TIE Fighter made from Starbucks detritus
Wired contributing photographer Dan Winters made this TIE Fighter from Starbucks junk -- cups, stirrers, sleeves and such -- and now Wired's challenging you to make anything you can from the chain's stuff.
Wired contributing photographer Dan Winters made this TIE Fighter from Starbucks junk -- cups, stirrers, sleeves and such -- and now Wired's challenging you to make anything you can from the chain's stuff.
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Consider it ON.
The linked article gives a breakdown of the wares he used in making the TIE fighter (although the picture looks suspiciously computer-generated to my eyes); It lists 10 "96 oz coffee boxes", or 'travelers', as employees call them. This seems like a pretty huge waste, as determining the scale using the tall lid (the front window) shows that a lot of that cardboard wasn't used (especially because the panels are clearly hot-cup sleeves). Therefore, using all those travelers must have been for some small piece from the box itself like the plastic spout.
So. The next time someone starts complaining about Starbucks creating so much unnecessary waste, feel free to point them to this thing as a prime specimen of customer contribution...
Fun fact! 90% of any given Starbucks' trash-volume is made up of paper to-go cups. This means someone ordered a drink to go, and ended up finishing it in the store. Problem is, here in the United States there is no training to ask if a customer is having their drink for-here or to-go, so if you're a eco-conscious coffee consumer, make sure to ask for a ceramic mug.
-A Starbucks Barista
Please check that the contest is still open, the original article is dated 10.20.08...
Shot on 4 x 5! Gorgeous.
Looks like a drawing to me. It certainly isn't a photograph.
Yeah, the original image says "illustration: Jason Lee." How odd. I wonder why they didn't just post a photo...
I imagine people would have been able to come up with some pretty amazing stuff, were the contest still open from last October.
Why yes, good sir, I would be pleased, nay honoured to provide a free service to the new old crowdsourcing/viral advertising campaign of such a noble institution!
What can I make? I can make myself unhappy drinking their insipid coffee, being served by their awful staff, and knowing with a a little more effort I could enjoy some really good coffee nearby!
#6, I do believe you're on to something!
it's always nice to see the imperial forces are recycling; they're only 99.98% evil, i guess.
For a drawing, that's some incredibly well-done shadows, lighting, surfaces: so photorealistic, in fact. And that pencil and ruler for scale! Sorry folks, it's a photograph. Maybe the word "Kodak" in the frame will convince you?
Photographs can be illustrations, BTW: the more specific photograph is a subset of the less specific illustration. That's just an inaccurate caption on the Wired site....
Impressive...
/Vader
Well done if it's true.
I agree with #6 as well.
@9 Tdawwg No thats photoshop. That kodak is clearly photoshoppped on there. You can see the jaggies.
Huh, I don't see the jaggies, but maybe it's my monitor? Do you think it's a photoshopped drawing, then, or an actual photo with the "Kodak" frame added?
I honestly don't see it, though. Looks real to me! :D
I remember a day when you could just win things. Now i have to spend 20 hrs in a coffee shop buy $100 in burnt coffee while making a deathstar out of twizzle sticks and sugar packets for the honor of being famous on a blog for 5 seconds.
Seeing the cup lid on the front of the tie fighter
reminds me of the spaceship made from the cement
mixer in the series Salvage One.
I think it looks a little too perfect. The workbench
is perfectly clean and smooth, with no dents or marks, and the line where the bench joins the board
behind it is perfectly straight. The shadows are
well defined with just the right mix of ambient
and point lighting.
I think it's more likely photorealistic rendering,
neither a photograph nor a traditional drawing.
It's valid for what it is, though.
People, it's real photograph. Dan Winters made the TIE fighter and shot it on 4x5 film. That's what he does; he's a photographer and shoots primarily with film. The attribution of Jason Lee is incorrect and that's on Wired. That error is what is misleading people...
Cool idea, but the contest is probably over any-hoo.
It's a real photograph. Dan Winters is a photographer and shoots in this style. I bet Wired got the names mixed up as Jason Lee is probably the one who did the illustration on the right there of Materials List...
Solved!
http://internetfamo.us/class/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/tiefighter.png
I think it looks a little too perfect. The workbench is perfectly clean and smooth, with no dents or marks, and the line where the bench joins the board behind it is perfectly straight. The shadows are well defined with just the right mix of ambient and point lighting.
Yes, almost as if the shot was carefully composed by a skilled photographer.
It looks like this is the work-in-progress version... http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2008/10/24/starbucks-star-wars-craft-challenge/
Yeah, I don't believe it's real either. Even after the "people it's a photograph" posts. There seems to be something wrong with the perspective and the unnatural smoothness of all the surfaces.
I suppose you could take pictures intentionally trying to make them look unreal.....
Anonymous 2, what makes you think the coffee from the "travelers" wasn't drunk? Someone gets coffee for the whole team for their weekly staff meeting, and saves the travelers for 10 weeks to make this. That being the case, who cares if the artist used a tiny fraction of each traveler?
As for the debate about whether it's a photograph...wow, the digital age sure has progressed further than I thought, if a film photo looks like a drawing to so many people. I have photographs in old albums with stranger-looking lighting than this by far. While it's not impossible for this to be a computer rendering (because I put nothing past that technology at this point) it sure looks like a photograph to me.
#23: There's a specific kind of lens in use that's throwing off your sense of depth. That, and the very nice lighting rig set up.
There's nothing fancy going on here, except a skilled photographer with professional equipment, getting results that joe schmoe can't get with a $200 digital camera.
Speaking as someone who dinks around in CG art, it would be actually annoyingly hard to duplicate the lighting, and the distortion caused by the type of lens chosen.
I think some people are reading the textures in the photo -- the wood grain in the background, the vertical corrugations from the hot-cup sleeves in the side panels of the TIE fighter -- as pencil marks.
I don't think I ever realized how stupid the tie- fighter design is. . . the pilot's line of sight is insanely limited by those "wings." Why even have that domed window in front, might as well be flat.
Ill Lich, if you're going there, why does it have wings? No air in space. Except in the Lucas Stupidverse, there IS air in space so the TIE fighters can make that threatening whine as they pass. The wings make no sense anyway, because they have no aerodynamics of any kind.
You never see a TIE fighter pilot. I contend that this is because there are none; TIE fighters are entirely automated, the "wings" are covered with sensors, and so blowing them up is just so much destroyed equipment.
Hope that doesn't happen to this one, though!
@ 27/28
I always thought that they were meant to be solar panels.
Also, the sound is being transmitted through the interstellar hydrogen. Twin Ion Engines are that loud.
Part of the Imperial Navy entrance exam is to ascertain that applicants are 90% deaf.
of course the sound is generated in cockpit to enhance the pilot's experience. It can be a caring Empire at times.