Happy Holidays...

...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, from Bad Flip Productions!

Me = Vacation; I'll be back posting in 2010!

TF1 - Character Repaints

I thought I would finish off with something special, though it's barely my art at all! And yet how liberating it was...


To go with the Target Robo-Vision images I had created, the toys were going to be re-released with G1 repaints, and I got to supply the images. That meant painting out those dumbass flames on Prime! This was a paint-over on a marketing image, I knocked out the flames, and added the emblems and forearm graphics, and added blue or red paint where needed.


There were no marketing images yet for Jazz, so I painted over the productions' concept art, I think this was done by Ben Proctor. I just lightened the gray, and added all the Jazz graphics - and now he makes a nice vermouth.


And this design was STILL not finalized when I got the assignment, so I did the paint-over on Feng Zhu's concept art of Screamer.

And that's it, other than some incredibly boring minutia, like menu screens and half finished sketches, that about wraps up my work on Transformers : the Game.

TF1 - Robot Gore

These are studies exploring 'robot gore.' What's robot gore? What it looks like when a character gets blasted by an enemy, by an assortment of weaponry. I won't waste time on explaining them - click on the images, and all the direction is written below the image.

The characters are production and marketing images, I just provided the F/X and gore!







And this is the first image that came to mind when I was asked to illustrate some robot gore.

Zomblebee.

TF1 - Unlockable Galleries

When the game was nearing the end, Activision was looking for any way to create a more robust experience, and make all the little achievements worth the work, so I was asked to create TONS of gallery pages, encompassing all the new characters created for the movie, but some nods to G1 as well. I'll post some of the pages created for Starscream specifically, but I essentially created templates to place any character into...


This was the first pass at creating a template, using the metal theme I had worked up. TT knew that Activision wasn't happy with the current menu set they had, so while I was working on the metal theme, they had gone ahead and worked on it too, using the Energon Cube as the theme to build around. It looked pretty cool, and I was asked to redo some mockups using that theme. So this look was abandoned, and turned into...


...this! This is the final version, and how it appears in the game. Hasbro gave us the copy from the back of the toy boxes for the character descriptions. This is the XBOX 360 version...


....and this is the PS2 version, a smaller resolution.


I also got product shots to go with the character sets, again XBOX 360...


...and then the PS2 version.


They also wanted me to show a set of Evolution galleries, but there wasn't the same amount of art for every character, going from concept, to wireframe, to final model.


In many cases we had to use the game models, going from raw, to wireframe (which is pretty much the same thing!) to final. Not as cool as it could have been, but we just didn't have all the assets we needed.


Finally, the comic galleries. Eventually I had to go back and black out all the Marvel logos due to rights issues. In hindsight, I wish I made time to create a substitute logo, rather than the pretty lame blackout bar.

TF1 - HUD

...or Heads Up Display, what you call all the little meters and info boxes that occur onscreen while playing the game. I was asked to take a crack at helping out TT with their graphics, in game, and also the front end menu screens.


So I went with a metal theme. I took textures and elements from the movie Megatron model to create this start screen. After you hit START, that large piece would retract up and back, and other pieces would move to reveal a selection screen, Resume Game, Options, Sound, etc...


This was an attempt to make a cool load bar, it would create itself as it loaded up like the logo transformations in the main titles of the movies, and when it reached the end, the eyes would light up in a quasi-charge. They bitched out, after they requested that I keep in a square, they thought it would be too hard, pull too many assets to work on it.


I also did a Decepticon version for the Faction track you choose at the beginning of the game.


Here's some tests for in-game stuff - the one in the middle was created from Bumblebee model elements and textures, and that was the one that was chosen.


So I built out all the elements that would need to be visible onscreen during the game. Map, Dialog Box, Heath, Turbo, and that weird good/bad bonus system that still doesn't make much sense to me, some sort of achievement calculator.


After they tested it in the game, they thought it to be too heavy handed, and we switched gears and went very graphic. So this is the Master Screen mock-up, all the elements displayed at once; I did versions in Autobot Blue, and Decepticon Red.



