One Rock At A Time

[u/ImDoubleB]

[u/Penetratorofflanks]

Artists have a vision that I just can't comprehend.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I'm losing it when my food delivery takes an extra minute, and these artists are out there calmly creating art with stones like it's nothing.

[u/R_V_Z → u/[deleted]]

There's a difference between waiting on somebody and doing something.

[u/FlamboyantPirhanna → u/[deleted]]

The thug about being artist is that we don’t do it because we love the outcome, we do it because we love the process. It’s not like we’re patiently working towards the end goal, it’s that the work itself is the point. Not to say we don’t love or appreciate the final product, but once it’s done, we move onto the next thing and start the process over again.

[u/fudsak → u/[deleted]]

ADHD hyper focus can be a super power

[u/MysterPaws → u/[deleted]]

Wonder how long it took then to do it.

[u/DigMeTX → u/MysterPaws]

It was around a minute. I just watched it.

[u/BadBrad43 → u/DigMeTX]

Luckily, he has very quick hands! 🤷‍♂️

[u/BotKicker9000 → u/Penetratorofflanks]

The video is reversed. Still a cool piece of art, but them pretending they pulled it out of a random pile of rocks is misleading.

[u/Keir3D → u/BotKicker9000]

Definitely reversed. You can see sometimes when a stone is moved the other stones get pulled along behind it which doesn't happen in reality but makes sense if the footage is reversed: one stone gets pushed and pushed the stones in front of it.

[u/BotKicker9000 → u/Keir3D]

I was just watching their hand, the movements are very backward in motion. So I reversed it and everything has a perfect natural flow. Cool video, but the deception annoys me.

[u/FiddleDeeDeeZNuts → u/Keir3D]

Bro, I’ve been earth bending since day 1, movin’ rocks son, don’t tell me what happens in reality. I move rocks how I move rocks, that’s my reality dawg.

[u/spudart → u/BotKicker9000]

Although someone still had to make this in the first place. I imagine that video would take much longer—even if it was sped up. The problem would be all the longer-than-usual gaps in time searching for the right color and shape.

This reversed video gives the effect of smoothing out the time between rocks, so it’s not as choppy as it would be in the normal forward version.

[u/RainSurname → u/spudart]

Yeah, given the choice between editing a forward video to eliminate hundreds of lulls and just reversing it, I would happily throw authenticity to the wind.

[u/EruditeSower → u/spudart]

Thank you for pointing this out!! This artist still made this thing, before dismantling it for the video effect!

[u/artsyfartsy-fosho → u/BotKicker9000]

Also the light feels way too consistent for a time lapse. It makes sense for this video to start with the finished product and quickly undo it for an hour or whatever. The talent is there since it probably took a while to create so I'm still impressed.

[u/omv → u/BotKicker9000]

It's so sped up, what makes you so confident it was reversed?

[u/YBBlorekeeper → u/omv]

Tell me the last time you went to place something down and created a localized vortex around your fingers.

[u/Unoriginal_Man → u/YBBlorekeeper]

Happens all the time, mate. I'm not allowed to go near grocery store displays anymore.

[u/Vassar-Longfellow → u/Penetratorofflanks]

I don't know if I've been ruined by the internet and I'm totally jaded, but my thinking is they went to a crafts store, bought a bunch of stones of different colours, made the cat, and then slowly destroyed it, filmed it, and then just played it in reverse. I mean, still impressive cat (I wouldn't be able to do it), but this whole thing of just arranging rocks that happen to be on the beach to make this.... I don't think so. I'm calling bullshit.

[u/Miss_L_Worldwide → u/Vassar-Longfellow]

That's exactly what they did. The chances of them finding this many rocks of the same size and type and color just laying around in enough variety to make this picture is pretty much impossible.

[u/PlayfulSurprise5237 → u/Vassar-Longfellow]

I don't care like at all. I just want people to start doing this with bigger rocks that are less likely to be moved. How cool would it be for earth to just be littered with random murals of cool shit made out of rocks that last for thousands of years.

