About one hour. Most of that time was spent creating the mss shape by sticky-taping a piece of plastic onto the screen with a tracing of this photo on it, then using vi to create the shape. I have experimented with JavE but have yet to find a tool that produces a better result than the time-honoured sticky-tape the plastic to the screen technique. If anyone knows of a cool tool, please let me know.

As for inspiration, mainly the man himself, who I find absolutely fascinating for some reason.