With so many convincing fake images around, people pretty much believe you can do anything on Photoshop these days—even create a real-looking girl from scratch.
“Think You Know How To Use Photoshop?,” a time-lapse video, purports to do exactly that. But hundreds of commenters are declaring that this feat is a fabrication, too.
Uploaded on November 6 by DrLaught, the video’s been viewed 400,000 times after being linked on Buzzfeed and Reddit, and is still trending upwards. At four minutes long, the video includes an upbeat Russian pop song.
The verdict from the online community? The video is played backwards, and the artist is painting over a photo instead of constructing an image from his imagination.
Redditors and YouTubers cited the low number of strokes used to create the detail in the hair and the eyes. They also wondered why, if the artist wanted to show off his Photoshop skills, he hid the layers that show his progress.
Redditors, always a skeptical bunch, took screencaps of the video to find further proof.
Others critiqued the “shitty background” at the very end of the video and the poor quality of the uploaded version. (240 pixels is the lowest resolution supported by YouTube—arguably a setting an artist wanting to showcase his skills would not choose.)
But some saw past the video’s taunting title and the debate over its authenticity to simply enjoy the video.
Wrote scarf258 on YouTube:
“Fake? Real? Who the f— cares, the song is amazing :D”