Jurassic Battle

Giant robot dinosaurs! Why are they fighting on some moon in some distant solar system? Who cares. I justed wanted to use Planet X Apocalypse in a space scene.

Apocalypse, Vulcun, and Caelus were shot together because they are interacting with each other. Quirinus, Summanus, and Neptune were shot separately and dropped into the picture. I had to cut and paste Summanus' and Neptune's heads in from different shots because they can't look up like that. Blemishes and screw holes were covered up. Glowie bits are Inner and Outer layer styles. Quirinus fire breath was created from my custom smoke brush. I added a dust cloud by overlaying one of my cloud photos.

The stars are a couple of noise layers. The swirling galaxy in the background is from a NASA photo of a hurricane that I distorted. The foreground surface is a NASA photo of the moon's surface. The planets are from marble texture images I found online and Spherized. The sun is from a lens flare.

It's pretty fun and simple to create these kind of space backgrounds. Just another option until I get a chance to photograph some more sunsets.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVeTlZaUtFanlNUE0

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Nothing defeats the Devastator!

One last project with TFC Hercules before I crack open the new sets. I discovered Transformers before Voltron and other Japanese giant robot cartoons, so when 6 robots formed into a giant brute that the Dinobots couldn't initially handle, my mind was blown. My childhood Devastator toy was an orange-colored knockoff my father had found at the local flea market, but I didn't care.

Would Generation Toy Gravity Builder or Toyworld Devastator look better? Probably, but Hercules still looks pretty damn good. Over the year, he's gotten a little wobbly at the hips, but he's able to maintain his stance. I had to do a little surgery to his left knee. The ratchet in Mad Blender's connector joint was really loose. I was able to fix it by opening up the housing and placing 4 pieces of post-it note paper underneath the ratchet plate. If Structor's ratchet loosens, the same fix should work as well.

This is from the episode, "Heavy Metal War." Because of the small size of my light tent, I shot Apollyon, Soundwave, Starscream, and Thundercracker individually. Yes, Thundercracker. I'm anxiously awaiting finally getting my hands on MP11 Skywarp. I used some Hue Saturation layers to recolor Thundercracker. It still doesn't look quite right, but it will do for now. I did the same to the green barrel on Mad Blender. The smoke is drawn with my custom smoke bush. The background is a composite of an evening sky, a large boulder formation at Alum Rock Park, the foothills at the same, and a dried out lake bed at Penitencia Creek Trails.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVcW5zNDZvYW5DWGc

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Planet X Dinobots

It's been a while since I've had time to work on a project. Couldn't remember how I did some of the glowie bits and shadows so Triton might be a little different than the rest. All in all, a bunch of great figures with some flaws spread across the line. Still, I absolutely love the set. It's one of my favorite groups. It's so hard to choose just one.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVWUJIcHRNaEVCRU0
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Planet X Vulcun with Rage Over Cybertron Optimus Prime

I was debating whether or not to replace every element in the source picture, but quickly realized I'm not yet skilled enough to reproduce everything on my own. Instead, I opted to add what I could with my own photos, and let interesting bits show through so that the final picture would be more dynamic.

I started with a Render Clouds layer and masks to give the picture more atmosphere. It also helps to hide the feet of some of the figures. Without it, Vulcun would look like he was floating over the ground.

Starscream required a little work to hide the hollow gap behind the cockpit, but otherwise just needed a little fiddling with saturation levels to not appear overly bright. His contrails are photos of a candle flame stretched out.

Optimus Prime has quite a bit of hollowness and holes on his arms and legs, that I filled in. Most of that work didn't make it into the final composition so next time I'll have to remember to compose then fix. It's very subtle, but without Layer Effects enabled for the panel lines and Autobot symbol, he would look very dull. The eyes and weapon glows have a more obvious impact. Unfortunately, his head articulation doesn't really allow the figure to match the dynamic pose of the source material.

I don't like putting batteries in my figures so it is no big loss that Planet X Vulcun's red bits don't glow. It's an easy enough effect to add in Photoshop, and it helps to cover up some of the screws. Being a great figure, there are no gaps to fill in.

