Where do you get your inspiration???
 

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering were some of you Joe collectors get your inspiration to take pics of anything involving cool G.I. Joe stuff. Do some of you go scouting for locations, or look in books, magazines or other media that make you motivated to take pics or maybe do you see something that just screams Cool G.I. Joe stuff and you need to take a pic with your Joes??? As Mike Myers said on SNL ,"Discuss amongst yourselves!!!"

BKC: Not just another Burger King Sandwich!!!

Well, I can't sight a specif media I get my ideas from, but I can tell yout hat there are certain movies that heavily influenced my work and characters. For instnace, Pitfall was heavilly modled after Martin Sheen in Acopolysps Now (<-I know I spelled that wrong)

Movies are a great way to get ideas for Joe stories. Sometimes the best ideas just come to you though for no rhyme or reason and when you realize that its awsome and thats a great feeling. In the Joe Universe the possibilities are endless coming up with storylines and adventures for your Joes.

Other diostories are a big help with how to do/what can be done. People like Violentfix, Justin and Luke are a great inspiration (reading Operation Rapier got me into making them). Movies and cartoons are a big help, as well as comics (big DC fan).
An unusual thing is music, if a song has a theme I really like or lyrics that I really get then I'll just go with it. My newest one is inspired by Judas Priest's "Out in the cold" (the title is also named after one of their other songs, Winter Retreat)
Other times I just get a figure and want to take some pictures "oh yes Cobra baby, take it off... wha?... I'm talking about his hood... you perverts!"

Well one thing for certain is that this website is an excellent source of creative energy when its comes to cool G.I. Joe Stuff. This place really can get the creative juices going when you take pics and its always fun to see what someone comes up with next.

This starts totally off-topic so bare with me. As a skateboarder and snowboarder, we tend to look at the world with different eyes. As a skater, we can look at a ledge and think, "skate that". We saw a slanted wall or a bank and we think, "skate that." As a snowboard, it's very much the same. A weird bump in the run, we think, "hit that". In terms of GI Joe, I have found that I keep my eyes open when cruising around. I haven't quite gotten to the point of stopping, pulling out a Joe or two and then taking a shot. However, I have taken a Joe or 3 on trips just in case something strikes me as a way awesome place. I took a whole bunch up to Victoria, BC but alas, I got lazy. I admit, these days I absolutely LOVE the weapon cases that come with the Sigma6 figures. They are perfect for backgrounds, warehouse scenes, whatever!

As for coming up with stories for the dios, it comes from all over. Maybe there's something from Aliens I like. Or something from Clear and Present Danger (in my dio, "The Ultimate Weapon", my opening scene is taken from the sequence where Ding is being checked out by Clark). I get ideas from everywhere.

Seeing stuff that people do here and on other boards, it helps a lot too. Luke, Fred, Outrider, and a slew of others get me pumped to want to shoot. A lot of it comes with just 'playing' with the figures and what you can come up with. Sometimes, that awesome scene you just created has to have a story go with it, even if you have to make up the story to cater to just 1 shot.

Sonnelion,
You have a very interesting perspective on how you view the world when when it comes to the activites that you do and that can very easily be used in taking pics of really cool G.I. Joe stuff.

Ideas for pics can come from anywhere; movies, comics, old war photos, a great location, or a flash of inspiration. The "Deadly Apparition" pic I posted today came about simply because I walked outside, saw an ominous stormy sky, and thought "wow, that would make for a dramatic pic". "Show of strength" was inspired by a WWII pic of a line of tanks heading for the front after D-day, and "Destro and his Generals" was based on a civil war pic of Gen Grant and Gen Meade looking at a map. And of course, all of the great pics on this site are truly inspiring!

Did I mention movies have a huge impact on my dio stuff? I wasn't very specific before because it is all dependent on what mood I'm in. It also kinda depends on which GI Joe series I'm dealing with.

If I'm dealing with Sigma6, the gnarly articulation is great. So the SW prequels are great for fighting storyboards and whatnot. Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon too. I honestly can see Kamakura and Storm Shadow flying through the air, tiptooing on the top of trees and going Matrix-style in our bamboo in the backyard. Heavy Duty, of course, doesn't fly. lol.

