Ninja Attack! recreated with Lego

Ever since recreating "Red vs Blue" and "Aw Shit!" I've thought about shooting "Ninja Attack!" But life got in the way and it just never happened. Today a friend came over to play through Halo 2; once he left, I didn't feel like playing video games anymore (especially Halo), so instead I turned to photography. I dug out all the pieces I thought I would need (as well as a couple of extra pieces that didn't end up making it into the finished photo) and set to work on staging this. I only have one white Spartan, which was a bit of an issue because there are two in the original photo. In the end I decided to make the front Spartan blue; it was more important to me that the background Spartan be white because that just happens to be one of my good friends. Besides, blue works for the whole "red vs blue" war that is Halo multiplayer.

Once that was decided, I set to work. I grabbed one of the large gray cave pieces and decorated it with random flora. The original has a couple of bare branches in the bottom left corner, so I took a couple of the branch pieces from the Dark Forest set Bandit Ambush; unfortunately they never made it into the finished shot (being a macro, they just didn't fit into the frame).

The next problem I had was making the red Spartan hover in the air. In the end I used some clear pieces (which are mostly hidden behind the blue Spartan). I later had the red Spartan standing on a thin 1x3 piece to better hide the clear pieces behind the blue Spartan, which worked rather well. The background is "In the Woods" which was also used for "None Shall Pass!" I was really excited when I noticed the trees in the original's background. They're rather faint, but they really reminded me of "In the Woods" so I thought that was perfect. Unfortunately I then had to fight with placing it properly. From the angle I shot this, you could see above the actual picture in many of the shots I took (as in "None Shall Pass!" and like "Loading Slave 1," this background is a printed version of "In the Woods." I taped it onto my usual black background, but the printed picture is smaller than my usual background). The cave piece already had to be elevated so you could see it properly from this angle; the background had to be even higher than the cave. Luckily a couple of stacks of books came to the rescue!

The one thing missing from my Lego recreation is the bubble shield. In "Red vs Blue," I used cellophane. I had every intention of doing the same here, but when I tried, I didn't really like the results. I thought that the blurry background that this shot had in macro worked just as well, so I left it at that.

So long story short, the Lego version is just an interpretation of the Halo screenshot. But that's totally okay with me; I'm really happy with how this shot turned out.

As usual, "Ninja Attack!" is on my Flickr photostream.

Aw Shit! Recreated with Lego

I was looking over my Halo screenshots the other day and came across this one (which I have titled "Aw Shit!"). It looked simple enough to recreate, so I thought I would give it a shot. The stone background reminded me of the texture on my door, so I figured I was good to go!

But of course I failed to take into account the rocket. How the heck was I going to recreate that? Physically it was easy enough: I used a couple of pieces from the missiles found in the Space Police set Freeze Ray Frenzy (a Light Bluish Gray Technic, Pin 1/2 with 2L Bar Extension and a Trans-Neon Green Cone 1 x 1 without Top Groove). But then I got stuck trying to figure out how to position it (and what to use). Originally I was going to try to use the pieces I have for my Lego Ecco picture but I couldn't come up with a good way to angle it. So then I had the fantastic idea to use string. Unfortunately, what do you attach the string to, to hang the rocket?

After a couple of really stupid ideas (like hanging string over the door and trying to somehow make that work), I eventually tied the rocket onto a pen, which was anchored in some Legos (the same ones I used to create the Rapunzel tower). Then I used a flashlight to illuminate the rocket (and kind of make the strings less noticable). Unfortunately in doing so it lit the whole picture, so my Lego attempt is a lot brighter than the original.

So anyway, here is the final product. It took a lot more effort than I expected, but I think it turned out alright.

It also appears on my Flickr photostream.

Here be Spartans!

Awhile ago, I was playing Halo 3 with a friend of mine. We were having a 2 vs 2 battle on Citadel. After the fact I took a couple of screenshots from the battle, including this one which I named "Red vs Blue" (it appears on my Bungie.net profile and in my file share under that same name). I thought it turned out extremely well and have been quite proud of this shot since I took it (it's one of my favourites).

