There are two methods of designing toys for the franchise. In the past it was toys first then animation model later but currently it's animation models first then toys. Some people are complaining about the latter because of how the toys have to resort to cheats due to the designs and transformation being too complicated and impossible to translate in toy form and wish it can go back to being the latter. I can see where they're getting at but at the same time going by toy first can still result in toy inaccuracy due to the changes the animation model has to have in order for it to be more dynamic. Also that it can end up having the animation models look dead,dummy like and stiff too. That's the problem I had with how the UT characters look because of it. I'm thinking that maybe Hasbro and Takara should try a new method. Have both the designers for toys and the animation models work on the designs together at the same time giving out tips of which aspect can work for the figure and another aspect that can work for the animation model. That way the figures can avoid a lot of problems that both methods have. What do you think?
IIRC, that's basically what happened in Animated, which is how such a stylized aesthetic managed to translate so well into toy form. I can't help but wonder if traditional animation is a bit more lenient for that sort of thing than CGI, and/or if movies/games having a completely different development process than cartoons has an effect (i.e. less time for back-and-forth discussion/development).
It's not a new method. That's pretty much what went on during the production of TF:Animated. The 2-D series may have an advantage in that it's probably easier to do lots of back-and-forth revisions in drawings than CGI models. The varying lead-times in production between Animation and toy production, with the goal of both being out at roughly the same time (not always successful there) will always be an issue as well.
Not really, because CGI characters are still designed 2D first before the character models are ever even started. They could still do character designs with Hasbro, but for some reason, they're just not.
this isnt a new idea, heck youve seen it in Cybertron, all the show was pretty much CAD designs for the toys
IIRC, them mentioning this as the process on character creation in Prime is exactly how we found out there would be Prime toys. Back when it began, there were rumours that we wouldn't get a Prime toyline, until it was debunked when an interviewer mentioned working with Hasbro to make sure they'd translate as toys offhand. But yeah, this is what they did in Animated, which is why the toys are so absolutely great. I mean, those that have fake kibble on their toy alos have fake kibble on their on-show models. That's accuracy!
I would've expected the "point of no return" would happen earlier in 3D CG, as I'd think it takes longer to model, texture, and rig a character model than finalize a character model sheet for 2D.
