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[Week 1, Step 4. The final sketch: value painting. Lighting & environment.]

Week 1, Step 4. The final sketch: value painting. Lighting & environment.

After deciding on monster's pose, I imagined it in a jungle or a cave... I started to paint jungle environment in the background, but the silhouette of a monster was appearing more and more diminished (and less and less towering). Seemingly the trees weren't his thing. Oh yeah, and I forgot to save it before experiencing BSOD... Anyway, after deciding to abandon the jungle, I went classical, easier route and painted my monster in the habitat of a cosy cavern. I've imagined it walking into his home in a cave... Then suddenly it sees a human, shrieks a surprised greeting and starts running. Shaking hands couldn't be more painful to this monster's guest

This time, my main focus was lighting and environment. At this stage I'm concentrated on setting the painting's atmosphere. The shadow is exaggerated to make monster look bigger (TOWERING!) and the painting more expressive. I've also tried to do the 'Frazetta triangle' thing, but it didn't work. Perhaps it was too late in the process. I should have thought about triangles, circles and frazettas earlier, when I was doing thumbnails :/ Maybe I'll try that Frazetta approach later if I have time (and courage).

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/DUkQiKv.jpg[/imgzoom]

>Hmm, I'm still wondering if these hands with flesh-eating carniparas aren't too long. The shorter hands weren't that expressive though.

>> The lighting seems wrong on the attacking carniparas part. There are some bright spots that should be darkened, that monster has just run into a dark cave after all. I'll fix that later, probably at the proper painting stage.

>>> In general, the hands should be upgraded and better looking.

>>>> Lot's of environment details should be added. I still don't know what kind of cave is it and how should it differ (IF it shoud) from any other random cave.  Maybe the carniparas plants in their vegetative phase should grow in there.

>>>>> The monster's opponent/victim. I'll have to decide if I want him in the painting... He (or she?) would surely be a good excuse for the monster's pose. Otherwise the creature would just run, well, *somewhere*... towards the viewer... or towards the edge of screen... like in a FPP game or like in Joe Dever's or Choose Your Own Adventure book.

Yeah... and that concludes Week 1 for me.

*Read my main thread*

[Week 1, Step 3. Thumbnail sketches. Picking the right pose.]

I had some computer related problems lately, so I wasn't particularly regular. All right, let's hope this time BSOD will wait until I finish writing this... (BTW, if anyone has a good advice on how to diagnose and get rid of BSOD, please PM me! )
---------------
Week 1, Step 3. Thumbnail sketches. Picking the right pose.

With the key words in mind (see my main thread), I did few thumbnail sketches of the monster.

I was trying to envision his towering presence. I've added a silhouette of human to make monster look bigger. Still everything was open at the thumbnail stage, so I could experiment with few poses, searching for the most dynamic one. I've also experimented with what was to become the most tricky and difficult thing to draw: THAT DAMN CARNIPARASES... Which are, as you may (or may not) know , the parasitic and carnivorous plants that my monster has on its arms. The flexible nature of carniparas has caused me some composition problems.

Let's have a look at these thumbnails.



Number 1.
The biggest problem with this composition is the attacking carniparas. Its part on the left takes too much space in comparison with the lower right part of the picture. This, along with the very static pose of the monster, makes it my least favourite of the four. I've painted it over to give it more expression - back-lighting the monster and trying to experiment a little with the environment. The monster's shadow could be helpful later in determining the atmosphere. The towering monster CASTING EVEN MORE TOWERING SHADOW... Sounds cool, eh? Well, it certainly sounds much better than it looks at this point

Number 2.
I've tried to capture the monster in three-quarter pose. It looks very static and not at all interested in killing the petty human. It doesn't even look towards the victim... It's like it was featuring in a 'spring fashion' catalogue, not in the monster workshop. It looks like a cowboy with his lasso overhead. The contrasting, defensive pose of human make it even less convincing.

Number 3.
Here, we're getting somewhere, at last. The carniparases seems to be more balanced. Also, both monster's and human's poses are dynamic. The attacking carniparas seems like its out of control - which is good.  This would make a decent illustration. A proper monster look, full of rage. Reminds me of my own feelings when I was having those BSODs lately.

