Due
to popular demand and the massive amounts of email, I've decided to
create this web page devoted entirely to the VW transformer clip to
hopefully answer your questions and show you how it was made. The
clip started as an idea for a short movie me, Thuan Do and Carl Coss (or
as I loving like to refer to us, Team 52) we came up with back in about
September 2000. We weren't sure if we had the skills to pull off
some of the shots we wanted for the film so we came up with the idea
of doing a test video first...
For even more info you can also check out the
interview I did for the bot collector website here...
HA....I had to get one more
transformer in before Michael Bay's Transformer movie came out and
changed everything. Here was my latest attempt at a Live Action
Transformer that I posted a month or two before Transformers hit the big
screen.
(I still need
to get around to changing the buttons at the top of this webpage so you
can go directly to the Trans Z page.)
Okay okay....it's now 4
years and multiple Transformer films later. I guess it's about
time I admit it...I'm the one who did the "Secret Transformer Test
Animation" and posted it online. It's from the Transformer
animated short film my buddies and I were working on back in 2002.
For more info on it check my "secret" webpage (I wrote a little blurb
about it at the end of my Trans Z webpage) about it here....
 |
 First
we needed a vehicle, luckily Rainbow already
had
a model of a new VW beetle built by
Stan Fuka in Lightwave. I took the model from Lightwave and exported into
3D Studio Max. I then proceeded to cut the VW model up into the pieces
that would become the robot parts. |
 Now
we had the empty hull of the VW mesh andwe needed to fill it in with the robot
pieces, for this we used Max. I modeled the feet, legs and body while
Thuan Do modeled the arms and head of the robot. Now we had the complete
robot/VW mesh. |
 Now
it was time to try to actually make things move. To do this I used Max's
Character Studio, I basically linked the robots pieces to the character
studio biped. The robot had piston cylinders on his
arms and legs so I used look-at animation controllers on them to make them slide
in and out of each other. Now I had a robot that could be animated
to walk around, but it couldn't transform into a car. |
 Now
I'd like to say I took the time to add link constraints to the pieces and
changed what they linked to as it transformed, but I found it easier to just have another mesh in the shot that could
change from a car to a robot but not walk around. So the VW car
to
where it stands up as a robot is one mesh, then in
one
frame it disappears and the other mesh appearsand that mesh walks around (they
are in the same exact position when the switch takes place so you can't see the
switch). |
 Okay
so now I've got my animation done, what's next? Well, while I've been
animating, Thuan Do has been painting the robot pieces and I textured the
car parts. I also lit the VW transformer with some help from Carl
Coss. Now we had this cool transformer model and animation, it was time to
put him in an environment. Using Carl Coss's
Canon's GL-1 Digital Camera
we went outside into Rainbow's parking lot and filmed some footage of blue balls
on the ground and red dots on a fence (with me walking back and forth on
the sidewalk just to prove it was live footage). |
 Once
we finished with my "brilliant" acting performance, we went back
inside and into 3D StudioMax to track the footage using Max's camera tracking
feature. After a few tries,
our measurements outside were less
then exact, Thuan Do got a good track and
the
VW transformer looked like it was locked in the scene. |
 The
clip was then rendered in Max and looked quite good, but what would really make
it cool was if the VW transformer kicked up some dust as he changed. To do
this I used a 2d particle program called Illusions
to add some dust to the already rendered scene. |
 Of
course no 3d animation would be complete without a
lens flare, I used Adobe After Effects to put one in and adjust the look of the
final video. |
That
gave us the final clip you have seen. It was not totally finished, I was
going to go do a bunch of things to the clip (clean up the animation, paint out
the blue balls on the ground, etc.) but since it was a test, we decided my time
was better spent working on stuff for the short film. Two years later, we
still hadn't finished the film and had almost given up on ever doing it when I
made a website. I decided what the heck and threw the test clip on the my
site.
|
The
reaction has been unbelievable....
