Inspiration Processes.

I was sure I saw a photo-recreation thread here on AMMO and was going to post this there, but it must have been deleted.

Anyway, thought I'd document the creation of one of my recent pics.
I've been looking at a lot of old commercial art stuff of late Those guys could not only paint but their compositions were spot on!
Ads and pulp fiction covers, illustrations etc. and all without the benefit of photoshop.
So the client didn't like some aspect of your work next day? You had to repaint the whole thing by hand!

Anyway, there's some wonderful stuff and I thought it might be interesting to use some of the ideas as a starting point and an inspiration.
Here's what happened.

Step One: Select a particular work. In this case it's the cover for a paperback novel.



Step Two: Clone out the figure. This does not have to be perfect because the 1/6 scale figure will largely occupy the same space.
I had to continue the yellow vapour trail.



Step Three: Place the result onto a fairly largish monitor. Then select, clothe, pose and light the 1/6 figure appropriately and photograph from just the right angle to get the effect.



Step Four: the final result. Not an exact replica but another way to use my figures.



Okay so it was no Monthly Photo Comp. winner, but it was fun to create.

Fascinating look at your creative process for this image; interesting from a technical perspective, but, to me at least, even more so from the imaginative side. What inspired you, what did you want to achieve, what approach did you come up with, and how effective was the final result!

I, too, thought there was a photo-recreation or "copy the photo" topic, but I do not remember who originally posted it or what the title might have been.

There was a "posing" challenge - try to emulate the pose of the person in the photo:

https://actionmanmobileops.forumotion.co.uk/t11636-sniper-pose-challenge-which-figures-can-do-this

Or perhaps you were thinking of this topic, to which there were no photo responses:

https://actionmanmobileops.forumotion.co.uk/t11395-is-there-any-picture-you-would-like-to-create-using-your-figures

I guess one thing was whether there would still be the visual bond between background and fore-figure or would it look like a stick-on.
I think there is still a definite link but of course others may see it differently.

None of those links Dave, I think it was a Photo Challenge under the still existent Caption Contest but may have been deleted because it had very few responses for a long time, .......which is a damn shame because I WAS going to do the photo of the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb with Carter and his assistants.

Really clever stuff Barry! I thought you had photoshoped him in. How wrong was I?

Thank you very much for sharing with us LeStryge.

No Dal, it may be a personal bias but I deliberately try NOT to use photoshop in my work. To me that's taking the easy route.
Even though sometimes it may look like I've resorted to using it, 99% of the time it's just a plain straight out photograph.

Thanks Alex, ...glad you enjoyed seeing the process.

LeStryge wrote:

.......which is a damn shame because I WAS going to do the photo of the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb with Carter and his assistants.

But you couldn't find the topic? Well... curses!

I did something like that with my iCarly Fashion Switch Carly action figure*:




* Yes, I stand by my contention that Carly is an action figure!

The iCarter Discovers Pharaoh tutanCarly's Tomb picture is first off really cute and second having it in black and white works fantastic.

Brilliant work LeStryge I love the pictures explaining the process and the final result is superb.
If you feel inclined to do more of these "mini how to" threads I for one would be most interested

Rogue-Trooper wrote:

Brilliant work LeStryge I love the pictures explaining the process and the final result is superb.
If you feel inclined to do more of these "mini how to" threads I for one would be most interested

Thank you Chris!
I really enjoy watching older pre-CGI movies, where the special effects were done for real, with scale models, back-projections and stop-motion photography. (The superb work of Ray Harryhausen et al.)
This involved clever and detailed modelling and smart camera work. Now it's just green-screens and massive computer over-kill, and invariably has so much going on as to be visually over-whelming.
Guess that's why I prefer to do it the way I did here.
I think "cut-&-paste" photoshop rarely looks convincing, the light effects usually being at odds with the backgrounds and the cutout borders far too obvious and wrong angled.

I have now constructed a couple of complete hand build sets, (coming up in pics) but due to the size of 1/6 scale and the lack of storage space they have to be limited to just the few. I certainly want to do far more scenarios than just using those sets so the use of back projection allows this.

LeStryge wrote:

I have now constructed a couple of complete hand build sets, (coming up in pics)....

I'm looking forward to seeing what miniature marvels you have constructed!

SCU_HQ wrote:

I'm looking forward to seeing what miniature marvels you have constructed!

One in particular I have had completed for over two months now. It's just sitting there because I am STILL awaiting a vital prop so that I can photograph it.
The first one I ordered from China did not arrive. I have ordered a second one and it's STILL not here.
Very frustrating!

LeStryge wrote:

It's just sitting there because I am STILL awaiting a vital prop so that I can photograph it.
The first one I ordered from China did not arrive. I have ordered a second one and it's STILL not here.
Very frustrating!

...

China... yeah. They really do not give a rip about actually sending the stuff we buy anymore, do they?

Amazing how they manage to take the money though........