Giant UFO over the Yukon
Gold Fields 
a sighting by identical twins Sue Malcolm & Sarah Baker
Investigated by Martin Jasek
Giant UFO over the Yukon
Gold Fields
a sighting by identical twins Sue Malcolm & Sarah Baker
Investigated by Martin Jasek
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Introduction pages: 1, 2, 3, UFO sighting: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Follow-up: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.
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How these Illustrations were Created
| A great deal of effort was put into making the
illustrations depicting what Sue and Sarah saw as accurate as possible. Everything from
the lighting and sky conditions to the the color shape and angle of the UFO. The series of
images below gives one example. The images are smaller versions (400 pixels wide) of the
originals (about 2400 pixels wide). |
| Photographs were taken of the UFO sighting locations on a trip to the area on September 3, 2000. Hand drawn sketches were made by the witnesses on site depicting the UFOs relative size and orientation to the terrain in the background. The time of the visit was the afternoon with partly cloudy skies. During the UFO sighting in July 1996 the skies were clear with the sun below the horizon. It was therefore a challenge to use these "sunny day" photographs to create illustrations of the event. |  |
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| First the sky was carefully painted white. Automatic masking which distinguished shade differences between the horizon and the sky was employed but some had to be performed pixel by pixel. The white area then could be masked out automatically since it was now one color. |  |
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| Another photograph (right) was found that had the correct type of sky that matched the approximate conditions during the UFO sighting. This sky was a photograph taken looking east after sunset. A "cloning" tool was used to transfer the sky on the right to the masked image at left. |  |
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| After the new sky was cloned into
the image, a bright boundary between the horizon and the skyline remained. The horizon had
to be edited pixel by pixel which resulted in the image at right. The image still showed the foreground under bright sunshine conditions and therefore brightness of the overall image needed adjustment. |
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| The result was the image at right
after careful consultation with the witnesses. Several images of varying brightness were
provided to them before this choice was made. The image not only had an adjustment in its
brightness but also in color to simulate the bluish cast that occurs after the sun goes
down.
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| Next, the UFO needed to be created. First a solid white shape of the UFO on a gray background was created and blurred to give a three dimensional metallic effect. |  |
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| A color tone was given to the UFO
as to match the color of the sky to give a stronger impression that the object was
reflecting the natural lighting conditions in the area. Initially, a gray version above
right did not look natural when pasted on the background image. Windows were added and the smaller "ships" were created by blurring white circles on a black background. A new white circle was then superimposed on top of the blurred circle to give a more solid appearance. |
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| The large UFO and the smaller ones were then copied and pasted on the background image. The smaller UFOs were placed on the image in an "additive" form so the black background became invisible. The edge of the large UFO had to be edited pixel by pixel and then blurred slightly as it initially appeared "over-sharp" compared to other other boundaries in the image. The final resulting image is at right. |  |
Introduction: Page 1, 2, 3,
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