Well, as usual when I'm trying to cram in a zillion characters because I think the episode demands it, I'm not perfectly happy with the busyness of this, but I think it's as good as it's gonna get. Till I grow as a person, anyway ;-) Ideally I would have liked to work Angel in somewhere on the periphery, but that *really* wasn't working. oh, and I should add that the picture of Buffy actually started life as two separate frames. I knew I wanted a picture of her holding the blue bowl as a focal point, because it just seemed to sum up her mindset for the episode so well, but the expression on her face when Spike is giving his "came, conquered, felt really bad about it" speech was just so much more perfectly expressive than the only good shot I could get with the bowl in frame that I had to attempt to manip it in. I don't do a whole lot of manip, so I'm pleased this came out as well as it did...
Something Blue Collage (Episode 65 page)
07/2005~A little rougher than I usually go with color, but after letting it sit on my desktop for a while, it grew on me, so I decided, what the heck, let's call it done. Incorporating all 3 spells was a bit tricky; I'm not really happy with the "Demon magnet" one, bit I couldn't find a more explicit image. Spike and Buffy were the opposite problem, in that that there are *so* many good ones, it was hard to pick. I finally decided to just go with the first one, since it worked well with the Giles' image. I had originally hoped for an amusingly overreacting Willow shot because the episode really is very funny, but there really wasn't one, so I decided to go more for the heart the episode, ie Willow's not-so-amusing heartfelt sadness over Oz's departure.
Hush Collage (Episode 66 page)
08/2005~Yer standard ep collage. Since the big Buffy/Riley reveal was really the heart of the episode, I brought that to the fore and let the Gentlemen lurk and be the setting. There was a full body image of Buffy I liked better, but alas it was just a little blurred with movement and didn't fit in with the crispness of the rest, so I had to let it go.
come wander through the BuffyVerse...
All collages and other image altering on this site is lovingly done by yours truly, mostly from my own screen caps. I started messing around with Photoshop (v3.0? v4.0? don't remember, it was school property; I'm on v5.0 now) 6 years ago and haven't really been able to give it up since... *way* more addictive than video games! If you're interested to know how I did any one particular image, you can visit my art site 
