Protofriday - Timeline

I think I've got a plan!  There's a lot of stuff for me to do and, luckily for me, there's not a little time to do it in.  I posted earlier about my asset list and everything I'll have to make up for the Prototytan Project; fourty-six robots, a half-dozen humans, a few sets, and a lot of props - and that's just for the first season.  But before I do all that, I still have to learn Lightwave.  It's not completely new since I'm transitioning from 3DS Max, but it's still taking some time before I get comfortable with it.  It's an uphill battle, though, because I'm stubborn and hate having to adjust to new things. 

I've looked at all the assets and I've figured out a timeline that I think will give me enough time to get everything modeled.  The timeline has a few steps; the first is the learning phase.  I'm giving myself til the end of the year to learn as much as I have to about Lightwave.  I'll go through a ton of tutorials, I'll model a bunch of junk, I'll mess with the materials, everything I can do to learn without feeling pressured to make a Prototytan just yet.  I don't want to start out trying to model Huffer or Reaper and just get frustrated when nothing's turning out right.  So I'll start out with toasters or rockets or whatever else I can think of.  Also during this time, I'll finalize the alt mode and design for all the robots.  There'll be lots of sketches here so hopefully I'll have a lot to post here.

The second step is the asset production.  As soon as it turns to 2011, I'm going to start modeling with a purpose.  I'm giving myself a long time - two years - to model everything I need.  I'll start with the robots and give myself 11 days to model and surface each one.  By the time that 11th day hits, I'll have a model of the alt mode ready to sell online, and have a fully transformable robot.  I measured this out and all together, it should take me 18 months.  That'll give me 6 months to model out everything else; the people, sets and props.  During this time, the Prototytan Project will have daily updates to keep me going.

The final thing I'll have to do before the deadline is get the first update ready to post online.  It's not a long one, I think just a few pages, but it has to be ready to go by January 1st, 2013.  That Tuesday is officially... Prototuesday!  Watch for it!

Return of the Clone

Protofriday - Transition

Two computers ago, I was working on a model of Optimus Prime.  He had an original transformation that was like a reversed Powermaster Prime.  Here's how far I got before I was forced to quit on him.  In general, I had a very basic idea of his transformation and added stuff on to it as I went along.  Nothing was really planned out, as you can tell by the overly-long arms, his super thin thighs, and his awkward waist/hips.  Still, I'm happy with how the design works out, and with some tweaking, I think it'll make for a good design. 

Since the computer wasn't available to me, I turned to pen and paper for a fix.  I started out by raising up, and inverting the elbow joint.  Originally, the forearm rotated 180 degrees over two joints, but that's what made them so long.  By raising it up, I keep it to just a 90 degree rotation, and by having the elbow joint in the middle and not the sides, I can add an elbow pad to hide the joint.

The exposed hips were another problem and without a waist, they looked too long.  I added a thin waist area that will allow for rotation.  The waist also has a few panels on the sides and front that will fold down to cover his hip joints.

I'm sure I'll still run into problems fitting things together though.  The whole foot mechanism still has me confused.  I want the wind sail up on top to fold down the become the feet, while the front of the calves are the back of the cab.  How to get them to rotate arouns and sit flat, I still am not sure about.

Trying to model Prime without sme serious design beforehand has been a real learning experience.  I've got basic ideas of most of the Autobots and Decepticons (who are all getting minor redesigns), but they all need a lot more work put into them.  It still isn't foolproof though.  Some earlier work on one of my Prototytans, Threshold, showed me that sketches don't illuminate every possible problem, and I still ran into a few snags.  Still though, I had a much better idea of what to look for than I did with ol' Optimus here.

Mission Success

Transmetal

Megatron Monday

I'm sticking with Beast Wars today, going from my very first Megatron to the first Megatron I still own - Transmetal 2 Megatron. I had infact owned the first Transmetal Megatron, but he suffered from GPS (Got eaten by a dog Plastic Syndrome). So this guy is the senior member of my collection.

