ProtoTuesday - Terramax

I recently posted that I have refocused efforts into the original Prototytan Project idea.  Since then, I've felt a lot more motivation to keep it going.  A renewed vigor, if you will.  Taking away all the clutter and side projects has really helped me come back and attack this head-on.  Blender's proved to be very easy to get used to and I've made a few basic models on there to post later this week.  Besides that I've been working on more designs and details for everyone.  They're all sketches like the other stuff I've posted before, and there are a lot more coming.

To start this new rush off, I wanted to make a special post.

Drawn on cardboard.  Because it's important.

Terramax

Function: Prototytan Leader

Motto: “Protect the weak and you protect yourself.”

Strength: 9

Intelligence: 9

Speed: 6

Endurance: 9

Rank: 10

Courage: 10

Firepower: 10

Skill: 10

Has designated himself the defender of Earth from both Autobot and Decepticon forces.  Very serious about his duties and willing to send his troops into the middle of their battles just so neither of them wins.  Leads the team under the motto “Autobot mission, Decepticon means.” Refuses to believe the Autobots are heroic.  In cement mixer mode, has a range of 3000 miles.  In robot mode, has energy-enhanced knuckle-dusters and dual pistols.  Has an extra mode as a mobile weapons platform with a replica of Megatron’s nuclear fusion cannon.

Vehicle Mode: Long-nose Cement Truck

The picture isn't completely accurate of course because I'm still working on the transformation.  The pistol and knuckle-dusters are both his because I wanted to make him a more close-range combatant and differentiate him more from Prime and Megatron.  The pistol's obviously based off Nerf's Maverick pistol, though in the end, it'll be a cross between that and the Classics Megatron blaster.  That's not a final design for his knuckle-dusters either, but I know I don't want them to be blades like DotM Prime's.  They'll sit on the back of his hands and fold down over his knuckles during battle.

I don't have a picture yet, but his weapons platform mode resembles an ant - the robot's legs that make up the back of the vehicle will split into four separate legs, the cab will reveal two more legs and the cement drum will resemble the abdomen of the "ant" and will be a cannon.

I've been very proud of this guy for a long time.  I think he's a good contrast from both of the other leaders.  I picture him as a brawler, more hands-on than either of them.  I've tried to design him to be as different from Prime visually as I can, considering they're both trucks, but I don't know what color scheme to give him.  

Actually, that's a problem I'm having with a lot of the Prototytans.  I've been able to figure out how many of them will look in vehicle and robot mode, but I haven't figured out any color schemes at all.  I'm not looking forward to doing that.

Protofriday - New Years Eve

Earlier this year, I laid out some pretty ambitious plans for the next few years, with the first step being learning Lightwave.  With today being the last day of my training period, it's time to look back on exactly how much I've accomplished so far....

Nothing.  This holiday season has totally kicked my ass, with all the shopping for presents and getting ready for company, I haven't had time to devote to the Prototytan Project at all.  Well, I did do one sketch of a Prototytan-designed Shockwave, which is unnecessary since he isn't even slated to show up in the comic.  Anyway, here have a looksy.

So where does all this slackery leave me?  Frustrated, disappointed, and even a bit disgusted.  There's no reason for me to be so behind.  Frankly, I'm having way more trouble adjusting to Lightwave than I should.  It's supposed to be a lot easier to learn since I knew how to work 3DSMax, but I find it's made learning Lightwave even harder.  Max had some great controls and tools that I can't even find substitutes for in Lightwave.  I'm not saying it'll be impossible to learn the new system, but it's going to take a lot longer than I previously thought.  And even after I think I've learned everything, I'm sure many more problems will crop up.  For the time being though, I'm going to keep the 2013 timetable and the 11-day modeling schedule.  We'll just have to see how well I can stick with it.

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!

Waiting Game

Okay so I've got a few updates to post here.

1) Thanks again to my friend's amazing generosity, I'll be getting another computer soon. It's the computer he built to run Lightwave, so now that he's already given me the program, he figured he'd finish the package. I should be getting it soon and hopefully get back to working on Lightwave.

2) I've been accepted into TMCC so I'll be starting classes at the end of August. I should be okay money-wise until then, but once classes start, I'll be raking in the dough. I'm hoping to take some classes that can really help me on the Prototytan Project, and I'll be looking for a new job after that as well.

3) While I've been waiting on the first two to happen, I've made some good progress on the storyline, getting the first two dozen updates figured out. I haven't gotten into the scripting for them yet, but it's going to be awesome. I wish I could give some spoilers, but... I really don't have any. Come on, I can't start giving stuff away before I even have anything up!

Math sucks

It's not that it's hard, I don't have many troubles with math.  I do, however, how humbling math can be.  I was looking at my asset list the other day and I realized that if I were able to model one Transformer a week, it would take me almost a year to do the 15 robots for each faction. that doesn't include, of course, the other stuff I need to model, like the sets and props.  And, let's be totally honest here - there's no way that I can do one robot a week.   It's just depressing.  But I'll get it done.

Case in point, Optimus is almost presentable online. I still have a few things to add in, like smaller details on the larger surfaces.  I still have to finish the foot mechanics, but I'm close.  And he needs a head.  I'm hoping that by tomorrow night, I'll be ready to post pictures of both modes on the Transformers forums I frequent.  Hopefully, I'll get some good critiques there.

