Star Wars duels

[Dark_Avenger]

Last weekend, I made up a neat little vignette for the long-anticipated Revenge of the Sith duel. This weekend, I made five more (one from each movie).

Phantom Menace - Obi-Wan vs. Darth Maul

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Nothing to special with this one - did my best to work with what I recall as a fairly smooth room setting. One thing I like is that I elevated it to leave room for a pit, though.

Attack of the Clones - Yoda vs. Dooku

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(Apologies for the blurriness.) Ignoring the blatantly-visible transparent piece that suspends Yoda, this is probably one of my favorites. Originally, I thought it'd turn out terrible, but the rough wall and pipes give at least some level of atmosphere to it.

Revenge of the Sith - Obi-Wan vs. Anakin

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This is the first vignette I built, and it remains my favorite. I did my best to put major emphasis on the lava, and I'm happy to have opted for silhouetted figs.

A New Hope - Obi-Wan vs. Darth Vader

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I tried closing off the doorway with side walls, but it made it look far too round and compact. Not especially happy with the way the back wall turned out, and I feel that I did a slipshod job by going with another wedge-a-plate-in-the-studs-of-another-plate technique.

The Empire Strikes Back - Luke vs. Darth Vader

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I have to say, it was a real pain building the staircase so those thin orange lights were included, but I think it was worth it. I'm happy with the background, too (in case you can't tell, the solid blue bricks were meant to be the fog rising behind Vader). Originally, I tried making Vader a silhouette, but his helmet was too distinguishable, so it just looked like a Vader that hadn't been painted.

Return of the Jedi - Luke vs. Darth Vader

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Yes, I know the horrors of photographing black MOCs, but black's really the only color for the Emporer's throne room. Next to Obi-Wan vs. Maul, this is probably my least favorite. The elevator doorway looks okay, IMO, but everything else seems too plain.

WARNING: FOLLOWING SECTION MAY CONTAIN EPISODE III SPOILERS

Things to come: (Yes, I have another 6 vignettes planned)

- Phantom Menace: Qui-Gon vs. Darth Maul (desert duel)

- The Clone Wars: Anakin vs. that crazy chick with two red lightsabers (I think her name was Asajj or something)

- Revenge of the Sith: Anakin vs. Dooku

- Revenge of the Sith: Obi-Wan vs. Grievous

- Revenge of the Sith: Mace Windu vs. Palpatine

- Revenge of the Sith: Yoda vs. Sidious

As y'all can tell, I have a lot to learn about vignette-making. Personally, I think I'm off to an okay start (I guess I just really like that Anakin vs. Obi-Wan, lol), but I'd love to hear whatever feedback any of you have to offer.

[ApophisV]

Some nice vignettes! I especially like the Episode 3 vignette, the black figs are an really excellent idea! I also like the ESB vignettes, the background looks very nicely even if its a very simple construction! Well done!

But let me also give you some hints on picture quality:

First of all: If you don't want to / can't use the flash of your cam use another lightsource than the normal light of your room (e.g. a desk lamp) or try to shot it near a window or so. Experiment!

The cam I currently use makes excellent pictures of black parts when flash is activated and for white parts I deactivate it and use my desk lamp (I wish I had noticed the difference when I shot the bellatrix... :$) But I think since you surely have another cam than me you should experiment a bit with it.

Another note: Better try to leave some distance between your cam and the object and zoom in with the camera's zoom (if your camera has this function). I'm pretty sure most people would like to see the MOC clearly with a heighst of 800 pixels instead of looking at a blurry MOC you can't even display completely on your monitor!

And you should edit your images to become smaller, a maximum size of 1024 x 768 or even 800 x 600 pixels (My latest pictures are all this size!) is in most cases just fine to see all important details! And even if some details aren't viewable at this resolution you still can take some detailed shots showing outcuts of your MOC!

Just some hints, I hope it helps... ;)

[Vash the Stampede]

They all look really well done. Good work on the effort you put into it.