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

https://www.facebook.com/lapstransformersphotos/
https://www.instagram.com/laptutran/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/19429167@N02/albums

The Death of Prowl

I saw The Movie with a couple of friends at the theater. I was 8 at the time. Sure, a planet of nameless robots just got eaten by Unicron, but I don't think those deaths had any impact. It was not until the slaughter on the shuttle did I realize The Movie was doing something different.

Sure, Brawn charged the Decepticons without even a blaster in his hand and got a hole in hisshoulder for his troubles. No big deal; he's been shot in the head before and survived. Oh, Prowl is vomiting smoke now. Ironhide and Ratchet were next to fall, but I don't think it really hit me that they were all dead until Megatron blew off Ironhide's head. Kinda of a bad showing for the Autobots, now that I think about it.

I used a Canon 500D close-up conversion lens so I could fill the frame with Masterpiece Prowl's head. It certainly emphasized how sloppy the paintwork and molded detail are. The majority of the work for this picture was spent in touching up all the imperfections on the face, helmet, and crest. Mind you, this is an official Takara Masterpiece, not a KO. I also removed the backpack since it was a bit out of focus due to the shallow depth of field provided by the macro lens.

The background is just a shot of my trusty panels of Mechanical Chain Bases, with an orange overlay to simulate the ceiling of the shuttle. The eye glows are created from fiddling with the inner and outer glow and color overlay layer effects. The smoke is created from my custom brush. The few minutes spent making it are certainly paying off in how often I use it.

Hi-res link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVR0J0TnQ0RmZCdU0/view?usp=sharing

https://www.facebook.com/lapstransformersphotos/
https://www.instagram.com/laptutran/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/19429167@N02/albums