What the hell is this will some of you ask? I’ll answer this is what happens when you mix 80s, Kraftwerk and Touhou together.

Obviously, it takes its inspiration from the music video for one of Kraftwerk’s hit singles, Musique Non Stop, released in 1986. The video was directed by Rebecca Allen (work originally started in 1983 but due to how slowly work on the album was progressing at the time, the video was only ready for 1986!). However, this is not a mere copycat or a screenshot of one of the video frames. What I did is recreating some of elements that struck me the most when watching the video, by memory. And I came up with this…

To my knowledge, no normally constituted MMDer would use wireframes in his works… yet I’m doing it, to great effect I think. Types I used are NimbusSanP, NimbusSanT (both URW’s take on Neue Haas Grotesk, respectively “poster”/”display” and “text” variants) and a Japanese font called NKD02 14-segment Hematitic. My only gripe is that it looks pretty busy, possibly making your icons a bit drown out if you plan to actually use it as a wallpaper. Also, I did the composition with widescreen-only in mind, so I had to improvise a bit for older squared aspect ratios.

Anyway, here’s the beast (click on thumbnails for original size):

– 2K format (2560×1600)

– FHD format (1920×1200)

– SXGA and WXGA+ formats (1440×1024)

– HD format (1366×800)

– SVGA format (1024×600)

– VGA format (720×512)

Note: there’s an odd one out in this picture, will you be able to find it?

I told you I’d use an argyle pattern for this one (and self-made, in totally vector form). Again, an idea I had for a little while. Now here it is materialized.

The particularity of this wallpaper is how it gets away only very basic elements. All models (by nya) were rendered using MMD stock settings with no effects whatsoever. The processing you see is made with Photoshop. Some inexperienced viewer might think I used an MME effect where in fact it’s not the case. I also reintroduced my usual play with typography (Univers Condensed and Ultra Condensed are used here). I think it’s a tiny little more inspired than the previous one with Reimu. Anyway, you’ll be the only judge. Even if people end up not interested in them, my wallpapers remain a hobby, and I like making them. So I’ll keep on anyway.

Now here’s the beast (click on thumbnails for original size):

– 2K format (2560×1600)

The 2K one is actually 2650×1600 in size instead of 2560×1600! I only typed a wrong number when beginning the project. It’s my mistake. Anyway, it shouldn’t make any difference when cropping.

– FHD format (1920×1200)

– SXGA and WXGA+ formats (1440×1024)

– HD format (1366×800)

– SVGA and VGA format (1024×640)

Not offering a VGA variant this time because the contents of the SVGA one fit the entire VGA resolution when cropped, without suffering too much… in case any retrogamer and old 14′ CRT PC monitor user might stumble across this page. 😛

Someone on Reddit suggested the idea of a mobile resolution, too. Definitely something to think about for later attempts (which would require producing in portrait, too).

Ten years after… ten years my friend! This should probably show that I’m older than you think. This is basically what happens when you download MMD, fiddle with a couple of things inside it and let inspiration flow again. I was a little greedy for this one. I had that idea of a sad Reimu for so long. In fact, I barely know how to manipulate bones in MMD at this point, so don’t panic if the pose doesn’t look very natural. I also tried to minimize the damage by carefully choosing an appropriate viewing angle. For my next attempts I’ll not be as greedy.

The typeface I used is Plantin (from a *ahem* pirated Linotype typo CD) and the final result is not so bad… I mean for a come back. I know I saw more inspired days but I’ll do my best to bring them back. All in all, that trip within the working of MMD was pretty fun and it made me able to produce something again… after 10 years of what one could call “hibernation”. Now here’s the beast (click on thumbnails for original size):

– 2K format (2560×1600)

– FHD format (1920×1200)

– For older small widescreen and standard monitors (1440×1024)

– HD format (1366×854)

– SVGA format (1024×640)

– VGA format (864×540)

Ah, one major mistake on this one!! I forgot the credits!! I’m posting them here:
Touhou Project © Team Shanghai Alice
Model by ISAO, Stage by nya, Effects by 針金P (HgPointLight), そぼろ (SvSSAO and Diffusion7)
Wallpaper made by Dioxaz © 2016

I’ll probably fix that later. I’m too lazy for now.