Digital Dioramas

[Randomdays]

I've been thinking about doing some of these for awhile and finally got a round to doing one.

This project came about from;

1) Walking into a comic store and seeing some of those great statues for various characters they had

2) Seeing  some of the stl's that you can download and then 3D print to make your own statues, where you do the painting

3) Talking awhile back about how it would be fun to 3D print some of the Freedom Force characters and then paint them up to have on your shelf.

4) seeing the similar work done on Ren's old site, Dirk Thorazine, and by Style, both then and recently. Probably others did some as well.

The problem I had with all of that is the statues in the store are kind of pricey, the stls can be pricey as well, plus I don't have a 3D printer and from experience I know that I'm terrible at painting anyway.


So I thought, why not make some Digital Dioramas using game resources? We have tons of characters to choose from, they're already skinned and with them being rigged you could pose them however you wanted to.

So from all the choices out there to do, I picked DC's "All Star Comics #3", the first appearance of the JSA.

I grabbed a copy of the cover and then went thru my archives looking to see what was available to work with.

Things were going well at first until I realized that more than one of the characters was using a "male_basic" skin so they were appearing with the same skin, so I had to edit the nif and rename the skins so they wouldn't look the same.

I found a wooden chair and a table on the "models resource" site that seemed to fit, and a sign from the game to use for the background.

All in all, what I feel were a few good hours spent in Blender bringing the nifs in and posing them to fit with the cover.

From left to right;

The Atom - GA1 by Ren with standard skin by C6

The Sandman - Sandman Classic by Kennx with skin by him as well

The Spectre - male_basic_cape_pointed_hood mesh created by The Beyonder, skin by C6

The Flash - Flash GA 69 with skin by Lightning Man

Hawkman - Hawkman by Beyonder with skin by Firestorm

Dr Fate - Dr Fate Classic VX with skin by Avalon

Green Lantern - Green Lantern GA 2 Ken by Keen X with skin by Kenn X

Hourman - Hourman GA Ren with skin by skin by C6

The table is a rip from the PC game "Bioshock 2", the chair is from a mobile game "Gregory Horror Show Lost Qualia", and the comic cover background is pasted on a standard FF sign.

I'll probably do some more now and then.

IF anybody wants to add to the project that would be great. Try to keep it to classic comic book covers, movie posters, or iconic scenes from the comics, books, tv or movies.

So, below is the original cover and my game version so you can compare. What's also neat about the game version is you can now rotate in any angle for different views of the scene

[WyldFyre]

This is AWESOME!!!!  Many years ago, I made some pics for myself based on comic age. I think this is a fun project that our friend daglob would have absolutely loved.

As an aside, I skoped a Dr. Fate with no gloves awhile ago if you would like to have it for completeness.

[oktokels]

Great !!! This is fun !!         

[Randomdays]

Thanks guys. The Dr Fate with no gloves would match the picture better. Send away!

Not sure what to do next...maybe action comics #1 where everything started?

Hey, WyldeFyre...as another aside, I keep having to look up your museum. Things would be so much easier if the link was in your signature somewhere.

[WyldFyre]

Sent and fixed signature.

[Randomdays]

Yay! Thanks for both Wyldfyre!

[Randomdays]

Finished with the updates. Replaced Dr Fate with Wyldfyre's scope, adjusted the Flash's arm a bit, and tilted the entire set so that the backboard is straight up but everything else is tilted down. It would be easy to change that to help in the event anyone ever tries to 3D print the entire thing - rotating the table and everyone flat and then adjusting the backboard straight up again.

For now, it was sent out as just one large nif. Setting it up as a lot of component parts for objs or stls would take a bit of doing since most of the characters have multiple pieces to them

You're only allowed one armature on output, so in the end I deleted them all, and some no longer even have vertex groups to them anymore - not that they're needed since that's not the point of the project.

If you want to go in and change the outfits around with other versions, you'll have to rename the alternate costumes to match the changes I made.

Is anyone interested in having this? I can upload it if so

Zoomed in picture below showing a little more detail and the adjustments.

Edit - had to remove Green Lantern's puffy sleeves since I messed them up - one arm is below the table anyway so I don't think it's a big change. You can see it in the pic out of place on the right arm above the table. Removed in the final nif. The capes going thru the chairs is a bit annoying also, but would take a lot of work to fix, unless we just lower the back of the chair.

[Randomdays]

I think I've decided on the next project - it should be a little easier since it has fewer parts to it and I've got a little experience now. I had some fun with this so we'll see how far it goes. I think for anyone else to try, you'd need Blender or some other 3D art program beyond nifskope to work with the characters

[WyldFyre]

I think these homages are a wonderful idea. I'd download them.

[Randomdays]

Thanks WyldFyre.

I just posted it in a new folder on the megasite called "Dioramas"

[Randomdays]

Doing a little work getting another one setup. Trying to pick a good cover and the heroes to use with it

Hints;

1) A comic superhero group

2) Not DC or Marvel (well, not at first, but they were DC for a bit)

[Randomdays]

Threw together a quick one. If I don't get it released tomorrow, it might be a couple of weeks.

