I would have waited an eternity for this. It's over, Prime.

The figures don't have the articulation to pull off the poses from the screen capture. Optimus Prime doesn't have the hips to kneel nor enough upwards head tilt. His shoulders also don't butterfly forward. As usual, Apollyon's arms were always on the verge of falling off entirely. The gun barrel over his shoulder simply does not rest right next to his head from this angle.

My shooting space is somewhat limited so I had to shoot each figure individually. It was quite a bit of trial and error to get Apollyon to aim correctly, even with some Photoshop transformations.

I had to cover up a few screws on Apollyon, but from this angle Optimus Prime didn't need that treatment. The cracks were lifted directly from the source picture and blended onto the figure.

The sky is yet another cloudy summer day, shot with a Hoya FLW filter. The background is a field blur of a rock formation at Coyote Hills, using clone stamping to stretch it across the width of the picture.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVdjJWYzBSdzNQMDQ/view?usp=sharing

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No way! Two can play!

KFC Transistor and Masterpiece Ravage were shot separately and layered on each other. I had to erase part of Transistor's foot, much like they did for the cartoon in this shot. When drawing, the artists can sometimes ignore the realities of a physical body.

Transistor lacks the articulation to match that pose. His butt gets in the way of his leg articulation for a proper back kick. I wanted to keep his face in the shot so I also ended up turning him slightly differently than the source material.

Masterpiece Ravage didn't require any work, except for the eye glow. I added the debris cloud by clone stamping different parts of the figure.

The sky is just from a cloudy summer evening, shot with a Hoya FLW filter. The mountain is the rock formation at Natural Bridges Santa Cruz. The wall and window frames are the Mechanic Chain Base tiles with a Hue Saturation layer applied. This time, I added a subtle streak through the two upper windows to simulate glare.

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Megatron Must Be Stopped

Since I don't have a spaceship figure or runway to photograph, I thought I'd try simply superimposing the figures on a screen capture of the scene. I still had to use the clone stamp to erase where the cartoon characters were peaking through the figures

The sky is from a summer sunset with a Hoya FLW filter. The hill is from a local park.

Hi-res image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVSnFFZ1ZtU0JkcVU/view?usp=sharing

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Run, Blaster! Save yourself!

Interestingly, Tesla is able to hold Rumble and Ratbat in his hands. Unfortunately, his articulation is somewhat limited so I couldn't reproduce the kneeling stance he had in The Movie. I'm still trying to figure out how to make the shadows look more natural.

The cannon is from TFC Toys Thanatos with his body masked out. The tower and and floor are from clone stamping panels of his body with the borders and edges smudged out.

I created the window frames by cutting out and transforming a section of a set of Mechanical Chain Base panels. I really need to learn how to add a shiny glass effect.

The sky, clouds, mountains, and trees are from a local park.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVWnhrUTR0YWR3bUk/view?usp=sharing

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Beast Hunters

I think the source picture is from the Bluray cover. Unfortunately, I don't have a Beast Hunters Optimus Prime nor a regular Megatron so made do with what is in my collection.

First Edition Optimus Prime is a pretty good figure. I hunted one down because I really wasn't satisfied with Dark Energon Optimus Prime and his lack of a face plate.

My copy of Megatron is a floppy mess. I'm amazed he stood long enough for this shot.

I erased various kibble bits from both Optimus Prime and Megatron, filled in gaps, covered screws, and added glowing eyes and some glowing bits to break up the solid colors.

Optimus Prime and Megatron were simple poses, but Predaking was a little more involved. The figure itself doesn't have any side-to-side head articulation, and the wings can't be displayed at that angle. I took separate pictures of the head, body, and wings and composited it all together with layer masks and the Clone Stamp tool. I added the fire breath because I wanted to make use of my smoke brush. I also added some colored highlights to the unpainted head.

The ground is the dried-out lake bed from a local park. The mountain is a deformation of the rock bridge at Natural Bridges park. The sky and clouds is from a summer day. I applied various color overlays to get the purple and blue hues.

The lighting is created from a Render Difference Cloud.

Direct link -https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVVUpyRWY0bnBRbWc/view?usp=sharing

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This is the end of the road, Galvatron!

DX9 Carry and Tyrant are great figures. They are fun, high quality, and very posable. However, I didn't want to test out how strong Carry is by having him lift Tyrant, who is quite a bit larger. MP-9 Rodimus Prime was also an option, but I wanted to useTyrant's counterpart.

I created the shot by compositing separate shots of each figure with layer masks. I could have made Galvatron's legs a little less stiff looking, but I had to get him to stand without falling over. Also when drawing the figures, they can do stuff like leave out Rodimus Prime's wings.

I also added a little grimace to Tyrant's face.

Since I don't have any similar materials to photograph, I just left the background alone. The only thing I had to do was use the Clone Stamp tool to erase where the drawn characters peaked through the toys.

Direct link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVaUdtRTIxa3liQ1U/view?usp=sharing

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Kapow!