These two shots were called Target Vision, some sort of Target retail promotion, I did the first one, while another artist created another version - then I was asked to combine the two versions into the final, this last frame. It came out pretty cool, and also incorporated the Target logo and color scheme.

TF1 - Signs

So with all the characters and storyboards done, essentially the pre-production type stuff, I was asked to contribute a few in-game things, and one of the tasks was to create signage for the city levels. I really enjoy graphic designs, and creating logos - in small doses. So a few days of cranking out signs was a lot of fun. These are all the originals, a lot of the names had to be changed to more generic names to avoid legal issues, since I tried to put as many friends of mine in as I could!


Daniel Suarez was the executive producer of this game, and was the one who hired me, and started me down the path of being a contributor to the Transformers properties. I gave him the realty sign, because for all the people working on this game, it all went through him, because he was the 'land owner', and we were all leasees. Like Trump, or Lex Luthor. But much less evil. ;)


Rob Alvey was the producer of this game, and I worked with him on a day-to-day basis. When he's not on a game, he's running badass theme park tours around the world, through his site, themeparkreview.com


It's me, I'm Fat Kenny, and I love pizza!


So I had to do some signs on the more basic side. If you didn't know, there's a sale.


How could there not be a used record store named this? It made it through Legal though! I tried to change up the aging of these signs as well, this is obviously an older sign, chipped and beat up, to go with those ancient things called...records.


Another ridiculous name I came up with that I can't believe hasn't been used by a couple who have a salon for both men and women.


Another basic sign for a pharmacy. A trick to making a very basic sign look like it's got a hint of flair, is to use two different fonts to add a little dynamicism to the composition.


This got changed, to break my heart, my BFF from high school's name. He and his wife, and his powerhouse kid are all athletes, so it was a no brainer to give them the sports store - but I at least go his numbers into the TF2 game!


A greasy metal mechanic's sign. Nothing special about it, but I thought it came out great.


Another basic sign, but I like the graphics and the weathered look that gave it a bit more punch.


Callum Godfrey was the UK producer for the game, and being a Brit, he lives the pub life-style. Or so I stereotypically assumed...he got the Amercian version of a pub. And then it had to be changed...bummer, I though this one came out great.



Well the Raymond Family sign didn't get through, but my old friend's nickname made it! Now I I'm bummed because I realize I should have made it est. 1975. What the hell was I thinking? Cool sign, though...


For my wife, whose nickname is Bear - she's the animal lover.


For my BFF Adi Granov, he got the comic shop, because he draws the best damn covers Marvel has to offer. And we talk about Iron Maiden all the time. Not really, but we do talk metal, so he got the Maiden Font.


A cool Bowling Alley sign, I would think Lebowski influenced.


A basic coffee shop sign.


Another basic sign, I did a lot of specific restaurants, so I did a generic one to sprinkle around.

This is literally a painted window sign from down the street from where I was living at the time. I walked past it nearly every day, so I just recreated it digitally.


Another generic coffee shop, using that font trick to give it a little more life.


What I would term as a classic pawn shop sign.


My pal Mort, who's a great supporter of mine, who loves movies and the Cowboys. So I did a combo sign for him. I did a sister sign from my friend KJ as well, but it had to be changed, and I think I saved over the orignal with the revision, (because I can't find it!) otherwise I would have posted that as well - sorry KJ!


Tranquility's Grocery store.

This was for my friend Bob, who also has a 71 Mach I, and used to help me out when I got stuck wrenching on mine.


So we got to do some nods to the G1 guys too, this was a take on Hound, the G1 Jeep. I was running out of time so I repainted some shareware clipart for the hot dog, but I wish I could have had time to come up with something better.


A basic sign, with a nod to the G1 hovercraft Seaspray. Blue, white, and yellow are his colors, and so the sign is as well.


We had a deal with Burger King to appear in the game, but when that fell through, I was asked to replace the signage, and then later...


...the idea to call it Chip Chase's came up, so I recreated the signs, and drew in the G1 animation for the character logo.


A few more G1 inspired explorations.

I did about fifty/sixty more, but these ones were my favorites.