I don't deal with ARAH. But for the 2002+ themed Joes, stuff like Aliens, Fast And the Furious, Soldier, Last Samurai, Lord of the Rings... Just tons of stuff that I pull from. And I ALWAYS have music going when I do a dio which might not actually help much. ;)

Still, it really is someone like Fred (LeoTDragon), Luke, Outrider, etc that open my eyes to what we can really do. I'm still learning, just like everyone else. I'm putting more effort into "A Matter of Anti-Matter" moreso than any other dio. I haven't posted it here yet because I'm only in Chapter4 (short chapters) and have a bit of a ways to go.

Go ahead and take a look now. Navigation is in the upper right hand corner.

A Matter of Anti-Matter WIP

In the beginning it was dio stories that inspired me to get snapping, as I wanted to do a dio myself. I was in total "AWE" of the Generals dios, as well as timscorner and violentfix's dios too. I have had a dio in production for ages and have made a lot of progress but I'm not quite ready to share it with the world yet. It's because of these three guys I caught the dio story bug! It also inspired me to part with a lot of cash to buy a new digital camera!

However this very website also inspired me to take more photos. Not only did all the pictures already on Joedios inspire me, but a place where people could store their efforts is fantastic. I signed up as soon as I found out about this place and had a look around. The photos on this site and the fact we can talk and get tips from eachother is enough to inspire anyone in my opinion! Again I was inspired to part with a lot of cash to buy another newer and better camera for my pictures!

I find myself also inspired by different conditions, such as the weather and fading light. I like to see just what I can achieve, and how these effects turn out.

Right now the weather here is awful, so I haven't uploaded as much recently. Outside is dense freezing fog and you can't see further than 900 yards, gotta love the Scottish weather!

Although time is also a factor in me getting out to take pictures. It's not always easy to find the time, or got home before its dark, thankfully, in the summer, this is not a problem. I just have to wait. Although some snow would be nice for my dio! :D

Dave

I think movies are my biggest inspiration when going through the Dio-Story process...I strive to try and make my action scenes "movie-like", and make it as close to a movie production as possible with still pics...

For sure, other dio's are also a big inspiration. Tim's, Violentfix's, Wowboys, and pretty much any other dio out there always give me ideas and inspirations for where to go with my own, too...

Justin

Inspiration
 

I fuse together the Joe comic books and cartoons, movies(like braveheart/Troy/LOTR), and current events(obviously with the current set of pictures).

Where I Get My Ideas
 

First, I hope to be able to post some pics in the near future...Life is currently in the way of the more important things.

I get my ideas from the same places mentioned before (movies, comics, etc.) as well as places as the old GI Joe Adventure Team (pre-Real American Hero), Current news, conspiracy web-sites, and even in the oddity news from internet web news sites.

I've got a different view of the GI Joe universe - Cobra isn't the only threat in the world.

Bayer

Bayer, that is a great point that you mentioned that Cobra is not the only threat for the Joes. Just like in the real world bad guys are not just in limited to one group. For example people could use real world people that are threats such as middle eastern terrorists, IRA, Iran, North Korea, etc... With everything going on in the world right now if G.I. was real they would really have there hands full.

Inspiration & Hands Full
 

Absolutely. I'm actually writing and reviewing my first dio-posting as a recovery op from both the Libyan military and something else. The last formal situation we had in Libya was in 1986 ('Operation El Dorado Canyon' for those keeping score) however, who knows what kind of things are always going on behind the scenes.

I think that Cobra is a nice go to when we run out of other forces to fight against. I have to say that they are the best equipped but that just challenges us to be more creative in our stories.

Bayer

I was gonna buy a bunch of BBI soldiers a few years ago and use them as South American mercernary forces for the Joes to fight. It never worked out due to cash flow. And when I think about it, it's probably better than I didn't try to do it.

Where do you get your inspiration???
 

what i do is draw all my joes out,then make them..best bet use your imagination..

It's not a case of Cobra being the only enemy, more of a case of Cobra representing all of America's enemies.
The early Cobra figures had a very regal soviet look because the US was still in the cold war.
Come the late 80's and 90's, America had started making enemies with the middle east, and as a result we got figures like the Night Creepers with Sinbad-swords and Turbans.
When the Ghetto culture was peaking, we suddenly had Headman and his drug rings.
When people suddenly became hippies, CESSPOOL made an appearance!
So Cobra is the only enemy in the sense that it is all of their enemies teamed up (like some lame-o Marvel crossover set)

Nowdays though, this has completely changed. It's politicaly incorrect to have such real-world connections in a toyline, and so all the characters are just made as generic badguys.

Modern politics and conspiracies may have a large impact on my future stories, as there is just so much going on right now, it's pretty scary.

