Transformers Prime

I think I have written enough about human characters designs for the time being, so let's talk about robot aliens for the time being!

"Transformers: Prime" is an American computer-animated television series by Hasbro that aired from November 29, 2010 to July 26, 2013. Since its release, the series has been well-received and has won multiple Daytime Emmy Awards. 

The initial designs of the characters were first shown at Botcon 2010 at its panel, and late at San Diego Comic Con 2010. Hasbro created a 400 page Transformers production bible (Whew) titled the "Binder of Revelation", which the production team used as a reference for the show. Whereas the movies were about a boy and his car, the dynamic between the kids and the robots on Prime was meant to be more like "The Iron Giant".

While they may be robots, we constantly forget that they are alien robots, and due to the limitations (Or cutbacks I suppose) faced when it came to animating the original G1 series in the 80s, they were given considerably basic if not stiff expressions (Though then again this was the 80s), making them not all that different to normal robots (Wait, wait, I'm going somewhere with this...).

The animators for this show now had the opportunity to make these characters more sentient than before, with the latest animation tools and software available to them, the characters could be made much more expressive this time round.

With there being a lot of 3D children animations being put out there as of late, one aspect that could differentiate one animation from the rest is the quality of its animation, and the folks behind "Transformers: Prime" definitely went all out when it came to that. From the considerably more basic stuff like characters calmly interacting with one another...

... to the explosive battles that take place between the two factions.

Design wise, I already found myself gushing over how gorgeously modelled and textured each transformer was, especially when it came to the little details put into their paint jobs (With some being shinier than others, and others having notable 'war scars'), but once I got my hands on the show's art book... I just knew that these designers were on a whole nother level from not just me, but from other designers that I admired.

I would just stare at these pages in awe for ages, trying to get my head around the designs that they even did for when these mechanical aliens transformed between their bipedal and alternate modes. These weren't even messy sketches, they actually took every little detail into account, especially when it came to their vehicle modes, as seen below. 

That diagram, oh god, that diagram...

Aside from several characters such as Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, etc. Most of the characters were heavily redesigned for this show, sure some retained some of their original features from their original designs, but if you have been a longtime fan of the series, you still might find yourself taking double takes at the redesigns for some of them just to confirm that they truly were the same characters you have grown familiar with. 

While most of the bots were pretty blocky and similar in shape in the original series (With their colours and sizes being the best way to truly differentiate them from one another), each character had their own unique build in this show to fit both their roles and personalities. While characters such as Optimus and Megatron were made to be larger and more imposing as compared to the rest of their crew, characters such as Arcee and Bumblebee have noticeably smaller or more slender builds to show that they are meant to be scouts. Starscream as well is designed to be a whole lot smaller, sleek (And if not a tad fragile looking...) to match his swift alternate mode, he is also given some considerably bird like qualities to his design the more I look at it... I could go on really.

As mentioned before, some of the best things about this show is just how amazingly animated these characters are, aside from the expressions (Sometimes I think Starscream's hilarious expressions alone makes the entire show), there is also the way how each character would move, even if they were idle, very much the way the humans do. You could almost immediately figure how they were feeling without looking at their faces at times. The animation in this show absolutely adds to their character.

And again, Starscream makes for a great example, what with his expressive wings that
actually stiffen or droop depending on his mood... as if his face wasn't already
expressive enough.

Sensing some sassiness there.

I don't think I will ever be able to comprehend how they figured out simplifying the mechanics for the transforming animation... or just how much patience they had to do it all for every single episode. And aside from such complex animations, I felt that some of these characters had more personalised transformations to match their personalities, some actually seemed more violent and heavy, while others seemed more swift and sleek.

While we know that the bots are the main focus of the show, the humans characters are nothing to be sneezed at and are for once... not that bad as compared to past human characters in the franchise (Though the only human characters I ever found annoying were the ones from the anime series). 

Sure, their designs are simpler, but just as much love was given into animating them as our beloved mechanical aliens, making them just as expressive as the transformers if not more (I especially heard numerous times from various sources that the animators absolutely enjoyed animating Miko (Japanese girl with the pink highlights) as her zany and loud personality gave them the opportunity to play around a lot more with her expressions and body language as compared to the other humans).

While choosing an art style for alien robots wouldn't be that much of an issue for the designers (Seeing that they could just play around before figuring out what best appealed to them), what I did find interesting was their choice of art style for the human characters... with these incredibly detailed robots, what made them decide to go with a more simplistic and cartoony look for the humans as compared to a more realistic one (If you exclude the comics, the G1 series with its typical 80s art style probably had the most realistic looking humans)?

... though I suppose it isn't all that surprising when you look at the styles used for other shows such as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "Green Lantern" and "Beware the Batman" where they all use a pretty similar cartoony style for their human characters... I still do wonder though, who started this style?

"Transformers: Prime" has done a remarkable job when it came to the designs and the animation of their characters, when I had first started watching the show, it was during a period when I was still feeling a little wary over the fact that many of my favourite shows have been given a 3D makeover. But after forcing myself to get through a few episodes, I began to appreciate various aspects about 3D animation, such as how expressions were done, the complexity of certain animations and whether the animators would actually bother to get it done right, and 0f course the designs for the characters and settings (When it comes to the textures used and how the lighting is done for them, I have seen other shows, though mostly children shows being quite lazy in this area).

Even if you aren't a fan of the Transformers, you should definitely check this series out for its quality animation, clearly a lot of love was put into it by its creators.