Model : Xvv-xc Zedas
Scale: 1/144
Gundam AGE HG
Buy from Amazon
Full body photograph from official Bandai site.
Zedas Box Cover Graphic Design
Friday, 2 December 2011
Gundam Zedas 1/144
More Gundam AGE 1/144 models to come, and this one is very much unusual Gundam design. All body surface in aluminium metallic material. Gundam Zedas, is one of mecha from the Unknown Enemy (UE) from the Gundam AGE show. The mecha can transform into a fighter jet mode.
Model : Xvv-xc Zedas
Scale: 1/144
Gundam AGE HG
Buy from Amazon
Model : Xvv-xc Zedas
Scale: 1/144
Gundam AGE HG
Buy from Amazon
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Brief Tips to Gundam Close up Photography
This guide aims for Gunpla hobbyist that new to DSLR camera and photography.
UPDATED: Feb 2014
BACKDROP
A nice background is required, whether only a white canvas, or a nice pattern that can looks awesome when zoomed up in close up. A nice backdrop will saved you times to clean up via photoshop. In Gundam photography, the background usually will dictate what is your overall theme. This can be only a flat white color background with emphasizes only to the model, or a thematic one such as a war theme.
LIGHT BOX
Those who enjoy creating diorama for your gunplas will have no trouble creating a simple light box for photography purposes. Here some of images that can give your inspirations:
LIGHTNING
Lightning is the most important aspect on your photos. For a quick tips, a bounced light is preferred since it will show 3D dimensional of the object better. Usually on your camera, flash light is your default setup. This is not so great since it is only give brightness but dull in recreating 3D dimensional of the model (see illustration below 'Frontal Flash Light'). In a "studio" setting, lightning can be arranged to face one directional to the Gunpla. This is also related to the pose we want to created and composed the lightning effects for that pose. Then there were color of the light. A white matte light create the most neutral effect.
APERTURE
This is the technical thingy that has no strict guideline.
In common language, aperture is how large the lens to open. Quick fact, just see the f-number on your camera, the 'smallest' the f number the effect will be the more small area of focus your photo going to produced. This mean it will create a nice blur or 'bokeh' background for many unwanted background. On the disadvantage side, the smallest f-number, the more difficult to get your object focus, so be careful. The other thing to consider is your distance of camera and model and model to background, most usually you will need to stay in distance between one meter to as close as 30 cm. Aperture f-number setting will get complicated when you also play on this distance factor, so experiment your self. A quick setting, with distance of camera about 70cm to 40 cm to object, and about more than three meter background:
- f 8 and above will give you a panorama view, with mostly all object stay in focus
- f 8 to f 4 will give you a good overall focus on all model but already blurred out the background
- f 4 and smaller will give you extreme focus on one spot, even able to blurred out the other parts of model
biggest fact: the smallest the f-number the brighter your photo is, the opposite applied
SHUTTER SPEED
Another technical aspect is a Shutter Speed. This is how fast your lens to open and close, it is done by stating how many second the camera need to open the shutter, for example from 1/200 second to 1 second speed. Since Gundam is a still object, then the shutter speed usually did not come in much effect. We can fix the shutter speed accordingly to the need of light. Why, because the faster the shutter speed the darker the photos and the slower the shutter speed the brighter we get. When come to the need to put shutter speed below 1/60 second, I will suggest to use tripod to avoid handshake. Gundam is a small object and a slight motion blur will come in effect to ruin the pictures. Tips, the only handy good use to play with shutter speed is when we need a moving effect background to sweetened the pictures.
POSE
And yet again, posing the Gundam model is the biggest aspect of fun in Gundam photography. Unlike a human pretty model who can pose as you wish, in Gundam we need to "manually" create it. When creating the pose, referred to a photograph. See how the anatomical related when you create certain posture, mean don't use a non realistic pose with a hand and body not realistically connected.
