One of the things that really caught the attention of fans about the Bumblebee movie was the new G1-inspired designs for our beloved robots. Travis Knight, director of The Bumblebee Movie, took his time to talk to IGN about his thoughts on the design process in this film.
Not much left to say, listen to the interview by yourself on the video below and then share your impressions on the 2005 Boards. Don’t forget that we are just a few hours to the premiere of Bumblebee in US theaters this December 21. get ready to Join the buzz!
Purple Heart
So beautiful.
Mako Crab
That’s a thing of beauty.
Dinobot Snarl
Travis got it Right.
View attachment 28158860 View attachment 28158861 View attachment 28158862
darwin
Sorry, but even the human like faces were shit to me.
Maybe i'm biased from 30 years long exposure to japanese robits, but when i think about "good robotic human like face" bayverse estetic doesn't come to mind. At all.
Also, my vote for porcelain faced arcee! dig it. + 1
You ignore all the human-like faces. Again, I think the art direction could have afforded to be streamlined, but slavish G1 pandering isn't the way to go. This is why I later included the TF: Universe game Prime design, as it proportions aside, it hits more of the feel of streamlining the art direction the film's started without pushing so far that they look like cartoon characters, like Arcee and her creepy porcelain doll face.
You missed where I called out the proportions to be evened out. That aesthetic is a good basis. The truck parts have a layered look that shows more of a movement of mess and a bit more of an organic skeleton, but it's still just what I'd look at as a base since it's still very much in line with TF: Prime's style for proportions. That Prime was always notably top heavy, so I'd prefer much less exaggerated, but the overall art direction there sells itself better to the look of "live-action" than just Knight admitting to trying to stick so close to G1 that his team gave Arcee the aforementioned "porcelain doll face"[/QUOTE]
Dragga
On the TFWiki, you can just look up Transformers: Universe. Each character featured in it should have a pic on their main page that shows their designs.
You ignore all the human-like faces. Again, I think the art direction could have afforded to be streamlined, but slavish G1 pandering isn't the way to go. This is why I later included the TF: Universe game Prime design, as it proportions aside, it hits more of the feel of streamlining the art direction the film's started without pushing so far that they look like cartoon characters, like Arcee and her creepy porcelain doll face.
You missed where I called out the proportions to be evened out. That aesthetic is a good basis. The truck parts have a layered look that shows more of a movement of mess and a bit more of an organic skeleton, but it's still just what I'd look at as a base since it's still very much in line with TF: Prime's style for proportions. That Prime was always notably top heavy, so I'd prefer much less exaggerated, but the overall art direction there sells itself better to the look of "live-action" than just Knight admitting to trying to stick so close to G1 that his team gave Arcee the aforementioned "porcelain doll face"
Terradives
Uggg no to the prime designs. They’re better than the bayverse but not by much. Waaaay too cartoony.
darwin
EVERYTHING is much more better than having those random pieces of metal with insectoid faces that populated the first five films.
iuJacob
Is there promo photos around for all those Universe designs?
robvega214
But but but..its not a boombox…..hes a tape recorder!
Dragga
I like how you keep pretending that I'm implying the design is 100% to the cartoon's animation model rather than the actual intent. I said it's painfully accurate to the point of looking like it's more in line with a cartoon. Similar to how I've repeatedly brought up the same effect at play in Detective Pikachu's art direction. It's slavish to G1 in a way that makes it look cartoony, whether or not it's 100% "the animation model from Sunbow" like you keep somehow twisting my words to mean. I even used the MCU designs to compare, specifically noting Iron Man's original designs made his armor look like spandex and how that wouldn't fly in a live-action adaption. Instead of calling me stubborn, actually read rather than shut your brain off to think you're right. You like it, your opinion. I don't, and that's mine. Another great example of adapting for film? Spider-Man's eyes. While Deadpool showed you can make the expressive mask work, the MCU went more realistic with a shutter lens to achieve a similar overall effect.
You want to bash the older films? Go ahead, it's not like that's been the bandwagon for over a decade despite the film's successes AND bringing the franchise back to the public forefront to remain a stable presence in the market. The new Prime is, by Knight's own admission, as heavily based on the Generation 1 design and model as much as they could, which includes the flat boxiness that I just do not find to mesh well, even within its own universe when BB, Shatter, Dropkick, and Blitzwing are much more layered in their designs. It's not an art direction I find appropriate, and even Transformers: Prime showed a better streamlining of the movie aesthetic than the Cybertronian scenes. or was TF: Prime also defecating on its origins? You don't need to be slavish to homage the source material. The MCU examples already showed that. Hell, even Hasbro held that. How many Optimus Primes have we gotten that weren't just G1 Prime again? Remember when Ironhide was an elephant? Or when Prowl shifted from a stick in the mud cop car to a black hippie-ninja motorcycle? Such is the franchise, and frankly I think it could use a bit more willingness to shift away from G1 a tad, especially to avoid the blocky designs showing up in a medium they look really out of place in.
