The Enloe Trials Premier - THE BARON'S CRUSADE

[w.meyles]

Hi Chewie,

Thanks for starting this again and as has been mentioned before: very well done with the photography! Putting old en new with eachother really told the story of depth. I know about painting faces. It is rewarding nevertheless.
I think the best novells are those in which you start to doubt whether these are action figures at all. You are getting close to that

Hope you will build up tension about the artefact in the storyline. Let's just hope it isn't a golden ring...

[DarthSinizter]

I got into photo novels after the heyday but I really enjoy them. Gets lots of great ideas and inspirations for my own customs from what you and everyone else does on these photonovelseries. Glad to see you returning to the fold once more.

[Scarrviper]

This was a really well made chapter. I've read most of this photo novel already up to this point, even though I'm not a prequel fan and my interest in the EU has become smaller and smaller as it has gotten more and more silly. But enough about that. This series has had some great moments, and I like the customs I've seen. Lots of creativity and inspiration. In fact, last night I modified an extra boshek head and placed it on a VC AT-AT commander body so I could have my own quick custom of Tylin.

I should also mention that the sets used here look fantastic, and every shot looks excellent. Very well photographed

[julianmaurice]

Chewie, you have set the ball rolling in style my friend! I've never really been into the Clone Wars era, but now you are entering into my era of interest and your first chapter has me hooked.

If I were to offer any criticism, it's that I'm going to have to wait for the next part! The writing was faultless, the dioramas and customs add that touch of magic to the proceedings.

I particularly liked the walking away sequence "relieve him of his pain"... it has set the scene for an exciting villain.

By your own admission you have given yourself another immense task moving forward and I am very excited at the prospect of more.

Jules

[JCobb]

Wow...

I am ashamed to say that I haven't read the rest of the Enloe series...but I sure as heck will now. I've always been extremely impressed with your Yakfinities customs, easily some of the best I've seen, but that diorama blew me away. The photography was excellent, capturing feeling through faceless plastic like Kirshner! You also did an amazing job of making the shots look post-battle. It had a cold, dusk, heavy feel that really set the mood. I am so impressed.

As far as EU, prequel, and photonovels, here is my feeling. I am an OTC man, through and through. I enjoy most well written EU, regardless of era, and can take or leave the prequel series (Revenge being easily the best of the three, and perhaps saving the trilogy IMHO). Photonovels, though, have a way of taking the "Hollywood" out of Star Wars, the way George did to start the series (but seemed to lose his way, sadly). A well written photonovel is every bit as good as the OTC, and this is shaping up to be just that! Can't wait for Chapter 1!

[Darth Depressis]

hey guys lets make the hit count equal on these boards too...

http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/index.php?topic=7647.0
http://www.sandtroopers.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=5est1nh6ce5h0mf621a858inl3&topic=14871.0
http://echobase.d2i.net/index.php?PHPSESSID=46f8cd54cf4e0943797b278ece708ea3&topic=818.0
http://www.jedidefender.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=22247.0
http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1078227/

show your support everywhere! keep enloe alive...

[DarthStarkiller]

Tylin also, now, looks aged.

[YAK_Chewie]

Really great introduction to the new series. It think it's a nice set up and good springboard for newer readers.

I think I actually said "Oh no!" when I first saw the Mon Cal rebel, worried it was Freelo. I'm glad it's not, though I don't think you'd refrain from killing him off if it fits you're story, I've got a feeling he'd get a pretty epic death scene. As it is, it worked as a nice bait and switch.

Very interesting to see what's become of Tylin, he's actually one of my favorite characters from the series, and it's sad to see him on the other side of the war from Rykrof completely. You set the up well, it was a very natural development, but I'm always a little disappointed that they're not fighting on the same side whenever he shows up.

The sets are flawless. The backdrop and colored lighting really make it feel like its outdoors, it has a very dusky feel.

Really a great comeback for the series, and certainly worth the wait!

Thanks my friend, as always your opinion matters to me, and it's nice to see your perspective on this... as for the Mon Calamari, it just seemed like a nice species to show as an alien in this first scene since they end up having such a large role in taking down the Empire... so this poor fellow's species at least as revenge on the Empire down the road at Endor.

Freelo is a character that I like but I suppose I'm not completely against killing him off, though I think a while back I had said that I was. I'm feeling that the only character who is untouchable for the immediate future is Rykrof, and I feel that there's a lot to explore with Tylin Gere for a while, though he won't be the focus of the next chapter (he'll probably make an appearance though).

Glad you liked the sets/background/etc - the coloring just worked out by dumb luck as I took a test shot of the background on my kitchen table a month or so ago to see if it looked decent, and the coloring I was able to get there as opposed to my basement felt just right for this.

Thanks again for reading and taking the time to share some thoughts - it means a lot.