Since no one took a guess the answer is "The Mighty Crusaders" from Radio/ Archie comics, though DC had it for a little while.

The original comic cover -

And the digital version - normal pic and closeup.

Top Row - Fly Girl from Daglob, The Web and The Comet from Copper Age

Bottom Row - The Black Hood from Daglob, The Shield and The Jaguar from Copper Age.

[WyldFyre]

I must confess, I wasn't even thinking of the MLJ characters for these dioramas.

Good job!

[Randomdays]

Luckily a few members back in the day went out and did almost all of the MLJ characters. Mainly Copper, but Tommy Troy and Daglob also. DJ did a few after we lost Daglob as a kind of tribute to him I think

Besides Marvel and DC, I'm looking at doing some more uncommon subjects. I'll get another one out after I get home next week or later.

Uploaded into the new Digital Diorama folder with the JSA one

[Randomdays]

We've moved the start of our vacation back a day to Wednesday which gives me an extra day to work with these a bit more

Updated the Mighty Crusaders DD with a better backdrop



And another new one that I think came out looking good. I think with each one I'm learning a bit more to make them better.

Hi Ho Silver! Its the Lone Ranger and Tonto!

Base pic use to build from - A fine art print by Michael Frank -



Final Diorama - a few different views. The pic with the logo on the base is the final.

Backdrop - a digital print from Amazon of "Joshua Tree National Park"

Rocks - the main rock is from a desert rock pack on sketchfab from Yadrogames. The rest are from the main Freedom Force game. Retextured with a rock texture found on the web

The following are all from the PC game "Empire Earth 3" - the ground texture, the scrub grass is from a wheat field lowered into the ground and snipped, and the bushes are a maple tree lowered into the ground and snipped

The Lone Ranger and Tonto are by SCD. I tried to add a little extra hair on the back of Tonto's head to make it fuller, pulled the nose out a little bit, and removed the feathers.

The horses Silver and Scout are from Tommyboy's Rawhide Kid. Silver's texture is from Zulu Delta. Scout's texture is a basic brown from Tommyboy, kitbashed by me. It looks like Scout was played by a few horses with different markings, so I kind of merged them into one.

Silver's Saddle is just a simple black texture, so no highlights on it. It could probably use a better skin. Both set of reins could use some texturing as well.

The base is the cereal box I used on Quisp, retextured with the Lone Ranger Logo

The updated Mighty Crusaders and the Lone Ranger DD are both posted on the megasite.

[WyldFyre]

Loving the way these are coming out. The Lone Ranger looks like it could have been a school project or a collector's item for sending in 5 boxtops.     

Great work on all of them!

[Randomdays]

Thanks Wyldfyre. Back in the day when you went with your mom to pick out your metal Aladdin Lunchbox with the thermos inside. I still remember I had that great "Lost in Space" one.

I think while the Lone Ranger could be 3d printed and painted, it would have to broken up into a few pieces and put back together again. It might be cool to actually see it in the real world.. Or the other ones as well.

There are much higher poly models out now than there were when Freedom Force first came out and fans started making meshes and skins for it.

But I still love the 60's Saturday Morning Cartoons feel to it, and I think that's what they wanted even back then, considering that's the era it was set in. I think Jack Kirby would have enjoyed this game a lot.

Where possible I'm going to try to keep that feel to the Dioramas coming out, and with so many great skins and meshes to work with, that part shouldn't be hard to do.

Thanks again to all that that have contributed to this great game.

[Randomdays]

I had almost finished up another one before I went on vacation. Wrapping it up and posting it soon.

Edit - posted and ready for download

Marvel's Liberty Legion, from Marvel Premiere #29 and #30 (1976).

In WW2, after the Red Skull captured and brainwashed the Invaders, Bucky escaped and assembled the Liberty Legion to free them. While the Invaders mainly fought overseas in Europe, the Liberty Legion dealt with more domestic threats back in the USA.

I remember buying these and reading the story line back when they came out. Written by Roy Thomas, I liked it back then and liked working on the Diorama for it.

Left to right -

1) The Thin Man by Dark Jared on male_thin by Kraven

2) Whizzer - skin and mesh by Zivon23

3) Red Raven - skin by C6 and mesh by Gren

4) Bucky - skin by John Jr on his own mesh, but moved onto Gren's mesh. Minor kitbash to match the hairline from the hair piece.

5) Ms America - skin and mesh by Flash 22798. I had problems with the mesh so I had to move it onto one of Ink's meshes that he had based it on.

6) Patriot - skin on his own mesh. Both by unknown

7) Blue Diamond - skin by the skindex CSN (Dark Jared?) on male_basic

8) Jack Frost - skin by Vigilante on male_basic

Original cover from the comic. Remake from the cover, an old newspaper headline found on the web, and a white starburst I made in Blender

[BentonGrey]

Very cool, RD!  They look great!

[WyldFyre]

Liberty Legion looks fantastic! I really like how these are turning out!