Sunday, August 2, 2009

TFW2005 Contest- Design Process PROWL

Hi Guys,

For those of you who follow me at my DeviantArt page
you'll know I posted my entry for the TFW2005 Design a Transformer Contest with Josh Nizzi. Well you don't actually get to design a Transformer with Josh Nizzi, but the contest is hosted by him and you get some sweet prizes. The contest consisted on designing a TF that could possibly fit for Transformers 3. We'll I decided to go with Prowl. Hey! we need a strict hard-ass in the autobot team.

The first thing I did was look for an alt mode. A few days before my dad told me about the
Ford Mustang Giugiaro, and when I remebered it I said "That's it!"
For the design of Prowl himself I decided to try a technique I haven't tried before. I started drawing some silhouettes of what the shape of the bot may be. I chose 2 silhouettes out of 4. Then after that I began using a lighter tone to draw in elements of the bot. I followed that step with shading and adding highlights to them. Here's a peek at the two finalist plus the losers.


I decided to go with contestant C. I then redesigned some elements and added from contestant B. One of the most important elements of the design is the head. It has to have character and I wanted to have some nods to Generation 1 Prowl. I employed the same technique I used on the body. When I see the Transformers used in the film I see some animal influence on them (i.e. Ratchet=Walrus, Ironhide=Bull). Now Prowl needed a very noble and serious look and I thought the Lion/Tiger fits those characteristics.

Preliminary Prowl Design

I submitted this image on the Tfw2005 boards to get some feedback on the design. A couple of people disliked the feet and wanted shoulder cannons. I also didn't liked the feet and Prowl definitely needed weapons. So I went ahead a redesigned the feet and hands (which I wasn't content with either). I also added the shoulder cannons because I felt they fitted so well with the back design I did. Since Evry autobot in the film seems to have a particular Melee weapon... Prowl needed one too. Of course Prowl is a police car so he needs a night Stick/Tonfa, that also converts into a nunchuck and a harpoon.

Final Entry
Anyways wish me luck on the contest. Lots of great entries in it. Finalist will be announced on August 7th and then voting will commence. Hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes look at my entry for the contest.

Take Care!

2 comments:

  1. Hi J,

    That's an interesting insight into the development process of your Prowl entry. Having read tons of tutorials in the past this comes across as both professional and intelligent.

    Using the silhouettes as a starting point is something that I've never done before but is something that I've seen or read that others do. I', hoping to start to integrate many new techniques into my work over the coming months and I think that this technique has made it to the list.

    Between you and me I'm on a major art buzz at the moment! lol!

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  2. Hey G,

    Thank you for the kind words. I hope the silhouette technique can be useful to you. It's pretty fun and you get a good sense of how cool the character can look.

    Keep that buzz alive!

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