3D Thursday - These Boots were Made for Transforming

Megatron's transformation begins here.  He transforms similarly to the 2-Pack Classics Megatron with the tank turret becoming the arms and hiding the head, but his legs are a different matter.

Bulky boots with tiny toes.

The bumpers split and fold along the canopy, the tires fold behind the foot and the top of the cockpit area folds out to become his toes.  I'm still working on the way for the upper legs and knees to work, but I should have that complete next week.

3D Thursday - Megatron 2

Since finishing the Moore Automotive logo, I took my time getting back to the Prototytan Project.  My wife and I are doing a lot of personal stuff now, so I've had a lot of distractions, but last night I got back into the groove - enough to finish Megatron's vehicle mode.  

Big roller.

It's not designed exactly like the G6 Rhino, most evident in the end of the barrel.  Instead of using the flat plate that the vehicle used, I just replicated Megatron's cannon.  The whole thing will contract into itself, but it's still going to be a lot bigger than Megatron's original cannon.

I just realized I forgot to add an aiming piece to the top of the barrel pivot.  Poop.

3D Thursday - Megatron 2

I've spent the majority of this week working on my friend's logo (Which is awaiting final approval today), but I found some time this weekend to work on Megatron some more.  

I really need to work on my lighting.

I built up the turret and added a few panels to the top of the chassis.  I need to get rid of some extra polygons on the turret face though and then I'll start work on the barrel.  I'll be ready to start tearing it apart for the robot mode after that.  I'm trying to focus on a good detail vs time ratio, so instead of taking a ton of time and making it super-detailed, I just want to pump out a decent model as soon as I can.  We'll see how well that turns out once I get a better grip on Blender.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Way Too Long

Wow, almost a year. I thought for a second to just wait until it's exactly a year, but that makes it more of a celebration, and there's no reason to celebrate forgetting this for 12 months.

There's a few changes to mention here:

1) Prototytan Project is going back to its roots. Gone are the Turbosquid plans, gone are the Shapeways plans. It's just modeling Transformers to make a comic. Once the comic's running, I'm hoping to get back into the Shapeways plans to make a few of my own custom figures, but it's definitely on the back burner.  Since I don't have to worry about selling anything on Turbosquid now, I'm free to do my own interpretations of vehicles too, which I am much more comfortable with anyway.

2) Lightwave is gone too. I've been having so much trouble getting used to it so I dumped it. Forget that nonsense. So I moved on to Blender. So far, it's a lot closer to 3DS Max, which I am a whole heck of a lot more comfortable. I just finished a tutorial, and this is what I got. It's a Steam Engine.

Choo-choo

That's a dark picture. But who cares, it's done.  Now it's on to modeling something else. And because of the swap, my previous Megatron model is kaput.  Oh well, his feet were a pain in the ass and I've got a much better idea in my head.

Oh yeah, and Megatrons Anonymous is on a definite hiatus. I hope to get back to it someday, but the Prototytan Project is top priority.