No. 4.
I've tried to make it even more dynamic, so I made the monster run towards the human. Although I don't dig the twisted carniparas, and I'm still not sure whether the human should be on monster's right side or left, I like the pose. So let's build further on this one.

With and without opponent.





Read my main thread

Monsters like these.

Suddenly it occurred to me how geometrical Frazetta's compositions are. The shapes form triangles, circles, rhombuses even. That's one of the things that make his paintings dynamic and so powerful. This is something we could all learn from. I watched his works hundreds of time in the past, but it broke through my skull only today (with the power of CtB's/Deathdealer's axe though), when I was looking at them all at once.

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/5v95Qek.jpg[/imgzoom]

Triangles, trianges, triangles everywhere!
Great idea to post that link Andail.

[coexist]

Ok, so from now on we'll publish the entire update in the bump-post as well.
This will make it easier to follow the chronology of the whole thread, and it will also let us comment on updates easier.

The original post should still display all updates, preferably with dates added.

I like this idea. With the original posts getting bigger and bigger it will be increasingly more and more frustrating to find updates in them. So updates in the bump post should fix this... and they will instantly show who's got something new to show. Also, I don't mind having everything in one thread. Sure, it's messy, but the monsters should learn to coexist with each other in this environment  

[selmiak]

@selmiak, wonderful idea with the shade (and all within the outline!). You guys are so creative

@waheela - this is lovely! Makes me feel a bit sorry for the hermit though (his housemates being carnivores) 

I'm glad the theme works for you folks.

@Adrian, Cerno and jwalt are right!
I had checked your shape in PS previously but rotated it only 90 degrees all the way (I did it instinctively, assuming you did the same, because rotating 90 degrees in most graphics programs doesn't cause interpolation/quality loss). So it's no wonder why your rhino didn't seem to fit the starting shape! Now I rotated freely with rotating tool and, obviously, suddenly it clicked! I filled basic shape with black and covered it with rhino - and it's almost a perfect fit to me. I won't fight over these few pixels misplaced by interpolation. 

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/Qz3rj0G.png[/imgzoom]

Sorry for overlooking this!
So Adrian, you're officially back in the competition. I hope you don't mind Props to jwalt and Cerno for their eagle eyes and paying attention:)
LOL, this made me feel like I was noob again... Quite refreshing;)

Kasander, what do the rules say about rotating the image in that regard anyway?
By the way, I rotated it in Photoshop and it seems Adrian hit the outline very precisely.
Just realized I am kind of obsessing about this challenge. Creepy.

Cerno, if it wasn't for your 'obsessing', I would certainly overlook this. So thanks to you (and to jwalt of course!) for noticing that

IMO, Adrian's rhino doesn't bend the rules at all. After all, the rules doesn't say that one can't rotate the shape freely. Perhaps they should say so in the future, I don't know. That would fix the interpolation issues but at the same time it would took away some of artistic freedom (quite a lot of degrees of freedom actually;)) from the competition. Well, I guess it's up for for the future CB holders to decide.

----

There's still quite a lot of time left, so I look forward to seeing some new examples of coexistence!

Hey Adrian, thanks for your effort! I love the oxpecker Aaand it's always good to learn a new word, like this mutualism;)

Such a shame about Gimp misbehaving... I'm working mainly with Photoshop, so I can't help much with other programs. Maybe you should give Paint.net a try someday? It's freeware and I hear some folks from here use it and seem to like it (don't know anything about its cons though).

Brilliant

Step 2 - sketches (with co-existential ad break!)

Update: step 1

[Monster workshop, week 1, step 1. Brainstorming.]

A good occasion to shake off the cobwebs from my fingers...and from inside my mind, too Count me in.

----------------------------------------UPDATE---------------------------------------------

Monster workshop, week 1, step 1. Brainstorming.

This tutorial thread seems to be good occasion to give something to AGS community for all the help and kindness I've received in the past.

Obviously, the process of creation starts in the head... so, for whoever is interested, here's my thought process.

My main goal: to paint a monster that I could put in my concept art/illustration portfolio.
It has to be a monster that could be used in a video game. I'm thinking about a big, high-leveled, 'boss' type creature that player's character could encounter at the end of some maze, at the bottom of the cave or...well, at the end of the level

I decided to start from rough pencil sketch on paper instead of searching for references. This is probably because I had been covered in gigabytes of reference material until recently with another project and I want to see if my brain is still able to function on its own. I'll use references later, when I need them. They will most likely be some pics of nature, like in Cat's or Threeohfour's posts. If anybody's wondering why - that's because basing the creation on something real will make it appear more real. So realism and credibility are some of the traits I'm looking for when designing this monster.

