EXO-6 Star Trek "General Discussion" 1/6 Line

Jar-Jar Stinks said:

Wow! Nice work, Griffin! Who knew you were the world’s foremost expert on Nicole DeBoer soft p0rn! Impressive, most impressive!

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Jar-Jar Stinks said:

Great, can we drop all the image adjustment babble now and talk about all the problems and issues Qui-Gon has?

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davejames said:

That would require a whole separate thread.

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Paul Arnette said:

Thread? You mean forum, right?

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Uhhhhhh…..I’m sure I don’t understand what’s being gently insinuated here. I’m not going to have to FIGHT anyone, am I..?

afrog said:

There is very little AI about this. There is a lot of tedious Photoshop work done "by hand" to the original image. It's actually very well done. The key is to improve the image and give her a flattering look without overdoing it and making her look plastic. You still recognize her as the same person only "cleaner" and more beautiful. If you had no comparison to the original, the retouching is imperceptible and very believable. You wouldn't know it was retouched, in other words. I used to do the same type of work professionally before I retired. Something like this can take from a half day up to a whole day to complete, especially if there is a lot of silhouette masking—which is not the case here. There are some filters applied to the color and possibly some skin textures but almost everything is done manually with a variety of Photoshop tools.

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This is interesting. I would have guessed this to be unmistakable AI, but I'll take your word for it and believe you by trusting your expertise in this kind of work. I've done a lot of Photoshop re-touching too, but not to this degree. There are things here that look intentional and intelligent (like the shifting and addition of the fingernails), while other things lack reason (like the erasure of the straps and earring attachment). The random errors resonate with the assumption and accusation of AI at work. Then I look at the almost complete alteration of the pupils and the mouth and the over-enhancement of the moles on the skin and wonder what was happening there. It seems that's real intelligence making decisions, despite any appearance of logic, and just personal artistic/editorial desire at work.

So if you're right I'd say this situation shows us how much AI has "learned" from traditional Photoshop techniques and how it replicates the many variety of things that can be done with that tool. So much that we now mistake the best Photoshop retouching for modern AI and can't reconcile otherwise. That kind of scares me.

Looks like Uhura and Troi are going to use 3d printed legs according to Nanjin. I wonder if that means they can't sit. I don't care a huge amount about articulation but you can only go so far before what you have is basically a statue, not a figure.

It'll be interesting to see what they do.

StarDude said:

Looks like Uhura and Troi are going to use 3d printed legs according to Nanjin.

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That kinda makes sense since no one wants "Knobby" knees. And I don't know who would pose them seated, unless someone assembles a bridge scene.

afrog said:

That kinda makes sense since no one wants "Knobby" knees. And I don't know who would pose them seated, unless someone assembles a bridge scene.

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The World box female bodies seem to have the right mix of movement and smooth lines but are possibly too expensive.

afrog said:

That kinda makes sense since no one wants "Knobby" knees. And I don't know who would pose them seated, unless someone assembles a bridge scene.

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I dunno, I'd rather have knobby knee joints under a seamless body myself. At some point I'd like to put together a bridge scene of some sort, and a big part of the appeal of 1/6 scale is the versatility of display options.

Not really sure why they'd need specially printed legs for Troi since she's in uniform. And even her earlier outfits weren't really that tight in the legs.

Uhura I can see. Any other female figure wearing a skirt uniform as well. Don’t get why Troi needs seamless legs though.

I guess Nanjin decided to show some leg a la Diamond Select? Sexier? I Don't think so.

Ras-al-Ghul said:

@QuiGonFishing did you order this one as well? View attachment 741377

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Possibly. I can’t remember….

I'm not reading this as Uhura and Troi having seamless legs...or that they'll remain non-articulated. Nanjin's talked about having to develop a new body for more shapely women like Uhura and Troi. It's been 3D printed to get the shape right and sounds like it's still in early development.

S. Griffin said:

I'm not reading this as Uhura and Troi having seamless legs...or that they'll remain non-articulated. Nanjin's talked about having to develop a new body for more shapely women like Uhura and Troi. It's been 3D printed to get the shape right and sounds like it's still in early development.
View attachment 741701

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I agree, I believe Nanjin was talking more about steps in the process of the development of the new figure, starting with 3D prints of the body (to get a better idea of the specific requirements of that figure)

QuiGonFishing said:

Possibly. I can’t remember….

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So you don't recognize her as a blonde?

I bet @QuiGonFishing can’t either confirm or deny all those questions as he might have totally blocked/wiped it all out completely out of his mind @Ras-al-Ghul.

If you want more details @Ras-al-Ghul, your better off using the Vulcan Mind trick on him and see if it works.

Ras-al-Ghul said:

So you don't recognize her as a blonde?

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I was just trying to protect my reputation as a serious collector and non-pervert is all (how am I doing?). The truth is I believe I preordered her within four seconds of her appearance on the EXO site when I went up, I MEAN, when SHE went up!

"Don't like our approach, then skip our Uhura and make your own."

Huh? Were people challenging him on something?

afrog said:

"Don't like our approach, then skip our Uhura and make your own."

Huh? Were people challenging him on something?

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He’s used that line a few times before on other releases.

afrog said:

"Don't like our approach, then skip our Uhura and make your own."

Huh? Were people challenging him on something?

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Been trying not to get back into this, but there seems to always be a new outrage to respond to. I've never seen a company owner that makes products for public consumption be so antagonistic toward customers. I won't get back into the history or the details here, but the bottom line is that this man has allowed himself to become so emotionally emerged in his products that there is no line where he stops, and his figures begin. So if you say you don't love a particular detail or production idea on one of his pretty pieces of plastic, you might as well call his (ex)wife ugly or his kids stupid. That's how he reads it.

I'll also add that it is precisely his emotional connection to Trek that makes him both often insufferable, and also an unstoppable force to get these figures we love to market. A logical business owner would likely not invest in what has historically been a much more niche franchise than most of the other pop-cultural properties that immediately come to mind.

So, at this point (as I've said before but can't seem to adhere to my own advice), we just need to let NT be NT, and collect the merchandise we most need in or collections (brings the most smiles), and skip the rest. We all know by now what we have in NT and how he's likely to behave. It would be a mistake for us to get as emotionally involved in this commerce structure as he is, and be unable to separate what we feel is unfair treatment and antagonistic statements he makes about customers out of his own idiosyncratic nature, from the ability to get these (mostly) amazing figures into our display cases.

I know I've said it before, but hopefully this can ACTUALLY be my last word on the subject (you know, until I get triggered again).