Use the effect of gravity, that is a weapon holding should give the hand a little bit "heavy" stuff around. Use dramatic "time freezing" pose, like a jumping or fighting pose. The quality of Gundam recommended is a HG above, and I assume you who read this will have the knowledge on Gundam grade. When I collected a Gunpla, the most enjoyable factor is they able to pose as I wish, this make the different between fixed action figure and Gundam.
LENS
Finally one more equipment you need to take care. Shooting Gundam is similar in shooting portrait plus a bit of macro element. To shoot your Gunpla, you will most probably need a fixed lens / close up lens or fancily also called 'prime' lens. A quick tips, get the one with 50mm, 85mm and above, because we are shooting small object so it will zoom out. Not too recommend is, to use wider fix lens such as 40mm or below. The fixed lens usually already come with required f-number we need, as in f1.8 or even below. You rarely can go beyond that 'f-number' when using non prime lens. With this, as discussed in 'Aperture' section, you can get a nice "bokeh" background effect.
Lastly get a specific macro lens. With magnification of 1:1, you can give your Perfect Grade Gundam a zoom photos, showing details of his face.
On this guide, I mainly only use Canon EF 50mm lens together with Canon 650D. Canon 650D is entry level DSLR camera for beginner. Both camera and lens are in affordable prices.
Have funs....
Gundamshutter recommend entry level DSLR camera, Canon 100D and Canon 700D. For Nikon it will be Nikon d3200.
UPDATED: Feb 2014
BACKDROP
A nice background is required, whether only a white canvas, or a nice pattern that can looks awesome when zoomed up in close up. A nice backdrop will saved you times to clean up via photoshop. In Gundam photography, the background usually will dictate what is your overall theme. This can be only a flat white color background with emphasizes only to the model, or a thematic one such as a war theme.
a standard white backdrop, a pattern backdrop and an outdoor background done with nice 'bokeh'
Those who enjoy creating diorama for your gunplas will have no trouble creating a simple light box for photography purposes. Here some of images that can give your inspirations:
a cabinet with white surfaces wall will do!
electronic interior will also do!, you can check my photos using this kind of background, here.
LIGHTNING
Lightning is the most important aspect on your photos. For a quick tips, a bounced light is preferred since it will show 3D dimensional of the object better. Usually on your camera, flash light is your default setup. This is not so great since it is only give brightness but dull in recreating 3D dimensional of the model (see illustration below 'Frontal Flash Light'). In a "studio" setting, lightning can be arranged to face one directional to the Gunpla. This is also related to the pose we want to created and composed the lightning effects for that pose. Then there were color of the light. A white matte light create the most neutral effect.
A Frontal Flash Light usually give a flat portrait, even worse a shadow may occured
Lightning from Side and Top are much preferred since it will give more 3D effects to the portrait
and for Backlight, unlike in human portrait where we can get a nice hairlight, there is not much in effect in Gundam photography except it will created a nice silhoutte
APERTURE
This is the technical thingy that has no strict guideline.
In common language, aperture is how large the lens to open. Quick fact, just see the f-number on your camera, the 'smallest' the f number the effect will be the more small area of focus your photo going to produced. This mean it will create a nice blur or 'bokeh' background for many unwanted background. On the disadvantage side, the smallest f-number, the more difficult to get your object focus, so be careful. The other thing to consider is your distance of camera and model and model to background, most usually you will need to stay in distance between one meter to as close as 30 cm. Aperture f-number setting will get complicated when you also play on this distance factor, so experiment your self. A quick setting, with distance of camera about 70cm to 40 cm to object, and about more than three meter background:
- f 8 to f 4 will give you a good overall focus on all model but already blurred out the background
- f 4 and smaller will give you extreme focus on one spot, even able to blurred out the other parts of model
biggest fact: the smallest the f-number the brighter your photo is, the opposite applied
Another technical aspect is a Shutter Speed. This is how fast your lens to open and close, it is done by stating how many second the camera need to open the shutter, for example from 1/200 second to 1 second speed. Since Gundam is a still object, then the shutter speed usually did not come in much effect. We can fix the shutter speed accordingly to the need of light. Why, because the faster the shutter speed the darker the photos and the slower the shutter speed the brighter we get. When come to the need to put shutter speed below 1/60 second, I will suggest to use tripod to avoid handshake. Gundam is a small object and a slight motion blur will come in effect to ruin the pictures. Tips, the only handy good use to play with shutter speed is when we need a moving effect background to sweetened the pictures.