My painting has to have a commercial appeal. I've decided to associate some key words with my project, so if I'll get lost, looking at them should put me back on the right track. 

Key words: majestic/towering/powerful presence, armed & dangerous, scary but - if possible - with a hint of lost (or forgotten) 'human factor'. And let's not forget about the 'wow factor' which seems to be a favourite term of some software developers!

----------------------------------------UPDATE---------------------------------------------

Monster workshop, week 1, step 2. Sketching the monster.

I started with sketching monster heads (numbers 1, 2, 3).



Initially an the idea of  no.2 appealed to me - with its irregular skull, blank eyes at each side of it and many long, thin tentacles or tongues hanging from its mouth. In number 3 I've tried to go further with this idea, attaching the worm-like corpse to the head, but it didn't fit. Instead of searching further this way

I drew another monster, a humanoid creature (number 4). When I did the first sketch the thing that I liked in an instant was its expression. It looked a little bit like an enraged child... besides the obvious fact that it was mutated and seriously overgrown.

I wanted to make the monster look more aggressive and dangerous, so I drew the tentacles that spring from its arms. During the drawing I had this idea of a parasitic-carnivorous plant that roots itself into the body of its victim. Coincidentally, this idea reminds me of something...

----------------------  A SHORT AD BREAK-------------------------

Have you witnessed the truce in the eternal Battle of Sexes?
Have you tasted from Quoth the Raven's Big Blue Cup?
Have you ever ventured into the wrong cave and returned in coexistence with an alien species?
Sounds cool? Then, why won't you come up with your own cool idea?
Participate in Color Ball! The current theme is COEXISTENCE. Win sun and moon as a prize!

Let's coexist... Creatively. And all within one shape!
(Deadline: May 18th.)

----------------------  END OF A SHORT AD BREAK----------------------

I started to imagine the plant as a parasite/carnivore that blends with the other samples of flora in some dark place which is rather hard to get to. A place like some corner of jungle, cavern or some distant hill. Now, I think, is the time I could use some reference. I visited the wonderful botanical garden in WrocŠ‚aw (Poland) lately but unfortunately it was too early to see any carnivores (they plant them late in May there). So google will have to do.



Reading about some of the specimens above, I've come up with an idea for my carnivorous & parasitic plant (let's call him 'carniparas kasandris', whatever).
It coud exist in two cycles - first, when it's attached to its floral host for a time and grows big, then a second, carnivorous cycle, when the humanoid or some other animal is nearby, the plant strikes the victim with its tentacles, paralyzing it for a while, then grabs onto it and roots into it. In the course of time (days or weeks), it slows down its host's vital energy and grows even more, turning itself (and its host!) into carnivore.
     
From then on it was relatively easy to come up with the idea of host. A humanoid species, that lives on hills and the rock plateaus near/in the jungle, eating roots, shrooms and other plants. They are quite intelligent, able to use some crude tools, and spend their days in the shade of their primitive stone and mud huts or bathing in the pools of mud/water... In general, they are friendly to other humanoids and can even exchange some carved rocks or mushroom stew with player...

Yeah, they're peaceful vegetarians, until they meet the 'carniparas'.

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/bRKTPY7.jpg[/imgzoom]

----------------------------------------------------------------------


I had some computer related problems lately, so I wasn't particularly regular. All right, let's hope this time BSOD will wait until I finish writing this... (BTW, if anyone has a good advice on how to diagnose and get rid of BSOD, please PM me! )
---------------
Week 1, Step 3. Thumbnail sketches. Picking the right pose.

With the key words in mind, I did few thumbnail sketches of the monster.

I was trying to envision his towering presence. I've added a silhouette of human to make monster look bigger. Still everything was open at the thumbnail stage, so I could experiment with few poses, searching for the most dynamic one. I've also experimented with what was to become the most tricky and difficult thing to draw: THAT DAMN CARNIPARASES... Which are, as you may (or may not) know , the parasitic and carnivorous plants that my monster has on its arms. The flexible nature of carniparas has caused me some composition problems.

