Darkdragon

I sigh because I just knew camping here was going to be trouble, even though I was not expecting this band of hairy people-eaters. "I will attack the Cleric from the back row."

Thanks for the review and pictures. I've really been wanting one of these, but like you point out the price on Bricklink is a bit nuts. I am glad you got the girl one because that's the one I was most interested in having and it's nice to see it outside of the little packaged images I've seen before. I agree that the proportions on the head are all wrong, the flower on the torso kinda looks like a scala 1x1 flower brick thingy. The clocks are in much better resemblance to the real minifigs but they don't have all the cool minifig-like features this product has.

"I am not sure how safe it would be to camp in the middle of town and wait for the Mopag to wake up and possibly attack us. If they aren't friendly to outsiders normally, I doubt they will be more friendly if they think we are trying to trick or spring a trap on them."

Thank you for all the comments. I'm glad you like it. I know the official calendar was probably intended to be rebuilt but to me the build is boring. I have a 5x32 stud area at the top of my calendar so that I can create a scene every month if I want to. That is much more fun and creative than just stacking 2x2 bricks each month. Those are the drawers. The one on the right is 2 levels high and 5 days wide. The one on the left is 1 level high and 2 days wide. Yes I have blank ones. For example on the photos if you look at the first row, the first 6 days have blank placeholders and the 6th row has 2 blank ones. There are a total of 10 blank ones but 2 are extras for September and are in the large drawer.

Thank you. Glad you like it. The official set came out just this summer. Brick Calendar (on Brickset)

Not to be a on-trick pony or anything, but I had another idea for a calendar moc and felt that I HAD to build it. This time it's more of an upgrade to the official set. All the printed bricks (month and days) are from the official set, but that is all I used. I don't care for the yellow day bricks and so I used the printed tiles from the keychain set. By gripping the blue handle, you can easily pull the day out to rearrange them for each month. At the bottom right of the calendar is a large drawer that holds the extra month bricks and day modules. There is a tiny drawer on the bottom left that can hold something small, was a left-over space and I thought a drawer would be better than just white bricks there. C&C is welcome. It is a little more impressive in person, but I think I got the idea across in these photos.

