When you've got a good backdrop, you should make the most of it, right? So far, we've had a Water Dragon and Naked Wage out of this same waterfall. Never one to waste an opportunity, I stood Yoshimitsu in there as well.
This figure was produced by Epoch Toys (I can't find their website), and purchased at Quake Collectibles in Chicago.
Yoshimitsu:
Yoshimitsu (吉光, Yoshimitsu?) is a video game character originally created for the Tekken series of fighting games, designed by Namco. Yoshimitsu made his first appearance in Tekken, and has returned for all subsequent sequels to that game since his inception. Yoshimitsu is one of the only four Tekken characters (the others being Heihachi Mishima, Nina Williams and Paul Phoenix ) to have appeared in every game in the series.
Additionally, an analogous character bearing the same name, weapon, clan and basic information, was later carried over into Namco's Soul series of fighting games as a secret character, making his debut in Soulcalibur and returning for Soulcalibur II, Soulcalibur III and Soulcalibur IV. Yoshimitsu also sports the kanji "宇" (Romaji: u, Pinyin: yǔ) which means "void".
While setting this shot up, I went into it thinking it was going to be a poster. Long and narrow. Doing so meant I would have to crop away a good portion of the photo, but at the same time helped loosen up my expectations. Instead of it having to be perfect straight out of the camera, I could instead focus on capturing only the elements I wanted and not stress out about the rest of the shot.
Also, framing a shot like this means he will be on my next round of Moo Cards.
It is I, EXIF!
| File Size: | 2.5 MB |
| File Type: | JPEG |
| MIME Type: | image/jpeg |
| Image Width: | 1880 |
| Image Height: | 3312 |
| Encoding Process: | Baseline DCT, Huffman coding |
| Bits Per Sample: | 8 |
| Color Components: | 3 |
| X-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Y-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| Software: | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows |
| Date and Time (Modified): | 2008:12:29 09:06:45 |
| YCbCr Positioning: | Co-sited |
| Exposure Program: | Shutter speed priority AE |
| Date and Time (Original): | 2008:12:28 15:40:05-06:00 |
| Date and Time (Digitized): | 2008:12:28 15:40:05 |
| Metering Mode: | Multi-segment |
| Color Space: | sRGB |
| Focal Plane X-Resolution: | 4433.29532497149 dpi |
| Focal Plane Y-Resolution: | 4453.60824742268 dpi |
| Custom Rendered: | Normal |
| Exposure Mode: | Auto |
| White Balance: | Auto |
| Scene Capture Type: | Standard |
| Compression: | JPEG (old-style) |
| Global Angle: | 30 |
| Global Altitude: | 30 |
| Copyright Flag: | False |
| Photoshop Quality: | 12 |
| Photoshop Format: | Optimised |
| Progressive Scans: | 3 Scans |
| XMPToolkit: | Adobe XMP Core 4.1-c036 46.276720, Mon Feb 19 2007 22:40:08 |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| Metadata Date: | 2008:12:29 09:06:45-06:00 |
| Creator Tool: | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows |
| Format: | image/jpeg |
| Color Mode: | 3 |
| ICCProfile Name: | sRGB IEC61966-2.1 |
| Viewing Conditions Illuminant Type: | D50 |
| Measurement Observer: | CIE 1931 |
| Measurement Flare: | 0.999% |
| Measurement Illuminant: | D65 |
| Color Transform: | YCbCr |
| Flash Return: | No return detection |
| Flash Mode: | Off |
| Flash Function: | False |
| Flash Red Eye Mode: | False |
Be good,
-Dave
|
When SoulCalibur 2 first hit, it was like a revelation to me. At work, all I could think about was my lunch break where I would drive to the nearby mall and pump tokens into the arcade's machine. They had created something called Conquest Mode where you created a profile and a pin number, then chose one of four different kingdoms to fight for. There wasn't any difference in the kingdoms, so you were essentially picking your favorite color out of Red, Blue, Yellow, and I think Green. The more you played, the more skilled your fighter became (My choice was Kilik, naturally), and the system was smart enough to "grade" you after each battle, adjusting your fighter's skills and preferred moves and combos. The reason it did this was, while you were away and other people attacked your kingdom, there was a good chance that one of the defenders would be you. If you win a lot and are very aggressive, your fighter will behave similarly when someone challenged them. Also, the more you won (and played), the higher your rank, up until you were the Defender of the Realm (or something similar) and your fighter showed up, with your name, all the time. It was awesome.