I love this guy! I cannot believe the amount of detail they were able to put into him. I think that after all these years and the various Megatrons that have come out since him, he's still the best looking one. None look like they've gotten nearly this amount of work put into them. There's not a spot on this guy that isn't covered with some kind of technical or biological detail. Even better, nothing on this guy is symmetrical - if one side is bioligical looking, the other side is mechanical. Makes for one crazy looking robot. A simply amazing design.

BEAST MODE

I think it's best we start here. Megatron's a bright shiny red with hints of orange on the wings, tail and underbelly and purple on the wings. In addition to flat plastic colors, we've got translucent plastic on his wings and vacuumized metal on his head, neck, wing tips, and belly. His head and neck look absolutely stunning with the shine on them, with the overlapping plates.

Those plates aren't just for the looks either! The neck has a pretty awesome feature to them that lets it bend to the side and back and forth by moving a switch on its base. The soft plastic will wobble around if not locked into place. It allows for some great posing but it is pretty limited. Another feature in his head has you pressing the back of the head down to open his mouth and fires a missile.

His back legs are short and squat and end in some of the biggest feet I've ever seen. Even though his feet are that big, with another claw sticking off the back, I still have trouble getting him to stand in a position that isn't standing straight up. I mean, that's fine, but not very menacing since he can't look down from there.

The wings on the back can rotate towards his back or his sides and there's a switch that can be

lowered and locked into place to spread them open. The tail is made of the same soft plastic of the neck but doesn't have any posibility to it.

The only drawback to this mode is the base of the tail. Megatron's face is easily visible here, with only a small translucent orange visor that covers have his face. If they had made something that fully covers his head, whether it's translucent or not, it would have made a huge difference. As it is, The tail doesn't look like it fully attaches to the body and has a damned face on it. The thing looks like a Megatron Comet has mounted the dragon's ass.

Before we check out the robot mode, there's a third vehicle mode that most Transmetals have. Once the second Transmetal wave came out, they dumped the vehicle mode, but Megs kept his. It's kinda ridiculous though so I wish they just dumped it. Fold all his legs up exposing a few wheels and he becomes some kinda drag-ster. Get it? Dragon? Dragster? Yeah, I hate

myself too.

ROBOT MODE

Man this guy looks menacing. I mean look at that scowl of his! Evil, I tell you. He keeps a similar mechanic as the Ultra Beast Wars Megatron with a mouth for a hand, but it's swapped now and its his hole neck. The movement feature works the same in this mode, same as the wings. His other arm is normal, but has a big shield on it. It looks like it could block a lot of munitions. The missiles (Megatron comes with three of them and his second launcher above his head, along with two holding slots in his wings) could work as clubs in his one regular hand.

In the middle of Megatron's chest is a soul chamber, an aborted feature that both Megatron and Tigerhawk had. Inside that little plastic orb is an empty chair. That's it. It rolls around all over the place in there. Once they decided not to have someone sitting there, I really wish they did something else with it. They could have just stuck a cat's eye marble in there and it would have looked better. Really, make it purple and you could call it an energon crystal.



The posibility in this guy is great. The legs are extended from his dragon mode and have two knees (the lower one swivels) and keeps his huge feet, allowing for a lot of different poses. Megatron's right arm (the dragon head) can still get pretty decent poses and the mouth can still hold some smaller stuff (like a little Sam Witwicky figure), though the springs keeping it closed aren't that strong.

Overall, this is a fantastic figure and one of my favorite. Megatro's never looked more powerful or menacing. He's a damned dragon, and not a lame one like RiD Megs had, two-headed or not. I highly recommend this guy to any Transformers fan.

Rumor Mill

Protofriday - Doodles

I'm an compulsive doodler. I have a blank sheet of paper in front of me - or even paper with big blank spots on it - and I'll doodle anything. I try to stick with stuff that needs doodling, like this comic, but sometimes it'll end up as just a bunch of squiggles. Because of that, most of my drawings for the Prototytans end up being really tiny and sometimes, unfortunately, indistinguishable. I've got designs for new characters that are smaller than a dime! Good thing I've got a zoom on my scanner, right?