A few weeks ago, I came up with the idea to try recreating it with Lego minifigs. This meant that I had to buy some more Spartan armour from Brick Forge, but that was okay with me (I've had my red Spartan for awhile now, but without other Spartans, it seemed a bit hard to come up with good picture ideas).

Besides the Spartans, I needed a few other things. First was the guns used in this shot. For the red spartan, I ended up using an assault rifle which I also acquired around the time I bought the new Spartans. For the Brute Shot, I ended up going with the Mega Bloks Brute Shot from one of their Covenant battle packs (I really don't like the Meha Bloks, but the Grunt looks kind of cool, and hilariously the weapons fit in my minifigs' hands).

But the bigger problem was what to use for the bubble shield. After thinking about it for quite awhile, I hit on what I thought was the perfect solution: gold cellophane (basket wrap). The first problem with that was finding gold. Eventually I found some yellow, which I thought would work. But then I ran into a lot of problems trying to take the actual picture. The cellophane reflects light and colours back, so I had a hard time getting a good shot of the blue spartan. Originally I put a piece of cellophane between the two spartans, but nothing looked right. Eventually I hit on the idea to cut a few holes in the cellophane and have the blue spartan coming through the bubble shield, which is what's happening in the original. Once I came up with that idea, everything was a lot easier, although it still took several shots before I got something I was happy with.

All in all, this shot took a lot longer to take than I planned. It took at least 1.5 hours, during which I took over 60 different shots trying to make it look just right. I realize that the Spartans aren't really lit like I wanted them to be (it was extremely hard to light them with the cellophane and with the light in the background) and I know that the bubble shield colour is wrong (bubble shields are usually gold, but in the original it looks silver). But overall I think it turned out alright.

This pic appears on my Flickr Photostream.

New Gallery: Lego Halo

It's been awhile since I made a new gallery. After finally posting pics of my three new Spartans, I decided to make a Lego Halo gallery. There are some really awesome Lego creations present on Flickr which are well worth checking out. As per my usual gallery building rules, I used only one picture per photographer. Some of the images were really hard to choose between (I accidentally had several shots from both Vengeance of Lego and mondayn00dle before finishing), but in the end I made a gallery that I think really showcases the Lego Halo creators of Flickr.

School is Over!!!!!

My final exam was this last Wednesday. I've been playing Halo since then, and didn't have a chance to update this blog. School is officially over for me this year!!!!! My two exams were both this past week, and everything else was handed in prior to that. I've gotten one of the two papers back so far and did alright on it. The two exams went alright; the Popular Fiction exam I feel extremely confident on, the Canadian Prose one not so much. But it doesn't matter, as they're both over!!!!!

The Xbox 360 Saga

On Wednesday night, I came home from a friend's house. We had been making a new map on Halo 3's Forge, which we had called "Tunnels." My friend uploaded it onto his file share, so when I got home, I tried to retrieve it. And that was when the trouble started.

Halo kept freezing. If I rebooted the 360 with the game still in it, it gave me the "red ring of death" (pictured). But if I pulled it out and rebooted, or had a different game in, then it was fine. Examining the disc, it looked rather scratched up. So I decided to unplug everything, then try it all again in the morning.

The next morning, I tried turning the 360 on. This time I couldn't even get to the dashboard. All I got was the red ring.

I tried to go online to look into repairing my console. But I ran into a bit of trouble with that, so I had to phone Xbox. I had to get going though, so I had to phone them back after school. Thankfully, I found out that Microsoft had extended the warranty of the 360 due to this problem. My 360 was still covered!

I ran over to a friend's place. We then went to get Halo resurfaced (which was probably kind of dumb - we should have tried it first). Once it was resurfaced, we tried it out, and it worked fine. So after school I had to phone Xbox back. When all was said and done, my 360 had to be sent in. It should be back within two to three weeks, and I'll be getting a free month of Xbox Live for the inconvenience!

This did come at a kind of bad time though. On the one hand, I have essays to write, so I won't be distracted by Halo Wars. But on the other hand, I'm planning on writing one of the essays on Halo, using some quotes from Halo 3...so hopefully I'll be able to rely on Youtube, or go over to a friend's place to research.