I
included a "teaser" picture of our short made by Carl Coss (I've been
emailing this to everyone) along with some 1024x768 desktop
images of the VW transformer (click the small pictures to view the larger image,
then "right click" "save as" to save to your hard drive or
"right click" "set as background" to make image your
desktop).
|
(cool transformer
stuff done by other people)
As a way to celebrate
2005 (the year Optimus Prime dies) and since the Transformer
fans still come to my website with a thirst for more transformer stuff, I
thought I'd help them out by posting all the cool live action transformer stuff
I've seen since I posted the VW. Now I had nothing to do with any of these
other clips, but I'd like to think I inspired them in some little way (don't
know if I really did or not).
1994
Transformer Commercial
Okay, this one was
actually made BEFORE I made the VW video, cripes it was made before Toy Story
came out and made computer animation a household name, but I had not seen it
until just recently. Looks like Hasbro was one of the pioneers of computer
animation blended with live action. C'mon Hasbro, give me a call and let
me do some commercials for you now!
Nike Commercial
Six months after I
posted the VW this appeared on the web and TV. My friends and I were
shocked, "Oh my word...we influenced a Nike ad...THAT'S SO COOL!!!" I'm not sure
if anyone at Nike saw my stuff or not, but it seems like a huge
coincidence. Oh
well, the more cool Transformer stuff we get to see the better I say. And that leads me
to....
Design Assembly's
Mustang Sally Fembot
Design Assembly is the
company that did the commercial for Nike and if you go to their website you'll
find a couple cool female transformer videos. I love the parking lot one,
it's so cool. He actually designed a working transformer model that looks
female AND actual uses a lot of the car parts in the robot design, I gotta give
them props for that.
John "Yanni"
Syracopoulos's Starscream
Done for his school demo
reel project a quite elaborate design for a new version of Starscream, I wonder
where he works now after producing work like this?
Edit - I have since
chatted with John and found out he landed a job with Big
Bang Effects and Animation and has just finished working on a show for
National Geographic called Dog Fight and before that worked on a show called Meteor
the Monster Truck (look for it in November). So it looks like he is
indeed working and having a great time.
P.S. Hope he doesn't
mind that I shortened it to the cool parts to make it easier to download, you
can watch the full ~40 Meg version of his demo reel at the...
Marcus "Reedomatic"
Reed's Bumblebee
Another transformer done
by a student for his school demo reel project. He used the new volkswagon
bug like I did, but he actually used the original bumblebee transformation design.
P.S. Hope he doesn't
mind that I shortened it to the cool parts to make it easier to download, you
can watch the full ~8 Meg version of his Transformer Teaser Trailer here...
K, so this isn't a
transformer, but it's dang cool.
Now in the interest of
full disclosure, I was actually contacted by the Mini Cooper ad people about the
possibility of working on a Mini transformer. I got really really excited
and modeled a Mini, which you can see here. But they decided they didn't
want a transformer and would rather have just a robot made from Mini parts, that
was the last I ever heard from them. Maybe someday I'll go back and finish
the MY Mini transformer (yeah right, just like I'll finish my Optimus video,
what's it been...like 3 years now?)...
If you want to see some
higher quality videos of the mini robot, you can find them here...
Article
on Jose Perez (the guy who modeled the robot)
Jose
Perez's Website (with more Mini Robot pics)
"BenniHaarna"s
Breakdancing Soundwave
Soundwave is cool, the
music is cool, the dancing is cool...I can just watch this over and over.
I love the boom box speakers added to his cassette mode, although they make him
look a little more like Blaster than Soundwave.
Julien
Vanhoenacker's Double A Paper's Copier
Transformer Commercial
Copier get's revenge for
being abused by a woman because of a paper jam. I don't know, maybe I'm old
fashioned, but it seems wrong for the copier to wack the girl in the head with
the paper. The 15 sec version is more "PC". Even though it
was a paid commercial, I think all the cg was done by one guy (wish I could get
a deal like that!).
