The Final Battle

[Axilus Prime]

Well, considering recent events in the BZPRPG, AKA the final battle between Tahuva Pyro and Zeltroth, AKA Optimus Prime and Megatron...I decided to make a drawing. Took me three days to finish, though actual time spent was 6-7 hours. 5 hours to color and texture. I attempted to fit in a Ko-Wahi background, which needs some tweaks, but I may update the topic with said background in the drawing soon. So yeah, here it is.As this is the hardest drawing I have ever made, comments and criticism would be very well appreciated.

[Taka Nuvia]

RPing can be a great source of inspiration, that's true. ^_^Hm. The characters look more like Transformers characters than Bionicle characters to me, but that's okay, I don't have a problem with that. ^^ The amount of detail is incredible, it must have taken a while.What irks me a bit about this is that their poses are so static. When I read the title, "The final battle", I was expecting something a bit more dynamic. I don't know much about your drawing process, but I always found it helpful to start out with a line for the spine/general diretion of movement around which I then build up the character's body. (For the record, I use a method similar to the one described in this tutorial, although it has changed a bit over the years)I think in this case it's the upright spines that kind of don't work with the 'battle' idea.Another thing you might try out someday is shading, because it can really influence the mood/atmosphere of a piece of art and add some drama.But don't get me wrong, it's not a bad drawing, the characters are very detailed, and the texture looks nice.

[Wotz]

I'm gonna have to go with Taka on the poses and shading, to save a paragraph or so :PI couldn't help but notice a few nice alterations on Tahuva, such as the upper thigh armour and a smaller head (at last ). His neck seems a bit long, and his hands a tad small, but he's essentially a nice conversion from the standalone drawing of him that you did.As for Zeltroth, I actually imagined him myself as TFP Megs, due to the grey text and claw-hands, although this portrayal I definitely like. Good to see how you added the classic Skakdi teeth and somewhat of a spine (it would be awesome if it was more prominent, since now it almost looks unintentional ), and the Brutaka blades on his shoulders are pretty nice. He seems a bit... Fat, to put it bluntly. Maybe it's because I imagined Zeltroth as this muscular, agile fighting machine it seems more noticeable to me.Overall it's a pretty great drawing. It was cool to see how you imagined Zeltroth (I think you should give him a standalone drawing BTW), and I'd like to see it with the background, some shading and some special effects like flames and such (more flames than now at least). The poses could use some improvement. Even with something as simple as Megs' left leg and Prime's left leg being moved back and/or straightened it would look quite a bit better

[Captain Flowers]

Get it? Cuz the poses are static!

Alright, enough with the bad humor

Just try and be more dynamic with your poses

Examples:

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And once again, proportions. Even transformers have them, though they're a bit wonky..

[Axilus Prime]

Good points, all of you! This is about the most constructive criticism I've ever had. I'll go on now to address all of you individually, your points are all very good.@Taka Nuvia They are indeed TF/Bionicle hybrids. I prefer the intricate TF design, and yet the Bionicle theme is good, so for these, I build the TF body out of Bionicle pieces, and occasionally create my own pieces to fill in the parts I just can't synthesize. (Zeltroth's stomach armor)The legs, I think, are the underlying problem in the static poses. I drew Tahuva first, and it took me two tries just to get the legs right. Even then, they were weird. I usually go from the body to limbs, but for a battle thing, I go from bottom to top. I decided that with the position of his legs, I would give him a more defensive posture, while still putting in the underlying agressiveness. Perhaps not as successful as I had hoped.I tried to give Zeltroth more dynamic legs, the result of which I am pleased with. However, as I was kind of imagining his body as I drew it, and started from the chest to the stomach connecting with the legs, he ended up having a slight backward tilt. Therefore, I gave his arms their position to make this less awkward. It actually worked, to a degree.@Wotz I actually had to draw the smokestacks and Lewa Nuva blades before the head to ensure that it wouldn't escape the dimensions I had planned, taking into account the widespread dislike of his large head. (Which was entirely unintentional, it was one of my many errors.) To get the expression just right, I had to draw the head 3 times before I was satisfied.Yes, I gave him a bit of a redesign, seeing as his old leg armor was unsatisfactory to me.I like TFP Megs, but he lacks the sheer rage and commanding presence of Movie Megs in my opinion. Therefore, I picked Movie Megs. As the TF3 portrayal grew on me, and I realized that all gray would create a problem in clarity when drawn and GIMP'd, I picked the TF3 form and went on from there. It worked much better than my previous attempts at Bionicleizing (for want of a better word) TF2 Megs, and so here he is. I didn't put in the damaged head, as that was part of the reason for his quick death and overall lack of his old power in DOTM.As for the claws...As you can see, that was the reason. He has one proper hand and one clawed melee hand, as shown in this pic and the drawing.I admit that he's fat. It does give off an air of power when not overdone, but it was. This pic is part of the reason for lack of effort in reducing his fat.Zeltroth was never the most agile, lol. As TF Prime Megs, he would indeed be. However, I'm not quite sure how you got to the idea of TF Prime Megs when he's...well, you've seen his attitude over the course of the game thoroughly. He's quite Bayverse. XD@Captain Flowers That joke was indeed terrible. It did lighten things up, though. XDThat was quite the way to get to me about dynamic poses. I wholeheartedly agree with all of you about the poses, as I explained how the bad poses came to be.I know your issue with structure of proportion, for example the fact that Tahuva's lower legs are bigger than his upper legs and how his upper legs are rather small. (Too small, in fact, hence my revamp.)I also know that the lower arms aren't normally like the upper arms. Though, both of those were intentional. And Megs is supposed to look a bit like a freak, but not too much.That leave the issue of arm length to leg length to body length. I don't know about you people, but when I stand up straight I have about the length proportions used in the drawing. (At least it's not Bionicle Canister Sets, where the arms reach past the knees!)Well, I think I've addressed you all on what each of you individually said, and will use your advice in further drawings and updates of this one! (Expect me to download a GIMP flame brush and sort out the kinks with the backgrounds in a while.)Thanks for all the comments!

Edited June 16, 2012 by TNG Prime