i dunno. when i went into this i most definately considered most of the points you brought up. but i'll be honest [not out of arrogance or anything. mind you im still on the fence with the design myself so its not like im super attatched to it by any means  ] mayhaps you bring them up because you think of this as some kind of earthen design? i dunno. i mean its a cybertronian design. its design takes cues from actual FBI Mobile Command Center vehicles that exist today. i think, function-wise i dont really see much wrong with it. the reason i'm on the fence with it is because it does seem a little plain and perhaps unexciting. but then again, what optimus prime design was really "WHOA". they're all relatively the same.

what i had trouble with when i first designed it is i didnt quite see it as optimus prime. thus i layed some colors on it just to see if the design would feel more "prime" and i think it does work.

i figure once i go in and try to make a bot mode the alt mode design would change a little. perhaps itd give it that unknown "flair" that i feel might be missing.

of course...thats if i even decide to give cybertronians alt modes. [to be frank optimus, nor any other character, will be seen in their alternate mode so i dunno. i might go the movie route with this. but then again i might not. im not sure]

right now im just tossing ideas. concepting. seeing what i think works and whati think doesnt for the story im working on. everythings still subject to change.

but of course i am no know it all when it comes to design so i do appreciate you helping out. giving instruction and leading me to other designers that i can gleen some inspiration from. you're an awesome artist yourself so i greatly value your opinions  

i dunno. i'm just seeing where things go right now.

i appreciate it man

 

i think you got the plain and unexciting bit right.

looking at the last, non g1 referencing prime design, his cybertron version, the alt mode, was distinctively flashy for a truck.

anyways, hope you look up my reference to syd mead. hes style is pretty distinctive, its been emulated so much, even by japanese (which is a compliment since most of the time its the other way around) so you might get your own ideas from there.

dude has done design for bladerunner, tron, a bunch of stuff, hes awsum.

 

Hey man,

Thanks for the detailed response. So you don't ink at all then? Just pencils and scan and then if one were to follow the process they'd pick things up from where your Cybertronian Bumblebee tutorial starts?

I find that very interesting! Certainly different yet it works so well.

In light of what has been commented on in terms of the cybertronian Prime alt mode, I still like it. It looks good, it works with the colour scheme and as far as it goes being a concept design there's not really alot to fault.

Good luck with the project and i look forward to seeing things develop. I'm off to buy me a set of pencils!!

 

FYI, its actually been in recent practice in comics for pencillers to skip the inking process. depending on how clean the pencillers work is, some artist have skipped the traditional inking altogether thx to new photoshop techniques.

for instance, for the not so recent marvels defender series, kevin maguire 1st used (for him anyway) this technique of so called digital inking. like i said, depends on how clean the pencillers work is.

sorry for the off topic there.

 

Great Job!

 

I like it

 

Lovin the look of OP! Looking forward to his alt. mode

 

I see, Josh actually explained this process in his tutorial. I just never picked up on it first time round. I didn't realise that this process was being used in the industry though. If it's good enough for them it's good enough for me... not that i really draw!

Right, back on topic...!