Redesigns

I mentioned in a previous post (very previous) that in addition to the new designs I came up with for the Prototytans, I will be redesigning most, if not all, the other Transformers in the story.  Some of them are necessary - I'm trying to avoid mass-shifting, so Megatron, Soundwave, and a few others will require whole new alt modes.  Others, like good ol' Op here, will just be getting a minor redesign, mostly so I don't need to worry about vehicle or cartoon accuracy, but also because I think it's a challenge to create new, and sometimes more realistic, models for these characters.  

So I started with Optimus Prime, and while his alt mode won't receive much of a change, I am altering his robot mode a bit, taking inspiration from his Powermaster incarnation.  It's not much of a change, but I'm making all these characters mine (while still property of Hasbro, of course).  Besides, the comic sure has been doing this in spades lately.

Demo reel

Yup, this is my final demo reel. You know what that means? That I'm finally done with school. My last day of class was the 10th of September (actually the 9th, I skipped the last day since I had already turned in my assignments). But this is the fruit of all my labors, and the final project I wanted to have done in my last two classes but didn't have enough time. I really like how it turned out, I think the transformation works out really well. I'm still not completely happy about it though, I need to add some more explosion effects, but that could wait for another time.

So now school is over, along with my job since it was related to my VA education benefits. So now I've got lots of free time (when I'm not looking for a new job, that is), and lots more interest in the Prototytan Project. I've been working on redesigns for some Autobots now, not major changes, but ones that update the characters and still keeps them recognizable. I've also got plans to try my first kitbash - I bought a F-4 model plane and I'm hoping to make one of my original designs with it. I'm not sure how good it can turn out though; the model's pretty small and I have to use assorted Lego pieces for articulation. I'm excited to try it though, so keep coming back for it.

No news is good news, right?

Well, not exactly. Right now, no news is just that... no news. I wish I had more to update with, considering how long it's been since I updated last time, but I really haven't done anything. I'm still planning now, but as with most projects in my life, planning is a lot easier than implimenting.

I'm making very slow progress on my tank animation, mainly just cleaning up the tank model itself. After that, I need to skin the whole thing and make it pretty. I'm going to change a good deal of the animation though because at the end of the movie, the tank's going to TRANSFORM. Yeah, it's not a huge surprise considering who I am, but it will look cool (I hope) and it would show off more animation than just the tank rolling around. I'm still trying to figure out how to cut it up, but once I finish skinning, I should be able to slice that thing into pieces. It won't be a very detailed robot mode, but it'll get the job done. And my favorite part - the tank's giant cannon barrel is going to become a massive hammer.

On other school-related news, my graduation date has been pushed up to September 12. Don't ask me how, the school's messing with schedules left and right. My other classes are going good as well, but they both have big projects, making this one of the most packed-in terms I've had in a long time. Thank god I've got a week break coming up, though I'm still trying to decide if I should work it or not. On one hand, I need the money; on the other hand, I need the sleep.

I've also started coming up with an idea for another Transformer photo-comic, this one using actual photos! It's based around all the Legends figures I have. Of course, I don't really have time to do this, so even if I get a good story written up, I'm going to have to shelve it until I'm at least done with school. I hate how my mind wanders.

Change of Plans

Thanks to the extreme generosity of a friend, I should be getting a fantastic upgrade to my modeling/animating library; Lightwave, Vue, and Bodypaint 3D!  Thank you so much, Rich!

Anyway, its got me thinking about my the Prototytan Project vs my demo reel.  If I really want to get into the PP, I'm going to have to use Lightwave, primarily because I'll own a full version of it that I can upgrade and installon any new computers I buy, instead of Max, which is a limited version I got from my teacher at school.  So the PP is going to go on hold until I get the new programs. 

This obviously leaves me in a bind with my demo reel.  No Prototytans severely limits my plans, you know!  But I figured this morning that I'll go with my favorite animation from my previous class.

Obviously, this animation will need some major overhauling - there's editing errors galore and I want to improve on a lot of the efects in it.  I also need a much better render of it, since this one got mangled in Premier Pro.  But it saves me a lot of time in modeling and it's a chance for me to get one of my favorite animations to the highest quality it deserves.

Some clarification

I guess before I get too far into this blog, I should explain what exactly the Prototytan Project is. It consists of two parts - the first part is short term - hopefully completed by August 2009. I'll be modeling a few of my original design Transformers for use in my demo reel to help me get a job in television or game animation. I've started one model, but being the first one, it's slow going as I realize my desings don't translate into 3D perfectly and things need to be tweaked.

The second part of the project is a lot more involved because of the amount of work that needs to be done. As I said before I'm writing a fanfic, but I plan on making it ain comic format (inspired by a lot of the photo -comics posted here. They've done some great work and convinced me my story would be better in art instead of prose. Of course, a CGI comic requires a lot of modeling - the 12 Prototytans, and 12 Autobots and Decepticons each, along with sets and props. That's a lot of work! Of course, the Transformers won't be highly detailed or modeled directly after toys. If you want more accurate stuff, check out this guy, his stuff's great but way beyond my talent.

Unfortunately, I'm back to school tomorrow after a week off and now I've got to concentrate on homework instead of the PP. Looks like I need to crack down on the weekend, which won't happen until after March is over - I'm getting married in three weeks!