Let's have a look at these thumbnails.



Number 1.
The biggest problem with this composition is the attacking carniparas. Its part on the left takes too much space in comparison with the lower right part of the picture. This, along with the very static pose of the monster, makes it my least favourite of the four. I've painted it over to give it more expression - back-lighting the monster and trying to experiment a little with the environment. The monster's shadow could be helpful later in determining the atmosphere. The towering monster CASTING EVEN MORE TOWERING SHADOW... Sounds cool, eh? Well, it certainly sounds much better than it looks at this point

Number 2.
I've tried to capture the monster in three-quarter pose. It looks very static and not at all interested in killing the petty human. It doesn't even look towards the victim... It's like it was featuring in a 'spring fashion' catalogue, not in the monster workshop. It looks like a cowboy with his lasso overhead. The contrasting, defensive pose of human make it even less convincing.

Number 3.
Here, we're getting somewhere, at last. The carniparases seems to be more balanced. Also, both monster's and human's poses are dynamic. The attacking carniparas seems like its out of control - which is good.  This would make a decent illustration. A proper monster look, full of rage. Reminds me of my own feelings when I was having those BSODs lately.

No. 4.
I've tried to make it even more dynamic, so I made the monster run towards the human. Although I don't dig the twisted carniparas, and I'm still not sure whether the human should be on monster's right side or left, I like the pose. So let's build further on this one.

With and without opponent.





-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Week 1, Step 4. The final sketch: value painting. Lighting & environment.

After deciding on monster's pose, I imagined it in a jungle or a cave... I started to paint jungle environment in the background, but the silhouette of a monster was appearing more and more diminished (and less and less towering). Seemingly the trees weren't his thing. Oh yeah, and I forgot to save it before experiencing BSOD... Anyway, after deciding to abandon the jungle, I went classical, easier route and painted my monster in the habitat of a cosy cavern. I've imagined it walking into his home in a cave... Then suddenly it sees a human, shrieks a surprised greeting and starts running. Shaking hands couldn't be more painful to this monster's guest

This time, my main focus was lighting and environment. At this stage I'm concentrated on setting the painting's atmosphere. The shadow is exaggerated to make monster look bigger (TOWERING!) and the painting more expressive. I've also tried to do the 'Frazetta triangle' thing, but it didn't work. Perhaps it was too late in the process. I should have thought about triangles, circles and frazettas earlier, when I was doing thumbnails :/ Maybe I'll try that Frazetta approach later if I have time (and courage).

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/DUkQiKv.jpg[/imgzoom]

>Hmm, I'm still wondering if these hands with flesh-eating carniparas aren't too long. The shorter hands weren't that expressive though.

>> The lighting seems wrong on the attacking carniparas part. There are some bright spots that should be darkened, that monster has just run into a dark cave after all. I'll fix that later, probably at the proper painting stage.

>>> In general, the hands should be upgraded and better looking.

>>>> Lot's of environment details should be added. I still don't know what kind of cave is it and how should it differ (IF it shoud) from any other random cave.  Maybe the carniparas plants in their vegetative phase should grow in there.

>>>>> The monster's opponent/victim. I'll have to decide if I want him in the painting... He (or she?) would surely be a good excuse for the monster's pose. Otherwise the creature would just run, well, *somewhere*... towards the viewer... or towards the edge of screen... like in a FPP game or like in Joe Dever's or Choose Your Own Adventure book.

Yeah... and that concludes Week 1 for me.

-----------------------------------------

Week 2, step 1, 'Better late than never' or 'Coloring the damn thing'  

I thought I'll be more active in this week but life got in the way  Only today I could find some more time to paint. I'll give you guys some feedback later

While painting, I've experimented with different color variants (using Color Balance in Photoshop), looking for the one I'd like most.



I wanted colors to be vibrant, but not too vibrant. Oversaturation, as seen on the middle thumbnail in the lower row, was out of question.

After few attempts, I've found the color palette I like. 



Here's the same picture, only with Curves adjusted in PS:



I'll probably do something in between.

I'm afraid I won't have time to experiment with changing the scenery or making the cave less generic, but it's not that important. Next, I'll work on details with small brush. There's also that monster's opponent to paint. I'll probably have to make canvas bigger to make room for the human. Still quite a lot to do with that painting.     