Anyway, here's a few tiny sketches blown up a bit. The first doodle is fleshing out of the original sketch of a character called Feedback. She's a SmartCar emergency vehicle and transforms into a somewhat stereotypical nurse. Think Animated First Aid. She's got a bit of a Lockdown transformation with her legs as well.

Got some redesigned Insecticons as well. I never liked their origin in the cartoon, how they got insect robot modes by scanning the local area. How did it work for them, but not anyone else? Why didn't they end up scanning motorboats or farm vehicles or even bicycles? So anyway, they'll be keeping their Cybertron modes for the time being. I'll just need to rethink their name. Bombshell transforms into an H-tank like Animated Shockwave and Kickback's alt mode is a motocycle. Shrapnel (not pictured) will be a drill jet. Because jets with drill bits are awesome!

This Comic Needs a One T-Rex Limit

Compensating Much?

Protofriday - Plans

With Megatron taking over the blog here, I think it's a good time to reestablish what exactly the Prototytan Project, and specifically what I'm going to do with it.  The Prototytans are a new faction of Transformer created solely by me.  At first, I was just planning to make a comic featuring them with our regular Autobots and Decepticons, but as their designs became more technical and their numbers grew, I thought how I'd like to see more of these guys.  I put an awful lot of work into them (or at least I will), and I wanted to make something of it.  So I planned to model out the Prototytans alt modes as detailed as possible and sell those models on Renderosity or Turbosquid, and hopefully be able to sell them from my own site.  I thought it was a pretty ambitious plan that would hopefully get me some decent returns.

And then I found Shapeways.  I had originally hoped to do some kitbashes of my characters, but having tried one, I gave up.  Not totally!  But after seeing some of the stuff created on Shapeways, like Venksta's WSTs and his Skyfall upgrade kit.  I had no idea you could make anything so intricate from 3D models.  I know it's pretty cost prohibited, but I feel pretty strongly about the viability of my Prototytan designs, so I think it's worth trying.

Now I'm not a total fool here and I'm not going to spend a ton of money on a model without some small-scale trials.  That's what the Legends scale is for, right?  Something I'm a huge collector of already.  So before I try doing any full-scale Deluxes or Voyagers, or whatever size they'll end up, I'm going to make some simplifications and pump out some Legends.

Crap, now it's Saturday.  Anyway, as I was saying I'll be making some Legends to go along with my collection.  I'm not sure now if I'd try to mass-produce these Legends figures, but I'm pretty sure the bigger ones will never be made for distribution.  Those things are going to be expensive!  I'd be lucky if the sale of 3D models would cover the cost of just making the originals. 

Everything's still a while away, and the comic itself is still my top priority.  One day though, I intend to hold my Prototytans in my hand and hopefully not break them somehow.

Can a Robot Hero Do This?

Alt Mode Blues

New Member 2

Megatron Monday - Beast Wars Megatron

Today, I thought I'd be a bit nostalgic.  This is the first Megatron I ever bought, way back before I even started collecting Megatrons.  Okay, it's not actually the first one, I gave that one away, but I found it at a toy sale and picked it up again. 

Back when Beast Wars got started, we got our first peak at Optimus Prime and Megatron in a two-pack.  It was my first BW purchase, and I'm guessing almost everyone else's at the time.  I was pleased and disappointed at the same time.  Pleased because for the first time, we actually had a figure with a full range of articulation.  Ball and socket joints, baby!  I don't even know if I ever saw one before Beast Wars actually.  And spring-loaded transformation?  That didn't look like absoute crap?  Awesome!

I was underwhelmed by the fact that both figures were basic sized.  These were the leaders, they can't be this small!  Megatron was an alligator, really?  Optimus had swords but no guns?  I didn't know at the time that there would be Ultra Class sized versions, so sue me.  Anyway, I never got the chance to buy the first Ultra, so until Transmetal Megatron, this was my only Beast Wars leader.  Until I gave him away.  But I got him again, so let's review this bugger!

