Masters Class: Crossover Calamity

 At the Masters Class we’ve been covering a lot of topics. Toy lines, genres, themes, and photography basics that have served help us here in the community to create some stellar action figure photography. 

However when you think about what all goes into a shot, one of things that we have been remiss in including to get you there, is concept. 

Most of us can agree that in order to have a great action figure photography shot, the one ingredient that trumps them all is the IDEA behind the shot. After all, would you serve dinner without setting out the plates first? 

Well fear not, because today we have an Extra Credit course of the Masters Class that will help you take your shot from concept to masterful art. We have two of the most talented artists in the action figure photography game here to give you a break down of how they start with a concept, and bring you a piece of art that will be sure to have your heads spinning. 

We would like to introduce @toy.father and @yimboreviewseverything to the Masters Class, and they have willingly stepped into the world of “Crossover Calamity” to show you how to start with an idea (ie: crossover) and build a mind bending multiversal masterpiece. 

Grab your sling rings, because the Masters Class is in session.

When starting with a conceptual prompt for a picture, where do you start to bring that concept to life in the form of a photo? (i.e. figures, setup, scene etc). 

Toy Father- “I use my phone to keep notes of ideas that come to my head randomly throughout the day.  Sometimes I’ll wake up and I’ll have an idea that comes to me.  The worst is when I don’t put the idea in my notes and Ii totally forget it. Sometimes I’ll just google characters and see if there are images that pop up that also inspire.  Then there is the method that most of us do…..stand in front of our figs with our hands on our waist and stare at them until an idea comes.”

Yimbo- “Starting with the hard hitting questions first! Man, it’s tough to exactly say where an idea first forms. When I first started, every single day for a year plus was spent trying to find a spark of inspiration. It was exciting but also exhausting, so when I bought my camera I was able to start loading up on drafts. These days I’m down to shooting one or two sessions a week, so now most of my new ideas come from my desire to shoot all the toys I’ve been collecting over the last couple of years. Sometimes a photography skill is my focus for a week, and then I’ll select characters that will pose well for the scene and technique. Another big help is being in a variety of group chats and collaboration groups. Everyone is so creative that when new themes are pitched, the ideas can start flowing.”

Crossovers and mashups can mean anything from team ups to fantasy fights. With the wide variety of figures available, how did you go about picking the figures you chose for your shot?

TF- “We are all grown up kids, when we were little we always imagined different mash ups while playing with our toys.  I like to say I pick out figures that have no business being together… but that is not true.  I love to pic figures that might have some small connection but have never been in the same universe.  So when I have an idea, its not too farfetched and people understand the connection.  One example is my Japanese Spiderman, I love to pair him with power rangers.”

Toy Father’s pic shows a triumphant Japanese Spider-Man standing over a defeated Morphed Shredder, encapsulating Crossover in definitive fashion. 

YE- “It’s going to sound silly, but as a collector that once a day stands in his basement to look at his shelves, it really is a matter of “feeling” who belongs in the frame, especially if I’m including more than 2 characters. Something I do consider is their “dusty status” too…if I’m on the fence between a couple of figures, I’ve been leaning towards using the ones I haven’t shot in a while (or ever). Trying to enjoy every aspect of my collection!”

With the crossover in process, what elements from each characters background stories did you feel the most compelled to include in your shot?

TF- “I always love to imagine the why, why are they crossing over?  Is is big baddie or are they fighting because of a misunderstanding?  Or maybe are they just hanging out?  Any situation is on the table, it's a matter of who are the characters and what is the connection.”

YE- “So Haunt is a perfect example of some of the figures I probably shouldn’t have grabbed to buy in the last couple of years because I don’t really “know” him, but for a clearance purchase I thought it would be awesome to have him to use with symbiotes. So yeah, this particular crossover was because I thought these two together just straight up looked awesome!”

For your crossover shot, did you have an outcome in mind for the interaction taking place? And how did you choose to convey that?

TF- “As I said before, I love crossing over Japanese Spiderman with power rangers.  We are so fortunate we live in a time where all these different toys are being made.  They actually made figures that have ninja turtles crossed over with power rangers!  Incredible.  Well I thought this was an ultimate mash up of three worlds coming together, japanese spiderman, TMNT and power rangers.  I mean who wouldnt want to see a green ranger shredder fight japanese spiderman?!”

YE- “Since Haunt hasn’t received any “shine” from me yet, I wanted him the main event of this collab to really highlight his details. I’ve done a few “series” of fights here and there, but the majority of my stuff is left to the viewer’s imagination. Some of my favorite comments people leave on my stuff is when they tell me their own interpretations of how it could end!”

Yimbo’s shot depicts two stylistically similar characters from different universes pitched into heated battle as Haunt collides with Carnage. 

As we saw last week on the Masters Class, lighting plays a pivotal role in making your scene feel dynamic. How did you go about setting up your lighting for your shot? 

TF- “Lighting is always the number one priority next to setting up the scene.  I love low dim lighting to set a cinematic tone for most of my shots.  I love the idea that my shots could be a movie poster or a movie.  I typically only use 1-2 lume cube panels on the lowest lighting setting. I typically place one in the back corner and one in front.”

YE- “Well I wanted to “bring it” for this honor of being asked to participate, so I made sure to bust out my RGB lights. I soaked them in red light with one above and one from the side, and I actually had my wife hold a soft white light with a toilet paper roll to help me clear up Haunt’s details!”

Much like a good story needs a resolution to be considered complete, photography needs a final touch of editing to be considered complete. What were some editing steps you took to polish your shot to bring it full circle from the concept of crossover. 

TF- “I like to shoot in raw format because of the editing options on photoshop.  So I will import my photos to the computer and edit and bring up clarity, adjust contrast and exposure.  Sometimes I’ll use pic arts for an effect.  Really depends what I want to do for the scene.”

YE- “Now that I’ve been at it for over two years, I’ve definitely settled into my “look”. That means I throw a shot into Photoleap (that’s the app I primarily use), I have a range of settings I can slide to in order to get me closer to the final look. If you can’t tell, I love colors, so I usually like to pop them, increase the contrast, and add some shadowing.”

Lastly, what are some of your favorite figures to use or see used for crossovers and mashups that you’ve seen in the multiverse of action figure photography?

TF- “I love crossing over sh figuarts.  I love the scale and the look of most of their figures.  The articulation is always very impressive.   However, any figure is typically on the table.

Some frequent figs are:

• Japanese spiderman
• Any sh figuart spiderman
• Sh figuart Green and red ranger 

YE- “I’ve been live streaming about toys now for almost a year and half now, so I’ve been on record many times as Mezco being my favorite toy company. However there hasn’t been any releases from them that I’ve been super excited about lately, which has allowed Sentinel to sneak into my top spot at the moment. But really, I don’t really care about sticking to MCU only shots, or comic book shots, etc etc. Toys should be fun, and yeah, I just try to have a blast whenever I get a chance to visit “Yimbonia” and let my imagination run wild!”

Now that you have got some tips and tricks from the Masters on how to take an idea and turn it into artwork, we hope you have been inspired to create some Crossover Calamity of your own. Use the hashtag #uc_crossovercalamity to show the Masters their words hit home.  Tag @toy.father and @yimboreviewseverything to show some appreciation for their advice, and as always like follow and share what inspires you. 

Tune in on Friday as the Masters Class covers the line of GI Joes with the key note speakers being @i_n_i_popcrazy and @plastik_pixelz. Until then; inspire, create, and encourage. Class is dismissed. 

~The Curator

Thank you to both of these talented artists for coming together and causing some Crossover Calamity for the benefit of the action figure photography multiverse