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"To design is much more than simply assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse."

Paul Rand

Optimus Prime

    I thought it would be fun to recreate an inanimate childhood toy and make it… well, animated.  So here's Optimus Prime, the transformer.  He starts out as a tractor trailer and then transforms into his robot form.
The animation of the good old leader of the autobots took some time.  Each piece was modeled as a separate object so that he could transform when animated. 
    I was originally inspired to create this, while I was teaching Web Publishing.  A student made an animated GIF of the old RatBat transformer using a simply multiple layers in Photoshop.
     Here we've got a representation of a Vandyke brown print that I made of Optimus Prime here.  It's a high res rendering output to an image setter in black and white.  Then I took the negative and printed it on hand coated cotton paper using a light box for the exposure.