Of course, when your kingdom had completed purging the world of the other three kingdoms, the map, and your saved character, reset and you had to do it all over again. Well played, Namco.
Before I get into the details, here is a little info on Voldo:
Voldo is easily recognizable by his strange and unique style of play. His moveset is based on attacks that bend and twist his body in unnatural ways, making him an extremely unpredictable fighter. He also has many stances that compliment his odd style, like his Mantis Crawl in which he stands on his four limbs face-first. Even his neutral stance has him moonwalking.
Another recognizable feature of Voldo is that he has no spoken dialogues, just grunts and hisses. This is explained in the game's universe because of his isolation in his dead master's tomb, which has led him to lose his sight and become insane, often hearing his master speaking to him in his mind. Later games have hinted that Vercci's voice could be produced by Soul Edge itself, but no official confirmation has been made. Voldo's face is obscured by either tightly bound strips of cloth or a full mask in every game he has appeared in.
Fun fact: I am not allowed to play Voldo, because he creeps my friend Laura out. I am also not allowed to play Maxi, because I beat her by just pounding the Y button.
This photo was taken in the Garfield Park Conservatory's Arid Room. Because desert plants have such unique shapes, I like using them as a backdrop and the sandy soil allows the figure to sink in a little, creating the illusion of weight. It was lit by natural light, and while we were there, a very nice couple stopped and talked to April and I about photography. The wife, trying to stay polite but obviously a little disturbed at a grown man playing with toys, complimented me on photographing my "little creatures".
In Photoshop, I lowered the saturation and then used the lab color tweak to even everything out. I used a gaussian blur to give it that video game bloom effect, and finally, I painted the gem on his Katar. Oh, wait, I lied. Before I did any of that, I had to clone out the HUGE gap between his torso and his waist. I should probably fill that one day...
A tale of swords and EXIF, eternally retold:
| Camera: | Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi |
| Exposure: | 0.2 sec (1/5) |
| Aperture: | f/5.6 |
| Focal Length: | 55 mm |
| ISO Speed: | 100 |
| Exposure Bias: | 0 EV |
| Flash: | Off |
| File Size: | 3.2 MB |
| File Type: | JPEG |
| MIME Type: | image/jpeg |
| Image Width: | 2592 |
| Image Height: | 3888 |
| Encoding Process: | Baseline DCT, Huffman coding |
| Bits Per Sample: | 8 |
| Color Components: | 3 |
| X-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Y-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| Software: | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows |
| Date and Time (Modified): | 2008:12:29 08:58:34 |
| YCbCr Positioning: | Co-sited |
| Exposure Program: | Aperture-priority AE |
| Date and Time (Original): | 2008:12:28 15:59:10-06:00 |
| Date and Time (Digitized): | 2008:12:28 15:59:10 |
| Metering Mode: | Multi-segment |
| Color Space: | sRGB |
| Focal Plane X-Resolution: | 4433.29532497149 dpi |
| Focal Plane Y-Resolution: | 4453.60824742268 dpi |
| Custom Rendered: | Normal |
| Exposure Mode: | Auto |
| White Balance: | Auto |
| Scene Capture Type: | Standard |
| Compression: | JPEG (old-style) |
| Global Angle: | 30 |
| Global Altitude: | 30 |
| Copyright Flag: | False |
| Photoshop Quality: | 12 |
| Photoshop Format: | Optimised |
| Progressive Scans: | 3 Scans |
| XMPToolkit: | Adobe XMP Core 4.1-c036 46.276720, Mon Feb 19 2007 22:40:08 |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| Metadata Date: | 2008:12:29 08:58:34-06:00 |
| Creator Tool: | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows |
| Format: | image/jpeg |
| Color Mode: | 3 |
| ICCProfile Name: | sRGB IEC61966-2.1 |
| Viewing Conditions Illuminant Type: | D50 |
| Measurement Observer: | CIE 1931 |
| Measurement Flare: | 0.999% |
| Measurement Illuminant: | D65 |
| Color Transform: | YCbCr |
| Flash Return: | No return detection |
| Flash Mode: | Off |
| Flash Function: | False |
| Flash Red Eye Mode: | False |
Be good,
-Dave
|
Astaroth is one of those characters that, if you can win with him, you can win with anyone. He's just this big, slow tank with a huge axe. Quick characters will walk circles around him, duck under his wide swings, and pretty much devastate him. Heck, in the demo video for Soulcalibur 2, Maxi runs up the axe handle and kicks Astaroth in his face! But once you learn his moves, you become unstoppable. You discover his quick strikes that keep your opponent off-balance, and you start swinging for the fences while they stagger back. Before long, your friends won't play you any more.