I left in parts of the picture of Optimus Prime and Grimlock because they resemble buildings and structures. Maketoys Nemesis is taking the place of the structure in the top right. Maketoys Utopia and Fall of Cybertron Shockwave are there to add interest to otherwise empty sections of the picture.

In the skies above Cybertron, I added a few more Seekers and a moon. The smoke cloud and meteors were added by creating a custom brush out of a Render Clouds layer.

The building on the left is the same set of Mechanical Chain Base panels from my previous picture, with bits masked out to let the background picture show through.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVNWp0R2hPbWx3STQ

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Planet X Vulcan with Fall of Cybertron Starscream

Thanks to Erik Rosenquist for this idea of recreating this scene from the game. It's not exact. I changed the angles of the characters because their shoulder pylons would block out their faces.

Planet X Vulcun is an amazing figure. I can't stop messing around with him. I am so glad this Planet X set is complete. I only had to cover up a couple of screws and add in some glow effects.

I never noticed how hollow Starscream is. There is a huge gap along his left side and a bunch of small holes in his right thigh. I also had to mask out his club fist and stitch in an articulated hand from Perfect Effect. It's a subtle effect, but I changed the color of his cockpit canopy to more closely match the scene and added a pink glow to his chest/shoulder panels. The thrusters are from a set of picnic torches, with Hue/Saturation adjustments.

The background is a set of four mechanical chain bases. The shot was taken with a purple gel on my flash, with color temperatures further tweaked in Photoshop. I also applied a Spherize distortion filter. Unfortunately, I don't yet know how to do a cable coming out of the background and into the foreground so I just upped the fog effect.

This was pretty fun to do. I'm going to have to comb through scenes from the cartoon, games, and other materials to get more ideas.

Be sure to download the hi-res file at:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVSEgyc2M0RE9nZVk/view

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Planet X Dinobots

Planet X Caelus - Fall of Cybertron Swoop
This was my first third party purchase. I'm so glad I took the plunge because there are just so many great figures out there that fill gaps in Hasbro's line or simply improve upon what is available.

I started with a photo of an overcast day and enhanced it with some more drawn in clouds. That custom smoke brush is sure coming in handy.

The star streaks are Motion blurred, Guassian blurred, Noise layers. 

Caelus doesn't have as many obvious places to add in glowing bits. I still need to work on making a more convincing afterburner.

These are my favorite collection of Transformers, but a third party company needs to get working on articulated neck and tail extensions.

Planet X Neptune - Fall of Cybertron Sludge

I kept the same background as Quirinus so I could focus on touching up the figure. Since the upcoming Paddles is just a remold of Neptune, it's probably too much to hope that he will have the articulated neck and tail as well as replacement parts for Neptune.

Even without them, this is still a great figure. I love the size in comparison to the rest of his team. His hammer weapons are a nice change of pace from the usually included swords.

Planet X Quirinus - Fall of Cybertron Slug

I hadn't noticed until now that Slag was renamed to Slug in the game.

Compared to the previous project, this was a piece of a cake. I intend to do the same for the rest of the figures.

Unfortunately, there are no caves nearby so I had to make do with a photo I took of a nearby park to serve as my background.

Planet X Summanus - Fall of Cybertron Snarl
This is an absolutely beautiful figure, with all the transparent plastic plates and spikes. Unfortunately, transparent plastic was also used in joints and mount points so you have to handle this figure with some care. I still love it though. Makes me wish that the Autobots, or Shockwave in this case, didn't just stop at five Dinobots. At least Paddles is in the works.

I probably shouldn't hold my breath for an articulated neck and tail add-on pack.

Planet X Vulcun - Fall of Cybertron Grimlock
Although I already did Grimlock, I wanted to complete this picture set. This is an amazing figure that corrects all the faults of the Hasbro version. It feels so great to finally complete this line of Dinobots.

Hi-res image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVNHFHa3JqekJabVE/view?usp=sharing
Hi-res image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVT3FvUXpSdHZGdmc/view?usp=sharing
Hi-res image at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVeEtFU3NqSzNCT2s/view?usp=sharing
Hi-res image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVVlI2RUJqTF9FbXc/view?usp=sharing
Hi-res image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVN29EWHJxdU9aM0U/view?usp=sharing

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