I was glancing through, however Im more likely to make my own textures or use photo-realistic ones. I tend to do that in other art work I make.

Also, have any of you guys every used sticker paper?

EDIT: Just thought of something, you guys ever use heavy cardboard or cardstock for a set? Ive used foamboard in the past for dios (I am a former warhammer 40k player, and had a huge city scape in my basement at one point) but never card.

For my sets, I tend to use pre-existing playsets whenever possible (G.I. Joe HQ, Mobile Command Center, etc.). I'm lucky because my mom has lots of dollhouses and accessories that fit 3.75" stuff very well, and she doesn't mind letting me borrow them.

For sets that I can't replicate with anything pre-existing, I use -- construction paper! I have a big package of multi-colored paper, which I use for all sorts of walls, floors, etc. It works surprisingly well, if, like me, you don't mind your sets looking like they were built on a budget!

I used to be able to take outdoor shots at my parents' house, but they moved recently, and have a much smaller back yard. I haven't really scouted it for photography yet, but I don't think it will work as well as their old place used to...

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is on indefinite hiatus...

I was a 40k guy too. So we BOTH are used to foamboard and how they build stuff. I kinda do the same sort of thing.

http://www.joedios.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3605

Stircker paper and cardstock have been used in some of my stuff too It works great! I've been using Photoshop sense version 3 about 11 or 13 years. In all my graphic design and photo work I find doing Joe stuff very challenging. You never know the simplest of things looks more realistic than something you worked on for weeks! Great Hobby!

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Welcome!


Intro:

I'm also on hisstank, Hyporea over there, probably just one or two posts too ;-)

In terms of graphics and such, I came to JoeDios after years of rendering scenes in 3D art programs. Most of my stuff can be found at Renderosity.com, under the same username. However, once I joined JD, I haven't uploaded anything to RD in a while :-) More fun taking Joe pics.


Sets:

For my sets, I build them. Like you I also don't have easy access to the great outdoors for dio shots. I can do some, the house around here has a few small spots and if I angle the camera just right, you won't see the bricks of the house, or the a/c or the car, or the driveway, or the fences.

So I use floral foam for most of my set's building material. Somewhat recently I have settled on a dio story, which will require major set building, so I've been doing a lot of that in the mornings before heading to work. That's part of the challenge, though. Because what will have to be done, to do the scenes I have in my mind, will require a lot of CGI. And this is where I am having to learn Photoshop more deeply than I have had to use it before.

If you can do a combination of a physical set, then blue/green screen a background or more with PS, then probably that would be the best bet, and it's what I'll have to do too.


Lighting:

For lighting, thus far I just use three types: a halogen lamp with a dimmer, LED flashlight (sometimes two of them) and a 650 WATT Tungsten lamp that puts out an amazing amount of heat and white light in seconds--you can actually see dust burning in 1 second of use.


Storage:

For storage, I just have stackable plastic boxes, and stack them as high as I can. I don't have space here for keeping the Joes, so I go up.. hanging from the ceiling the aircraft, shelves all around the Joe room, along with my Microman collection, and the diorama set is assembled on 16"x16" ceramic floor tile at the end of a computer desk that is also home to 7 computers and two laptops.

--Death

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I use card stock for sets and it work very well. The building in my post earlier with the trooper in the door way is entirely cardstock as well as Bat alcove

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Tracker's Pictures