shutter speed set at 10 second and we can created a nice 'light painting', the creativity is unlimited
POSE
And yet again, posing the Gundam model is the biggest aspect of fun in Gundam photography. Unlike a human pretty model who can pose as you wish, in Gundam we need to "manually" create it. When creating the pose, referred to a photograph. See how the anatomical related when you create certain posture, mean don't use a non realistic pose with a hand and body not realistically connected.
Use the effect of gravity, that is a weapon holding should give the hand a little bit "heavy" stuff around. Use dramatic "time freezing" pose, like a jumping or fighting pose. The quality of Gundam recommended is a HG above, and I assume you who read this will have the knowledge on Gundam grade. When I collected a Gunpla, the most enjoyable factor is they able to pose as I wish, this make the different between fixed action figure and Gundam.
A High Grade model will sufficient to create you a desirable posture
A Master or Perfect Grade will give you the most posture to enjoy
LENS
Finally one more equipment you need to take care. Shooting Gundam is similar in shooting portrait plus a bit of macro element. To shoot your Gunpla, you will most probably need a fixed lens / close up lens or fancily also called 'prime' lens. A quick tips, get the one with 50mm, 85mm and above, because we are shooting small object so it will zoom out. Not too recommend is, to use wider fix lens such as 40mm or below. The fixed lens usually already come with required f-number we need, as in f1.8 or even below. You rarely can go beyond that 'f-number' when using non prime lens. With this, as discussed in 'Aperture' section, you can get a nice "bokeh" background effect.
Lastly get a specific macro lens. With magnification of 1:1, you can give your Perfect Grade Gundam a zoom photos, showing details of his face.
On this guide, I mainly only use Canon EF 50mm lens together with Canon 650D. Canon 650D is entry level DSLR camera for beginner. Both camera and lens are in affordable prices.
Have funs....
Gundamshutter recommend entry level DSLR camera, Canon 100D and Canon 700D. For Nikon it will be Nikon d3200.
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Gundam Gaddess 1/144
Model : GNZ-007 Gaddess
Scale : 1/144
HG Gundam 00
Buy it here
One of my favorite cyan colored unit is Gundam Gaddess. Got a nice model shown in Singapore Gundam Fiesta around year 2010. Photo taken by digital pocket camera Kodak Easyshare, with macro zooming and local existing lighting. A bit blurring because I wasn't have enough standing stability over the crowd.
Scale : 1/144
HG Gundam 00
Buy it here
One of my favorite cyan colored unit is Gundam Gaddess. Got a nice model shown in Singapore Gundam Fiesta around year 2010. Photo taken by digital pocket camera Kodak Easyshare, with macro zooming and local existing lighting. A bit blurring because I wasn't have enough standing stability over the crowd.
Scale 1/144 Gundam Gaddess, nice object for photography
Boxset cover and graphic design artistic
online college degree
Monday, 17 October 2011
Gundam Ahead GNX-704T
Model name: Ahead GNX-704T
Scale: 1/144
HG Gundam 00
Buy the model at Amazon here.
This tall Gundam unit is Gundam 00 tv series. The large scale of its part made it easier to assembly, and the join give a stable movement. One of my favorite gunpla toys. Here photos for any graphic designer who wish to do artwork on this rarely talk unit.
graphic design degree
Scale: 1/144
HG Gundam 00
Buy the model at Amazon here.
