Author Topic: Spy Team HQ  (Read 3029 times)

Offline JPSA

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Spy Team HQ
« on: May 21, 2020, 12:44:35 »
Below is an illustration — a 'collage' panorama — I did in Photoshop of the "Spy Team Headquarters".

Navigation: You may need to download the images to see them whole, as previews may be truncated, depending on your screen resolution / browser zoom setting.  Although, if you click on an image, it should zoom you in, and then you can click-drag on the middle mouse button to pan around.


The only sketch I did, before giving up on that strategy and figuring things out in Photoshop instead:



Here is a cropped view of the Spy Team HQ, only:




And here is the entire panorama ( 28Kx2400 ):





Spy Team HQ is located on Playmobil Island ( a paracosm I developed with — and largely for ;) — my 9 year-old nephew / no relation to the Playmobil Movie ), due east from the previously mentioned Future Valley ( see "Space Patrol HQ" thread ).  The panaroma is a north-to-south slice of the island.

To the south of Spy Team HQ lies Serenity Valley, which is bisected by a wide river called "The Tomorrow River", flowing westward across the entire width of Playmobil Island, toward the 'future' — except once a month during the full moon, from midnight to 4:00AM, when the river inexplicably reverses its course and flows 'upstream' ( east ), all the way to Jurassic Valley, aka. Playmo B.C.: not a good place to find yourself in the middle of the night, should you take a full ride on the river at that time!

Spy Team has a very efficient, secret ( naturally ), bullet-train underground network, allowing them to get in the vicinity of any theme / location on the island within minutes.  They also have secret access tunnels to all the known jails, everywhere ( including Space Patrol's, who are frenemies — they are in good terms, at present — ), should one of their guys get captured.

Spy Team employs trained wolves, dolphins, whales, penguins, squirrels, owls and seagulls, for various tasks.  Wolves are usually used for security ( ‘Wolf Patrol’ takes turns guarding the railway tunnels ), and for scaring people away from sensitive spots — though they also use animatronic monsters ( ex: Yeti ) for that purpose, from time to time!

Spy Team has a special arrangement with Captain Blackheart, whose pirate ship is anchored in the big sea cave, to the south: "Don't try to break into our base, and we won't confiscate your ship — and your treasure ( we know where it is )!"  A deal which Captain Blackheart, ever endowed with a keen sense of self-interest ( and self-preservation ), promptly accepted!  Spy Team does keep an eye on them, along with all the known bad guys in the area, of course:  Dr. Devil, Megalomax, Dr. Drone, Team SHARK, Ice Pirates, and Arctic Rebels — though none of these guys know where the Spy Team HQ is located.


Notes:

  • This panorama took me over a month to complete, during the coronavirus confinement, and was mostly finished prior to starting the Space Patrol HQ ( which explains why it is not quite as polished as the latter ).
  • RMDO refers to my nephew.
  • The source *.PSB ( a large image format Photoshop required me to use ) is about 44Kx4K, and was designed to be printed on 9 borderless 8.5"x11" @ 300PPI
  • If this panorama was built irl — klicky-scale, 1:24 —, it would be 73' long ( 22m ); I would personally love to see something similar at the Funpark in Zirndorf!  :lol:
  • Fun feature: the panorama can be made to wrap-around.
  • This type of illustration is known in German as a 'Wimmelbild', and are typically found in children-oriented books called Wimmelbilderbuch ( literally: "teeming pictures book" ).
« Last Edit: May 22, 2020, 09:10:57 by JPSA »

Offline tahra

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Re: Spy Team HQ
« Reply #1 on: May 21, 2020, 18:50:40 »
That's amazing, again :love:

What's with the stuffed animals under the treehouse, and the dogheaded boy with the handcart near the stables? ???


Offline JPSA

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Re: Spy Team HQ
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2020, 00:24:16 »
... Thank you, Tahra.  :)

What's with the stuffed animals under the treehouse, and the dogheaded boy with the handcart near the stables?