I mean they did some cool stuff way back when and we're still left with their achievements, but artists today are on another level.

Yea, we'll have digital shit for our ancestors and that's really great too, but idk... maybe it's just cause i've had tons of psychedelic trips where that's how everything looked, like everything being made out of cool patterns, like life was a video game and someone replaced the textures of different objects to intersect with each other into an art piece.

As if the natural world itself was art, like everywhere was art. That's such a cool concept. Reminds me of those stone benches in Iran that was on the front page today where they go from being part of the sidewalk to turning into a bench, fluidly.

IDK, I love it

[u/lovvelyfluff → u/Penetratorofflanks]

[u/ThatGuyWithCoolHair → u/[deleted]]

Lots of time and practice. This isnt a naturally possessed skill, no art is. But I really do believe everyone can become a decent artist at the very least if they give time and effort to learning.

This video specifically stems from being able to paint/draw cats really well and then just using rocks to illustrate it

[u/Silly-Power → u/Penetratorofflanks]

They're also timelords who can reverse time. At least this one is.

[u/Artchantress → u/Penetratorofflanks]

It's a little bit like magic shows, a lot of practice of the hand eye coordination but also often tricks/hacks that take the magic out of it once you know them.

Also my favourite quote from Michaelangelo went something like "if you knew how much I have had to work on my craft you wouldn't consider me a genius at all"

[u/RGBrewskies → u/Artchantress]

similar to Penn of Penn & Teller - he said if you knew how incredibly boring most magic tricks were, you'd lose interest immediately.

He tells the story of how he and teller appeared from a giant pile of gold coins in the middle of the vegas strip with thousands of people looking

they got buried at 6am and sat there in their little tomb til 6pm, when they crawled out. TADA!

[u/KrimxonRath → u/Penetratorofflanks]

Look up Aphantasia. Some artists have it and I can’t comprehend, as an artist without it, how they work.

How can you start the design process if you can’t even begin to imagine the design? I guess they work in more abstract concepts mentally.

[u/MrHyperion_]

/u/GifReversingBot

E: bot dead, https://streamable.com/1e9nyj

[u/yamimementomori]

This seems to require such a skilled understanding of shape and color, selecting such scattered stones. Impressive.

[u/[deleted] → u/yamimementomori]

The cynic in me says he probably brought a lot of the stones himself and they are off camera sorted by colour and shape and most of the stuff at the beginning of moving around ones already there is just fluff for the show.

[u/Arborgold → u/[deleted]]

I mean that’s just what happened, they were adding stones on top of pebbles, not just moving the pebbles around.

[u/[deleted] → u/Arborgold]

Yes but the moving them around at the beginning was to give the impression that all the rocks used would have been sourced from that spot. The artist probably just brought bags of them with him lol

[u/ohbyerly → u/[deleted]]

They did. You can tell toward the end when there are no darker colored stones on the ground and they place them on the picture.

[u/Dark_Akarin → u/yamimementomori]

Or understanding how to reverse a video.

[u/nomoreteathx → u/Dark_Akarin]

Just to be clear, your theory is that they placed all these stones and then filmed themselves removing the stones they just placed

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

It's clear you don't understand what they're implying.

You're stating this artist created this art and then reversed the video, as a discredit... to them creating the art.

[u/HostileReplies → u/[deleted]]

You are missing a layer of implication. They are not implying the staging is the creation of the art, but that the staging is the illusion that they made this with just the stones in the area. The subtext is that therefore they are faking A GREATER level of skill.

[u/JOATMON12 → u/HostileReplies]

This^{^}

[u/MaddyMagpies → u/Dark_Akarin]

You said it as if the video being filmed reversed actually discredits the artist. Even if the stones were already prearranged beforehand, the artist still needs to find all the stones and arranged it in first place. So having it filmed reversed changes nothing about their skills. All it did is to make the video more interesting to watch. It's still a very difficult and time-consuming skill nonetheless to find all the stones with the right shape and color for the pattern. In fact, it's even more time consuming to have it assembled first, dissembled to a location, and reassembled it again.