Lotto people sent me
emails on this. The coolest live action transformers done to date,
this one was done by The Embassy, a Vancouver visual effects house.
Imagine how cool the Transformer Movie could be.
These guys actually
contacted me about making a giant transforming naval ship, I was pretty
sure it was too much work for me, so I had to pass on it. Looks like they
got a company to do it for them. Either that or I'm joining the Singapore
Navy cause they have the coolest secret weapon ever!
Eric
Chu's Optimus
Prime for Sale???
Concept artist Eric Chu
gives us his version of Optimus. The cowboy makes it a little hard to
watch, but dude, Optimus Prime....pretty sure. Wish I could attract the
interest of Hasbro and Tom DeSanto.
P.S. Hope they don't
mind that I shortened it to the cool part to make it easier to download, you can
watch the ~40 Meg version or ~80 Meg full version at the...
Live
Action Transformer Movie Preview
Okay, I know you've seen
the content of this video like a million times now, but bear with me.
You have your popcorn,
the lights go down and the film starts to roll. Then this preview comes on
the screen. AMAZOR! Can't wait till this happens for real. A
fan made trailer for the transformer movie by a talented video editor named
Julian Francis Adderley. Check out his other works at....
Alex
Mallinson's Citroen Dancing
Transformer 2
Make sure you watch the
original Citroen dancing transformer video above first, then watch this second
commercial. A great spoof of the original Citroen ad done by Alex
Mallinson in under two weeks. Makes me feel bad for not finishing my
Optimus in about 3 years now.
Adrian
Ortiz's Breakin'
Nissan Transformer
A solo student project
done by Adrian Ortiz for a class on making 30 second commercials. Man I
never realized the Transformers were so into dancing. I can see it in the
new transformers film now....Optimus to Megatron: "You got
served...word"
Richard
Valenzuela's Bumblebee
Transform and Roll Out
A video done by Richard
Valenzuela. Bumblebee's just hanging out. You can check out
Richard's other animations here...
Michael
Raphaelovich's Starscream
visits San Fran
Done by Michael
Raphaelovich a grad student for Visual Effects at the Academy of Art university
in San Francisco. Unfortunately he emailed me this file directly and
doesn't have a website that I know of. So the only place to see this video
is here as far as I know.
You can watch a 15 meg
quicktime version at...
I recommend renting
the film Returner and watching the whole thing. I got to see it on the
big screen when it was released in America a couple years ago. It's an
international sci-fi film that has elements of The Matrix, Terminator, Predator,
Transformers, ET, Independence Day, and other sci-fi movies all wrapped up into
one fun popcorn munching film.
Not sure if it's legit
or not but it's very cool looking. Although, Sideswipe went from being a
Lamborghini Countach to a crappy Nissan/Ford looking thing, wtf. Not quite
as good as the Citroen ad (which makes me doubt ILM had anything to do with it),
but it still got me very excited about the upcoming Live Action Transformer
film.
**Okay okay....it's
now 4 years and multiple Transformer films later. I guess it's about time
I admit it...I'm the one who did this animation and posted it online. It's
from the Transformer animated short film my buddies and I were working on back
in 2002. For more info on it check my "secret" webpage (I wrote a little
blurb about it at the end of my Trans Z webpage) about it here....My
Fan Film Footage.
Well, I can't read
Chinese so I still don't know too much
about this video, but apparently it was done by a company called Hywave in China
Da Lian city and this Optimus clip was part of their showreel. It's been
taken off of youtube so you can't see the whole thing but there's still a small
clip left on Hywave's website. If anyone knows anything more about the animation
let me know. I
had just never seen it before and I thought it was pretty cool, so I added
it.
