Scenic Twilight

Scenic Twilight

It's been a while since I've worked on a photo project. Three stymied attempts to go to Mexico and Hawaii to collect more sunset photos and my illness really combined to suck the creative spirit right out of me. Had to dig through my photo library to find an old one from Waikiki just as the sun went down over the horizon.

I positioned X-Transbots Flipout on a paving tile in front of my laptop screen. Although I took a bunch of photos with different colored gels on my flash, I wound up only using a single photo from when the flash didn't fire. The reflection from the monitor and the ambient room lights provided enough color variations.

The Ferrari emblem is from a photo of a Ferrari that is more or less oriented in the same position.

I haven't gotten around to transforming Flipout yet. I expect it will be as easy as Crackup was.

Direct Link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EOgLkiOmN-PChZMGj6p0ap1R4H97lyAy/view?usp=sharing

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Nemesis

Nemesis

I still love Planet X Apocalypse. It is definitely a conversation piece. How could any guest not acknowledge a large robot standing guard on the coffee table? Unfortunately with no space to display large pieces in the living room, I have dispersed the larger figures to the bedrooms, much to my family's annoyance.

Apocalypse is too big for my light tent and my acrylic sheets so I had to shoot him on a piece of white poster board, then painstakingly cut him out. I'm a bit out of practice so hopefully I didn't leave too much of an outline. I added the purple glows in Photoshop because I ran out of those little batteries to make use of his light-up feature. 

The star field is from a couple of Noise layers. The nebulas are from a cloud photo I had taken somewhere and colored with a Color Dodge layer using my custom smoke brush. Both suns and the small planet are created from Sphere Distortions of marble textures I found online, then color graded with Layer Styles and Photo Filters. Using Color Dodge as the Outer Glow Blend Mode causes them to interact with the cloud layer underneath, giving them their asymmetrical halo. The foreground is a NASA photo of our own atmosphere. And of course, I wrapped it all up with a lens flare.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-ZQN9mcTUHsog4nsslT6jc7rv5QNYrCy

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Sunset Run

Sunset Run

The car mode of this figure is absolutely gorgeous. I just had to use it in a project before transforming it.

I shot Unique Toys Peru Kill on a sheet of dark sand paper while positioning my laptop screen so that the fullscreen photo of a sunset would reflect in the windshield. It had the added benefit of adding some nice purple highlights to the car itself. This saved me the trouble of trying to superimpose a sunset later. The soft shadows are also a result of the laptop screen. The sunset is one I had photographed at Shoreline Lake last year.

In Photoshop, I combined my shot with a couple of street texture photos that I found online, cleaned up the usual blemishes and dust on the car, and added headlights and tail lights. I used some motion blur to convey a sense of movement.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Gt-jlJB7cdp569SXuBZXgXGXXcvWWWuP

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"You have failed me for the last time . . . again"

"You've failed me for the last time . . . again"

Starscream, the trope namer for the overly ambitious subordinate who's ready to take over for the big bad at the first sign of weakness. I've always found it hilarious how he was so quick to declare that Megatron had fallen and assume command of the Decepticons. I can't help but feel a sense of vicarious pride for the smug bastard during his crowning ceremony in The Movie, only to laugh when Galvatron finally shows up and does what Megatron should have done so long ago. I wish they had shown how Starscream managed to subdue all the Decepticons, including Devastator, after jettisoning a mortally wounded Megatron. My biggest complaint about his portrayal in the live action movies is that we never saw that traitorous aspect of this character.

I suppose I could have shot Masterpiece Starscream with his crown and cape accessories at the height of his glory, but I suffered from new toy syndrome with Maketoys Meteor. Although the mechanics of shooting Meteor and Despotron were simple, I did have to spend a bit of time finagling the figures into position because of Despotron's arm sculpt butting against Meteor's chest sculpt.

The final image is a composite of a couple of shots - one with purple gel and another with orange gel on my flash. In Photoshop, I combined them together, exposing whichever parts of each layer I felt worked against the background I had chosen. The background is a shot of some random fall evening. I also added some color overlay layers to further enhance the purplish and orange reflections. It's a subtle effect, but worth the effort I think because the figures would just be a somewhat plain off-white otherwise. The reflections of the clouds and trees on Meteor's body were done with a layer mask and a slightly transparent brush to allow the background to show through.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1h2BJ09Nmc3Way8CWS1R5ugpq_vIVVdMo

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The Coming Storm

The Coming Storm

I started out with a simple space scene to highlight Generation Toy Tyrant, but got bored since I've already done a couple of those. I also wanted something more than a sunrise backdrop. 

Tyrant and GCreations Ultra Maxmas were shot in my light tent. A combination of colored gels on my flash and Photoshop Curve and Color Dodge layers were used to color grade them. Tyrant already had purple energon lines painted on his body, which I spruced up with Inner and Outer Glow Layer Styles. His exhaust trail is a distorted polygon with Field Blurs applied at both ends.

The background is a sun rise shot over the Silicon Valley, taken after a long hike up Black Mountain. The explosion is from a stock photo I found online. I used a Levels layer to blend it into my photo, then I used Color Dodge layers to paint the sky and clouds on fire, more so than they already were from the sun. I finished the scene off with a lens flare because I'm channeling JJ Abrams.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ctabb6gBD2KAPoclGQYS_7Zv5lH3q7mZ

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War Zone

War Zone

I was originally inspired by that highway scene between Optimus Prime and Bonecrusher in the first Michael Bay Transformer movie. Somehow it morphed into this scene between Jazz and Scrapper instead.

The background picture is not mine. It is from a 2014 AFP photo of a car bombing in Beirut. 

I shot Generation Toy J4ZZ and Scraper with some colored gel on my flash in anticipation of matching them to flames. In Photoshop, I used curve, photo filter, and saturation layers to further blend them into the picture. For Scraper, I placed a shadow layer under him and some dust to obscure where his feet "meet" the ground. His eye flare is from a lens flare render. For both figures, their faction symbols are actual stickers, but with inner, outer, and gradient layer styles enabled to provide that shimmering effect. As usual, I covered up obvious screws, filled in gaps in the form, and provided some subtle glow layers.

In the foreground, I blended in some embers from stock photos by placing them in front and behind J4ZZ. They add some more depth to the image.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1F5LK407pVpJ7_NPvvkmsTbnTmsbnkeFP

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We're all doomed

We’re all doomed

TransformMission Over Turn was shot on my garage floor, using my cell phone as a light source. The background is from a trip to Washington DC, taken from the deck of a moving boat on the Potomac river. No tripod, just a handheld shot. Don’t quote me, but I think it’s the National Harbor. The downside of these extremely dark shots is that my camera seems to introduce quite a bit of grain to the picture. I added a moon from a different evening. For whatever reason, it really was that reddish color in the night sky. Seems fitting for this nihilistic character. The reflection in Over Turn’s windshield is from a different shot from somewhere along the Potomac. I cleaned up some of the panel lines, added headlights with a couple of lens flare renders, and tried to clean up the unbelievable amount of dust from the car. The Decepticon symbol is a png file that I distorted and toyed around with the various layer style tabs to achieve the desired effect.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwxl1QbH6hwVcWJRNUlfdGNiZ0k/view

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