Bumpers To Bumpers; Traffic Accident Witnessed From Above And Below

[Overbeyond]

Got my two headlamps out again this afternoon and had a little play. Rather than post just one I am including these as a mini series so to speak
Let me know what you think.

[CLKunst]

Wow Tom! That looks like you had a very entertaining day playing with your dolls and cars. I like them all but the over head shot is my favorite. The overhead let's me dissect the scene and see it as a traffic accident. The head on approach loses me a little because of a few distracting elements. FIrst, the Blue thong on one of your witnesses is absolutely slaying me! But the lettering in the background keeps distracting me from the carnage of the wreck scene. Great concept! Between you and Gary we shall all be diving into our closets to set up our personal dioramas. Great stuff!

[Frog]

It appears these ladies(?) keep bumping bumpers.
The second and third are my pics because of the solid backgrounds.

[gahspidy]

Tom, this is certainly a mini series. Love the ladies and the thongs could very well be partly to blame for the wreckage.I agree with Cindy here in that the overhead view is very visually appealing and lets us ponder of the accident. the others have a sort of chaotic feel, which is good in a way because that is what i imagine the scene of a wreck to be. The bg is a bit too distracting though and I wish for the simplicity of the overhead view. It does not need be a black bg, but maybe less letters or just a solid color perhaps. Or, a scene of a city far enough away from them that it blurs out a bit.
I had been using some characters of this size in experimentation for a while but you have a really good grab on a story and approach to it.
btw, I think Rufus is going to have a good ole time at Toms

[Overbeyond]

Thanks Cindy,Gary and Frog.
The background was a total pain in the ass and gave me such grief. Was never 100% happy with it.
It is supposed to be a giant advertising hoarding (it's actually my daughters Green Day poster) but I thought it was better than the plain background to be honest. I felt it added a bit to the mayhem (albeit a little too close to the action) but I agree with Gary the perfect one here would have been a city bg perhaps with high rises in the distance. But there was nothing in the house much to choose from. We live in a small maisonette with little space and what space we have seems to be clogged by our daughters stuff as they gallivant around the world. But with a little more effort I perhaps could have done better.
I really like your comments on the thong; very funny especially about it being the cause of the accident.

I also liked the idea of the overhead one too but I actually thought it looses the chaos to some extent and looks too tidy set up and posed and without animation. Afterwards I regretted not trying to have one of the women lying on the ground in this overhead shot after a bit of fisticuffs. The idea there was the police chopper arriving on the scene. I also imagined these to be some sort of adult Noddy Cartoon with the cars and colour.
I attach one shot using the grey matte board as bg with a little further experiment as well.
Thanks again for your helpful critique.

[Greg McCary]

I love the last two. These are hilarious. I agree Rufus will have his hands full with those gals. Nice work Tom what a great concept.

[gahspidy]

I don't know whose big bottom was driving the small purple car, but that is something the police might want to put in their report . . .
Tom, I understand what you mean about the last image of the overhead view. It does not really give us what you were after that being the chaotic scene of the wreckage. I do think it provides us with something different and that is a sort of artistic set of colors and shapes set off against the dark background. It has more of an aesthetic appeal than a storyline per say. With the others, I do like the scene and the feel of the accident and can also see this as a sort of adult whimsical toon like set up. I only miss that appealing aesthetic quality which we had in the overhead shot. Perhaps a simple blue bg to simply give us the look and feel of the tropics or other warm place where this obviously would have taken place. These could be African woman and if you had a Giraffe or Elephant to place far off in the bg looking in might add another comedic and intersting element of place and geography. I think your onto something, not with just this set but I see many different stories and mini-series to come in the future with other characters and ideas.
On a side note, I think this is a tough task for you with a couple of Ikea desk lamps. As well as you have seemed to get the lighting here I think that you might need better lighting control for this mini series. If you have not tried so already, some cardboard over one of the lamps with a small slit cut out to give a smaller area of light directly where you need it. Sort of like a spot or snoot to highlight a particuliar area in the scene.
I'm looking forward to more of these for sure.

[CLKunst]

Tom -

You're Gray background is the perfect start for something like this. I hope you don't mind but I took some liberties with your last upload. I know it is strictly "verboten" but I wanted to illustrate to you how easy it is to make an appropriate background in photoshop, especially when your characters are already cartoonish to start with.

I cut away your background and put in a chrome gradient to act as the land and sky, then I got happy with the shapes tools and dropped them into the background as well. A gaussian blur filter to give it a distant look and a brightness drop to the background so as to not over dominate the scene. And leading road lines to define the interest of the scene. It's a pinch job but I just wanted to show that you don't have to fill you house with micro sets to get an interesting result.

[Overbeyond]

Cindy I really like what you have done there and it shows what potential there is at my disposal for getting this right. I really appreciate you giving your time to this and I am impressed how you can throw up this work so quickly. I am not a big user of PS other than to adjust levels/curves/saturation/ usm and preparation for print. I have never really been interested enough in delving any deeper but I should give myself the time to learn a bit more. It's my loss. The same could be said about my photography knowledge. I just enjoy looking through the viewfinder and hope for the best. I know some basics and never went on from there. it's my trial and terror method.
Gary you are so right regarding the lights. They really are not very suitable especially if I intend to take this table top stuff more seriously. To have anything on a stand or tripod, other than my camera, would amount to a health and safety hazard in our little place
Your idea of the snoot is interesting and indeed Cindy gave me a link to a home snoot which hopefully I will try without setting the house on fire.

At the moment I have no new idea for further tabletop fun but sometimes it is better not to dwell on it and then an idea will sometimes arrive, often totally uninvited.
Thanks for your further suggestions and inspiration.

[PrevailingConditions]

Tom - You've got a fun set going here, but I think the "collaboration" with Cindy produced the shot I like the most. I also like the overhead view of the first set, but I like that last one best.

What do they have in their mouths?

PC

[Overbeyond]

Many thanks PC and yes, Cindy has given me some good pointers on improving these.

[Didache]

Tom - these are a hoot!! I think you have way too much time on your hands

Love them, love them, love them!

On another matter - last night I heard that Carshalton was playing away at Selsdon soon - I don't have the date to hand. Would you be likely to be there?

Cheers
Mike

[GB1]

WTF? Chuckle.. pretty funny. I like the first one the best. I like the thong on that one also.
GB

[MB1]

If nothing else this is great fun. The original images were great (I liked the overhead the best) but Cindy added a fantastic background to make the set even better.

Very good stuff.