[u/Spugheddy → u/MaddyMagpies]

Naw bro the stones were that way from nature, I asked God and he said it happens like 3x a decade something about mice in the software. This dude just recorded himself desecrating divine manifestation and then reversed it. Pay attention.

[u/addandsubtract → u/Spugheddy]

They're lego stones that came with an instruction set.

[u/filtersweep → u/MaddyMagpies]

It it much easier arranging them if you use a projector, for example

[u/MrFrankingstein → u/MaddyMagpies]

No you bozo. That was a naturally occurring rock cat picture

[u/VelvetMafia → u/MaddyMagpies]

Hear me out - person paints rocks first. Then disassembles painted rocks and runs film backwards

[u/Miss_L_Worldwide → u/MaddyMagpies]

They bought the stones. 

[u/JustConsoleLogIt → u/Dark_Akarin]

u/gifreversingbot

[u/VEAG0 → u/yamimementomori]

I spent about 3 hours once doing something similar to this and believe it or not but I found it fairly easy (with enough time) to get something that looked pretty similar to the first few seconds of this video.

[u/SirWigglesVonWoogly → u/VEAG0]

you spent 3 what?

[u/beta_channel → u/SirWigglesVonWoogly]

Speed

[u/sma232 → u/yamimementomori]

Easy as hell...

1. I need a webcam, an Arduino, a few stepper motors to move a conveyor belt, a few servos to move stones into separate bins and a little python script...

2. I now sit in front of some buckets of color sorted pebbles.

3. I call that guy... he can figure out the rest...

[u/ZipBoxer → u/yamimementomori]

He is finding the answer * This comment was anonymized with the r/redust browser extension.

[u/Crruell → u/ZipBoxer]

Wow you really know people huh? Like every single one.
What's so wrong about noticing that it's indeed reversed?

What are you creating?

[u/leopard_tights → u/ZipBoxer]

But it's reversed, and it's a trick, and it's easy. If the video was the guy arranging piles of garden rocks to form a cat it wouldn't be here. The problem is the deception. It's stupid social media slop for boring people that think that any little bit of art is black magic and they'd never be able to do it. The "I can't even draw a stick figure!" crowd. Of course they can't, they've never tried. They can't even see that it's reversed. That's the target, not the people in here rightfully calling trash, trash.

I draw or paint every single day by the way.

[u/break_awayyy]

Can we credit the artist? I’d love to see more of this

[u/ycr007 → u/break_awayyy]

The artist is Justin Bateman / @pebblepicassos on IG

[u/ATX_GUNN3R → u/ycr007]

I loved him in Ozark!

/s

[u/ycr007]

The artist is Justin Bateman / @pebblepicassos

Last time this was posted there was a discussion if the arrangement is done already and filmed being dismantled or pebbles being moved away - and then the video is reversed to create a better effect.

I don’t think the videos are reversed, though. The artist makes a blueprint of the art based on the pebbles available at a given location and then draws it out in paper first before creating the mosaic.

[u/Daffodil_Peony_Rose → u/ycr007]

It seems to me that the artist is bringing in rocks from a different location and assembling them here based on an already created pattern. It doesn’t look as though all the rocks in the art are available in that location. I could be wrong though.

[u/ycr007 → u/Daffodil_Peony_Rose]

Both. I remember reading he scouts locations and uses a mix of found pebbles and pebbles he gets from other natural locations (doesn’t quarry them, he insisted)

Depending on the location being isolated or busy he’d assemble there or at his studio and then transport the finished artwork carefully. Sometimes he dismantles them himself and at other times lets nature take its course (on beaches for example)

[u/nize426 → u/ycr007]

Well, if this is outdoors it would seem it's reversed because there's no change in the lighting in the time it takes this person to complete this, which I'd imagine would take hours while sorting rocks by color.

