Sunrise Race

This was actually my first concept for Generation Toy J4ZZ before scrapping it in favor of what I'd posted for Sunset Drive. Maketoys Downbeat has a pretty good looking vehicle mode. It's not my favorite form factor for a Porsche, but it is true to the G1 cartoon. Be it the paint job or the build material, my rudimentary knowledge of Photoshop sliders had no effect on how Downbeat appeared.

To try and simulate the sun glinting off of the cars, I initially placed a flash off to the back, but found it blew out the "track". The same was true for using a lamp. In the end, I simply took a shot with only ambient lighting. I was afraid the sandpaper would be too fine grain to simulate a paved road, but it actually worked pretty well. I have more sheets of different grains to try out for future shots. The background is a shot of a sunrise at Black Mountain in Los Gatos (have I mentioned it was a 2 hour hike?) The low level fog seems to help to blend the horizon line. Instead of trying to draw the sides of the track, I downloaded a couple of pictures from a Wikipedia article on race tracks. Taking a cue from JJ Abrams school of cinematography, I also threw in a bunch of lens flares.

I completely overestimated the amount of depth of field I would get at f/16. Sideswipe, being slightly out of focus, was difficult to cut out because of his less defined edges. Next time I do something like this, I need to make sure the parts I intend to cut remain sharp and in focus. I can always blur it in Photoshop.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVcGRIcTJQYUtUVHM

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Sunset in the Hills

I made use of my garage floor, but didn't keep any part of it in the final shot. The shadowy base actually helped me blend it into a picture of the road I had found. To simulate the glint of sunlight off the car, I placed a diffuser in front of a flashlight positioned about where the sun would be. The sunset and background were taken during an autumn evening at Communications Hill.

Transform Mission Carnage has a gorgeous vehicle mode, even if the paint application is a little messy in spots. It has very few panel lines to clean. Had I remembered to apply some stickers, I would not have had to add the Decepticon and Lamborghini logos. I also added some headlights.

I'm running out of sunsets and sunrises from my library. Going to need to get out there and take some more.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVbWZUTlFKSFY0ZUU

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Oceanside Drive

I composited a Waikiki sunset (must go back someday) with a shot of Masterpiece Tracks on my garage floor. I'm not satisfied with the transition of the cliffside road to the ocean, but don't have any ideas to address that yet. A flashlight simulated the sun glinting off parts of the car, but it made the shadow really hard so I had to soften the edges. I also cleaned up some of the junk visible through the side windshield and added Spin Blur to the front and rear wheels. The roadstrip is painted on at partial transparency, with both a Gaussian Blur and Sandstone Texturizer applied.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVd3NpMjJfdmpnUmM

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