Let's say you created a photorealistic Second Life skin, and then discovered that someone else was re-selling elements from it, claiming it as their own. How would you prove you were the original creator? Here's a novel solution: Shoot a time lapse video that compresses the four hour creation process into an impressive five minutes.

At least that's the given motivation for this video, which shows how the artist used DeepPaint3D to create an avatar skin from numerous photo sources. "As you can see," the video annotation states, "I'm piecing the entire head up from many image pieces, which is why my work definitely doesn't look like anyone else's who uses the same photo references." That dispute aside, the video is worth watching in its own right, as a mesmerizing testament to the effort that goes into a photorealistic Second Life avatar skin.

Hat tip: Tinas Universum