Take that cancelled Transformers: Universe design for Prime and even the proportions more and I feel it would make a much stronger basis for a movie Prime. The last films had an aesthetic I liked, but lord knows they could use a bit more simplifying, but at the very least that kind of layering of armor and alt mode bits makes a world of difference in making it feel as "organic" as a robot can get.
skywarp-2
there are worse designs..
Haywired
Optimus's design is G1 accurate.
Absolutely, 100%. Suuure.
LOL, okay. Whatever you wish to believe into. You're just visually impaired. Or stubborn.
That's exactly level of fidelity MCU Cap America has to its comic book counterpart. Because certain other franchises don't defecate on their origins.
Unless you can post an actual Sunbow screenshot with exactly same design for Optimus… You're just flat out wrong.
Dragga
No, it's not. Optimus's design is painfully G1 accurate in a way that makes it stand out as looking far too much like a cartoon character. There's added detail, but looking like one of ThreeA's G1 figures still doesn't make it look like something believable in the context of live-action. It's not adapting the designs to work, it's just shameless pandering to an already over-saturated influx of Generation 1. Things are afraid to have identity outside of appealing to the Generation 1 purists who have spent the last decade complaining that one facet of the franchise wasn't also the exact same as always. There was room to improve the original designs, and frankly, BB, Shatter, Dropkick, and Blitzwing move nicely into improving, streamlining, and adapting the designs to incorporate more of the source material without giving up the artistic direction of making these look like living beings despite their robotic nature. The Cybertron scenes and designs are just not even bothering to be anything but tweaked takes on the original designs as Knight openly admits.
For a better blend, the Cybertronian characters could have pulled more from TF: Prime's art style. Layering of armor rather than boxy sections stretched across hints at a basic inner frame. Even the scrapped Transformers: Universe MOTA had more of the look I would have wanted to see as a "streamlining" of the previous films' artstyle.
Enigma2K2
Well, I can tell he cared more about the franchise than Bay did…
Sovietbot
Horns? HORNS?!! Antennas!!!
BubbleMax
Most of these G1 designs are only in the first ten minutes of the film right. If this did turn out to be a reboot, future installments could and probably would make some changes to the designs so that they\'d be more realistic. Im a fan of the Bay movies and designs but as I am hopeful that this will be a reboot, I would rather see characters that look a lot more like their originals than something even marginally too complex.
While the Bay movies proved that Transformers can look good with realistic designs, I feel that some things will ultimately look better if kept comparable to the originals. Thats actually why Im so surprised by how good Detective Pikachu looks. Live action Metroid or Zelda but Pokemon of all things and I think design wise they pulled it off perfectly. Bumblebee seems to have similar success with the designs in my opinion.
NemesisPrime12
Besides all the praise, I kinda agree that some of the G1 designs didn't work out too well because they look like 3d cartoon characters. I prefer something that looks like in between G1 and Bayverse actually. Blitzwing and Bumblebee's designs are the good example of that, while dropkick and shatter look more like earlier designs from Bayverse before the knight mythology stuffs in AoE and TLK
JayEm
The G1 bots looked so out of place in this film. The designs haven\'t held up through the years either tbh. Take off those nostalgia goggles people.
Haywired
Uh, huh. sure. Those designs absolutely are 1:1 Sunbow designs. Absolutely.
Except when they aren't.
There's a lot of tech greeble and loose panels on them that weren't present in G1 designs. It's exactly what modern superhero movies do with designs like Spider-Man suit where the basic design stays but they're adding fabric textures and more detailing.
Dragga
See, this is where I honestly see this film failing. It doesn't adapt the designs for live-action, it basically just puts the original designs on screen. Which would be fine if this was a cartoon. If MCU Iron Man sported the original design that looked like a body suit, it'd look horrible and just silly. These designs look like they'd be fine in a game or even just an animated movie, but they're supposed to also work on screen with human characters. They end up feeling borderline like the Roger Rabbit effect, where they just feel too much like cartoon characters rather than having designs that help visually root them into the "real world". The MCU, for all the trouble its writing has been, lets the character designs reflect that kind of real world approach even with the levels of fantasy elements in play. This, on the other hand, is doing like the Detective Pikachu movie and basically rendering cartoon characters with realistic textures and calling it a day, integrity to the world building be damned.
I can't write off the film's writing without seeing it, but just on artistic merits, I strongly disagree with its choices in light of things like the MCU doing well at adjusting potentially silly designs from the comics into looks more befitting their treatment as "real world" designs.