Hey guys, SolZen here, I'm doing this blog to help anyone who wants to create their own transformers robot. I don't know about drawing, that's something else entirely, but as for designing them, this may help.
Firstly you may want to choose which style you are going with. These will determine what kind of transformation they will do. Here are the main styles I can think up, bit if you can think of more I will add them.
- 70's Style: This one has your bot is the smooth, curved body famous with bots like Tetsujin 28 a.k.a. Gigantor, Ambassador Magma and the like. Here you don't have to worry about a too realistic transformation if you don't want too.
- 80's Style: Think G1 transformers, blocky bodies and a bit more realistic transformation (not always)
- 90's Style: This style comes from Transformers Beast Wars, the bot's body is more realistic and life like, looking more like a robotic humanoid than a mere human shape robot. This body type often goes with beast type transformers.
- 00's Style: Starting with the Michael Bay Movies (Hold on, don't kill me), it end with a humanoid form but there is a great attention to detail such as individual parts. The transformations are generally not straight forward nor uniform for each one but basic layouts for the areas do exist.
- Prime Style: This style is like the first three combined, I named it after show Transformers Prime. To make sense the alternate body, instead of just shifting about mass to create the humanoid body almost morphs into it. The idea of where parts go is still clear but while the alternate mode may be something you would expect from 80's style, you get a humanoid body you would more expect from 90's style while the shift contains elements of 70's style
Rule 1: The Head of its all[]
The first rule when designing a Transformer is simple, remember where the head is, primarily in their alternate mode. The reason for this is simple, where ever the head emerges in alternate mode, determines the rest of the transformation as the body will shift to create a humanoid (whatever shape you are going for) form based upon where the head is.
Rule 2: Which style are you using[]
Choose a transformation style. While some alternate modes will no doubt restrict which style you can logically make, the choice of style revolves around one choice, 'where does the head appear'. The choice may also determin the size of you bot.
For a basic example let's assume the bot's alternate mode is a car, which is the common alternate mode of many cars.
- Head in front: With this example the head come up out of the hood of the car, causing the front to become chest armor. How you form the rest of the body is your choice but I would have the arms come out of the doors and the legs form from the back of the car, the taillights being under the feet or the back of the legs.
- Head in front: This means the front of the car will most likely form the legs and the back of the car forming the shoulders.
- Head in the middle: Best seen with beast form. The front and the back, mainly just the top section become the arms and/or the shoulders of the bots robot form.
Other Styles[]
With a multitude of alternate mode to choose from there isn't really any limit on where the head can be placed, and coupled with the body style there is even greater choice.
- Truck: With this one the most common style is the 'Optimus' style. Here the head comes out of the back of the cabby section wit the top/side parts forming the shoulders, the sides forming the arms, the bottom forming the waist and the back where the tires are, making the legs. There are numerous variations one can go with but
Rule 3 Mass Shifting[]
Taken from Transformers lore, Mass Shift basically means this, will one alternate form have more mass than the other? If yes, then your bot is part of the mass shifting club.
Now why is this important, well it will determine the size of both forms. In Transformers canon, there are bots that turn into moorbikes but are as tall as bots that transform into cars.