Cordy's tips & trix on dio making (updated weekly)

[[][][]cordylus[][][]]

Here's a little thread I thought I would start to help any people new to diorama making, or those who make dioramas make them better.

Dioramas including your dinosaur toys can be some of the most awesome pictures ever, or they can be epic eyesores. Here's some tips on how to make a good diorama.
(all dioramas by me unless otherwise noted)

Location, location, location!

Many times, what would be an otherwise bad diorama can be saved by a good location. For example:



Without the vibrant moss, good natural lighting effects, interesting plants and pebbles, this diorama would be nothing good - just two relatively uninspiring figures sort of thrown together. However, when they are combined with an interesting location, it can turn into a good diorama like the one pictured. These diorama landscapes can be found almost anywhere you look - this one was in my grandparents' backyard, in the dirt right behind a small tree!
However, it can work in just the opposite way...



See that? A beautiful figure, one of the best around, in an uninspiring location with nothing to visually catch your interest. What you need is a good figure, and a good location to make a great diorama....



THIS is great. Good location, good figure, great diorama. Short, sweet, and to the point.

Lights...

You visually interesting lighting in your diorama too. You need to be able to see the figures, see what they represent - but you also have to do this interestingly! A diorama with good figures and a good location, but with terrible lighting, won't be too impressive. However, there are simple things you can do, such as use shadows to your advantage...



You wouldn't know that there's a fence right behind that dimetrodon; light and shadows can show off objects you want the viewer to see and hide what you don't.

Photo editing and Photoshop!

Let's face it; even if you are one of the ones who absolutely hates photo editing programs, they are useful, and you probably do it in some way - whether it be by simply cropping out a date on a picture or or creating a whole herd of dinosaurs out of one figure!



When done correctly, photoshopping can look very nice and unnoticeable, and make an otherwise "well, it's ok" picture into a "hey, that's pretty cool!" picture. With one apatosaur, this would have been pretty boring - not bad, just boring - but editing in a second one gives it some depth, and allows the viewer to possibly subliminally think of a story that goes along with it - why are those apatos there? Why is one behind the first? Why are they walking along in the water together? Etc.
Just like most other techniques, heavy photoshopping can have a bad effect too...

[Libraraptor]

Interesting tipps! Looking forward to seeing and hearing hearing more from your experience. As for me, I mostly trust intuition and chancer - I stroll around with some figures in my pocket. Things can happen or they can´t. I love this approach.

[[][][]cordylus[][][]]

Nov 12, 2010 7:46:55 GMT Libraraptor said:

Interesting tipps! Looking forward to seeing and hearing hearing more from your experience. As for me, I mostly trust intuition and chancer - I stroll around with some figures in my pocket. Things can happen or they can´t. I love this approach.

Yeah, good environments can be found anywhere you go if you look closely. A lot of my dioramas come from places like small rock piles, weed patches in my back yard, etc.

[[][][]cordylus[][][]]

(/ more diorama stuff)

Boo hoo hoo! I live in an overdeveloped wasteland and I have no cool areas to photograph my dinosaurs in!!!!!111



Good locations can literally be found anywhere you go. Anyyywheeerrreeee. You just have to have an imagination!



Guess where this was taken - beneath a car in a driveway. It had just rained and it was pretty bright outside, and I was looking for a shady spot to take this picture in - and I found a great one!

Use what you've got around where you live - obviously, if you live in a place that is mostly tropical with a lot of rainfall you don't want to try to take desert dioramas with your papo velociraptor. And if you live in a place that is sandy with little water, you probably won't be wanting to take pictures of your carnegie mammoth there!



This one was taken beside a sidewalk on a small patch of soil. With the angle, you can cut out any man-mad objects in the background without using photoshop.

It's all about variety!

Use different manufacturer's figures in each diorama, so that it feels a little less predictable and more like nature.



Using figures by wild safari, K&M, Learning horizons, schleich, and jaru, I made a visually interesting diorama with a lot to attract the viewer.

[Libraraptor]

You´re right cordy, it´s not so much about what you´ve got. It´s about what you make of it. I like this approach. Remember my Dimetrodon on mushroom diorama? Had I looked for a "perfect Permian surrounding", I´d probably be searching still today. It´s the feeling of the moment, I´m sure.

[stemturtle]

Thanks for the hints about dioramas, cordy. Purposeful teaching is all we have left to define our species since humans lost tool use as a unique behavior. I like the way you have the prey fan out to escape the predators, both Dimetrodon and Postosuchus, to create a sense of drama. Great photos.

[ichthyostega]

From witch company is that rutiodon-like-crocodile?

[sbell]

Jan 19, 2011 12:13:43 GMT ichthyostega said:

From witch company is that rutiodon-like-crocodile?

That's a K&M Gavial figure, from back in the days when they made cool small bin figures (this one os from the endangered reptiles set).

[ichthyostega]

I'ts a cool looking figure!