ROBOT MODE

That is a lot of green.  I am glad that the arms and legs are a much lighter and brighter shade than the rest of the body.  That giant alligator head on his torso looks pretty intimidating, especially with those deep red eyes.  He's got five sets or ball joints (shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and knees) and one more in his neck, which unfortunately doesn't let him look up.  His feet are on a pivot though, and it causes some problems with posing.  The bottom of the feet are slightly rounded, but when the legs are spread, the figure stands on the very rounded sides of his feet and can't balance.  I was really lucky to get this pose to stay for one photo.

As you can see here, this Megatron comes with a pistol formed from his tail.  I think this is the first Megatron I had ever seen without a signature cannon.  I mean sure, this pistol is huge, but it's not the same as an arm or shoulder mounted cannon.

This doesn't quite make up for the omission, but I like it enough.  Plus, the wrist joint is pretty weak on this guy and he's always holding his gun like a pansy.  He passes the chest test with flying colors and can even scratch his head, but he fails my new test - the seat test!  He can't sit down because the alligator feet folded behind his calves and the alligator body hanging off his ass.  It's not that important of a test, but I'd hate to think he's got to stand on his throne because he'll slide out if he tries to sit in it.

ALLIGATOR MODE

Megatron's alt mode looks great for the first actually beast modes we've ever seen.  Before this, everything looked like a robot dinosaur or a robot lion.  But this looks like a regular, run-of-the-mill alligator, and I'm impressed with it.  He's still mostly a dark brownish-green, but there's more light green paint aps along his back.  I wish some had made it onto his head a bit, but I understand why they didn't.  Sure there's hardly any articulation, but they've got it where it matters - his mouth!  This guy can chomp the shit out of anything in his way.  Well, anything less than a centimeter tall.

Sam never looked more comfortable!  So there you have it, our first glimpse into the Beast Wars before Megatron got turned into a T-Rex so they can pull off the King Kong angle between him and Prime.  I never thought I'd miss this guy much after I stupidly gave it to a girlfriend of mine, but I was surprised to find him, and I'm glad I picked him up again.

Connection

 

Protofriday

So, in an effort to keep me focused on the Prototytan Project, I've decided I need to start weekly updates on my progress. I don't care if it's an updated profile, a character sketch, or a doodle of Terramax pooping on Optimus - it's getting posted! So to begin, here's my first profile.



Reaper

Function: Psychological Warfare

Motto: “One robot’s music is another’s misery.”

Has an extremely morose outlook on life and tends to force that on everyone around him. Enjoys seeing those around him becoming solemn and depressed due to his jokes and comments. Can sometimes be shunned by the others because of his mood. In vehicle mode, has a top speed of 120 mph. In robot mode, creates subliminal messages with speakers on his arms that can cause violence, paranoia, or depression in anyone hearing it. Carries a laser scythe. Sometimes becomes the target of the victim’s reaction due to uncontrollable reaction to broadcast.

Strength: 6

Intelligence: 8

Speed: 7

Endurance: 6

Rank: 8

Courage: 7

Firepower: 7

Skill: 7

Guess what his alt mode is! It's a 1970's Hearse! Don't ask me why a Cybertronian robot would have a robot mode that looks like the Grim Reaper, but I thought it was a cool (though probably cliched) idea. I really like how this guy came together in a very thin robot mode that gives off a lot of the Grim Reaper vibe.

Transformation is pretty simple. The middle of the hood folds under to become the chest and the head pops out. The wheels all rotate forward to become speakers. This legs extend out while the sides and top of the rear fold outward and seperate. The back of the alt mode unfolds and expands into a sort of cloak. His arms pull out to the sides and the fists slide out. The window sides on his arms look like lose sleeves and each contains half of his scythe, which eject and are assembled together. Easy!

Rebuttal