Thanks guys, but really, right now, I'm in a bit of a slump from personal issues, so that's why there hasn't been any update. I still have to finish up Rhinox's face rig. After that I want to take on Cheetor, but he's the one character I'm not enthusiastic about. Mostly because I can't stand Cheetor.  

 

Don't worry about it, Silver.

Sadly, I'm a fan of Cheetor. DX You're going to have to finish him for those that love him. XD

 

I also like Cheetor, so now you have to do him.  

I wouldn't go that far, but it's certainly an A-grade effort and closer than I've seen most fan work come to the original source. The shiney parts aren't as shiney, for example. The proportions and details aren't perfect. Little things that I don't expect anyone to match considering they're trying to replicate cutting edge CGI that's also incredibly old with modern day CGI. It's a weird conundrum.

Judging from the Rattrap shooting thing, the animation looks top. Beast Wars had very reactive, dramatic movements and animation for things as simple as shooting a gun. Just from the way his body moves while firing, it looks like they've got it down damn near perfect. Very excited to see more involved work. You're making history Transformers fan history!

 

Awsome

 

The whole thing is "By Fans, For Fans". So yeah, we'll make you happy. I just won't enjoy it as much as I did Blackarachnia or Silverbolt  

Thank you for the comments, especially on the animation (the "They", so far, is just me   ). I hardly ever get any constructive feedback on that front, other than "Awesome" and "Looks good!", so this was very nice to read!

As for the conundrum, you're absolutely right. At first, I wanted to stick to "old school" methods, which meant we'd be using reflection maps to make the metal shine.

The thing is, when we switched render engines (old school engine to Vray), we noticed that carrying the reflection maps around was actually making rendering longer than letting the engine calculate reflections. That's one reason why we went back and altered that setup. The render engine is modern so we have to use it the way it's meant to be used, otherwise we'll loose time when rendering finals. That's probably why the shineyness isn't the same. On the other hand, the reflections on the surfaces will be the actual environment, instead of some random approximation. I expect it'll look pretty cool and am willing to accept that trade off.

As for accuracy, I can guarantee you one thing: all the characters are modeled after a screen shot on the show. So, at one point in the entire series, the show's model looked EXACTLY like what we have. I know that Mainframe played around with proportions a lot to accommodate animation (Megatron's shoulder armor changed size frequently depending on what his arms had to do, as an example), but our modeler did scour the entire series for screen shots and angles that would help him correct a reference if it was deformed. I know there are differences, but overall, we're as accurate to the original look as we can expect to be. I'm still correcting some proportions as I rig and texture, so odds are we'll have all down to pat soon enough. Well, as close as anyone else will ever get. Most decide to modernize the designs anyway, so I don't think there's much competition for the "Show accurate" look.

Thank you  

Huh.
I'm surprised, I never shared these here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nuM_yQR-Vw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VCcGvwy1x0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0EyhZWG47E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6gi3zjuGq4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6qWtL-0vFE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvCC1lLrAtk

 

^That scene caught me completely by surprise. Rhinox's line made me burst out in laughter. The animation for the line probably seemed a bit off (unless you're still in the middle of animating the lips to the voice, the I apologise) but that's just me.

Very good! I'm getting more excited to see the finished project aside from Transformers Prime: Galvatron's Revenge being done by Grimmlock.

Keep up the good work! This is getting great!

 

I animated it on a computer that suffers from less RAM than my usual one, so I didn't get to do my usual pre-viz on the lip-synch.

I'm curious about that TFP Project, sounds cool!

 

That's understandable. Kind of a pain in the butt to have a computer that does crap like that.

Believe me, it's looking great!

You can see for yourself here: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-fan-art/966304-tfp-project.html

 

And this week, we bring you Wonko the Sane! Waspinator is now in the "refurbished" characters lot and ready to play his part in Dark Glass!

 

You're not kidding! This is fantastic! Figures Wonko the Sane would be done. He looks great, Silver!

 

Wha wha what??? What's this??? TWO UPDATES????? Being sick pays off apparently!!

Cheetor is ready to tear your face in half! RWAAAR!

Seriously, though, this is one of Adrian's best models in my opinion. I'm not fond of Cheetor, but I can appreciate the work he put into it, and I think I made that dedication justice here.

 

Looks what last week's cat dragged in!

BUUUUUUUUUURN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Adrian did a fantastic job on this guy and it was a pleasure to help him finish it.

 

The heat is on, Maximal!

Looks good! I like that mean looking expression on his face. And as a Cheetor fan I'm impressed with Cheetor too! Love Cheetor!

 

Silverbolt, the urge to shout: Burn baby burn! Disco inferno, is really on the tip of my tongue.

 

And this week, since I found out that I'll be going to TFcon after all, we have Optimal Optimus Primal, using a new rig setup and textures.

The new rig for Optimus means I'll be revising Depth Charge, Silverbolt, Blackarachnia, Rhinox, Waspinator, Cheetor and Inferno one last time. CAT rigs are just easier to animate so... yeah.

 

Haha! Optimus gives thumbs up? I give you two thumbs up for revising the big guy.

 

Yeah, I took the opportunity to add a few things to him. We'd originally decided not to give him his teeth as most of us thought they were "silly" on Transformers... but really, the fact is he had them on the show, so he should have them now.

I also added upper knuckles to his fingers. He didn't really have them as they hardly ever rotated enough to be in frame, but it just looked empty in that spot without those. I added some details to the pop-out guns. He won't be using them in Dark Glass, but who know if we ever make something else out of this (Primal Prime...?)

 

Two massive Optimal Optimus thumbs up

 

So freaking happy to see work is still going on , on this . Hope it's done in a few years so my boy can see it in time