Okay, so my mate Mark from work (DIEHARD TF fan) and I were shooting the Blot about the TF sequel today and he mentioned how he'd love to see Grimlock in the sequel.

 

Now, I NEVER wanted the Dinobots to be in the film before, but after brainstorming with Mark for a while I've started to warm to the idea. Now before I go on, I must say that the ideas discussed may (I can't remember exactly) or may not have been presented on DM.Net before. I seem to remember the general concepts being thrown around before, so if this following brain farts sound familiar to you then feel free to claim credit for them. These are just brain farts after all.

 

Anyway, here's what we came up with (rough notes):

Grimlock is a loner. He's very quiet and brooding. Very much like Wolverine. Not much is revealed about him, but the other Autobots seem to recall stories being told about him back on Cybertron. They don't entirely trust him and he doesn't go out of his way to show his loyalty to the cause. Apparently he's a bit of a legend back home and was known for being a bit of a beserker (see Slaine), but none of the surviving Autobots have ever witnessed him in battle. They've heard outrageous (possibly exaggerated) tales of his exploits that make him out to be some kind of crazy lunatic killing machine (again, like Wolverine) and possibly a war-criminal.

He rarely speaks and when he does he utters very few words (kinda reminiscent of G1 Grim, but without the dumb baby-talk).

When he first arrives on the scene he takes the form of a large Earth vehicle, maybe a construction vehicle of some sort (Caterpillar Bulldozer?).

 

His big moment comes in the film during a battle with a Decepticon that takes them into a city center, where they smash into a natural history museum. His opponent is large, and very fast, and definitely has the edge in the fight. Grimlock appears to be losing the fight but is determined to keep going. But the big Decep rains blow after blow down on Grim and he's taking serious damage.

 

 

Enter the rest of the Autobots. They arrive on the scene just in time to witness the following:

 

 

The evil Decepticon is about to deliver the fatal blow when Grimlock spots the Skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex looming over them both. A thought crosses his mind, and it's the kind of thought that only HE is crazy enough to have and in microseconds he's already scanned the ancient skeleton. The missing blanks (biological/paleontological data and current theories) are filled in with another microsecond scan of Earth's internet (shown in a quick zoom montage of Grim's CPU in action) and suddenly he starts to change. The parts that make up his body start to shift and reconfigure. Damaged panels fold and mend themselves. A glowing blue light shines from within him - HE'S REFORMATTING MID-BATTLE!!

 

The other Autobots are amazed! They've never seen anything like this!

 

The camera cuts back, and where Grimlock was laying broken there now stands...a lean, mean, savage-looking ROBOT T-REX!!

 

(Audience cheers!)

 

What follows is a furious and savage scene of horrific destruction as a COMPLETELY FERAL Grimlock tears his opponent apart with razor sharp teeth! Grimlock goes beserk and can only bellow and roar as he tears the Decepticon limb from limb!

 

The rest of the Autobots watch in stunned silence - The Cybertronian legends they heard were true!

 

Grimlock eventually calms down and goes on to help the Autobots in the final battle, having proven himself as a warrior and a loyal Autobot. The other 'bots still fear him, but are glad to have him by their sides.

Grimlock reverts back to his construction vehicle alt-mode...but with the T-Rex mode fully scanned and locked in memory, it's only a matter of time before it rears it's terrifying head once more!

No.

 

Especially not because of the Mary-Sue fanfic style you use to describe him.

No.

 

Especially not because of the Mary-Sue fanfic style you use to describe him.

 

It's closer to "ZOMG MAKE MY FAVORITE CHARACTER EVEN MORE BADASS" than Mary-Sue.

 

Dynamo, you're also forgetting how in the hell they're gonna pull off an organic alt mode in the movie. I'm sure if they wanted to they could do it right now... But it'd take around 5-8 days to render a single frame. Some of the more complex scenes with Optimus took a full two days, after all.

No.

 

Especially not because of the Mary-Sue fanfic style you use to describe him.

 

Care to elaborate?

 

Please bear in mind that I do not consider myself a writer, and don't normally take the time to put stories/concepts down in written form.

 

The initial post was from the point of view of someone who a) Has never seriously considered the idea of putting the Dinobots in a live action film and b) Isn't really a fan of the Grimlock character.

 

It is more an attempt to open my own eyes and try to see things from a Grimlock fan's point of view.

No.

 

Especially not because of the Mary-Sue fanfic style you use to describe him.

 

Dynamo, you're also forgetting how in the hell they're gonna pull off an organic alt mode in the movie. I'm sure if they wanted to they could do it right now... But it'd take around 5-8 days to render a single frame. Some of the more complex scenes with Optimus took a full two days, after all.

 

Perhaps I should've mentioned that Grimlock's T-Rex mode would be robotic, not organic. His on-the-fly reformat is a last resort, and aesthetics couldn't be further from his mind.

 

With the Dinosaur alt-mode being robotic, and made up entirely of existing parts (give or take a few) the render time would not be greatly different to that of the robot mode.

Also, I think that ILM/Digital Domain's render pipeline will have been streamlined considerably by the time the sequel is ready to start production.

True, but most likely those gains will be mostly lost through increase of detail on all of the models.

 

The reason I gave such a long time is I figured the only way to have a semi-believable organic T-Rex would be to spend that frigging long on the GC model.

True, but most likely those gains will be mostly lost through increase of detail on all of the models.

 

The reason I gave such a long time is I figured the only way to have a semi-believable organic T-Rex would be to spend that frigging long on the GC model.

 

Increased detail doesn't necessarily mean a more complex model/greater rendering time. A high level of detail can be achieved easily by using normal maps and clever shaders.

True, but according to part of an article I read in a magazine a few months ago(I will look it up after I post), those are already used. After a while, you just gotta make the model more complex.

True, but according to part of an article I read in a magazine a few months ago(I will look it up after I post), those are already used. After a while, you just gotta make the model more complex.

 

It's all about finding a balance. And the techniques used vary from shot to shot. But the best models are the ones that make economical use of polygons without sacrificing the look of the model. CG artists are always looking for ways to make a model look more detailed...without having to build the detail into the model itself.

 

Smoke and mirrors as we say in the industry.

Your description of Grimlock's persona is also out of character for Grimlock and it seems like you've just mished together various aspects of different Dinobots into one character - which reeks of fanboy-fappage (hence Father Time's comment about it being a Mary-Sue).

 

Grimlock isn't a loner, that's Snarl. Grimlock also isn't a berserker, that's Slag. And he certainly isn't a war-criminal, that's Dinobot (as in the Beast Wars Transformer).

 

"By our powers combined, you are Captain Grimlock!"