Doomsday machine theory

[Mytran]

You wanna debunk that "windsock dipped in cement" thing while you're at it? Welcome back @Maurice

There was speculation and research a few years back that it was built around a "mini-mole" or equivalent studio light, layered over with a wire frame and metal foil with lighting gels at the fore.
It was pretty convincing but I suspect that the original thread on the original site have long since vanished, this was nearly 15 years ago!

Maybe time for a fresh look by someone in the know?

 

[Maurice]

I agree it was probably made of cinefoil. There's really not much to indicate there was a light source inside it.

 

[korblborp]

iirc didn't vendetta also link the doomsday machine with the crystalline entity?

 

[DonIago]

iirc didn't vendetta also link the doomsday machine with the crystalline entity?

I don't recall that at all.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I agree it was probably made of cinefoil. There's really not much to indicate there was a light source inside it.

For those of us who are not in the biz and who aren't familiar with the stuff, here's a video, in which the wrapped spotlight looks rather like the (front of a black-colored) planet killer:

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[Maurice]

Except for the shot where it turns every single shot of the Planet Killer is a still that being moved or moved in on, possibly on an Oxberry animation stand. The machine is very blue-looking in many shots, which leads me to suspect the model and stills were either not shot against a bluescreen for matting or that its actual color wasn't so bluish as it appears (perhaps tinted a bit bluer at the optical printing stage). They could have created a hand-drawn black mask matte since it's usually just a still, but that, too, would have had to have been shot on the same animation stand.

I'd almost forgotten this, but some years ago at a cafe it hit me the machine miniature might've had no internal structure at all, an idea I immediately explored by rolling a napkin into a cone and folding the opening back around itself. It held its shape surprisingly well, and the same thing made out of heavy lighting foil would be pretty rigid...unless you pushed on it. Behold, the Croissant Killer!

Here's an image of some effects elements before the starfield has been matted in. You can really see what appears to be a clear covering (tape?) over the rougher underlying cone, especially when you click/tap the image to zoom in.

 

[publiusr]

In order to capture that look in camera, you might have to employ a glass-blower.

So help me, but I seem to remember an art piece that was similar….Chihuly perhaps…a blue glass cornucopia…