Controlling Depth of Field What is Depth Of Field? Depth of Field (DOF) is the depth in front of and behind your focus target that is also in acceptable focus. A shallow DOF means that there is very little distance in front or behind the target that is in focus, deep DOF means there is a lot of distance in front and behind the target that is also in focus. Another thing to keep in mind is that DOF is slightly shallower in front of the target (toward the camera) then it is behind the target (away from the camera). For some real in-depth information, see the entry on Wikipedia. Prerequisites (things we will not be covering) Know how to use your camera and it's available manual settings. Know how to choose what you want to focus on or use manual focus. Know how to set up your lighting for the effect you want. Why should I care about DOF in my comic or film? Controlling the DOF is controlling what is in focus in your photo. The items that are in focus are the ones the viewer will (obviously) focus on. Keeping unimportant items blurred will keep your frame cleaner and less confusing for the viewer. All images shot with Canon G9 on manual, macro mode, no flash, ISO 80. Focus point is always the face of the motorcycle cop-zombie. Camera was not moved between shots, but the first two shots were cropped to match the general field-of-view of the third photo. Aperture: f/8 Shutter: 1/10 second Aperture: f/2.8 Shutter: 1/60 second Aperture: f/3.2 Shutter: 1/60 second Additionally, the background zombies were moved back (~3 inches) and the zoom was used. How do I control the DOF? What does Aperture have to do with it? Not only the depth of field, but also the amount of blurring your out of focus areas will have can both be controlled by adjusting the aperture or f/stop of your lens. The wider open your aperture is, the shallower the depth of field will become, and also the more blurred the out-of-focus areas will be. What does Focal Length have to do with it? The more you magnify your subject, the shallower your depth of field will be. What this means is that the longer your lens' focal length, the shallower your depth of field. It is very difficult, for example, to get a deep DOF using a 100mm lens and, inversely, to get a shallow DOF using a 24mm lens. Of course, it is all relative to the actual magnification of your subject and the distance between the lens and the subject. What does Shutter Speed and ISO have to do with it? Absolutely nothing. Shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter is open and letting light hit the sensor. ISO is the light sensitivity setting of the sensor. Can I fake DOF control? As great as DOF control is, we are limited by the gear we have available. Luckily there are ways to "cheat" so that our end product comes out looking the way we want. Blurring in post production One of the most common solutions suggested is to blur areas you want blurred after you take the photo, using software such as Gimp or Photoshop. This can be an effective solution, but it is not something I recommend. For most folks, the image will end up looking edited and unnatural (because it is). Another reason to avoid this method is the time involved. If it takes you an hour to edit one photo, how long does that add up to when you are working on a film? Hint: there are 15 to 30 images per second for a film. Stretching the set With a lot of small cameras, the problem we run into most is that everything is in focus. For most scenes we want shallow DOF but these small lenses don't do it so well. We can fake it by expanding the set and then zooming in. The lengthening of the set will mean that even with a deep DOF we can have our background out of focus. Utilizing the optical effect of zoom compression, by zooming in, can in turn compress the set so that it appears to be not so stretched out. This is the method I recommend because you only need to set it up once for each scene and shoot as many photos as you want to, no extra editing time in post. Assignments For these assignments you will be posting images. Be sure to keep your images at or below the 800x600 pixels limit, I'd like them all to be at least 640x480 though. Assignment 1 Create a small scene with foreground, middle-ground, and background. Your focus target will be an item in the middle-ground. Keep the same target and angle for each photo, preferably the same focal length too, if this is possible with your camera. If you are having trouble with this, take an overhead photo of your set and post it in your student thread, I will help you out with some tips. Submit three images for grading: 1. ONLY your target in focus (shallow DOF) 2. Foreground AND Middle-ground in focus (mid DOF) 3. Everything in focus (deep DOF) Once this assignment is passed, move on to Assignment 2 for final grading. Example Assignment 2 (final) Using the skills learned above, create a 4 to 6 panel comic that imparts a story to the reader WITHOUT using any text call-outs or speech bubbles. Use post-production techniques sparingly, this assignment is about controlling the Depth-of-Field to convey the message, not about text and special effects. You can move the camera and objects in the scene just like any comic production. In your submission, use the spoiler tag to describe what is going on in the comic. If the idea came across in the photos you pass, otherwise you'll be given changes and information as to why the task didn't quite work. Example Image is a link to a super-sized version. More sizes on Flickr You can see the actual stage setup on Flickr

The best episode yet!

"Well shucks. I don't see any clues (or gold). I'm ready to head to the town when everyone else is."

"Maybe that 2 gold fell out of a bag that is buried nearby. I would like to look around the area for any disturbances in the ground and if I find any to dig there."

"I'll attack Bioluminescent Mopag Scorpion from back row."

A small digital that will be good for macro images like minifigs and costs little is the Cannon Powershot ELPH SD or HS series. These are under $200 usd and I used one (SD200 $129) for years until I could afford a dslr. You can look it up on Amazon website and there are example photos sent by actual customers and read the reviews. These little cameras are also very tough and I never had problems even after I gave it to my 9 year old niece (who didn't treat it as carefully as I did). If your camera is having hard time autofocus because of low light,, shine a flashlight on the subject just for the focus and then turn it off for the picture. Depending on if you are in manual or full auto mode this could change your exposure but it is easier to fix exposure in editing then to fix out of focus issues. You don't need a tripod to get a good image, you can use a book or towel under your camera. The thing you need is to keep your camera steady and not touch it. Use the self timer mode for clean shots in macro mode. This will help a lot because your hand can be off the camera when you actually get the photo.

"I will attack Mopag Frog C from the back row with Darkness magic."

