It is my personal favorite style of Transformers so far, (I have been a fan since it all started, and for me having the G1 voices of Prime and Megs coming out of these designs is absolutely great), I think the animation is top notch A++!

 

The shape. Soundwave and Megatron's face are the same shape.

Ah yes, the "I'D LIKE TO SE YOU DO BETTER!" rebuttal. Because what I draw on my computer in my spare time is really at the level of professional concept artists who are paid.

I'd like to think the people designing the robot for TV have evovled past MS paint doodles.

Animated.

Animated had differant aesthetics. Yes, the overall drawn style was the same of course, but each character had something going on that set them apart. Knock Out could just as easily be an Autobot and Arcee a Decepticon. Nothing about either design evokes any concrete purpose. There's no individual aesthetic. That is a principle of art. If every character follows the same rules so closely it gets boring. There needs to be visual variety.

EDIT: Oh, and since someone else pointed it out, Cybertron had some nice character contrast. Even a better example than Animated, if less recent. You had robots from Cybertron who were typical angled armour mechs, the curved and sleek Velocitrons, the organic and natural stylings of Jungle planet and the square and buffed-up Gigantions or however it's spelled. And the in-betweeners like Megatron with his spikes and sharp lines and the mixed bag X-planeteers. And yet everyone all fit in. Nobody looked like they were from a different show, but still had individuality and were all clearly from different backgrounds.

So, yes. You can absolutely have different aethetics.

That was years ago. This is now. Transformers has evolved since then. We've been changing styles and evolving so much to stagnate now, and without even carrying on the improvements before, is a step backwards.

 

I don't see how they're the same shape. Megatron has a helmet on his head which makes his sides of his face look more bulkier while Soundwave's is more thin and skinny then Megs.

Dude I never asked that question in such a rude manner and I never said your style is bad
either. All I'm saying is that having two styles mash with eaither other isn't really a bad thing since your style is almost like how Prime does it. My style is a blend of the TFP and Movie styles for instance.

I get that you're not into the Prime style but saying that it's bland is entirely your opinion and trying to pull across it as fact is almost pushing it.

 

They are the same shape, though. Want a better example? Arcee and Airachnid. Now that's even worse since they're the only two females. The only two girls share the same basic head shape.

That's not really the point now, is it? The point is I am not a professional artist or character designer. Comparing my work to official product is a sign of a failing arguement.

Since you mention it, I am actually in the process of redesigning all my characters because I think that style is awful. (Also because I wanted the challenge of actually figuring out transformation schemes, something Prime doesn't do either)

Aha! I caught you! Red-handed I did!

Go back about two posts to the one that starts with "I think the reason I, PERSONALLY, don't like..." and say that again.

See, even when I do make it clear that I'm expressing my thoughts as the opinions they are you still go after me. Even go after my post twice! The same post twice. And you call me aggressive and that I "pass off my opinion as fact" (pfft) and all that guff?

That's hypocracy if I ever did see it.

 

It's mixed for me. I don't think these designs are poor, but I don't like some aspects to them. They just look like die scaled Movie designs.

I do like alot of them (Dreadwing/Skyquake, Breakdown, Insecticon, Arcee, ect.) But I agree skinny is overly used in the show. And I really hate the boney guys. (Starscream, Soundwave.)

 

Bland and boring.

Just like the show.

 

I like the look of the series. Not 100% keen on Optimus' hands, but that's a different issue for a different thread.

 

Airachnid's head is more sharper then Arcee to empahize an evil vibe to her and to top it off she has a helmet shaped like Maleficant from Sleeping Beauty. Airachnid also has blank purple eyes with black lips while Arcee has none of those. Arcee has those side crests on her cheeks while Airachnid's are a part of her helmet.

I mean do you want one of them to be chubby?

Okay that's fair enough.

Dude that's ridicculois. Most of Prime's transformation schemes actually do a good job at making them work as well as for the toys. I mean the figures for the FE Optimus,BulkheadmStarscream and RID Dreadwing,Vehicon,Wheeljack,Breakdown,and Unicron have good transformation schemes.

And besides most of Animated's designs didn't translate easly to toy form either. Sentinal Prime's feet aren't accurate to the show at all for example not to mention his chest is a cheat.

Look I forgot I saw that all right I'm sorry. Making you look like a demon was never my intention.

 

Honestly I don't understand why having simmilar facial structures even matter, I mean Akira Toriyama for when he did Dragonball most characters had a simmilar facial structure and designs and that still went into Blue Dragon's characters designs.

It's called an asthetic. and i don't even know why we're arguing about it. It's just a design. Man two weeks after the finale and we really ran out of good arguements.

 

You really have no idea what 'shape' means, do you? As in, not the details.

 

Oh wow, I forgot about those. But let's add them in since you did. Same basic shape, same basic layout, only minor difference is how they sit. But otherwise, they go even further to make my case.

Because there's only two kinds of women, right? Fat chicks and pencils? Right? I mean, you just said that.

What is it with you guys and extremes? As if in your mind there only exists a far right or far left.