Feedback is most welcome

As I said, I really don't see what could be wrong with jwalt's picture I was comparing it with other pictures and the starting shape under the magnifying glass (x 4) and still couldn't tell. Well, it *could* have a transparent background, but... on the other hand, magenta, being the 'The Color of Universal Harmony & Emotional Balance', fits the theme so I have nothing against it

If there's couple of pixels outside the outline, and I can't notice them, I won't mind. But rules are rules and let's try not to let your pixels stray, folks!

[don't be afraid to coexist!]

Guys, these are wonderful! I love how different each one's idea of coexistence is! 

Did I hear trophies?

Yessir, the throphies are polished and waiting for the winners to take!

* Full of delicious coffee, with three sugars.

Nice of you to clarify this. Otherwise forum authorities could start asking questions    

I could have used a few more pixels on the gal's arm, but that's all Kasander gave me. I did try additional shading, but nothing I was able to do seemed to make it a better image, so I called it "done."

Edit: Darn it! I think I just made the same mistake here that I made last month. My image doesn't really fit within the shape. Sorry, folks.

To me it seems there's nothing wrong with your shape, jwalt!
And I love your idea, it's very brave of you to fit man and woman in this poor-wanna-be-shape of mine! Honestly, I'm fully convinced.


All in all, well done folks!

And to the others who are still unsure if they will participate or not: don't be afraid to coexist! Let's keep them coming!

Dogtooth is disturbing, but artfully made. A Serbian Film is the one I'll never watch after reading the summary.

Oh yeah. Now, that one was a disturbing movie made by messed-up people.

The 'purpose' gap between these two films is huge, IMO it's the gap between sincerity and humanism and the most worthless and pointless kind of nihilism.
Dogtooth is an artfully made film about a man setting boundaries to constrain his  family. Puting it bluntly, the director's purpose was 'to make a film about freedom'.

A Serbian Film's  problem is, as I see it, that it serves no purpose except this one: to push boundaries of what can be shown on screen. It really bugs me how well it was made. You think yourself, the directing is good, the cinemathography is very good, the acting is convincing, but why was this movie made in the first place, why did all those people agree to take part in this? I doubt if even the writer/director himself could answer this. I bet he would say something along the lines: 'I wanted to show the protagonist's journey to the heart of darkness in order to prove how dark human nature is and how ruthless the world is. Even the filmmakers, we're no better than the worst of scum'.

The point is, this film has no other purpose than pushing boundaries, and when it comes to shocking value itself, it's actually pretty silly. The fact of filming the scene of raping the newborn - it's just so over the top - I mean, how far can you get until one starts to smile at the absurdity of what is being shown on screen? Of course, it's all faked, the newborn is fake, the genitals are fake, the camera cleverly avoids showing the 'key points' of the view in all of the 'controversial' scenes. And since you know it's all about faking and pretending, you can breathe with a sign of relief and then smile with disbelief at the sheer, undistilled idiocy of the filmmakers.

No feature film, no matter how shocking or unsettling it would be can rival the real life. Real events, real non-pretending people... like, for example, shown in documentaries. Holocaust documentaries, Mondo documentaries, and all those 'good-for-nothing-but-pure-shock-docs' like Faces of Death'* and its clones, they make all the 'Serbian Films' of this world seem childish. You know, like burping and farting out loud in the middle of a job interview.   


Hmmm... Come to think of it, both films' directors were journeying to the heart of darkness.

I could say, Kynodontas' director went deep in to the dark jungle of human soul; then, after long search, he found some light amidst its 'gloom and doom'. As we saw in the movie, the boundaries set by the dictator can't last forever, because one day his subjects will revolt, grasping for freedom. So a cinephile like me eagerly anticipates that in his next movie Mr Lanthimos will tell us something more about freedom, or perhaps about another aspect of human nature...   

Similarly, A Serbian Film's director went deep into the dark jungle of human soul - but he was looking for the dark caves. After getting into the darkest one (quite f*****g dark, really), he went down, down to where the flashlights refuse to give light, and further down, all the way down... till he found himself drowning in the stinking pool of blood, guts and shit. 
So the question from a cinephile like me to a director like him would be: 'How long can you hold your breath, champ?'
   