Funny you picked-up on them; they are so tiny!  It's a — very — long story.  These characters are all stuffed animals belonging to my nephew, and are all part of Spy Team in our fantasy universe narrative ( which blends toy lines; ex: Playmobils can talk to stuffed animals and vice-versa ).  The characters under the treehouse are a married couple — both officers of Spy Team — called Spot and Wolfie ( female ).  The dog-headed stable boy is the Playmobil incarnation of "Blue Dog", who is a cadet at "Spy Team Academy".  He doesn't have clearance yet to know where the base is located, but he's itching to find out to prove he is a 'real spy' and boast to everybody ( hence the squirrels and detector jet keeping an eye on him ).  He's got no idea there is a secret access tunnel below the Ponyhof!  I have been animating him and doing his voice since my nephew was 31/2 ( he does Spot ); he's become quite a 'character' over the years!  He is totally earnest, megalomaniac and egocentric in a buffoonish and credulous way ( kind of — seriously — daft, to put it mildly ), and always the butt of jokes.  Oh, and he died 6 or 7 times, but he keeps showing up at the door the next morning, as a new iteration ( like: "Hi, I am Blue Dog 7!  Who are you?!" To which my nephew would answer: "I am your owner." :) ).  Here is what he looks like, irl ( brand: Piccolo Bambino ):



The time when he 'borrowed' ( stole! ) my Spy Glasses — my nephew and I are part of Spy Team ( he is a General ) —, and broke onto my computer, before running away from the house ( ...with my iPad! ):




He did some serious time-out for that ( 14 days! ):

« Last Edit: May 22, 2020, 09:50:13 by JPSA »

Offline tahra

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Re: Spy Team HQ
« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2020, 08:42:42 »
That's great :)

A lot of our older klickys have their own quirks too.. I think these are good to remember and keep. I also think it makes things a lot more interesting - I mean backstories and such, instead of just pics.

Thank you for sharing :)

(and amazingly, he looks kinda down behind bars! :o )

Offline JPSA

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Re: Spy Team HQ
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2020, 09:36:59 »
I also think it makes things a lot more interesting - I mean backstories and such, instead of just pics.

Thank you for sharing . . . and amazingly, he looks kinda down behind bars! :o )

Thank you, Tahra.  I agree.  Playmobil are primarily designed for narrative play; that's how most kids play with them, anyway — making up stories.  Regarding Blue Dog: I added a bit of shading to give him a downcast frown, along with the Liquify filter in Photoshop to pull-down some of his features and make him pout.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2020, 09:43:32 by JPSA »

Offline tahra

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Re: Spy Team HQ
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2020, 10:54:19 »
Regarding Blue Dog: I added a bit of shading to give him a downcast frown, along with the Liquify filter in Photoshop to pull-down some of his features and make him pout.

:o

(well, so weren't just my poor eyes deceiving me!  ;D  )

Offline Tiermann

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Re: Spy Team HQ
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2020, 18:48:15 »
Great giganto-diorama! Very interesting uses in some places. Thanks for posting it

Offline Luftgaengerin

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Re: Spy Team HQ
« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2020, 10:47:58 »
This is very impressive, what a world, so much to look at.  :) Thanks for sharing!  :wave:
"Give me that man that is not passion’s slave" - Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Offline playmovictorian

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Re: Spy Team HQ
« Reply #8 on: May 23, 2020, 11:07:19 »
What an amazing project !  :love: :love: :love:

Your panorama is really impressive !

As always, I love the eagle eye for details of our very own Tahra !  :lens:
La, tout n'est qu'ordre et beaute, luxe, calme et volupte. L'Invitation au Voyage. Charles Baudelaire.1857.

Offline Macruran

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Re: Spy Team HQ
« Reply #9 on: May 23, 2020, 18:33:45 »
The spirit of childhood play is alive in this picture.  :cloud9:
"We like things in little." - G. Stein  
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