Mass Effect 2 and compositing a group shot.

 I finally got into Mass Effect 2. After hearing so many praises of being Awesome I got the game for Christmas this year (Thank you Kelbi!). I have a PS3, so I didn't get to play the first game. I still need to buy the Cerberus Network thing (used game) so I can see what the hell was going on in the first one. I've played many cinematic games in my time, MGS, GTA, Uncharted, Skyrim etc. Those games felt like great action adventure hero type movies, Mass Effect 2 feels like you're playing through a season of a television show. A really good season!
 I've been impressed with the voice acting and choices on what the main character can say. Even more impressed that they say everything fully. In some games when you have a conversation with another character it has your dialogue choice that you choose and the character you're talking too reacts to your choice rather than your character actually speaking your choice like in Mass Effect 2. So you end up with this great conversation between these characters and you direct how the conversation unfolds. The games reminds me a lot of Firefly. The captain of a ship, helping his crew come to terms with their issues, all the while a huge threat to the universe looms in the distance. Pretty cool.
SO, since I got the game used (don't worry EA/ Bioware, I intend to buy Mass Effect 3 day one!) I didn't have a cover for it. So I made one. It always good to practice and challenge yourself, so this was a good oppurtunity to do so. I used google images to grab the characters and composited a group shot to print out. I'm not finished with the game so I may have left someone out that should be in, but at this time I feel like I have the whole group. I think it turned out pretty good.
 Making composites is like building a puzzle. The challenge of this piece was finding similar angles and stances of the characters. Shepard (the Hero) was the hardest. I just couldn't find anything that I really liked and ended up settling for the "far away, a visionary" look he has here. There are a couple of head swaps that I did, Miranda in particular and some of the characters are just head and shoulders. It all about "Location, Location, Location"! And lighting. The image shows what I started with and my curves layer, aka lighting. Think of it in reverse, the black parts are where the light is the strongest and the white parts are the blackest. I desaturated and gave everyone a slight 70's glow and "KaBlamo" I've got a cover now. Not too shabby, huh?