Hywave's
website (hope you can read Chinese)
Dancing
Yugo Transformer
Ah yes, in case you
can't get enough of transformers bustin a move, here's yet another spoof of the
Citroen commercial. It's posted in the gallery of an art school in
Belgrade, Serbia as a WIP (work in progress), but I'm not sure if it's some
students work or not.
Juan
"3DBlasphemy" Jose's Ultra
Magnus
I'm sorry but I have
trouble calling him Optimus when he isn't red, and Ultra
Magnus was the white one (at least when he wasn't wearing all his extra
armor). Anyhows, this is an amazing animation done by Juan Jose
"3DBlasphemy" Palomo of Spain. I especially admire his
texturing, lighting and rendering skills and I love his camera work. Amazing.
Citroen
Skating C4
Transformer Commercial
Citroen is at it again.
They got a different visual effects company, The
Mill (I wonder why they didn't use The
Embassy again) to do a new ad. Although I like the design of the robot a
little better, this one doesn't seem have the "magic" of the first (I
guess sequels never do). It's still very cool, but I don't see a bunch of
"copycat" animations being made for this one. I guess we'll see.
A cool 3D short
animation done by Brian that features Optimus Prime and a suprise guest
appearance by my personal favorite 6 in 1 transformer (did that give it
away?). Plus it's old school vs new school as Prowl (from G1) takes on
Barricade (from the new Transformer film) in a high speed chase. I know
who I was rooting for, and I was not dissappointed.
Lars
Martinsens' Devastator!
I can't believe someone
actually attempted this. My all time favorite transformer done
lives! Such an amazing amount of work, the music gets kinda annoying real
quick and it feels a little "Power Ranger/Voltron-y" but great fun
nonetheless. Good Stuff.
Lars
Martinsens Website (Hope you can read Norwegian)
View
his Optimus Prime Video too (It looks like Optimus needs to visit the car
wash though)
Coolio's
Hummer Gobots
Geesh, I remember
listening to rap music when they sang about how they had no money and were being
held down by "the man". Now rappers make so much money that not
only can they afford Hummers, but Hummers that change into giant battling
robots.
Is
that Bumblebee?
Well, I still can't find
out anything about this video. If I had to guess, it looks professionally
done and is maybe a part of some viral ad campaign to raise interest in the new
transformers film. If anyone knows anymore about the clip I'd be happy to
hear about it.
Is
that Grimlock (and Scavenger)?
Well, I still can't find
out anything about this video either. It looks to me as if it was done by
the same people who did the "Is that Bumblebee" video above. I'm
really hoping that this is all part of some viral ad campaign to raise interest
in the new transformers film and that we'll see a lot more of these before the
film is released next year. If anyone knows anymore about the clip I'd be
happy to hear about it.
Well apparently they've
done a second version and taken out the transforming construction vehicle and
focused more on Grimlock. Wonder who's doing these.
Insecticon
Attack!!!
>>>>WARNING
COARSE LANGUAGE WARNING<<<<
Still can't find out
anything about these videos. If you know anything drop me a line.
This one's hard to see, but I think we can conclude from this video that an
insecticon invasion wouldn't be too much trouble.
Hamadi
"Max-Ady" Hamdan's Optimus Prime...Rise
Cool little video of a
futuristic "Mad Maxish" Optimus Prime transforming. He says it's
part one of 3 parts, but the other 2 haven't been finished yet. If they're
anywhere's near as cool as this I can't wait. Make sure you check out the
wallpaper pictures available on his website. A cool and original take on
the autobot leader.
Christopher
Rebeiro's Sideswipe
Chistopher is an artist and a big
Transformer fan from India. Chirstopher so admired the Binaltech/Altenators
design for Sideswipe he decided it must be made in CG. As he says "It's
a well balanced perfectly planned model. I'll 3d model this toy and give it life
(animate it)". Then a few months later he sends me this.
