Although the first run of Doom slightly predates my PC gaming days, like many others, I still instantly recognise ID Software’s first person shooter classic with a nostalgic glee. So it was with particular joy that I added this gorgeous but faithfully reconstructed image, by Elemental79, to my favourites back when it received a Daily Deviation at deviantART in February (2013). For whatever reason I didn’t read the accompanying text, and thus didn’t check out the mind-blowing time-lapse reconstruction process posted on YouTube until I stumbled upon a blog post from the time. The video compresses 35 hours of work into around 9 minutes. The Photoshop masters out there might get a good idea of how the image was made from the tumult of images and processes, but for a novice like me the experience can only be awe, and perhaps mixed with disorientation and nausea.

Seeing the processes of how the artist uses snippets of a variety of creatures to deftly reconstruct, and then shade and highlight the Demon is a particularly astonishing part of the video (from about 4:20 to 7:00). The transformation from pixellated 320×240 to a huge 9600×7211 (over 7 PSDs) is jaw dropping in the extreme. …or was it jaw clenching? Either way the video will leave you inspired and energised. A 4800 × 3606 version of the image can be downloaded from the artist’s post at devientART. Elemental79 also has a number of other breathtaking reconstruction/adaptations in his gallery. To see how these images were made visit/subscribe to TJ Townsend’s YouTube channel