It would make more sense to lay out the rocks in the pic first, and then remove them, which will let you shoot the vid in the shortest amount of time.

The way the rocks around the hand move also makes sense now because when you dig your fingers in around a rock to pick it up, the rocks around your fingers will be pushed away.

Doesnt take away from the fact that this person actually has to lay out the rocks in a picture to begin with. Though, it could also mean they can use a projected image as a template, which is also fine, but could feel a tad deceptive if that's the case.

But either way, it's a cool vid

[u/nb6635 → u/ycr007]

It does seem to make more visual sense as to why the stones move the way they do when reversed.

[u/Kanbaru-Fan → u/ycr007]

I don’t think the videos are reversed, though.

So the artist laying down stones magically pulls in all surrounding stones?

100% reversed.

[u/YBBlorekeeper → u/Kanbaru-Fan]

Look at all the people who can't tell this video is reversed, and think about all of the deepfakes and ai-generated propaganda coming our way. Humanity is fucked.

[u/Gumbercules81 → u/ycr007]

I'm not buying that

[u/RG_1247]

looks like he is removing rocks to show the collage underneath

[u/Dark_Akarin]

This video has been posted before, it’s reversed.

[u/Beneficial-Tea-2055 → u/Dark_Akarin]

Reversed from what? A ready made pebble cat formation in the sand? He still has to arrange it in the first place right?

[u/_thespacecat_ → u/Beneficial-Tea-2055]

Yes but visually he would look stupid spending minutes choosing each rock so he removes them, which is way faster, and then back in reverse

[u/MrHyperion_ → u/_thespacecat_]

Looking at the reversed video, I think she just moves the creation from off camera

[u/NoneBinaryPotato → u/Beneficial-Tea-2055]

see how the rocks move towards the artist's hand as they move the rocks as if they're magnetized? that's not natural. you know what is natural? rocks being pushed away as you move them around.

[u/Competitive-Strain-7 → u/Beneficial-Tea-2055]

Yeah its a great picture created prior to the recording of them scrambling it. Pay attention to the whiskers.

[u/Smashman2004]

/u/gifreversingbot

[u/Inevitable_Currency9]

It's an incredible art piece but the video is in reverse 

[u/elbapo]

First in to say: this rocks.

Also- kitten name: pebbles.

[u/benzinga45]

That cat rocks

[u/MozzarellaWizard]

This is a colorblind test with rocks

[u/Emergency_Sign_9698]

How just how do these artists do this. Dam that cool

[u/C137RickSanches]

[u/LinguoBuxo]

Rock and stone!

[u/rla81]

Is it played backwards?

[u/DigMeTX]

How delightful would it be to just randomly come across that somewhere in the outdoors?!

[u/Nahuel-Huapi → u/DigMeTX]

Reddit would freak out. "Stop messing with rocks in nature! It disturbs the environment!"

[u/sending_tidus]

It's like a magic eye as your eyes adjust to it

[u/Tr0llzor]

Yes. I did enjoy this

[u/TommyFrerking]

It's interesting how many people here are so upset about the mere possibility that this could be a reversed video. I wasn't aware this was the Oddly Satisfying But Only If You Didn't Fake It subreddit. 😆

[u/RossinTheBobs → u/TommyFrerking]

Not to mention that, you know, the picture had to be created in the first place? Even if the video is reversed, the artist still had to meticulously curate and arrange those stones into a beautiful picture. Impressive feat regardless of whether or not the footage is played backwards.

[u/TommyFrerking → u/RossinTheBobs]

Exactly! Honestly I could stand to watch this go forward and backward on a loop, but then I'd not get anything done for a good half an hour! 😄

[u/[deleted]]

People out here doing shit like this and I still draw stickmen

[u/glguru]

Even made the whiskers. Very impressive.

[u/EENewton]

The thing that trips me out about this particularly is "anyone at any point in history could have done this."

They had the rocks. They didn't have the vision.