Each figure was shot individually and placed onto the image. I cleaned up a few visible screws on each of the figures and the brand on Prowl's foot. There is also a subtle shadow layer over the ground.

Gundog and Prowl were basic poses. Posing Wardog was a little more involved. I basically leaned him against a white candle and erased it in Photoshop.

I created the explosion with my custom smoke brush. The ground is the lake bed from a nearby park. They had drained the lake because of the drought. The sky is just of a summer afternoon.

Direct link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVUkwwT2dRN0xKc0E/view?usp=sharing

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Masterpiece Wheeljack, Mastermind Creations Sphinx, and Masterpiece Bumblebee

Unfortunately, the figures aren't balanced enough to have one foot in the air so this is the best running stride I could manage. The shoulder cannons on Wheeljack and Sphinx don't articulate any further upwards. I find putting the figures on the "ground", is far easier than trying to blend them into it in Photoshop.

The ground is several desert sand tiles from ToyStages. The sky was shot with a Hoya FLW filter. The background mountains are of a rock formation shot at Coyote Hills Park. I finished it with a purplish soft light layer.

I only needed to clean up a couple of screw holes on Wheeljack and Sphinx and to add the eye glow.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVV0lSRXFNbjFlaHM/view?usp=sharing

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Brothers In Arms

Sunsurge and Sideswipe were shot together, and the background added later. I used a layer mask to hide Sideswipe's arm.

The cracks and smudges on both figures are the result of a Render Difference Cloud layer with levels adjusted to simulate lightning, and then overlayed in black. Some of the leg panels were deformed with the Spot Healing brush.

The background is a close-up of a castle piece from some board game.

Hi-res image - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVdWN6c0hXc21ZWjA/view?usp=sharing

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Astrotrain, transform and get us out of here!

Transportation Captain is standing in for Astrotrain. The back of his train mode doesn’t actually open. I did that in Photoshop by cutting out a small section and rotating it. I didn’t use DX9 Chigurh because of convenience. I already had a side shot of Transportation Captain when I had him in train mode recently. I really didn’t want to transform Toyworld Evila Star again because he has a clear plastic hinge in his backpack that I don’t want to stress.

I couldn’t figure out how to get Rumble to hold Apollyon’s fusion cannon, which is quite a bit larger than Rumble himself. I also tried with Toyworld Hegemon’s fusion cannon, but I couldn’t get him to hold that either. In the end, I just took a separate shot and layered it on Rumble using a layer mask. The final shot is with Hegemon’s fusion cannon.

Apollyon was similarly layered on Soundwave with a layer mask because Soundwave’s arms are not long enough nor strong enough to hold Apollyon in that fashion. It was just a matter of trying different camera angles until I found a shot that I was satisfied with. Unfortunately, Apollyon’s head doesn’t have enough upward articulation to match the source material.

Since Generation Toys has yet to release their version of Scavenger, I used Scraper instead. He, Mixer, and Starscream were simply individual shots that were added to the scene.

The immediate foreground elements include a rock from my garden and stairs from my home. Both had a field blur and an orange overlay applied. The stairs had additional Hue/Saturation layers applied to the left edge to simulate the broken edge.

The stray blaster bolt, because the Autobots seem to have worse aim than Stormtroopers, was created from a deformed Marquee fill-in, with Inner and Outer glow layer styles in effect.

The ground is a shot of the desert ground tile from Toy Stages. I applied a Render Cloud layer to simulate mist and dust. It also helps to keep the figures from looking like they are simply floating over the ground.

The background is a shot of the Mechanical Chain Base panels. I used Layer Masks and colored layers to make it look like sections had been blasted away and scorched. The sky is a shot of some random summer day. The smoke plume was created with my custom smoke brush.

Hi-res image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVeEt3cGMtM1ExVGc/view?usp=sharing

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Booby Trap

Blitzwing is a decent figure, made better by the Dr Wu kit that fixes his faulty shoulders and gives him a larger rifle and a younger face. I didn't get Doubledealer because I vaguely remember him having a missile truck and a bird for alt modes.

Fancy Cell Transportation Captain is a surprisingly good figure. At least his robot mode is. I haven't transformed him yet. He looks good and scales well with Generations Blitzwing. Chigurh and Evil Star are both much larger figures. For having such large feet, he still has a tendency to fall backwards though. I'm interested to see what else this company comes up with.

I don't remember why they have a girl chained to a crate in this episode.

This was composed of three shots - the figures and ground; the doll, chain, and crate; and the sky. The figures were shot together standing on a couple of sand tiles from Toy Stages. The crate is from a Mechanical Chain Base set. I borrowed one of my daughters' smaller dolls to serve as the captive. I'm finding hair to be a pain to create a layer mask from. The chain is one of those rubberband bracelets that kids make, with the colors desaturated. The sky is from a summer evening, shot with my Hoya FLW filter.

Hi-res link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVOFNSQUNaRWV4Z1E/view?usp=sharing

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