This tall Gundam unit is Gundam 00 tv series. The large scale of its part made it easier to assembly, and the join give a stable movement. One of my favorite gunpla toys. Here photos for any graphic designer who wish to do artwork on this rarely talk unit.
Boxcover and graphic artwork
Three Gundam posing together
Macro shoot of the facial detail
More photos using GNX-704T AHEAD model which I taken later...
A higher photo resolution with new DSLR Nikon D90 and some with pocket camera
graphic design degree
Friday, 14 October 2011
Gundam Cherudim GN-006
Model: Cherudim Gundam GN-006 Trans-Am
Scale: 1/44
HG Gundam 00
Buy at Amazon here
Cherudim Trans Am Mode Mini Review
Bought this model from Jakarta's Expo back in 2010. The model's pink metallic color is not very appealing to me. This is due to the shinny material that make it slightly difficult to photograph. There are also several color alternatives here. In construction, Cherudim is not really steady in articulation. Her "V-Fin" is snap with only few mm, making it easily falls apart. I found the balance stand is also hardly can achieved without careful adjustment. The visor is also a problem, and it is even broken which I need to glue it back again, this is because the transparent visor material is less sturdy than the 'handler'.
GN-006 Cherudim Gundam (aka Cherudim Gundam, Cherudim) is the successor unit to GN-002 Gundam Dynames in season two of Mobile Suit Gundam 00, piloted by Lockon Stratos.
Scale: 1/44
HG Gundam 00
Buy at Amazon here
Cherudim Trans Am Mode Mini Review
Bought this model from Jakarta's Expo back in 2010. The model's pink metallic color is not very appealing to me. This is due to the shinny material that make it slightly difficult to photograph. There are also several color alternatives here. In construction, Cherudim is not really steady in articulation. Her "V-Fin" is snap with only few mm, making it easily falls apart. I found the balance stand is also hardly can achieved without careful adjustment. The visor is also a problem, and it is even broken which I need to glue it back again, this is because the transparent visor material is less sturdy than the 'handler'.
GN-006 Cherudim Gundam (aka Cherudim Gundam, Cherudim) is the successor unit to GN-002 Gundam Dynames in season two of Mobile Suit Gundam 00, piloted by Lockon Stratos.
Boxset and graphic art
The monochromatic pink gives the model a "dark" feeling.
Cherudim with Blue Destiny, shoot with Canon 10-22mm wide lens, trying to explore some dramatic point of view and see the distortion produced.
tags: gunpla photography, nikon L-20, dslr, toy action photo, cherudim, gundam 00, canon wide lens gundam
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Blue Destiny HGUC 1/144
Model: RX-79BD-2 BLUE DESTINY UNIT 2
Scale: 1/144
HG
This is a Gundam unit based on Universal Century timeline. The unit appeared in the game "Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story". I assembly this years ago and being posted to another blog and flickr website. But here some of the best photograph, taken only via Kodak Easyshare, around that time I only owned this very handy pocket camera.
Scale: 1/144
HG
This is a Gundam unit based on Universal Century timeline. The unit appeared in the game "Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story". I assembly this years ago and being posted to another blog and flickr website. But here some of the best photograph, taken only via Kodak Easyshare, around that time I only owned this very handy pocket camera.
Packing Box Graphic design and art works
Gunpla, online hobby, toys and Gundam update in this blogspot : gundamshutter.blogspot.com
Gundam AGE Episode 1 Aired!
The latest incarnation of Gundam TV series and franchise is on aired now. Flit Asuno is the main protagonist, who is a 14 years old university student who born at the time of war. Gundam AGE is again featured this teenage pilot as main hero and to counter enemy force, now appears as "UE" Unknown Enemy. Gundam AGE toys also comes now with 1/144 HG model by Bandai. Models now on sale online.
Here are some photos and graphic design.
Here are some photos and graphic design.
