Something I always wondred, but what part of the Truck mode his blue kneecap protection are supposed to be?

 

I don't know. In the toy those parts are red and part of the hood.

It'd be cooler if they were mudflaps with a silhouette of a nude women on them.

 

yeah I believe they are produced by the hood of the truck

 

It does kind of look like they flip down and become the hood. We can't see behind them, but they could be the top of the hood on the other side



And in this toy they are blue...


and I think I just realized I have my toy transformed wrong then lol

yup. Just flipped them up and now it matches the movie version with the blue knee protectors. So yeah it's part of the hood that flips up. cool

 

I always thought they were part of where the trailer goes. Oh well.

 

Nope, the toys cheat: in the movie model, the hood form the arms. None of the toy have the right transformation for the kneecaps. . The blue Kneecap obviously come from a blue part.

didn't the Blue ray version of the Transformers movie (or the HD DVD) coùe with transforming models?

 

Precise your thought, you may be right.

 

they're blue on both sides in the movie, and it is entirely possible they just fold down and are covered by the arms, that's certainly how the mech-alive Optimus toy seems to do it. It is however true that some parts of the truck's rear cab seem to end up on the lower legs based on some of the shapes.

It's also worth noting, though that there may possibly not be a coherent transformation designed for them. Both interviews and close examination of the movie show that the transformations were partly improvised to what looked good at a given angle, because they have enough pieces to be able to turn anything into anything else.

EDIT: looking at Optimus' first transformation scene, at least the first time they simply slide up the legs.

 

They cheated with the size of some parts, but there is still a general fold that is followed.
Plus, if it was part of the internal machinery, it would be grey, not blue.
I still think the things are part of the blue rear block of the truck, but where exactly, I can't tell.

 

They didn't just cheat for the size. It's most interesting to see with Bumblebee because you get to see him transform several times on different angles, there's simply occurences of the same piece going in different places.

For example when when first see him go from car to robot his arms come from under the front of the hood, elbows roughly beings at the front wheels' level. However, when he turns back into a car after his first chat with Sam and Mikaela he retracts his right arm the other way, with the elbow right in front of the passenger seat. In the scene where all autobots transform in front of Optimus his hood goes backwards over his head, later when they try to scape the S7 guys it unfolds along the car's axis of symmetry, butterfly-like. You can find other occurences, Optimus included.

While I don't have the link handy, I remember it was mentioned in one interview - the animators just went with what looked interesting at a given angle.

 

But weren't there transformation model on the bonus of the BlueRay/HD-DVD? What does they show?
And still, even if the flowing process can differ, the end result keeps corresponding piece with it's alt-mode., especially for big pieces, which is the case of the blue kneecaps.

 

Well, I haven't seen them so I can't pronounce myself. But since they didn't have the burden of making the transformations fit with live-action shots and didn't have the same time constraints as the movie itself I suppose they were free to extrapolate variations that'd look interesting and coherent from all angles.

 

Which would answer my question: "what part of the truck are Optimus Prime's kneecap?"

Dors anyone have seen it?

 

Well, actually, looking on the net for info on that it seems there's no transformation visible in that HD DVD bonus - it's just rotating HD views of the robot models alone. If someone here owns them I'd like to know about that too.

That being said, if we assume Optimus' transformation to be at least somewhat coherent the highway chase with bonecrusher indicates most of the blue parts on the leg unfold from the rear cab. In that scene you can see the inside of the legs plus feet and front wheels start somewhere in the front but slide back between the rear wheels, then extra plates come down from the rear cab to compelte the wheels and make for an Optimus roughly in the same position as the G1 toy in truck mode, then he stands up.

That means the kneecaps are either under the truck or part of the mess that unfolds from the rear cab.

Notsure it sounds vey clear in text though, maybe I should make a sketch?

 

Seems rather clear to me. What I found surprsing is that it is only supposition. No one seems to actually knows.

Also, does anyone know what part of the truck are supposed to be the blue flamed plate on the interior side of his legs

 

It wouldn't surprise me if they did switch the transformations up in the movie a little bit. I mean its not like they have to have one way carved in stone on how to transform.

Not too long ago there was a discussion about were the seats and other various random parts of the car go when transformers transform and someone of brought up the point that maybe transformers are made with nano-technology thus being able to transform in any fashion need be.

 

As for why no one actually knows, that's easy: we never see them convert from any bit of the truck, and they don't look like any bit of the truck. The sole movement of those we have is that when Sam first meets him they slide up from the lower legs, as mentioned earlier. Further complicated things is that Optimus' transformation is unintuitive: given the front wheels are on the legs you'd actually expect those to transform like the toy by rotating the legs forward, but with the arms on top (like shown in the movie or the newer leaked toy), in which case the knees would be under the hood and never appear as part of the vehicle. That's certainly what I thought until examining the transformations closely today, though I could tell a lot of the legs' blue bits must somehow come from the rear cab.

But as it turns out there's this whole sliding to the back thing which makes the legs unintuitive and too complex to replicate with the toy, though from an animator's point of view they make total sense as they allow the robot to get up from the transformation in a very natural and elegant movement, as if he'd been kneeling instead of sitting on his butt. However now we have the bulk of the legs actually coming from the rear cab, a process we only even see in the highway sequence (the other transformations of his focus on the front) and obscured by a mishmash of other stuff, not to mention thanks to that any weirdly shaped bit that has to end up on the legs can simply be stuffed inside the rear cab.

Basically all we see for sure is that at some point the knees are on the front of the legs and slide up. Where they were before that is simply impossible to tell with the images and movie we have, and we can't even decide to stick to what seems the simplest option (the front of the legs, which means the truck's underside) because the transformations revel in using complex movements.

 

My guess is they come from the sleeper. That's where most of the blue is found.

And yeah, the transformations in the movie aren't consistent even in a large overall sense. Parts come from and go to totally different places. Large parts.

 

I am now looking at Ben Procter's site where there actually is a prototype video:
BEN PROCTER // ONLINE PORTFOLIO
As well as a first draft:
BEN PROCTER // ONLINE PORTFOLIO
It should also be noted that the front doors on Optimus's chest, who are flate in truck mode, are folded in robot mode. It could be possible that the kneecaps are also flat in truck mode. Looking further at the video, the blue caps seems to be part of the top front of the rear "blue block" sleeper of the truck.

 

And as for the flame panel in the inside of his legs I'm pretty sure it's the front fender.