Many may not be aware that I have many artistic contributions to IDC sets. Mixmaster's article, Battle of Endor - A Graphic Design Perspective, demonstrates what we often do to many of the images. Over the next few articles I will discuss the art I did for IDC sets.
Because I go into detail about most of the cards I did, the following may get a little dry at times for those not interested in image design and modification. Following the information are all the images I was directly responsible for. Don't worry, they will load quickly.
Fall of the Republic (FOTR) was all of our trial by fire and I think we did a great job with it. Mixmaster's efforts at cooperation in those days seemed more genuine. As Graphic Design Chairman, he had the responsibility to make sure the images were completed on time and so solicited help from other members of the IDC. At first, the images were very dark. When I discussed this with Mixmaster, he was very adamant that the images were perfectly lit, but after some discussion I suggested that perhaps Mix's screen was set to bright and finally convinced Mix to darken his screen so that he could see them the way the rest of us saw them. After that, the images were adjusted and from there on out his images came out fine. Ketricel contributed Swamp Speeder with some creative input from myself. Now i had three of my own contributions to the FOTR set.
The Images
Mixmaster was having trouble finding a good image for Clone Blaster, so I found one and he took a fresh screen capture. I then took them image and blew it up and nudged it up so that part was was blank on the bottom right and left edges, so I fudged the bottom edges and explained to Mix that he should do the same with any images he felt he needed to. So now there are many, many images in all sets where the outer edges are actually fudged. However, Mix ended up finding another, larger image of the weapon. Mix also came to me with Darth Vader (U), because he was having trouble with the lighting. So I fiddled with using color enhancements and contrast, and had to keep it slightly grayish, until you could clearly see him as he is today. I did the same for Tantive IV (B), Bail's Speeder (A), and minor tonal correction to Commander Bly (A) and Clone Grenade.
For Jedi Interceptor, I originally used a promo image from the Galaxies MMO, lightened the windows and changed the color of the ship, however, Mixmaster chose to go with a collage using the Anakin's Starfighter (A) image and a screen capture of Coruscant, and pulled my color change trick. He then did similar with Eta-2 Squadron (A). I also did versions of Wookiee Shield and Wookiee Army that were rejected in favor of their current versions.
I originally did an image for Droid Tri-Fighter Squadron that incorporated a promo image of a Droid Tri-Fighter over Coruscant, but this was rejected in favor of one of two stills I was able to point out to Mixmaster. Mixmaster was having trouble finding an image for Octuptara Tri-Troid, and all he had was a grainy, blurry image of it that Cody pointed out to him. So I did some color enhancements and a little blending for the final image. I tried my hand at Crab Droid fiddling with several dry CG maquettes, but Mixmaster found an image at the last moment that suited it perfectly.
Mixmaster came at me with the problem of Cin Drallig. He thought he was going to have to dump it and start over, so asked my opinion. The image didn't quite match the background both for image quality and lighting, but it was a good effort and I didn't think it needed to be dumped, so I flipped and repositioned the background to best highlight Cin and cleaned up and blended out some rough edges around the image. I kicked myself for a long time after that. Our mistake still festers on that card, which is that we forgot to fudge the bottom edges of the background image. For Sly Moore, I wanted to do the image. I had an image in mind and asked mix to get the screen capture I was thinking of, but it was a dead giveaway that it was from Attack of the Clones, so I took the image and cloned out the background elements so that it couldn't be identified which movie she was in.