[YAK_Chewie]

Nice start to this new series Chewie. All the photos look great and the custom figures.. When I saw the Mon Cal rebel, I was like what sculpt did he use? Painting the eyes like they are half open got me.. ahahha
I like how the story is told from Tylin side of the war.. We dont see to many books or nobles writing from the empire perspective and its open to alot of creativity.. Im a new reader to photo novels and I find them very interesting and hope to see more of them in the future.

Thanks for the feedback Dennis... yeah, on the Mon Calamari, his eyes are painted. Here's the Rebels from the chapter, I made these simple Rebel customs last Fall in preparation for this:



Glad you liked seeing Tylin's perspective, there will be more of that in the future, but Rykrof's perspective will be taking hold before too long.

Thanks again!

[YAK_Chewie]

Love the opening! So good to see you back at it!

Thanks, it's great to have this part done... in a few weeks, I'll start mapping out the next two dioramas for this.

[YAK_Chewie]

For me the biggest improvement though was how the face on Tylin looks. By focusing on making a custom of him more than I did in the past, there's more depth to his face:

Wow, that was a serious upgrade. Before he looked like a action figure well photographed, now it come far closer to blurring the lines of reality.

Thanks, I have to say that trying to upgrade/enhance these over the previous storyline is hard, but at the same when I look back at my old photonovel series it's depressing sometimes because I can see countless flaws. And I know they are still there with this new chapter as well, and will continue to be.

All we can do is our best though.

[jlw515]

Justin,

Great start to your new series! I have to agree with Jules, I'm glad you are out of the Clone Wars era and now into the OT era. Your old photonovel was the only one I could follow that was in the PT era. I'm just not a big fan of clones and such.

I loved the depth of your dioramas! Your Bob Ross "happy mountains" painting really paid off! I also like the hazy look and feel of every picture. Absolutely love "the Baron." The arms off that German motorcycle figure are some of my favorite. When I first say that toy it immediately spoke to me of Admiral Skreed from the old Droids cartoon.

I kringed when I saw your custom Gun Turret with the blast marks, because I only own two I couldn't imagine scorching one like that; but that is the price we pay to produce photonovels. I'd like to see a better picture of that speeder looking vehicle with the ramp down where the Rebel was laying. It looked pretty cool.

Lastly, I know there's been a push by Darth D to post on various forums. Me personally, I can't keep up with all the different forums. I do good to keep up with Yakface and Rebelscum, and I've already decided (if you haven't noticed) not to be posting my photonovel on RS. Reason being, the level of response has always been down on that site.

Only real critique I might have is the opening crawl. The top of the crawl was hard for me to read. It may be the identical angle from the movie, I think the angle looks good, but I would suggest a darker shade of yellow/gold for the letters.

Jason

[jedistyle]

nice kick off to the new installment in your saga justin!

-i really enjoy the painted back drop youv'e done for this as opposed to digitaly altering the pictures, as mentioned by some of the other forum members the whole set really does look as if its natural out doors and has that dusty grity air to it. the aftermath of the battle came off well with the wrecked speeder and barrier walls along with the rebels casualties.

-storywise its also very intriuging. it's clear that tylin is running around searching for this relic for personal reasons and using the assets of the empire to do so, which i cant imagine the empire/empror looking to kindly on. im really looking forward to seeing what he has planned for it once he gets a hold of it.....

-i was interested to see that you gave one of the troopers an actual name, Draven. Im curious to see if he develops into an actual substantial charecter in the story that mabey conflicts with tylin or is his right hand man, or if he is a charecter we will see worthy of another custom out of armor.....

again a great kick off and im defineteley looking forward to seeing the next chapter......great work friend!

[YAK_Chewie]

Hi Chewie,

Thanks for starting this again and as has been mentioned before: very well done with the photography! Putting old en new with eachother really told the story of depth. I know about painting faces. It is rewarding nevertheless.
I think the best novells are those in which you start to doubt whether these are action figures at all. You are getting close to that

Hope you will build up tension about the artefact in the storyline. Let's just hope it isn't a golden ring...

Thanks my friend, and yeah the comparison between photos really does make a difference... that really is part of why I'm looking forward to the new series even more, to try and make things more visually appealing.

As for the artifact, I will certainly try and build some tension up, it's the focal point of the first story arc in the new series but won't be the "quest" for the whole series by any means. It's more likely that the quest is going to be about Rykrof saving someone very important to him, and getting caught up in a Rebellion he wanted to stay out of.

[YAK_Chewie]

I got into photo novels after the heyday but I really enjoy them. Gets lots of great ideas and inspirations for my own customs from what you and everyone else does on these photonovelseries. Glad to see you returning to the fold once more.

Thanks for the feedback, photonovels are a lot of fun and it's great seeing more activity again lately. I hope it continues around this section some more... and it's nice to be back into the fold for sure. I just hope it doesn't take ages before I have the next chapter ready.