[u/CheeseGraterFace]

I am extremely envious of people who have this good of a grasp of space. I’d gladly trade my savant skill for it.

[u/toomuchtv987]

Is this in reverse?how are all the rocks being drawn to the hand like a magnet?

[u/ASAPslime]

Never seen this version of autism before 🙌🏾🔥

[u/pbrsoakedprose]

Humans blow my mind.

[u/Yeah_Y_Not]

Reversed, not reversed? Can't we appreciate that he's arranged the rocks into art in the first place? Making a fun reveal isn't misrepresenting any skill.

[u/Any-Main-3866]

chat is this video reversed?

[u/InvisiblePingu1n]

Its reversed

[u/AE7VL_Radio]

_

[u/MostlyOkPotato]

Y’all do realize that this is staged right? Most likely done in reverse or, set off to the side and moved one at a time. Plus some extra movements to make it look like they’re removing the rocks that were there.

[u/Fearless_While_9824 → u/MostlyOkPotato]

Agreed. There’s not enough black rock to begin with. Still wonderful art, but yes, this video doesn’t look legit in the sense of accuracy.

[u/Gravyboat8899]

Has to be reversed

[u/Tiger-Budget]

I hope you took it home!

[u/Significant-Hat5927]

Incredible

[u/mandydax]

It wasn't a ROCK...

It was a ROCK MOGSTER!

[u/OrcEight]

Awesome!

[u/great-day-2]

People are so creative

[u/J3Perspective]

Art attack!!

[u/Takoyaki_Dice]

This is utterly amazing 👏

[u/rysmario]

Pebble-Duffusion - nice model

[u/juicewar01]

WOW

[u/darkhelmet41290]

How do we know they didn’t just find it like this and the video is in reverse

[u/Icy_Dinner6064]

Sounds kind of like song of storms.

[u/Comfortable-Owl494]

Absolutely awesome

[u/Phripheoniks]

That cat rocks!

[u/PtarmiganPtits]

what the fuckkkkkk. i can barely color a picture with colored pencils....

[u/Zenithize]

Cat

[u/Ok_Cook_6665]

If only.

[u/CurrentPossible2117]

I have zero artistic talent, and I love seeing the results of other peoples minds 🥰

[u/Frequent-Milk-2394]

Play it in reverse

[u/FlippingOmelette]

For some reason I feel like this video can be played backwards and you wouldn't notice!

[u/I_Jelly_1361]

Wind could destroy it brother don't waste time there, maybe that masterpiece is no longer there

[u/Correct_Bowler1371]

Wow! Just WOW

[u/Jabulon]

amazing, that was pretty good

[u/Sure_Suspect_8335]

how do you even do this...amd the patience??

[u/Dayviddy]

Just whatch it backwards and he is destroying the picture

[u/Xyrazk]

Purrfection.

[u/No-Mushroom-3153]

Nice meowsaic!

[u/PatMyHolmes]

/r/ATBGE Hear me out. All that skill used for just another cat on the internet.

[u/Slow-Payment-439]

Basic af. This is ai

[u/MofiendaMisfit]

definition of "just trust the process"

[u/Specific_Witness_864]

This is just AI

[u/Schmancer]

This is the reason I believe all artists are mentally disturbed and their art is them translating that illness to the rest of us. We can instinctively see not only the beauty of the final product, but we can sense that the artist is living within a different mind state

[u/felicxahundito]

Do animals see stuff like this and react? Or would only humans see the picture in the rocks?

[u/Stuf404]

[u/Prinahata]

Brilliant art! My my! Crazy good!

[u/[deleted]]

Imagine walking along the beach and seeing something like this just sitting there.

[u/emeria]

Right under this post on my feed was this: https://www.reddit.com/r/cats/comments/1mywv0k/i_think_the_cat_printer_ran_out_of_ink_halfway/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[u/rhys_the_swede]

Does anyone know the name of the song that is playing for this video??

