One of my favorite parts of any filmmaking process, especially on big giant science-fiction or fantasy films, is the design process when illustrators work to figure out the visual signature of a film.
As Paramount gears up to release “Transformers: Age Of Extinction” on Blu-ray and DVD tomorrow, they sent over a fistful of the artwork that was created to help pin down the look of the movie. Sure, it's a sequel, but there were so many things that had to be redesigned and so many new characters that had to be introduced that they had as much work to do here as they would have on any original film.
You'll see a lot of environmental stuff in these images as they worked to find the look of the Knight Ship and some of the inhabitants of that ship, and you'll see studies on several of the new Transformers. I like the concept art of the Bumble-Bee battle in the streets of downtown Hong Kong a lot.
Say what you will about Michael Bay, but it's clear looking at this art that this is a guy who pushes his design team to dream as big as possible.
“Transformers: Age Of Extinction” is in stores tomorrow.