VFXTalk's
Transformer Trailer Contest
The VFXTalk runs a monthly visual
effects contest each month and back in October/November 2006 they ran a contest
that challenged people to make their own Transformers movie trailer. The
picture above is from the winning entry. It was done by a group of 5
artist, not sure which of them did the Optimus transforming sequence, but I
thought it was cool.
I was also a big fan of
this cg transformer from Veivailija's entry into the contest. Not sure if
you can still view all the entries at the VFXTalk website, but as far as cg
transformers go I thought this one had style.
"Liflux's"
Lampost Attack
People seem to like those alternator
toy designs. Seeing more and more of those translated into CG.
Anyways here's one that gets attacked by a lampost??? Okay then.
Juan
"BlackBat" Garcia's New Car Alarm
>>>>WARNING
COARSE LANGUAGE WARNING<<<<
Well it was a good try, and it makes
me laugh. So I thought I'd include it. More impressive than trying
to build a cg transformer, or track live footage, I can't believe they actually
tried to include acting in their clip.
Honorable
Mentions
(didn't quite follow
the computer animated live action robot concept but cool none the less)
Chevy
transforms though the years - we start from a model-T looking chevy pickup
and go through the decades to the current chevy pickup. Don't know who did
this commercial yet.
Nissan
transforms to different animals - (Downloads a 8 meg zip file that you have
to unzip to a mov) So it can travel on different terrains of course.
Amazing commercial by Mikros
Image. You can
watch a lower quality version on YouTube
here.
For all you people that
can read french, there's
a making of interview here. (includes some hi-def quicktimes of the
commercial)
There's also a making
of video available here.
Fan-Made
Dreamworks/Paramount Teaser Trailer - JesterJJZ's movie preview for the new
Transformers film. Imagine going to a theater and having this appear on
the big screen.
Saab
made from jets - a jet transforms into a SUV. Amazing commercial by
Digital Domain.
SciFi
Channel commercial - truck transforms to pocket size.
Optimus
has Prostate Cancer - if he can get it we all can, so get checked regularly.
Remote
Controlled Toy Transformer - WR-07 is a real life transformer created by
Nakamura-san of Himeji Soft Works in Japan. Apparently he's won lot's of
awards and priszes at Robot competitions and you can see why. I so want to
buy one of these.
Bacon
and Eggs Citroen Spoof - you know your ad is good when it spawns copycat ads
Giant
Penguin Citroen Spoof - this one disturbed me greatly for some reason
Mobil-Home
- Kadeg "Malonet" Boucher's work posted on CGTalk,
this French guys does incredible detail, that borders on insane. His stuff
is a little "GoBoty" for my tastes, but it's incredible none the less.
Mantibus
Prime - More of Kadeg "Malonet" Boucher's incredibly detailed work
posted on CGTalk, this one's a WIP (work in
progress) and has some animation passes. It's going to be amazing when
it's done. You can check out a preview
of the animation here.
Dodge
Charger Transformer - Another WIP (work in progress) thread on CGTalk
that I've been following. "Coaster" makes an unbelievably well
detailed and textured Dodge Charger model, then decides to make it
transform. Although it's unfinished it looks unbelievably cool, you can
check out a preview
of the animation here.
2005
San Diego Comic Convention Transformers
Movie Promotional Trailer - Hasbro's promo video for the new
Transformer film, see if you can spot my VW transformer who makes a surprise
cameo appearance (I didn't even know it would be in it).
If anyone has links I
haven't seen yet, gimme an email and I'll add them...
I like the VW autobot. I remember some fan render based on the VW camper. I made a render for English trucks transforming in engine parts uk.
ReplyDeleteOh geez this site brings back memories.
ReplyDeleteI found Youtube because of this site.
Thanks me for not saying which video it was cos all the images are gone.
DeleteDAMN this site is old!
Indeed, even the animation mammoth Disney, which had battled a corporate procurement during the 80's, was thinking about deserting the creation of energized include films. mangakakalot
ReplyDelete