Quick Hits: Aussie Series 3, Contests, and How-to's

A lot to report this morning...First up Bricks Down Under is reporting that Target Canberra Centre has Series 3 Collectible Minifigures in stock. This is the first reported sighting of this of Series 3 in Oz. The site provides the standard dot 'cheat sheet', but with all the questions swirling around, I'll be interested to hear how accurate they turn out to be. See Bricks Down Under for more details.

Eurobricks is holding a Harry Potter Original Wizard Contest. It would appear that this contest takes a purist approach according to the rules, so start sorting through your collection. The prizes are a bit of a mystery, but entries must be in by February 1st. Check out the thread on Eurobricks for more details.

If you recall, Victor (eclipseGRAFX) had an amazing Star Wars MOC a few days ago with amazing lighting an digital effects. He provides a detailed behind the scenes tutorial on the CABG forums. You can see just how much work went into this creation and hopefully have it inspire your works of your own.

More coming later today, so stay tuned...

Cygnet
Minister of Information
Ugly Duck Command Center
Minifig Nation

Masking Effects in Your Minifig Photos

Chris McVeigh (Powerpig) is one of my favorite toy photographers, mostly due to the fact he often pulls the curtain back behind many of his complex shots to show how things were done.

You may have seen his pictorial project this past holiday season taking each day of the LEGO City Advent calendar and creating a story and image around it. On day 10, he had a father being bowled over by the family dog, important papers flying through the air (shown above). There are likely numerous ways that one could achieve the effect, but try throwing paper up in the air and getting a crisp, clean picture to result (I'll wait...) So how did he do it?

Chris shows in this set up that he first took a picture of the room with papers suspended by a wires, sans doggy and daddy. Although he didn't go into great detail, he likely then took a second picture with the figures included but no papers. The two images were 'composited' together and further tweaked to arrive at the final result. A 'mask' was likely applied to merge the two images while removing the wires that held the papers. Masks can be applied in software packages like Photoshop or GIMP. You can likely find several tutorials how to do this on the interwebs.

Masks or masking can be used to create several visual effects. Do you want to show a Sith lord force choking a subordinate in mid-air. Masks can help do that. Do want to show your space marine bursting through a concrete wall, with chunks of concrete flying out? Masking can help there too. Whether you are using Photoshop, GIMP, or another piece of photo editing software there should be plenty of tutorials to watch on the web.

You can check out more of Chris' photos on his main Flickr stream, and more behind-the-scenes secrets on his set up page.

Video Tutorial - Lightsaber Effects in GIMP

Over the weekend I registered for the Clone Army Builder's Guild forum as I've heard nothing but good things about the group. I was looking through the forum topics and found a link to the video tutorial above on how to make 'lightsaber effects' in GIMP, a free, open-source photo editing software that has similar functionality as Photoshop.

A quick use of the YouTube search and it appears that this video is the most viewed tutorial on the site for this topic (it doesn't mean it's the best, of course, but that's a story for another time). Nine minutes later and a little practice and you could be adding glowing lightsabers, eyes, or power cores to your minifig creations or vignettes.

The one place where this tutorial is wanting is in how to generate believable light effects from said blade. Although the end result looks quite good, it doesn't cast the light and shadows you would expect. If anyone knows a fix for this, please let us know.

Thanks to the folks at the CABG for pointing this out!

Jedi Briefing Room by eclipseGRAFX

Another fantastic instance of how an already great vignette can be enhanced through digital techniques. The lighting is wonderful and the enhanced computer screen and hologram just put it over the top.

Victor (eclipseGRAFX) is really becoming a triple threat - he's a fantastic customizer, he can build great scenes that tell stories of their own, and he can dance the merengue like nobody's business...I may have made up that last one.

You can see the unedited build on eclipseGRAFX Flickr stream. This was also for a contest on the Clone Army Builder's Guild, who invite you to check them out in the new year.

Catsy's Object Lesson

So I try not to make the same mistake twice...Brandon Bannerman (Catsy) has yet another amazing scene he's created this time from the files of the Space Police. It seems that rouge cop Nigel MacGruder is leading the Jovian Fleet to plunder the Sol precinct.

Fantastic use of lighting in this scene, and do I see a new use of the BrickArms Brodie!

It seems Nigel and his gang will go to any lengths to keep order in the gang. That one bloke shot so close to the two men on the floor it seems they spilled their punch...

Check out more of Catsy's creations on his Flickr stream.

You Know What They Say About Those Who Assume...

I could say that I didn't post Brandon's amazing creation earlier in the week because I assumed he would be winning a certain contest this month and I wanted to wait until then...but I won't.

You may have seen Brandon Bannerman's (AKA Catsy) scene of three spec ops soldiers ready to bring a mountain down on an unsuspecting enemy on a little known site called The Brother's Brick. If not, then be amazed at the presentation, lighting, and just plain inventiveness that went into this piece. The image almost tells a story all on it's own.

You can see more, including some behind-the-scene set up shots, on Brandon's Flickr stream. There's a also a nifty narrative for this pic that can be found there as well.

BrickArms Elements of Great Building December Winner

Congratulations to Pvt.Stringer for his winning entry for December's BrickArms Elements of Great Building contest -  Nuclear Reconnaissance. Some great presentation here full capturing the concept of 'snow'. Makes me want to put on my coat just looking at it.

No news on what the next monthly contest will be on the forums, but I'm certain Will and Badger will have something cooked up soon.

You can read more about this creation on the BrickArms forums.

Adventures in Digital Presentation

It seems that Pecovam is working to bring his presentation skills to the next level. He has several shots of his custom minifigures with digital backdrops to take his already fantastic customs to new heights. Andrew is partnering with Wes Smith on the digital backdrops.

If you would like to learn more on how to add a little 'punch' to your presentations, check out the 'Digital Backgrounds' tutorial in our collection by Jamie Spencer. What's that you say? You can't buy fancy and expensive software to design like the pros, because you blew all your X-mas money on NinjaGo figures? No worries, check out the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), a free, open-source alternative to Photoshop.

You can see more of Pecovam's designs on his Flickr stream.