Antillies Posted January 15, 2022 Share Posted January 15, 2022 Some of you may remember my attempt in 2017 to capture the feeling of Rock Raiders through photos. I commented that though some of the pictures that time around were interesting, I wasn't able to achieve the exactness when it came to matching the aesthetic as I had hope. Well, I had some time and the will to again make another attempt these past two weeks when I again had access to my LEGO's. With a bit more forethought and planning, and gathering some more tools, I produced the below images. I feel this attempt did a significantly better job in capturing the aesthetic of the Rock Raider world - though the exact extent of which I will leave up to you all. The two things I would like to explore in the future, if I have time and the ability, would be to feature the electric fence (I had meant to but ran out of time) and include power paths. The lighting for power paths is a little more tricky but I'm sure I can find a way, if it doesn't end up looking too awkward. Hope there's some images here that everyone can enjoy. Image 1 Spoiler Image 2 Spoiler Image 3 Spoiler Image 4 Spoiler Image 5 Spoiler To those familiar with the game, Images 5 -7 are nods to one of my favorite cinematic in the game, the one that starts with Docs handing Axel a clipboard and quickly turns into them having to escape an onrushing wall of lava. Image 6 Spoiler Here we see Docs holding on for dear life as the wall of lava follows closely behind the fleeing raiders. Image 7 Spoiler Image 8 Spoiler Image 9 Spoiler Image 10 Spoiler Image 11 Spoiler Image 12 Spoiler Image 13 Spoiler Image 14 Spoiler Image 15 Spoiler Image 16 Spoiler Image 17 Spoiler Image 18 Spoiler Image 19 Spoiler Image 20 Spoiler Image 21 Spoiler Image 22 Spoiler Image 23 Spoiler Image 24 Spoiler Image 25 Spoiler Image 26 Spoiler Image 27 Spoiler Image 28 Spoiler Image 29 Spoiler Image 30 Spoiler Image 31 Spoiler Image 32 Spoiler Image 33 Spoiler Image 33 is an homage to a screenshot that Cyrem captured while messing with the game. It was a beautiful in-game image and wanted to pay credit to it here. ShadowDraikana, PeabodySam, apemax and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators ShadowDraikana Posted January 16, 2022 Administrators Share Posted January 16, 2022 These shots look absolutely amazing, very well done! Images 16 and 17 stand out with the gloomy lighting and sense of terror at the presence of a monster, action stations lighting blanketing the caverns. Image 17 in particular looks just so good with the glowing eyes, looming around the corner. I could go on but again, these are fantastic and I'm so glad you put this together. Looking forward to seeing Power Paths and Electric Fences in the future, should you do those as well. Antillies 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cirevam Posted January 16, 2022 Share Posted January 16, 2022 So many of these are so good that it's hard to pick a favorite. Maybe #24? It's the iconic crystal. #5 is really good too. I love the atmosphere and composition. Really nice work all around. Antillies 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antillies Posted January 16, 2022 Author Share Posted January 16, 2022 14 hours ago, Slimy Slug said: These shots look absolutely amazing, very well done! Images 16 and 17 stand out with the gloomy lighting and sense of terror at the presence of a monster, action stations lighting blanketing the caverns. Image 17 in particular looks just so good with the glowing eyes, looming around the corner. Thank you for the kind words. Image 16 & 17 turned out far better than I could have hoped! I went into that setup wanting to have the raider behind the wall, cowering, and the rock monster right there. I didn't think it would be one of the better shots but I was trying to capture that sort of humorous fear that's present in the game and ended up with a shot that surpassed (at least my) expectations. All due credit to the LED's I used for the eyes - they really turned it into something else and made the reality of facing up against an 8 ft. plus tall monster made of rock truly something frightening. I understand a bit more now the easily-frightened nature of the raiders. 14 hours ago, Cirevam said: So many of these are so good that it's hard to pick a favorite. Maybe #24? It's the iconic crystal. #5 is really good too. I love the atmosphere and composition. Really nice work all around. Thank you, Cire. The Power Station is far and beyond my favorite building in the game, so all of the images that feature it were exceptionally fun to take, though I was nervous because I so wanted them to turn out well. It turned out it was hard not to take a picture with it that wasn't good. Those crystal close ups turned out great to my eyes, so much so that I have an entire series of them from different angles (only those three made it here). Number five is, along with the first shot of the Power Station, my favorite. It was the first one I took where I felt I really captured a good shot - so I'd have to say it's special to me now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbob Posted January 16, 2022 Share Posted January 16, 2022 Daaayum I love these so much, thank you for taking the time to share them! Image 18 is definitely my favourite, the colour grading and composition and setup and everything just perfectly captures LRR for me. I also like the choice of environment, the tall blocky walls kinda match the very grid-like nature of the game. How'd you get some elements to glow? Is there a directed light on them, or hidden LEDs in them, or Photoshop work, I can't figure it out. Antillies 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antillies Posted January 16, 2022 Author Share Posted January 16, 2022 2 hours ago, JimbobJeffers said: Daaayum I love these so much, thank you for taking the time to share them! Image 18 is definitely my favourite, the colour grading and composition and setup and everything just perfectly captures LRR for me. I also like the choice of environment, the tall blocky walls kinda match the very grid-like nature of the game. How'd you get some elements to glow? Is there a directed light on them, or hidden LEDs in them, or Photoshop work, I can't figure it out. Thanks, Jimbo. Image 18 is my favorite of the Power Station. I finally started to relax after I had taken it since my true objective with this project was to capture a decent shot of that building, and with that one it felt like I had done so. I definitely would have preferred walls that had a bit more variety in shape, but I was limited with the rocks I had on hand to work with. The rectangular blocks ended up being helpful in supporting the staging of other rocks so it worked out, I think. The lighting in some of the more complicated shots is a mixture of a few different sources. The more general lighting was provided by work clamp lights with colored gels shone either directly or bounced off of a white board-like object or the rocks themselves. The object lighting (the crystal storage tower on the Power Station and the eyes of the Rock Monsters) were small LED's that I also gel'ed and placed strategically (as best I could). On the shots where Sparks is drilling, I added a tad of reactive light in Photoshop since the drilling elements were added in after the fact. Let me know if I can answer any more questions for you. Happy to do so. Jimbob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbob Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 Awesome! Thank you for the explanation, that's really cool. Didn't realise bright LEDs had gotten so small haha. And sure varied terrain might have been nice, but who's to say one of the locales the Rock Raiders visited couldn't have an alien-y flat-surfaced environment? I think it looks great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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