TF2 - Protectobot Scout 03

When I did the first game, I submitted the grayscale concepts to Hasbro, with the caveat that these designs would change a bit as I developed them. It afforded me a little wiggle room to discover new elements as I was putting them together. The relative size and shape of the concept would stay the same, but details might be different by the time the final was turned in. For whatever reason, Luxo didn't seem to want to go that route, and so during the Combaticon development, I had to keep pretty strictly to what I had turned in as grayscale...but...


After blocking in the Scout, it seemed pretty clear that the grayscale was a starting point for this guy, not something to paint the final over. So, for pre-approvals, I sent in this; a few options, rearranging elements into a more cohesive design. (you can see I have the old headlights in there!)


So that led to the final, with a few more adjustments to the feet. Feet were a sticking point between me and JT a lot over the course of this project, for whatever reason. Well, I know...I hate claw feet for every robot in the movie-verse, and I tried to get some old school looks in there, but honestly, JT was being a good art director, and sticking to the projects' universe. I kept pointing to movie Rachet, but that only got me so far.

As far as a design, like I said yesterday, Streetwise was a consideration, but Prowl is the ultimate TF cop car. So I wanted to do an homage to Prowls' design, but I couldn't just make Prowl, due to that character being a main player in the canon. Whether or not he ever gets used in the films, there are some untouchables (Shockwave is still an unexplained miracle!)

A couple designs for the guns in there as well. The ones on the right are the originals, but Luxo had me go back and do a redesign, to fit an animation idea they had been working on. I like the originals better, and I honestly can't get close enough in the game to see if his guns transform and look like the revisions.


The back view. Car #56. Me, highschool football number. A little Nepo-tizz. Can you blame me? How often to do you get a chance to put in secret self-referential stuff in a AAA franchise project? And now back to the design...windshield and rear window double-stacked and hidden underneath the back panels. Another conceit used to reduce big panels of glass to a more manageable location in the design.


I mentioned it before, to hide the wheels, and someone asked why hide? Maybe 'hide' isn't the best descrition, it's more about placement, both logical to the transformation, and a little movie bias. I don't like chopping up the wheels, and I don't do it, if I can create space for them to be incorporated into the design. But doing 8 or so wheeled (and additionally trying to avoid the wheeled movie characters) characters, you have to make them all have different solutions where the wheels go.

Of course, I still have a few more ideas for future bots...

TF2 - Protectobot Scout 02

So here is the Charger-not-a-Charger Scout, vehicle mode. Pretty straight forward, as far as police styling goes, mag wheels and sleeker front bumper pad, LED siren lights. And of course, here and there lines are changed, front and rear lights, the usual legal evasions.


The coloring idea was blue and white, like the G1 Protectobots, but after having it so light blue, we went back in and darkened it. This pic is the original color submission. Above it, I thought you guys might like to see a little process - I pretty much do a neutral gray. I keep the elements on separate layers, the body, the windows, the lines/elements (door handles, seaming, etc.), the shadows, and the highlights. This leaves nearly unlimited coloring possibilities, I can change the colors, and add badging and stripes, or anything else, and maintain the integrity of the car elements, with minimal adjustments.


The fact that it's a white car kind of led me to this technique, I wasn't doing it for the Combaticons, but helped a lot in the months to come. The conceit we used for the coloring was mostly white with blue for the car, 50/50 for the Warrior truck, and then mostly blue for the Sniper chopper, so I had to come up with something a little more adaptable while I designing the paint apps for these guys...

And then the transform sequence. Tomorrow, I'll talk more about it, but I do realize I should have used more Streetwise, and less Prowl, for an influence...but c'mon.

TF2 - Protectobot Scout 01

And now for some Protectobots!


Starting out with a police car, we needed an Autobot mirror of the Combaticon Scout, another mid-sized vehicle. It made my life a little easier, since I already had a body type defined, this character was mostly about finding ways to reconfigure the vehicle cues into bot form. I also toyed with the idea that he'd be a two gun sheriff type, taking advantage of the police origins.


The Luxo guys chose the new Charger to be the cop car, which was convenient, because I was living in Glendale at the time, and all the new police cars were Chargers! So my influences were from that, and some aspects of Barricade.

So I slapped some gray tone on the refined drawings, (and some little character sketches) and sent it off to the big H for approval...

TF2 - Combaticon Heads...and stuff

Kind of lame, huh? These where the original heads for the Combaticons. My first characters since coming back, and I was still working under the drone conceit from the first game. One of the first thoughts about these guy were that they were a team, and operated out of a hive mentality, they were different but the same, hence sharing the same simple design for the head.

