Transformers animation supervisor Scott Benza, and visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar were nominees at the recent Visual Effects Society Awards, where they conducted an interview about the third installment in the franchise. We have already learned that TF3 is in preproduction and that Michael Bay will be shooting some action sequences in both Chicago and Moscow.
Now, we’re learning that Optimus Prime and Bumblebee will both get a makeover, and the folks over at ILM are hard at work updating the robots in disguise for their third roll-out.
Farrar said,
“Our two lead characters, Optimus and Bumblebee, needed to be updated for the next chapter in the Transformers series. Bumblebee’s matured a little bit, so I would just say look for subtle changes to his physique that have him look more mature.”
“[Prime will have] little tiny things that maybe the average viewer isn’t going to notice but probably the fanboys will, You actually will run into pieces that are maybe always in the way, and wouldn’t it be nice if that part wasn’t there? Maybe you make a shift in the shoulder, in the chest or what have you. So it might be proportioning, but it also might be for usability, so [the animators]’ task could be easier, too.”
Benza added that Prime’s updates would be badass,
“We always want the robots to look cooler than they did the last time, so he’s going to look a little more heroic, I would say”
While the script for part 3 has yet to be finished, the ILM artists have been privy to important details.
Farrar said.
“There’s an outline and most of the script is done, It hasn’t been released to us completely because they want to keep that under wraps, but we certainly know enough. Michael [Bay] turns over sections of the script, and then the art department is full steam ahead right now, the L.A. art department. We also have an ILM art department working on this at the same time. So we take their 2-D work and start turning it into 3-D models, because we like to get a jump-start on this. Any model that looks like it could start, we want to get going, because it’ll take us 30 weeks to build it.”
They will also be developing new robot characters for the film – Farrar said,
“We can’t say anything, but these are great big difficult movies, and it’s a long haul for everybody. It’s not easy stuff, so we’re pretty pooped when we get done with a movie. We have a little rest time, and I know it’s dumb, but some of these new ideas come along and you start to get excited again. Yes, some really great ideas for characters.”
[Source] SciFiWire