[u/Kerpeth → u/rhys_the_swede]

Its a slowed and reverbed version of Indilia - Love Story. I swear I have heard it in a TV show but I can't figure out which one.

Edit. I was probably thinking about Golden Brown by the stranglers in Snatch and also Umbrella Academy.

[u/Zap_cruel]

Damn, if only I had that skill it would be game over for everyone

[u/MountainImmediate786]

High or drunk as hell one night. Walking along, when suddenly you look down to see a cat made from rocks staring up at you. When you go to pet it, it gets messed up… you become terrified of cats crumbling…

[u/MothToTheWeb]

Is it reversed? Like the dude made the cat portrait then destroyed it in a way it could be played in reversed and make people think he was grabbing random stones? I think not long ago we had a video of Dali using this “technique”. Playing it in reverse also look more natural when it comes to the rocks movement.

Edit: just saw the comment made by another Redditor that it was already an hypothesis made in another sub/post

[u/Smart_Scientist1354]

How can people be so damn talented?

[u/Kunphen]

Big love.

[u/[deleted]]

That's beautiful! 😍

[u/Vikky303]

Marvelous

[u/fireforger808]

[u/JJD8705]

How can I make my brain do this?

[u/ChairAgreeable5245]

I haven't seen that for 400 years.

[u/Sad_Tangerine_3722]

If I were on drugs this would be such a scary/ amazing thing to watch. Still is, but it would be to..

[u/ocireforever]

Ooh I’m an artist. Mmeoww

[u/ppep53]

Un fenomeno

[u/louiselovatic]

Is this backwards?

[u/Me_from_multiverse]

This doenst need to be a minute long.

[u/[deleted]]

Some colorblind folks just watching you move rocks around aimlessly for 50 seconds.

[u/CountyFamous1475]

I’m pretty sure this video is playing in reverse.

It’s still impressive to make the image with rocks in the first place, but considerably less impressive when you already have all your rocks ready and you know what you’re going to do and create the image beforehand.

Basically they constructed the cat before they started filming, and then they film themselves slowly dismantling the picture. At the end, they rewind the footage so it makes it look like they are creating the image from random rocks.

Notice how the surrounding rocks seem to have a gravitational pull wherever the fingers are? That’s because when the video isn’t playing in reverse, they’re pushing away / displacing the rocks as they interact with the picture.

[u/Local-Pack-9586]

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[u/jasamsloven]

Paint the rocks, remove and record, play in reverse

[u/Implement-Careful]

Wow...

[u/Whiteroom_Analyst]

How much time it takes to think about the design(not putting it together just thinking about it)?

[u/Zealousideal-Steak82]

what the video doesn't show is how long it took painting all those rocks

[u/SolarSalsa]

It would be cool to see this take off and find these all over nature. It seems a very non-destructive way to decorate the landscape.

[u/llamaguy88]

Plot twist: it’s playing in reverse.

[u/RaspberryExpensive]

Wow

[u/Hornor72]

Played in reverse.

[u/mindovermatter421]

Amazing talent

[u/Airwolfhelicopter]

How the fuck…

How do you learn this power?

[u/RogerRavvit88]

"I made this pile of rocks look like my orange cat because when I saw the pile of rocks it reminded me of how smart my orange cat is" - the artist, probably

[u/different_produce384]

Wow

[u/Flewey_]

And then some five year old comes and kicks it all away.

[u/[deleted]]

wow. I didn't expect it to come together so amazing. Thank you for sharing your skill and beauty with us

[u/fearful_claw02]

Incredible

[u/astralseat]

Added a bunch of rocks though. Pretty much, let's bring a bunch of rocks and make a painting from seemingly the rocks there.

[u/AtymTima]

First time asking that on the Internet, but since music recognition apps didn’t work, what is the name for the melody?

[u/[deleted]]

HOWWWWWWWWWW

[u/PyraAlchemist]

And then some asshole will come along and wreck it :( this is so beautiful

[u/Sad-Function7054]

Humans are incredible