Bug Spray

Sometimes the accessories included with the figures lend themselves to fun ideas.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVZkJ3Vms0QlFmU28

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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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Snowy Drive

Some flour, a sifter, and my garage floor served as the backdrop for this shot. Maybe I should have sprinkled some flour on the car, but I really didn't want to get that stuff into the joints. I finished it off with some overlays of my cloud pictures and a couple of artificially created headlights.

Direct link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVTF93ZjNaaHRwYU0

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Our jet judo needs a little more work

This was a simple project to try out my new camera. I've been using a Panasonic FZ-200 bridge camera previously. Now I'm using a Canon 70D. My workflow needs some modifying. Although I haven't figured out how to do the white background easily with the Canon, the figures are still very easy to extract because the edges are so much sharper.

Masterpiece Sideswipe, Badcube Sunsurge, and the parachute accessory from Mastermind Creations Sphinx were all shot separately. I used layer masks to place the parachute ropes in the figures' hands. The parachute itself was the most difficult thing to photograph because it kept wanting to return to a flat shape. The sky was shot on a cloudy summer evening, using a Hoya FLW filter. A final Warming Photo Filter was used to tie all the colors together.

Got Masterpiece Hot Rod incoming. That can only mean trying to recreate a couple of iconic scenes with him as I try to learn how to shoot with the Canon.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVUkMtbjFlaktnM2c/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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