GUNDAM AGE snapshot from the anime
Gundam AGE in Mega Scale 1/48
Saturday, 1 October 2011
Gundam AGE Eng Sub Youtube Links
For those staying in South East Asia and Oceania, Gundam AGE is now streamed and English subbed. UPDATED: Also in North America and Europe. They were uploaded by Gundam.info channel. The Youtube URL links are compiled into this page for your convenience browsing.
Gundam AGE Episodes and Link to Gundam.Info youtube channel.
1 The Savior, Gundam
2 The Power of AGE
3 Shattered Colony (The Twisted Colony)
4 The White Wolf
5 The Demon Boy
6 The Light and Shadow of Fardain
7 Gundam Evolves
8 Do or Die on the Common Front (A Deadly United Front )
9 Secret Mobile Suit
10 Day of Fierce Battle
11 The Reunion at Minsry
12 Course for Counter Attack
13 Space Fortress Ambat
14 Flash of Sorrow
15 Those Tears Fall in Space
16 The Gundam in the Stable
17 Friendship, Love and Mobile Suits
18 Battle in Graduation Ceremony
19 Asemu's Set Off
20 The Red Mobile Suit
21 The Shadow that Awaits
22 Big Ring Absolute Line of Defense
23 Suspicious Colony
24 X-Rounder
25 The Terrifying Mu-szell
26 The Earth is...Our Eden
27 I Saw a Red Sunset
28 Chaos in the Sphere (Upheaval in the Earth Sphere)
29 Grandfather's Gundam
30 The City Becomes a Battlefield
31 Terror - Tremble in Fear - Ghosts of the Desert
32 The Traitor
33 Howl to the Earth
34 Space Pirates Bisidian
35 Cursed Treasure
36 The Stolen Gundam
37 The World of the Vagans
38 Fugitive Kio
39 The Door to the New World
40 Kio's Resolve: Together with the Gundam
41 Magnificent Fram
42 Girard Spriggan
43 Amazing Triple Gundam
44 Paths Drawn Aparts
45 Sid the Destroyer
46 Space Fortress, La Gramis
47 Blue Planet, Lives Ending
48 Flash of Despair
49 End of a Long Journey
Gundam AGE Episodes and Link to Gundam.Info youtube channel.
1 The Savior, Gundam
2 The Power of AGE
3 Shattered Colony (The Twisted Colony)
4 The White Wolf
5 The Demon Boy
6 The Light and Shadow of Fardain
7 Gundam Evolves
8 Do or Die on the Common Front (A Deadly United Front )
9 Secret Mobile Suit
10 Day of Fierce Battle
11 The Reunion at Minsry
12 Course for Counter Attack
13 Space Fortress Ambat
14 Flash of Sorrow
15 Those Tears Fall in Space
16 The Gundam in the Stable
17 Friendship, Love and Mobile Suits
18 Battle in Graduation Ceremony
19 Asemu's Set Off
20 The Red Mobile Suit
21 The Shadow that Awaits
22 Big Ring Absolute Line of Defense
23 Suspicious Colony
24 X-Rounder
25 The Terrifying Mu-szell
26 The Earth is...Our Eden
27 I Saw a Red Sunset
28 Chaos in the Sphere (Upheaval in the Earth Sphere)
29 Grandfather's Gundam
30 The City Becomes a Battlefield
31 Terror - Tremble in Fear - Ghosts of the Desert
32 The Traitor
33 Howl to the Earth
34 Space Pirates Bisidian
35 Cursed Treasure
36 The Stolen Gundam
37 The World of the Vagans
38 Fugitive Kio
39 The Door to the New World
40 Kio's Resolve: Together with the Gundam
41 Magnificent Fram
42 Girard Spriggan
43 Amazing Triple Gundam
44 Paths Drawn Aparts
45 Sid the Destroyer
46 Space Fortress, La Gramis
47 Blue Planet, Lives Ending
48 Flash of Despair
49 End of a Long Journey
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