Sorry friends that won't play me any more. It's not my fault you don't know when to block!
This particular Astaroth figure was produced by McFarlane Toys. The deal seemed to be, in exchange for putting Spawn and the McFarlane-designed Necrid in SoulCalibur, McFarlane Toys would release a line of figures based on the game characters. Unfortunately they only released the first set of toys, which included, strangely enough, with both Spawn and Necrid in the lineup. Would have liked a Kilik and Mitsurugi instead, but I'll take what I can get.
Astaroth's Bio, courtesy of Wikipedia:
Introduced in Soulcalibur, Astaroth was created by a cult of Ares led by the priest Kunpaetku to retrieve the cursed sword Soul Edge by their god's command. Upon finding the blade Astaroth realized it was incomplete, and allied himself with its host Nightmare and his minions to harvest living souls necessary to restore the blade. Planning to steal the blade once it was restored, Astaroth was instead confronted by a survivor of one of his attacks and slain. Ares later revived Astaroth, who now had fragments of Soul Edge inside him, to continue after the Soul Edge. Kunpaetku realized his golem was not behaving as instructed, and placed a controlling curse on him. Astaroth resisted and attacked the cult, but in the chaos Kunpaetku escaped and Astaroth learned he was modeled after a human being, the "White Giant". Finding and nearly killing the man, Astaroth broke free of Ares's control and his body cracked and physcially transformed. Merged with the fragments of Soul Edge within him, he now hungered for souls himself and went on a rampage. He was eventually found by Tira, who offered him more power in return for his servitude to Nightmare. Astaroth accepted, with plans to eventually consume their souls and Soul Edge itself when the time was right.
Processing in Photoshop was surprisingly simple. Boost the saturation with Lab Color and add the eye glow on a new layer. Then use a gaussian blur set to Soft Light for the shadow and "bloom", and, as a final touch to bring it all together, create a purple/orange Gradient Map set to Soft Light to bring it all together.
Round 1, EXIF!
| Camera: | Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi |
| Exposure: | 0.008 sec (1/125) |
| Aperture: | f/9 |
| Focal Length: | 24 mm |
| ISO Speed: | 400 |
| Exposure Bias: | 0/3 EV |
| Flash: | Flash did not fire |
| Orientation: | Horizontal (normal) |
| X-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Y-Resolution: | 72 dpi |
| Software: | Adobe Photoshop 7.0 |
| Date and Time: | 2008:12:03 17:41:56 |
| YCbCr Positioning: | Co-Sited |
| Exposure Program: | Aperture priority |
| Date and Time (Original): | 2008:12:03 12:49:30 |
| Date and Time (Digitized): | 2008:12:03 12:49:30 |
| Shutter Speed: | 456510/65536 |
| Metering Mode: | Pattern |
| Color Space: | Uncalibrated |
| Focal Plane X-Resolution: | 4433.295 dpi |
| Focal Plane Y-Resolution: | 4453.608 dpi |
| Compression: | JPEG |
| Image Width: | 2592 pixels |
| Image Height: | 3888 pixels |
Be good,
-Dave
|