"Nice one Thormanil. Next battle should be even easier for you now. I'm in agreement, let's keep moving." As we walk this day, I explain to De'kra that mages are born with the power to tap into elemental energies. We take training to learn to control our power and harness the elements, and also to respect them. Most of my family are mages though I am the first to be drawn to the Darkness power.

Why do people keep signing up for quests when they know they will be busy? I know you can't answer, just venting a frustration.

I hand the bottle to Thormanil. "No idea what it is, I don't see any markings or feel any magic coming from it while closed. If you want to give it a swig, be my guest. " I step back a good distance from Thormanil after he accepts the bottle. Just in case.

I pick up the bottle carefully, looking it over for symbols and checkingif I 'feel' any magic emanating from it.

"Wow! That was great fun" Cinna can feel the power building up and is excited to be in the world really using her gift to protect her team.

I will attack Mopag Mutant Swordsman from the back row with Darkness Elemental.

Maybe they are at work or on a device they can read but not post. Or maybe they are not really reading but have left a browser on the page at home. No need to be in such a rush

"Thank you for the gold. I am also of the mind we should head to the emporium first. Perhaps one of the merchants will recognize the dagger." While we wait for the group to decide to move on, I would like to dig near the city sign to see if there is anything of interest.

Apologies if this has been covered before, I've been trying to keep up but sometimes things slip past me. Question: How does a player go about using the Shovel during a quest? My idea was (obviously if we aren't in battle) to post something like "I'll search down by that large rock to see if there is any treasure to dig up" Then maybe the QM would roll dice or something to see what I found?

Cinna jumps up ready to battle when she hears Tomas. Her eyes fall upon the dirty unkemp thief with disgust. She knows she has no gold for him to steal but is ready to defend the purse and life of each of her comrades. I will attack Thief from the back row.

I agree Bric'Lin seems like the safest journey and we could make a loop around to the other destinations without any backtracking. It would be nice to go to Bric'Lin with some gold, but that isn't always possible.

Here goes nothing! I hope this is a good start and looking forward to some pointers. Please forgive me if this is nothing like what you were hoping to see. Theme Friendship doesn't have to be boisterous to be true. Story Arc Three companions sitting around the camp after an adventure, two of them are excitedly talking about the events/congratulating each other, counting gold, and having fun. The third sits off to the side in front of his tent not saying much, sharpening his blade and tending to his gear. The other two don't think he really cares about them much but that he is just there to be there. Days later, the group is headed into town to see about a quest. While there, one of the companions (the leader) is taken hostage by the bad-guy and demands are made for his return. The two remaining companions try to rescue him but find many hardships along the way and in the process get into an argument and one tells the other "you don't care about him like i do, you aren't our friend and it is obvious that you are just with us for the fights and the gold". He then goes off to rescue his friend alone but instead becomes a captive himself. Just as all hope is lost and the two companions are about to be put to death, the third rescues them. They are surprised but everyone works as a team to make it to safety. At the camp, the leader comes up to the third man and tells him thank you for saving and sorry about the other mans harsh words. The third man smiles and says that is what comrades and friends do for each other, and he is sure each of them would have done the same for him. Character Transformations Astoaw (the leader) - starting out as the cocksure leader, best friends with his second Theramond, and not sure about the new guy Caredon. He finds out that even he needs help sometimes and not all friends are as boisterous as Theramond but that doesn't mean they don't care. Theramond (second in command) - starting out with his unyielding loyalty to Astoaw and distrust of Caredon. He thinks everyone who is a friend should declare it with deeds and words at all possible times. He finds out that not everyone is like him but they can still be true friends. Caredon (the third guy) - starting out as a quiet warrior. He considers his companion friends and doesn't feel the need to say it, after all he is there to fight along side them and doesn't steal from them. He learns that sometimes people need to hear the words and have camaraderie outside of battle to know that they can trust someone new. Journey Theramond, and to a lesser extent, Astoaw learn that even though Caredon doesn't carry on and laugh with them like they do together, it doesn't mean that he is not a friend. Caredon learns that sometimes he does need to sit around and talk to his friends and not always assume they know he is a true friend just because he is there.