TFC Toys Constructicons

Before gearing up to look at the Generation Toy and Toyworld Constructicons, I wanted to revisit an oldie but goodie.

The TFC Toys Constructicons are starting to show their age, but they are still a fun set. They were my first exposure to TFC Toys. Some of the figures don't really look like their source material, but I'm not really going to keep them in this mode anyways.

They lack feet and wrist articlation, severly limiting their posability. Some of them are super kibbly. With Mad Blender and Exgraver, it was simply easier to remove their cement mixer and shovel.

I spent a little time trying to blend their feet into the grass. Photoshop has this grass shapped brush that randomly changes property with each click. It seems to have the effect I wanted when applied to the layer mask at each foot. To save time, I cheated with Exgraver and Neckbreaker.

The background is a shot of the evening sunset from Communications Hill. I applied a red photo filter to the figures in an attempt to impart that rusty sunset glow. Being so strongly backlit by a sunset, they really should have been more in silhouette, but that's what Photoshop is for.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVQkpPZUs1SlJvZXc

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Die, Autobots!

I have a morbid fascination with this scene, from when the Decepticons blasted their way onto the shuttle to when Megatron blew off Iron Hide's head. I couldn't believe how easily the Autobots went down. These weren't Red Shirts nor the weaker members of the team. I wonder what Brawn was thinking, charging in like that, without even a gun.

Bad Cube Brawny was shot from above. I'm still getting used to the depth of field on my new camera, which is why his feet aren't in focus. I ran his windshield through a Craquelure Filter Gallery and used Clone Stamps and Hue/Saturation Layers to draw in the debris. His mouth is brushed on. There is a Drop Shadow Layer to give him a sense of being elevated from the ground.

Masterpiece Starscream is holding the mini Megatron accessory that I've long forgotten came with which figure. The smoke coming from the barrel is a shot of an extinguished candle flame. It's a subtle effect, but I think worth the effort spent capturing some smoke pictures.

Generation Toy Navvy is serving double duty as Scavenger and Bonecrusher. I used a Hue Saturation Layer to recolor his legs for Bonecrusher and the smoke to hide his body.

Generation Toy Mixer may have provided for a more consistent look, but I'd already spent some time cleaning up Toy World Concrete.

Sadly, Long Haul didn't make it into the shot since I don't have one.

Since I couldn't think of a decent way of replicating the shuttle interior, I spent a little time transforming and clone stamping the screen capture. I had to hide where the drawn characters were still peaking through and extend the light running along the ceiling.

I may have gone a little overboard with the smoke effects, but I needed a way to hide not-even-not-Bonecrusher and the far end of the shuttle. Both sets of smoke were drawn with my custom Smoke brush.

I may redo Scavenger and Bonecrusher and add in Long Haul once I get a hold of the Toy World figures.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVRHFfblIyN1hsaTg/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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