SAV Images (2006)
I didn't do a whole lot for Scum and Villainy, but I did do some of my best work in it. In my first contribution to Scum and Villainy (SAV), I took a Star Wars: Bounty Hunters video game poster image showing Jango Fett and reversed the background to appear as if it were nighttime. This appeared on the Jango Fett (H) card. For Nym (A), I found a very (VERY) dark and very small CG image from the Star Fighters II video game, blew it up, lightened it up considerably, and spent days reconstructing the image. Among those chores was bringing out the rust on the ship and moddling in his skin and painting in a tentacle to bring him more in line with his entry in The Essential Guide to Star Wars Characters. When Mixmaster and Cody were having trouble finding decent images of Zoomer (A), I took on the project and eventually found screenshots of Zoomer (A) from the same game on an otherwise unlisted website. I cleaned each image up, making the images more crisp and realistic. The group then decided on which image to use. After that, I did Prince Xizor (See below). I concluded my contributions to SAV at the last minute by cleaning up a very (VERY) blurry screen capture for the Bartender image. I couldn't lighten it up much, because the screen capture didn't record the subtleties in the bartender's features very well, and there wasn't much I could do to correct it. Mixmaster did a fantastic job with the rest of the images in the set.
.jpg)
For my pièce de résistance in SAV, I took a small, very dark, and very (VERY) blurry image of Thomas J. Spanos in his Prince Xizor costume and blew it up, did some tricks to take out most of the camera shake blur, and manually sharpened the image the rest of the way. I then maticulously added in each armor plate (Most of which were cropped in the card), repainted his shoulder plate (it was bleached out by the overhead lights in the image), added a little ridging to give him a little more resemblance to Xizor's falleen heritage, put a gold band as a hair tie, and painted in the background with several effects and overlays. I then contacted Thomas J. Spanos to get his permission to use his visage. He suggested I dull down the ridging, reminding me that Xizor is half human, so I blended it down a little (probably not as much as he would have like); he now sports the card on his webpage. I also found the photographer's email and attempted to contact her for permission to use their image, but they never responded, and I exhausted every other avenue attempting to contact her to no avail, which under copyright law permitted me to use the image without permission.
BOE and RAW Images (2008)
I did not contribute anything to Battle of Endor, but I would like to comment that Mixmaster did an unparalleled job on the images in that set. His work was at its peak with that set. However, I think he burned himself out with his efforts on that set. And in Clone Wars: Republic at War (RAW) I only pointed out the frame of Padmé Amidala (I), as they were having trouble finding a good image of her.
Next time I will discuss my art contributions to the Invasion of Naboo set.
Because I go into detail about most of the cards I did, the following may get a little dry at times for those not interested in image design and modification. Following the information are all the images I was directly responsible for. Don't worry, they will load quickly.
Fall of the Republic (FOTR) was all of our trial by fire and I think we did a great job with it. Mixmaster's efforts at cooperation in those days seemed more genuine. As Graphic Design Chairman, he had the responsibility to make sure the images were completed on time and so solicited help from other members of the IDC. At first, the images were very dark. When I discussed this with Mixmaster, he was very adamant that the images were perfectly lit, but after some discussion I suggested that perhaps Mix's screen was set to bright and finally convinced Mix to darken his screen so that he could see them the way the rest of us saw them. After that, the images were adjusted and from there on out his images came out fine. Ketricel contributed Swamp Speeder with some creative input from myself. Now i had three of my own contributions to the FOTR set.
The Images
Mixmaster was having trouble finding a good image for Clone Blaster, so I found one and he took a fresh screen capture. I then took them image and blew it up and nudged it up so that part was was blank on the bottom right and left edges, so I fudged the bottom edges and explained to Mix that he should do the same with any images he felt he needed to. So now there are many, many images in all sets where the outer edges are actually fudged. However, Mix ended up finding another, larger image of the weapon. Mix also came to me with Darth Vader (U), because he was having trouble with the lighting. So I fiddled with using color enhancements and contrast, and had to keep it slightly grayish, until you could clearly see him as he is today. I did the same for Tantive IV (B), Bail's Speeder (A), and minor tonal correction to Commander Bly (A) and Clone Grenade.For Jedi Interceptor, I originally used a promo image from the Galaxies MMO, lightened the windows and changed the color of the ship, however, Mixmaster chose to go with a collage using the Anakin's Starfighter (A) image and a screen capture of Coruscant, and pulled my color change trick. He then did similar with Eta-2 Squadron (A). I also did versions of Wookiee Shield and Wookiee Army that were rejected in favor of their current versions.