PS: Damn, did I just write an essay or what? It is strange and unsettling how bad movies are able to provoke probably much more brainstorming among the audiences than in filmmakers' heads. A Serbian Film certainly isn't worth all the fuss. From every point of view, it's just a waste of time.

EDIT: *I guess it's very inappropriate of me to put Holocaust documentaries, especially the major ones like Shoah or Marcel Ophuls films in one sentence with shock-doc crap like Faces of Death. I would strongly advise people to watch the former and stay away from the later ones

[COEXISTENCE]

The theme for this Coloring Ball is COEXISTENCE.

Here's the shape:

[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/JwW6sLT.png[/imgzoom]

Within the given shape, show coexistence of two (or more) forms of life.
In this competition, coexistance means:  'to exist simultaneously within the same shape'. The coexistence doesn't necessarily need to be a peaceful one.
Each of the forms of life within the shape can be organic or non-organic. They can be existing forms of life or purely from imagination.
After you're done with the drawing, in few words describe your example of coexistence.

Additional rules/explanation:
1. You can replace the outline with your own colors.
2. All colors are allowed to coexist within the shape.
3. You can scale, rotate, or flip the shape horizontally/vertically.
4. The triangle inside the shape doesn't need to be colored. It's up to you to fill it or leave it empty.
5. Your entries must be in by May 18th.
6. Coexist and have fun!

For all the trophy hunters out there: yes, there will be trophies...soon

EDIT: Here are the the trophies, as promised! A commemorative medal depicting moon and sun coexisting in harmony on the sky 

First place: [imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/lRoGvh4.png[/imgzoom]

Second place: [imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/oJWtvBO.png[/imgzoom]

Third place: [imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/Z7OnC6q.png[/imgzoom]

[Dogtooth (Kynodontas)]

After all we don't want to stall this awesome thread, do we?

Dogtooth (Kynodontas).  But I had to cheat to guess it  (by the way Wikipedia's plot summary suggests that you have a messed-up taste in movies.)

Hey Baron, you shouldn't believe in everything that Wikipedia says, y'know. I'd rather call my taste broad I've yet to show you the REALLY messed-up flicks in this thread.

Aaaaand of course you're correct, the movie title is Kynodontas (Dogtooth). Nevermind the cheating, it's your turn now 

It's really rare that I leave a movie theater feeling like I've had a powerful experience (last time was probably Tree of Life), but seeing Kynodontas was one of those times. In terms of leaving an impression, it's probably the best film I've seen in the last decade. (Still didn't recognize the screencaps, though.)

Kynodontas was definitely one of the few best movies I saw last year. EDIT: I remember that my fiancee loved it too, especially the name-switching thing;)

My, aren't these prizes beautiful Thanks Miez, thanks to my fellow participants and to all the voters!

I'll announce the theme of the next Coloring Ball later this week.

Instead of that the cute porcelain dog, let me entertain you with the sight of the most gruesome and fearless creature:



I'm on holidays until the 1st of May and I have limited access to wifi here. The above screenshot is from the trailer. HINT: As you see, this movie is subtitled.

I have to tell you thet Eric PMed me on Friday (I think) and he guessed the name of the movie. He was humble enough to not want to take his turn again so soon after he had guessed the previous movie. Well, if nobody guesses this until tomorrow, I'll gladly nominate Eric as the next in turn;) And if he wouldn't want to take over, then I guess its up to anybody who posts his/her movie first. After all we don't want to stall this awesome thread, do we?

[Cerno]

Cerno.

I like jwalt's 'sluggish' idea too.

Props for all of my fellow competitors.

[Kasander]

Kasander: I like the composition with an overview screen dominated by a huge foreground rock/statue, and the design of the sculpture itself. Hard to say much more at this stage. Is this your intended color palette? Maybe try for something slightly more realistic/filmic.

Thanks for the comment! No, it's not my intended color palette, it's just a less-than-hour Painter sketch, not much more. I was surely going to refine this into something definitely more traditional (in adventure-y sense), I just started it too late. Then I went wrong way with rearranging all elements of the composition, instead of sticking to my initial idea and finishing the damn thing

I'd say Baron is closest to the answer in a way, but it's not a sequel. Let's see what you make of this: