3D Thursday - Megatron 2

Starting work on a full Transformer and I decided to go with Megatron again because of the familiarity working with this vehicle mode.  I've got to say that it's so much easier working with Blender now.

Looks like a Bic Razor.

I'm taking a break from modeling for a little while, however.  I was recently hired by a friend to design a logo for them.  I'll post a picture when it's finished, but I'm having a good time with it and hope to finish it by the middle of September to allow some changes before their new shop opens the beginning of October.

ProtoTuesday - Trailhead

Another Prototytan today - this time it's Trailhead, the team's rebel.  She has no real interest being a Prototytan, or even a Transformer at all.  Too bad she doesn't have a choice.

Trailhead

Somehow this will end up looking like a female body.

Function: Hazardous Terrain Expert

Motto: “The high ground is never high enough for me.”

A trouble-maker who delights in disobeying orders just for the spite of it.  Always interested in seeing what she can get away with. Tries to use her charm to get out of trouble, usually succeeds.  Will pit her own teammates against each other so she can sit back and watch, laughing the whole time.  In vehicle mode, has a fibrous covering on her tires that allow almost vertical driving on almost any surface.  In robot mode, the ATV in her bed becomes a wrist-mounted weapon with numerous modes – machine gun, shield, sword, etc. 

Vehicle Mode: 4X4 Pick-up Truck

Strength: 5

Intelligence: 4

Worst ATV ever.

Speed: 4

Endurance: 7

Rank: 2

Courage: 6

Firepower: 8

Skill: 3


I suck at drawing things from a perspective view.  Obviously, I kinda suck at drawing things from any other view as well.  What we see here is an older style pick-up truck, I imagine it being from back in the 80's.  It's jacked-up on some big off-road tires, and though I forgot to draw it in, it has a rollbar with a few more big lights on them.

Transformation is pretty simple and ends up with a big-chested skinny robot.  The windshield may fold in a bit to make the chest thinner.  The bed folds down on her back, where the ATV is mounted.  Now, I love this idea.  The ATV becomes a weapon in Trailhead's robot mode.  Better yet, it becomes 3 different weapons.  The wheels pivot forward and the body mounts to Trailhead's forearm to become a gatling gauntlet.  The wheels also swivel towards the top of the ATV and becomes a shield.  With another twist of the wheels and an extended handle from the bottom, it becomes a hammer.  I was afraid that this was too close to RotF Ironhide's turret drone (I swear I created this before I saw that figure), but I think it's original enough.

3D Thursday - Head Job

While working on common elements, I can't forget to do the one thing that every Transformer has - a head!  I started on a generic head from a subdivided cube (I didn't want to use a background image).  I cut that cube up so much that the face didn't even look robotic anymore, which of course is a definite must for a Cybertronian face.  A little smoothing and it turns out closer to a cartoon-y guy face.  I'll use it for the human characters.

Angry man!

So I had to start over and try to make a robot face that keeps as much angles as possible. I'm not even going to touch the smooth button on this guy.

Cheeky fellow.

He's got sunken eyes and a small mouth and that's about it.  I might need to scale the sides in a bit.  I'll add a helmet, a crest, a chin, etc and it should work for just about any Transformer out there...

And this will work for the rest.

ProtoTuesday - Gears

Today's another Autobot, and this time it's everyone's favorite grump, Gears.  I tried to stick with his older truck alt mode, but I wanted something even more older truck.  Of course, at this point, I can't find the picture I was using as a reference so I'll just call it an old Chevy truck and leave it at that.

A grumpy robot from a grumpy truck.

As you can see, the front fenders fold out to become the arms and the tailgate becomes the feet.  There are problems though - the legs are hollow and there's a huge hump on him from the truck's canopy.  I'm thinking the side of the truck bed will fold into the back of his legs.  I think the canopy can become a jet pack that matches his compressed air power.  Sure they aren't coming out of his feet, but his feet are made out of the tailgate, so there's no room for jets, are there?

3d Thursday - Give Me a Hand

Yeah, of course it's a lame pun, but it fits.  Along with most models requiring tires, even more require hands.  In fact, just a few of Soundwave's minions don't (and there will be others that show up in the comic later that won't need them either).

May I have another?

Rock on!

Okie dokie, artichokie!

I'm still iffy on the raised bit of the palm, but I can live with it.  The back of the hand (which isn't shown for a reason!) is just two beveled faces that make a split down the middle.  I might just leave it flat and just add details on for each individual robot.  It'll make them a little more personalized, especially the ones that have weapons attached.

ProtoTuesday - Huffer

Going back to the Autobots today with Huffer.  

There's not much of a change from the original cartoon/toy design, so the sketch didn't really require a lot of work.  The grill separates and rotates down to become the shoulders while the sides of the vehicle fold out and become his forearms from the wheel-well.  The exhaust pipes are attached to his wrists and fold up to the back of his forearms.  The legs slide down just like the original toy, and while I didn't draw anything, I'm sure I'll be adding a fold-out foot.  

I don't own iGear's Rager figure (or one of the repaints), but I do really like the figure so I guess there's a bit of an influence from there.  iGear does a lot better work with original designs than just copying already established toys, don't they?

3DThursday - Commonality

I'm finally starting out some real Transformers modeling, but first I've got to get some props built that will be common to a lot of the characters.  There are hands obviously, and a template for heads (male and female).  I realized another one that'll be used pretty often are tires.  Practically everyone needs them, except maybe Cosmos, but since he's not in this comic, just ignore that.

Boring caps.

Ugly sporty caps.

Here's the two I've modeled so far.  The boring caps actually look good to me, but I'm a bit disappointed by the sporty caps.  I might go in and subdivide the spokes so I can smooth them out better.  I'm also going to check out some tutorials on them because I've got an off road tire modeled, along with a few industrial caps too.  Should be done with them by next week.

3D Thursday - Insignia

I'm going on record that Blender is a much easier program to learn then Lightwave.  Each of these took about an hour to make from scratch, while they took a lot longer to make with an Illustrator file before.  I think they even render better!  Anyway, I'll be using these both in the comic and a second attempt at earrings.  


Did I post about that before?  They turned out too small and looked terrible.  I think these will turn out a lot better since things have been sized for tiny printers.  The divots on the Autobot and Decepticon insignias are bigger so it would be easier to paint white on the bottom and the backing is a lot thinker to make them sturdier.  I printed the first run on Frosted Ultra Detail, but since the details aren't super intricate, the next run will be White Strong and Flexible.  It's on the backburner, but should be printed up before Christmas (you know, for gifts).