Cobra: The Enemy
 

YEP! That's exactly as I saw Cobra for a long time. And I also agree that due to the political correctness of today, to "single out" any particular sub-strata of the world culture has become taboo - hence goodbye Headman and Cesspool.
I personally am not a great proponent of political correctness. Without opening an inspiration forum into a political discussion, I see good and evil in all cultural centers. There are those who would do things for the greater good and those who do things for their own gain. Only history can truly judge these people. I guess I want opponents who have both very familiar goals and some who have very alien (uncommon) ones. I think this can lead to some very interesting stories.

Bayer

Cobra's representation
 

My perception of Cobra, as with all 'enemies' of the US, is that it represents the power struggle over capital in this 'new world order' (Bush, G.H.W., 1991). In my dio, Cobra is Al Qaeda and vice-versa because they have gripes with US control of the world's capital(google "Iran's oil bourse a threat to the petrodollar" and you'll see some of the future history book footnotes to our coming war with Iran-and, ironically, some of the footnotes to why we are in Iraq). Even though the different sects of Islam are not on speaking terms, the 'common enemy theory' places them closer to each other than we can ever be and it seems we are drawing a line in the sand and pushing them towards each other no matter the perils that may exist.

As in the 80's, the struggle between capitalism and communism was often represented, either subtley or overtly, in the Joe storylines. The contemporary representations of this struggle for power is the struggle between capitalism and the 'faceless'(read: Cobra) others that capitalism shuns or exploits. These faceless individuals are the backbone of the resistance to the current world power- the US. We do truly live in mighty uncertain times. The 80's were a very complicated time growing up with the red scare, the Korean airliner being shot down, and the precursors to modern global conflicts- Pan am over Lockerbie, Libya, Beirut etc. In essence, the 92 bombing of the trade centers, the bombing of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the 99 bombing of the USS Cole and September 11th were the first shots in a very long, prolonged battle for the supremacy of the planet.

As an American with young children, I can only hope that the drama of the current world stage of politics, economy, and religion plays out so that the ficticious Cobra arsenal in my dio does not manifest into reality threatening the future of innocents. My fear is that because holy warriors "measure time by the century," this global war for supremacy of resources, hearts, minds, capital and control is but beginning to surface.

Sometimes art reflects reality and sometimes reality reflects art- hopefully, for the sake of many, my 'silent' dio story stays somewhere in the realm of fiction...

I don't think world politics or life has found its way into my dios, unless you call EBAY a global enemy, y'know? I know when I shoot, I'm winging it 90% of the time where a lot of the dio is based all a scene or 2 scenes. "Transformation" was originally a joke about how the figures actually got made at Hasbro. But I feel it's turned a touch more serious and I dont' have the usual humor in there that I like to put in. I've had 3-8 old dios that were all humor. Televiper copying the Verizon "can You hear me now" ad, a couple of ads (Zarana selling cell phone service or Heavy Duty & Roadblock selling Brawler on EBAY tv)... My ideas come from everywhere and I am always keeping my eyes open for decent locations.

New guy here! Just recently got back into Joes, as I haven't had one since I was a kid (well... smaller kid). I LOVE the new line. :D

I'd also never done anything like a dio... but it seemed completely natural, since I was having so much fun creating my little scenarios, to take pictures of them and stick them on my site. From there I found yojoe.com, and eventually this place, which ROCKS! ;)

Inspiration... my imagination runs overtime, so I generally have some screwy, off-the-wall idea that can be used to humorous effect in a GI Joe scenario. I like to set up a battle (just once, no moving the characters), and take pictures from different angles to play it out. There's rarely a lofty theme or anything; more likely a sarcastic jab at... whatever happens to be on my mind.

Right now it's just done on my desk, since my puppy takes over the rest of the apartment... hopefully at some point I can put together a set. :)

Hello all.

For me, much of my inspiration comes from the ideas of my clients. Whether it be floorplans, scribbles, or just words in an email, folks give me an idea of what they would like to see, and I can immediately imagine how I want to flesh it out.

For some dios, buildings, terrain, or pieces, the toys themselves, or more specifically, the customization of the toys inspires me to create all manner of structures to place them in. If it's Joes, then I want to create places that either do not exist, or exist only on a cartoon panel. If it is my 1/24 scale AOME Lord of the Rings figures, then I want to build medieval inspired inns and domiciles, to utilize the figures, as well as the furnishings, such as the great ones from Dwarven Forge.

The inspiration comes from a just about anywhere.