They have after-the-fact transformations. Each one of those cheats or clearly attains the look via different means.

Also, Unicron? Really? He doesn't even transform in the show! He ahs nothing to do with anything.

But they all followed the animation exactly. (even deluxe Bumblebee, who has a fake car chest on the show!) And considering when Animated was first shown people considered them even more impossible than the movies, that nearly every single one remans a faithful reproduction of the onscreen character and still be fantastic toys is mind-boggling. Meanwhile the best version of Prime Optimus is the FE, which even cheats on the windows. The Prime designs were never even considered to work in any realm of believability. When they transform they just pop apart and cheat into the other mode. Even the movies kept the basic principle of moving/sliding/rotating parts during transformation. With Prime everything just pops apart then is sucked back together as a robot or car. (but that's a whole 'nother can or worms)

That's becoming harder and harder to believe where I literally can't post anywhere in this forum without you replying to me.

 

I do and I do know where there's something different in a design.

What?

What about alt modes and details on their bodies: Dude not all differences have to be obvious to the eye you know that right?

I never said there were only two kind of women. I was mearly giving an example.

I'm not going to the extremes I'm only saying about my views on how a design works. And aren't you one to talk? You're the one who demands 100% perfection in every show,film,and comic you watch.

But does it really matter just as long as they're accurate?

But his robot mode is spot on to his CGI model in a lot of ways that's what I'm trying to say here.

Dude c'mon what about how Bumblebee transforms? You can easily tell which part goes where. Yes the toys were an afterthought but shouldn't the fact that many of them were able to stay very show accurate while being translated into toys matter in the end? I mean no one thought Soundwave can work as a toy nor did the Vehicon but look how the RID toys did it! That's a marvel of engernering if I ever saw one. The same with Breakdown and Dreadwing. You can't bash on those at least. Besides at least they still look like how they appeared on the show which Beast Machines failed to do you can't ignore that at least.

I don't always. Often yes but not all the time.

 

...Wow.

Nerdrage. Nerdrage everywhere.

Personally, I don't mind the art style, but... really. It's amazing where you can find arguments online.

 

Well, make this SPLIT VS Kaiju #7.

 

My case is it's not different enough.

You heard me right.

Uh, unless they're supposed to be like, the same character dressed differently, then yeah.

Each design has to say something. Arcee and Airachnid both say "designing women is hard."

You couldn't have picked a more damning or hyperbolic example.

Except I don't, and oh look, you just went to extremes again.

To me, YES!

But it's cheapened by the fact that it only does so by cheating because the actual design is impossible.

Where's his windsheild?

:I

I'll remember that for when Beast Machines comes back on the air and is relevant again.

:I

Thing is, I'm not even mad. I'm not even emotionally charged one way or the other. I'm just answering his questions. :/

But honestly, I think I've made myself more than clear about my opinion. (even though I've been told it was fact or something I dunno)

 

Personally, I'd like to see more Prime TFs that don't have this face:

Chalking it up as "style" or "aesthetics" just doesn't work for me.

EDIT:
I can't help but think this is one of those series where you can take screenshots of everyone's faces and not be able to tell most of them apart from one another.

 

I hear you. Admittedly, it would be nice to have a face like Depth Charge's or Waspinator's in the show, but really, as far as things go, aesthetics are only a minor nitpick for me. They may not be terribly exciting, but I'll survive.

 

Agreed. This is the worst offender of the show for me. I may just be operating out of my own biases here, but I'm just tired of the generic looking 3-D rendered cartoons in general anyways. I don't feel the humans are "anime-ish" at all. They look more like just about every other cartoon that's came out since Toy Story to me.

There are a few nitpicky things that I don't enjoy about the artistic stylings of this show, but nothing that just vastly deters from the overall style like the humans for me. If anything, this may be something to consider:

. . . . but my knee-jerk reaction is that this is simply part of the basic robot design for this show. I'm kinda torn. On one hand I agree with Noidea's sentiment, and on the other hand I'm a bit ambivalent. I feel that great shows like Animated have similar offenses for me, but I'm just over 'em I suppose. It's not enough to deter me from enjoying the show.

 

It's definitely my favorite Transformer asthetic since RID (when I first became a Transformers fan 11 years ago). Better than the human-formers look of Animated.

 

And yet by and large the Animated Transformers still looked more like robots to me than Prime does. They had clealy robotic details and design aspects wheras Prime really does evoke the imagery of a bunch of poorly-dressed people with bad skin.

Maybe because Animated had a very clear look to it's humans that, as pointed out above, does not work in the 3D realm of Prime.

 

HEY SPLIT LiP AND KAIIJU!!!!!!!!!

Now that I got your attention...Split Lip, your opinions are quite insightful, however your relpys are getting a bit rude, no one is trying to make you a bad guy, so calm down. Kaiiju, is just posting his thoughts, but that doesn't mean to go after him and start a freaking nerdrage about who's thoughts are better, so how about you guys agree to disagree.

I think I just threw myself into the fire....oh boy, here comes the "who do you think you are" comments.