I originally did an image for Droid Tri-Fighter Squadron that incorporated a promo image of a Droid Tri-Fighter over Coruscant, but this was rejected in favor of one of two stills I was able to point out to Mixmaster. Mixmaster was having trouble finding an image for Octuptara Tri-Troid, and all he had was a grainy, blurry image of it that Cody pointed out to him. So I did some color enhancements and a little blending for the final image. I tried my hand at Crab Droid fiddling with several dry CG maquettes, but Mixmaster found an image at the last moment that suited it perfectly.
Mixmaster came at me with the problem of Cin Drallig. He thought he was going to have to dump it and start over, so asked my opinion. The image didn't quite match the background both for image quality and lighting, but it was a good effort and I didn't think it needed to be dumped, so I flipped and repositioned the background to best highlight Cin and cleaned up and blended out some rough edges around the image. I kicked myself for a long time after that. Our mistake still festers on that card, which is that we forgot to fudge the bottom edges of the background image. For Sly Moore, I wanted to do the image. I had an image in mind and asked mix to get the screen capture I was thinking of, but it was a dead giveaway that it was from Attack of the Clones, so I took the image and cloned out the background elements so that it couldn't be identified which movie she was in.SAV Images (2006)
I didn't do a whole lot for Scum and Villainy, but I did do some of my best work in it. In my first contribution to Scum and Villainy (SAV), I took a Star Wars: Bounty Hunters video game poster image showing Jango Fett and reversed the background to appear as if it were nighttime. This appeared on the Jango Fett (H) card. For Nym (A), I found a very (VERY) dark and very small CG image from the Star Fighters II video game, blew it up, lightened it up considerably, and spent days reconstructing the image. Among those chores was bringing out the rust on the ship and moddling in his skin and painting in a tentacle to bring him more in line with his entry in The Essential Guide to Star Wars Characters. When Mixmaster and Cody were having trouble finding decent images of Zoomer (A), I took on the project and eventually found screenshots of Zoomer (A) from the same game on an otherwise unlisted website. I cleaned each image up, making the images more crisp and realistic. The group then decided on which image to use. After that, I did Prince Xizor (See below). I concluded my contributions to SAV at the last minute by cleaning up a very (VERY) blurry screen capture for the Bartender image. I couldn't lighten it up much, because the screen capture didn't record the subtleties in the bartender's features very well, and there wasn't much I could do to correct it. Mixmaster did a fantastic job with the rest of the images in the set..jpg)
For my pièce de résistance in SAV, I took a small, very dark, and very (VERY) blurry image of Thomas J. Spanos in his Prince Xizor costume and blew it up, did some tricks to take out most of the camera shake blur, and manually sharpened the image the rest of the way. I then maticulously added in each armor plate (Most of which were cropped in the card), repainted his shoulder plate (it was bleached out by the overhead lights in the image), added a little ridging to give him a little more resemblance to Xizor's falleen heritage, put a gold band as a hair tie, and painted in the background with several effects and overlays. I then contacted Thomas J. Spanos to get his permission to use his visage. He suggested I dull down the ridging, reminding me that Xizor is half human, so I blended it down a little (probably not as much as he would have like); he now sports the card on his webpage. I also found the photographer's email and attempted to contact her for permission to use their image, but they never responded, and I exhausted every other avenue attempting to contact her to no avail, which under copyright law permitted me to use the image without permission.BOE and RAW Images (2008)
I did not contribute anything to Battle of Endor, but I would like to comment that Mixmaster did an unparalleled job on the images in that set. His work was at its peak with that set. However, I think he burned himself out with his efforts on that set. And in Clone Wars: Republic at War (RAW) I only pointed out the frame of Padmé Amidala (I), as they were having trouble finding a good image of her.
Next time I will discuss my art contributions to the Invasion of Naboo set.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment