I kinda neglected the blog...
With the work on the Dark Horse book and tons of other stuff to do, it's just easier to post on Facebook.
But I still want to post my official works for Hasbro here.

Here is something interesting.
I did some work on AEO Slog. But this time, the basic design for the figure had been done and Takara had already figured out the 3D shapes and transformation (I had missed designing this from scratch because I was too busy with other assignments).
But the figure was lacking details, so I was contacted for a job called Surface Detailing.
Basically, working on images of the 3D model, I had to redesign and improve the look of the figure, in this case making it more organic and in line with the other movie figures.
It was a quick pass, but still funny and challenging.

Just a couple of months ago I received approval on showing at least one piece of the work I did for Transformers Age of Extinction movie.
This is one of the craziest piece I did for the fourth Transformers movie and it was a lot of fun to work on.I did it under the direction of the mighty Aaron Archer who gave me a ton of details to fit into one single image.
I started with a couple of simple composition/mood studies, and then went into the full rendering.

We went throw a lot lot of revisions, including adding Drift, the sparkles and later on we also decided to change the color of the sky.


I loved adding all the dust and atmospheric elements, creating chaos during the battle.
There is so much going on that something can get lost, like Bumblebee fighting a bunch of Decepticons behind Grimlock.


There will be more? The title of the post suggests yes, as I did several other pieces, so, hopefully I'll get permissions to show some others in the following years.

Yet another of my Transformers Generations figure designs!
Transformers Generations Rattrap! This was done shortly after Rhinox, Waspinator and Cosmos, and I got to do only the Robot mode. But it's one of my favorite sketches and I love how the toy turned out!

When The Covenant of Primus was released, the Megatron design I had done for the  Transformers Binder of Revelations was finally revealed.
This piece of concept art was originally done in 2009, as part of the new TF brand bible.
Once more I was working under Eric Siebenaler's directions along with Aaron Archer's (whow, it was so much time ago that my memories are starting to fade away!).
Under those directions, I created it blending elements from a previous sketch I had done and another artist's ideas (the blacked out face and the axes on the back).

The concept was first only used fort the bible, but it was then sent out as reference for other media. He was the model we used for The Ultimate Pop-Up Universe and the one the other artists used for the Covenant of Primus illustrations, where it also appeared in tis full glory.
I didn't get to do the Alt Mode, which was done by Ken Christiansen and can be seen here.

As a bonus, here is also the "pencil" sketch. From that one I went straight to color devising the technique that I would have later used on the Pop-Ups. But at that time, this took me 4 days!

Wow, it was almost an year ago... When Transformers Generation Metroplex went on sale and also made an appearance as an exclusive at San Diego Comic Con.

As some of you may know, I did some work on that giant sucker. But I didn't do the whole design. What I did was working with Chris Hicks on a concept to pitch the idea and work out the general shapes and features. After that, he was properly designed and engineered, but as you may notice, some spots remained faithful to what I had draw, like the chest area. As you can see also, those panels on the shoulders were supposed to open up. Hasbro kept them, but they are now part of the shoulder sculpture and don't move.
Overall, I believed I had to go for  TF Prime aesthetic, I wasn't aware this was for Generations.
Oh, and yes, it's a pretty rough sketch. But many of these things starts like that!

I didn't have time to create new art recently, but it has been a long time since my last post. And while I'm thinking about writing some new article about MOTU, I thought it would be cool to fill some spots with art I created previously.
This is the first illustration I created for the Transformers: The Covenant of Primus book.
Below, you can also see the pencils.

Time from another of my Transformers Generations figure designs!
Transformers Generations Legends Class Cosmos and Payload! These were done at the same time of Rhinox and Waspinator, but as the last ones. There was very little time to complete them so I had to rush just rough pencil sketch. Overall, they are the ones that turned out to be more different in the final product, especially Payload which Alt Mode was changed. I guess it was also due to the technical needs of the figures.
But lots of the details remained the same!
Next time, Rattrap!

Following the previous post about the Generation figures I designed (also visible here), here comes Waspinator!
I could almost do copy and paste from the Rhinox's post:
I worked on these with Joe Kyde. The process was pretty straight forward, so there aren't other sketches of alternate versions.

An unusual job for me at Hasbro: boxart!
The team needed a new illustration to complete the Tech Specs on the back of the box for the 2013 Transformers San Diego Comic-Con Exclusives Bludgeon and I was privileged to provide it!
The requirement was to make the illustration looking like the vintage Transformers box art as much as possible.
To achieve that, working digitally, I used realistic airbrushes in Painter and added noise in Photoshop.
Then I also tried to "age" the colors a bit, so there would be a hint of green in some grays and a hint of yellow in thew withes.
Despite the actual figure being a G.I.Joe repaint, I was asked to reference more the original toy and the old Marvel comics.
This is the result!

