Thanks for the kind words, everyone!
Now, a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the most recent batrep! It took me two weeks to shoot the photos for the Bridge of Khazad-dûm batrep, and this was, indeed, by far the most complex battle report to photograph, mainly due to the multitude of lighting effects required. I do hope the batrep photos left you wondering, like King Théoden, how is this possible! In this post, all the secrets will be revealed! But outright, I want to emphasize that Photoshopping was only used for minor corrections, like removing a blaring LED still left showing in the image, or removing a support wire, but most of what you see in the batrep photos is what the camera really saw – i.e. a practical effect.
We start with the setup scene – “What is this new devilry”, where the Fellowship sees the orange light of the approaching Balrog through the row of columns, but do not yet see the beast itself.
My nine Moria columns were set in two rows, converging somewhat to give a better illusion of a long corridor between the columns. The 80x90cm gaming terrain tiles (or their grey-painted undersides) were used as the floor and the ceiling. The light of the approaching “new devilry” is shown better in the next image; four yellow LEDs held in a “helping hand”. Balrog eyes his stunt…thing warily.
For the gaming terrain proper, two 300-LED color-changing LED strips were used for overall lighting. One, set to pure red color, snaked through the magma-ridden parts at the bottom of the Durin’s Causeway, and along the bottom of the chasm in the Second Hall. The second was strung over the terrain, similarly as with all the other night light scenarios we’ve done so far.
For a long while, I debated whether the LED strip above the Moria terrain should be set to the familiar blue-green I usually use for night / dark scenes, or orange-red, as was seen in the movie. In the end, the contrast between the red glow of magma and the blue light was more pleasing to my eyes, so I went for the blue light in the final gameplay photos. However, here are three examples shot with orange-red light above, giving the mines an overall amber glow. Compare these to the batrep photos over on the Campaign threat… which lighting scheme do you prefer?
When taking first images of the Fellowship entering the Second Hall, the overall above-head lighting reflected off the smooth floor of the Hall in a very unconvincing way. Hence, I dressed up the Hall with loose talus, but that was somehow weird-looking too. Here’s a shot which left me scratching my head…
I rewatched the scene from the movie, and realized that the floor of the Second Hall is not smooth at all, but has a tile pattern on it. Alas, I could not find good reference pictures of the Second Hall, so I settled for a nice picture of the Dwarrowdelf columned hall floor in the “Lord of the Rings Weapons and Warfare” book, and decided to emboss a similar tile pattern on the Second Hall floor. Based on the movie scene, the Second Hall pattern is (at least near the Bridge), much smaller (and hence, more difficult and time-consuming to emboss). Here’s the starting situation with the tile chosen pattern and a smooth floor.
Embossing was done with a graphite pen and a straight edge, using printed 1:1 patterns as a guide. There are basically only three different 14x14 cm squares, each with a unique pattern. The easiest one is the one which has a column in the center. As you can see, one of the squares is repeated, but rotated 90 degrees.
First, the basic outlines of the 14cm squares:
…and after an enjoyable hour or so, the embossing is ready and the floor looks far more convincing.
{ PORTAL }
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