HappySoda Vol #01 Released

Currently nothing to report. Just a small update, although I am kinda late to the party.

Super rats over at HappySoda has released a photo book consisting of a select number of his photos, some of which are accompanied by explanatory text. I’m a big fan of his work; if anyone’s figure photos had to be the subject of an artbook, I’d place my money on HappySoda’s. Without rambling too much, he has a PDF preview available so you can have a browse before you decide to purchase. According to his post, it will only be available between October 21-28, so best head on over if you have even the slighest interest.

Stereoscopic/3D PVC Photography – OS Idol Win-Chan Ver.2.0

Well, news from the front: since my first post on 3D photography, there have been a number of developments that I thought you would might be interested in. Super rats over at HappySoda tried his hand at it, and pxlcom has also provided a number of 3D slides of Saber stuffing her face with cheeseburger.

So, inspired (or is that spurred on?) by this flurry of stereoscopic activity, I once again throw my hat into the ring with Mine Yoshizaki’s Win-Chan.

A Guide To Cleaning Your Figures/Figurines

It’s come to my attention that my figurines are somewhat dirty. Perhaps it was the fact that my glass shelves had become opaque with dust, or possibly the spider making its way across my Yukanalia figurine as it spanned a thread of web from one wing to the next, but things Were Not Right in my shrine to PVC love.

Now, a pet hate of mine has always been cleaning my figurines. Not because I dislike the work involved, but because I’ve never been sure of just exactly how to clean them. I have an air-compressor, and would regularly wind that up to blow the majority of the dust off. But dust can sometimes be a stubborn beast, and often tenacious particles would cling on in clumps of resistance here and there, mocking me.

Thus, in the quest for scientific progress and the development of knowledge within the human species, I have embarked on a journey of discovery with my grimy PVCs. I hope the following guide and suggestions will prove useful.

Ok, I lied.

Unfortunately, I will be unable to leave you in despair as promised. Already, I’ve let down my loyal readers: a couple of people searching for examples of book reviews and that one guy who was looking for “queen’s blade armor removable” and managed to stumble upon my blog. Yeah, you. You know who you are. Yes, it’s removable. No, I won’t take any stereoscopic photos of it. I haven’t sunk to that level of depravity.

Yet.

Moving on, please enjoy some photos of my sites unofficial banner bearer and the very first figurine I ever bought, President Ritsuko of Genshiken fame. It was also the first figurine I shot using the excellent lighting tutorial over at Happy Soda; as you can see, there are some minor issues, but I think it was a decent first attempt. It’s a little old, but I hope you’ll like a couple of the shots.

The Flickr set can be found here. Click on each of the individual links below to view a larger version. Imageshack images will follow shortly as soon as I upload them.

I see what you did there.

Some of you may be aware of what stereoscopy is, but for the uninformed: it is the three dimensional view created when viewing the same scene from two slightly different angles. Normally, your eyes perform this function, each retina taking in the view and melding so you are able to perceive depth.

Photographers are also able to recreate this effect by taking two photos of the same scene and by either using the anaglyph method (where the two images are overlayed, each with either high red or cyan values) or cross-viewing, the photograph can be viewed in 3D. I was browsing byMal’s Flickr gallery of *ahem* curvaceous three-dimensional goodness when it hit me.

I had already begun my descent into PVC idolatry thanks to tj_han’s amusing figure reviews and super rats’ superior photoshoots and fantastic lighting tutorial over at HappySoda, but I wanted to try something a little different. And I thought, if stereoscopy was designed for anything, it was to show off figures. Hell, Charles Wheatstone, the father of stereoscopy, was basically an otaku born 200 years too early. He assisted in the development of one of the first widely used telegraphs (clearly trying to win an Internet), encryption in the form of cyphers (doujinshi does not hide itself, you know), and unwavering and somewhat disconcerting fascination with his interests.