Directly from the Botcon reveals, here is the first design from the Generation figures I helped designing.
I worked on these with Joe Kyde. The process was pretty straight forward, so there aren't other sketches of alternate versions.
The kind of rhinoceros was changed for the final alt mode, but I think it was the right choice as it now looks a lot more intimidating than mine!
I loved doing Rhinox, especially trying to capture the right attitude, silhouette and the details form the cartoon, and i'm so happy to see it translated so faithful to a toy!

What's better than waking up, checking news from Botcon and finding out Hasbro has just presented 3 figures you have designed?!

Today, for the first time, I saw pics of some new toys I helped designing. More than one year ago, I worked with Joe Kyde to create new designs for a few Transformers Generations figures and among those there were Rhinox, Waspinator, Cosmos and his little sidekick Sky-High
Especially with the Beast Wars figures, the goal was to make them as close as possible to their cartoon counterpart.
I will be checking with Hasbro the possibility of showing the original sketches, stay tuned!

Third and fourth image from Dark of the Moon concept exploration job for Hasbro.

This one really made to the movie, even if the glider was turned into a jetpack for Optimus Prime.
Aaron Archer asked me to visualize Optimus flying using part of is trailer transformed into a glider
I used the experience from the the previous images and I used both fully painted elements (Prime and the glider) with photo elements for the background.

The second image was supposed to be the glider by itself in a creepy, Chernobyl-like environment. the easiest thing to do was to actually use a pic of Chernobyl!
I don't know how that second image was supposed to fit in the story, but looks to me like the idea it never made to final script.

Second image from Dark of the Moon concept exploration job for Hasbro.
This time, we were exploring the concept of the Space Bridge. The idea make it to the movie, but it was executed in a completely different way.

What is really interesting about this piece is that there is very little painted stuff in it. It was executed mostly as a collage. It was another learning experience, because mixing photos, real life elements and art is absolutely a common thing in movie concept work.
I went on looking for various NASA bases and installations, I created the bridge out of temples churches and lot of other stuff, and finally, I used style guide pieces from the previous movies to create the millions of Decepticons crossing the bridge and attacking Earth.
As usual, below you can see also the preliminary sketches that lead to the final piece.

We're just starting to see the first glimpses of the new Autobots alt modes in TF 4, and the great folks at Hasbro just gave me permission to post some of the work I was lucky to do for Transformers 3 - Dark of the Moon.

It's Toy Fair time! And I just saw a lot of very cool Transformers toys.
Some of which I had the pleasure to contribute too.
Just an year ago, I helped the awesome Chris Hicks at visualizing a huge project: a new Metroplex! The sketches (which I hope to be able to post soon) were very crude, as we focused most on the features and the transformations. Exactly a year later, Metroplex is a toy! And a lot of visual cues translated directly from my sketch!
Enjoy Hasbro official pics, I can't be more excited about him! (And already dreading custom fees once I'll order him!)

The great folks from TFW2005 just posted an episode of their awesome Transformers Podcast where I had chance to join hosts GogDog and Vangelus for a cool chat about my work and my involvement with Transformers. It was a great pleasure and honor to reconnect with fans on a podcast and talk about various aspects of the design work and lot of other topics!
Check the Podcast here and all the other episodes on iTunes here.

Later there has been some buzz on a few Transformers websites about my design for Sideswipe, a concept included in the "Aligned continuity" brand bible. Fan mostly liked the design, but many didn't like the movie inspired legs. Considering that those designs, inspired by Eric Siebenlare's awesome work, were meant to be a blend of G1 Elements, TF Animated style and proportions and movie elements, I still think the legs fit him quite well, in that specific context I mean. Transformers Prime had yet to happen, that's why some of these designs don't really fit that aesthetic.

A couple years ago, under Hasbro autorization, I had revealed another design in an exclusive interview for L'Antro Atomico del Dr. Manhattan. I thought it would have been nice to repost it here for fans from around the world to check out.

But I also didn't want to just repost the same image, so I decided to also include the Alternate Mode and a glimpse of the process for these illustrations, a process I later refined to go quicker and accomplish scary amounts of work like the TF pop-up book. So, there are some differences from what I did back then and what I do now. But the principle is the same: on a refined enough sketch, I create very precise flats that will help me in selecting areas while rendering. I copy the layer and reflat with right colors, then copy the layer again two more times. I set the top one to Color Burn with 50% opacity and the one below is set to Colorize. The first copy is then converted to just grayscale and then rendered with an airbrush in various modes. Between the rendered layer and the color layers, I add a texture layer I created with custom brushes.
There are a few extra steps here and there, but this is the basic idea.

The Pop-up book feature a couple other of my redesigns, so hopefully I'll be able to post those after the book is released.