If anybody remembers the first game, the characters you battled were originally meant to just get a hit of Energon, be able to transform and fight; but not be smart - or Cybertronian. But of course, by the time the movie came out, all that logic was thrown out the window. Mountain Dew, anyone?

That's why I gave them the cyclops eye...so I started with that similar conceit with the Combaticons and Protectobots, until Hasbro told us that these are considered movie-verse characters, and had us go back and revise the heads.


So this is the first pass at the new heads, a series of sketches. Although it's not dotted as the pick, I believe it's the top second, from the left. I made that head for final, and then did the same thing, squashed and stretched the same head into three different sizes for each of the characters.


But then, Luxo had me go back and do different heads for the Sniper and Warrior, keeping the new one for the Scout. You can see the picks are dotted.


And here is the final turnarounds for the new heads. Waaaaaaaaay better. I know I say us and we a lot in the explanations...but it's really me. I'm doing these designs myself, but I'm glad I was asked to do revisions for these, they were really needed. And it set a new tone for the rest of the characters following the 'teams.'


Along with the star, here's a few other ideas I tried out in the beginning, for Combaticon markings. Couple of combinations of army and Decept, and some Cyber-fied designs, based off Starscream's tats from ROTF.

And then finally, a near miss on losing the Combaticon Warrior. Since we used a Striker for the Warrior, Hasbro came back and asked us to use the Wreckage design from the first movie's toy line. The problem was (and annoyingly) they didn't mention this until AFTER we turned in the final design for approval. Weeks earlier, they approved the fact that Luxo wanted to do a Striker, and that is when they should have asked us to movie-fy Wreckage. I wouldn't have been against it, but AFTERWARDS? For my part of the budget, a lot of time and money had been spent on the Combaticon Warrior, and there was really no time to do another one. And the simple fact, he is one of my favorites I did for this game. So, the guys from Luxo and myself, had a quasi-vote, and pushed back against Hasbro, and said no.


While we were waiting, though, I whipped this up as a test (I believe this is a toy shot from the awesome galleries at Seibertron.com) just to see how a repaint would look. Luxo never knew I did this, I just wanted it in my back pocket in case we had to re-do the character. Not bad, but I love my babies.

Well, we got our way, with Luxo's expert debate skills, and the Big Boy made it into the game.

Next week: Protectobots!

TF2 - Sniper Class Combaticon 03

Look out! Sniper! I like this guy a lot. The design came out well, and I also saw it as a bit of a redemption for the last games' Shockwave. I like how Shockwave came out, but through my own fault, I never gave an example of how his canopy could collapse as he moved his torso, and since my time/budget allowed only for full color turnarounds where the character stood straight up, he went into production that way, and appeared in the game very stiff.

So this time I attacked it with gusto. The funny thing is, when I do the block-ins for approval, I just place elements in as fast as I can, just to show where the vehicle cues are going to be, and the general size/shape - and the Luxo boys were right on me, "you gotta break up that canopy a lot more!' Good to know we were on the same page. Canopy = Broken up!


I'm really happy with the back, too. This guy all around is pretty cool, the missiles mounted in his forearm is the best...and I believe it was Luxo's idea the fan out the blades like a deranged peacock.


The characterization in the game came across great, I thought. As I was doing this view, I kept in mind the naked-ed Chamberlain from the Dark Crystal. Slouchy and ev-yil.

TF2 - Sniper Class Combaticon 02

Vehicle mode for the Sniper Vehicle Mode. This one went through a lot of legal revisions, to get away from the exact shapes of the real Comanche. But now, playing the game, it seems like they kept the original submission.


Which was this -and the original Decept Star, not only because it looks better, but it actually fit the space better, design-wise.

The front and back is pretty straightforward, I can't think of anything significant to say about, other than nearly every change to the side needed to be addressed in either the front of back views - which was a pain.


And again, the proposed transformation sequence.

TF2 - Sniper Class Combaticon 01

Some sketches for the Combaticon Sniper. Now, I knew he was supposed to be more slender, but some of these are to be intended to show a larger frame, but with much negative space to give the illusion of size. But, we just pared it down to the original idea, and went skinny.

I've been wanting to do a four armed TF for a awhile, (since I felt I had missed an opportunity with the cement truck from the first game) and tried to get Luxo to go with the idea. They didn't feel it quite fit with what they wanted, not to mention a lot of unique additional animation they probably couldn't justify into their budget.


Here's the drawing that went off to Hasbro for approval...bot and vehicle, a modified Comanche helicopter. The sniper rifle was about 2/3 the size originally, but the Luxo guys kept saying, 'Longer...just a little longer...' so he's now saddled with the long shot.