The Doctor is In

With goggle attachment raised

I modeled Ratchet's head yesterday, and now I have approved it as the final.

He will be wearing his goggles for the most part of the short, but I also needed the goggles to lift off of his face.

For his head, I borrowed both from the Transformers Animated Ratchet's head, for the shape of the back of the head, and Transformers Prime Ratchet for the heavy eyebrows, eyes, some of the shapes of the face, and the "sideburns".

The goggles I added were partially inspired by Animated Ratchet, because in one episode he has a monocle device that helps him zoom into injuries and analyze them. In my story, Ratchet needed to be more a technician then he is normally depicted, so I gave the goggles a sci-fi twist.

I decided his color scheme should be dark red, white, grey and cyan, just because I haven't been using white and dark red much and it would help differentiate between him and the others. 

Also, let me point out a new addition to the sidebar of this blog: the "Updates Timeline". 

In this timeline, I list important events in the making of this short chronologically, so check that out if you have the time.

Look for another Ratchet update in the coming weeks!

Ultra Magnus Revealed

Ever since I announced Ultra Magnus was beginning his modeling phase back in March, on the 3rd to be precise, I've been giving you guys small updates to how it was going. My last update was a little more then a week ago. The day before yesterday I decided to finish him once and for all. And now, roughly a month and half since that announcement, it's time to show the final product. I'd blab on some more, but I know what you really want to see, and that's ULTRA MAGNUS!

(image also available in the downloads section)

(image also available in the downloads section)

See Ultra's new featurette below!

Now that the big reveal is over, I can settle in and obsess over tiny details about the modeling process.

I ran into several problems in the modeling process, which I overcame. I'm now going to attempt to catalogue how I circumvented these challenges.

The first problem occurred right at the beginning: the shoulders. I started with the shoulders, because they were my favorite part of Ultra Magnus and besides, most of his transformation was going to be just getting the shoulders to rest where they are supposed to! The problem that I ran into was that I didn't know where to go from there. I modeled the shoulders and they split apart, but I couldn't figure out how to make the arms unfold or the shoulders to attach to the body. I figured out how by playing around with my Ultra Magnus toy. I ended up copying the toy's shoulder rotation system exactly. The toy's articulation is great, so why not just borrow it? The second problem was the shoulder base hinges that rest on Ultra's back in robot mode. They were merged together. That was an easy fix, I just added a hollow hinge that would let the shoulders slide along to the sides of Ultra's body.

The final problems were the gaps between Ultra's body and his shoulders. I considered making the legs have a separate piece that would rotate in, and experimented with that, but it didn't look right, so I ended up adding a hinge with two guns, plus a folding panel that filled the space without getting in the way of the transformation.

If there's anything I would love to fix, it would have to be the legs, as they are really flat looking, and the feet aren't as stable as I wanted. Oh well. When Part 2 swings around I'll have an opportunity to scratch that perfectionist itch I have, but it'll have to wait because so far I've completed three robots out of the five and a half I need to model. And I say five and a half because Cliffjumper and Megatron both only need a small amount of modeling. The real two that I'm concerned with are Bumblebee and Ratchet, both absolutely crucial to the plot and story. Anyway, I have a lot of time to finish this short, but I'm starting to worry I'll lose my enthusiasm for it. I promise that I will see this first short through, even if I give up on the second one.

More thoughts that you might want to skip:

Because I'm really eager to model Bumblebee, I will save him for last. Why? So he'll be the best one! I will have probably figured out how to model better then now by then. My other thought is that I need a new computer to animate most of the new scenes. If it takes longer then I think it will to get one, I may not be able to do anything for a while. If this is the case, and I've already completed all the models needed, I may take a stab at remodeling my bad Shockwave model, and fix up all the things that are slightly bugging me about the Vehicons, Optimus and Ultra right now. If I STILL don't have a new computer, then I may even model some Constructicons for the second short. 

Longhaul. He and Rampage are Devastator's legs.

But it's important for me to stay active on this project to finish it, which is why, even without a new computer to animate on, I will be modeling robots.

Anyway, to wrap up here are some stats.

Ultra Magnus has over 145 separate polygon objects. That's 35548 polygons!

He's smaller then Optimus, in file size that is. I've cut back on polygons because I'm really afraid I'll crash the computer!

Anyway, that's all for a while. Up next, RATCHET!

Small Ultra Magnus Update

I added Ultra's double-barreled plasma cannon and more of his waist.

I really need to figure out how to fill that area in between his torso and shoulders. Maybe his legs? But then they'd have to be specially shaped. Still not really sure how, but we'll see!

Don't expect any more updates to Ultra, since he's almost near completion and I want to showcase him when he's finished, which means from here on out, it'll be a surprise as to what his vehicle form and robot form look like, so take a good look at this image!

The Magnus Hammer

The Magnus Hammer is here! This epic weapon can summon storms and electrical blasts, and has two spring loaded pistons that help Ultra slam it into foes.

The spring loaded piston, extended.

I invite you to try and figure out what the hammer says!

Also, you may have noticed the new page buttons on the sides of the blog:

Old page button.

New page button.

Whenever I add content to a particular section of the blog, you'll see a message appear on the side of the button:

When ever you see "NEW stuff" in the corner, that means there's new stuff. And yes, there's NEW stuff on the videos page, check it out because I just added Shockwave's featurette!

Also new on the blog is the banner that appears under the blog header.

This is here to help you see exactly what has been released! The first item on the banner, (in this case, Shockwave's featurette), can be accessed by clicking the image. The rest of the items you will have to find yourself, but I point to where they are to make it easier.
Hope these features help! Whenever I add new content, the pages and banner will update accordingly. As an example, say a few days after this I make a poster and put it in the downloads section. The banner would update to show the change and the pages would update so that only the downloads page button has a "NEW stuff" icon on it.

Well, that's all for this post! Expect more Ultra Magnus progress reports in the future.

Ultra Magnus is Getting There

I remodeled Ultra Magnus's torso and added an Elite Guard symbol, like on his Animated toy. I also used the toy for reference when I redesigned his shoulder transformation. I'm also happy to report that his hands will not need to shrink to transform like Optimus.

I have started planning his leg transformation as well, and there's an interesting twist to the way it works, but you have to see it to understand it, so I'll talk about that in a later update. But, at least for the time being, Ultra's torso is complete. By the way, those are his original shoulders, I didn't have to remodel them to get them to work. They also have the blasters in them like before, which is pretty awesome. One thing I will change, or rather, fix about the torso is that in the transformed mode, Ultra's shoulder joints actually overlap one another. The spaces on the sides that are formed because of the extension in the middle of his body may either be filled by his legs or by his hammer/missile launcher.

Also, if you haven't checked the Downloads section in a while, do that now, because there's an awesome 3D poster there now.

A small portion of the poster.

Once again, I will keep you posted on any progress.

Ultra Magnus Looks Incomplete

Ultra Magnus has been in-progress for a while. The main reason is that it's been really difficult to figure out his transformation. I don't want any kibble, (parts that stick out from the transformed or untransformed mode due to transformation). Right now his arms are sticking out from the rest of the truck, which probably loses him a lot of aerodynamic-ness. It's also been an uphill battle to figure out how to get his shoulders to rotate above his arms without having to do it magically. I'm even considering completely scrapping the shoulders and trying again, but there are still a few things I'd like to try before it comes to that.

A rough concept of the body. There needs to be several joints to get the current system to work, however if I remodel the shoulders, I can fit them loosely around the arms.

I'll keep you posted in further updates.