#soundwave's cassettes

[bluespider008]

These two chaotic idiots

[deepdreamnights]

Overkill and Slugfest

Some experiments using Vidu's reference-to-video feature with the old G1 package art as the character reference.

These were done with a minimum prompt, a standardized live-action film prompt I use for testing.

While clearly not photoreal, I kind of like the odd near-animated look that it provides. Vidu's reference feature can alter the look of the referenced item to a degree, but art style conversion is difficult for it, requiring the changes be made prior to the creation.

Doing so produces a much more live-action look, though less artsy due to it.

Process and some prompts under the fold.

I used midjourney's retexture overpainting process to generate a stack of miscolored overkills that I composited and adjusted into a quick-and-dirty reference.

The prompt I used for this:

full sized mechanical puppet-prop for live-action film, photographed against white background. A robotic dinosaur with angular, body design aesthetics, blue lower jaw, claws, legs, gunmetal body and head, silver missile launcher. 5k, photograph taken with kodak, official media, promotional image, white background/backdrop

I call it a Q&D reference because if you're doing anything more fully realized, you want front/back/side references, model sheet style. Otherwise, your details will shift if the character ever turns around, and the robot is going to be reluctant to do that in general if it doesn't have back-reference.

The backgrounds, too, were reference prompts. This is why Tulsa Gamma Ray is spelled correctly on the sign. This also helps with aesthetics, as your text prompt needs to be robust with anything not shown in an image prompt or else it will take on an uncanny or "on a greenscreen" stage look.

My standard prompt I used is:

live action motion picture film scene, 1989, filmed on 35mm film. directed by stanley kubric and luc besson. ILM, weta digital, stan winston studios, jim henson creature shop, masterful traditional practical special effects, costuming. Professional cinematography and lighting. dramatic and cool. live action film scene, professional lighting and cinematography, masterful practical special effects, costuming and set design. filmed in 1989

These were part of a minimal-influence test, to see what the vidu system would do with minimal direction. It does seem to be able to pick up certain context clues from the reference. It recognizes they're dinosaur-like and makes them move accordingly, for instance.

It understands, to a degree, that they're meant to be machines, and wheere it does add details, it's greebles rather than muscle or scales.

On the other hand, cars sometimes drive backwards. It's a rich tapestry, is what I'm saying.

[rubydreamsuwu]

I deserve a sitcom budget

Plus alt version without sillygoofy clothes cuz I put a lot of effort into shockwave's chest and it drove me to utilize the line tool a lot for the rest of the drawing (it's very clean to use, doesn't force antialias or anything, I like it a lot)

[wyrmoffthestr1ng]

Decided on a whim to do a themed pokémon Violet playthrough! I've decided that it's going to be based on Soundwave (and his cassettes), so I'm going to play with pokémon themed around that :)

Welcome to Pokémon Violet: Soundwave Edition!

☆

Day 01: The Beginning

I went and designed the bot of the hour, going with red eyes until I got a red visor/pair of sunglasses.

Tutorial happens as normal, and I choose Sprigatito as a starter. I name him Ravage, and the first cassette out of many has a pokémon!!

My goal is to catch a pokemon for each of Soundwave's G1 cassettes by the end of this, I'm not going to limit myself to just six!

Yes, I know another pokemon would be better, but ngl I'm not changing it because I need the grass coverage desperately.

My first stop after getting all three quests is the Stony Cliff Titan, defeating it with Ravage, alongside Slugfest (Chewtle), Sundor (Fletchinder), and Flipsides (Ralts).

After that, I take out the first 2 gyms, catching Murkrow for Squalktalk, Mankey for Beastbox, and a Wattrel for Buzzsaw.

I also get the red sunglasses shortly after defeating Katy!! Visor acquired.

From here, I go to the southwest corner of the map, taking out the Open Sky Titan and catching a Charcadet, which I name Rumble. I intend on evolving him into a Ceruledge later on once I get the sinistea chips near the Psychic Gym.

After this point, Beastbox evolves into Primeape, and Buzzsaw evolves into Kilowattrel. I then go for the Water Gym, defeating Kofu and seeing Ravage evolve into a Floragato!

After my third gym battle, I go and take out the Segin Squad's base, defeating Giacomo with Beastbox and Flipsides. Afterward, the EXP i got was enough to let Slugfest evolve into a Drednaw.

Aaaand that was pretty much it for today!! Here is my current party+box :)

I do have access to the DLC, so I intend on visiting Kitakami tomorrow! I'll be saving BBA for the post-game, however.

And some cassettes I have ideas for (I want to have Overkill be a Baxcalibur, personally), others I.. have no idea (WHAT DO I DO FOR AUTOSCOUT LMAO).

Thank you for reading my long ass post, I'm having a lot of fun doing this silly playthrough, and I'm just sharing my experience of doing my first ever themed run!!

Byebye, see you all soon :-]

[scrimpswrites]

soundwave makes playing and rewinding noises for the cassettes instead of cooing because thats whats familiar and comforting to hear

[lex752]

TFP Megatron Betrayal Au

So I've been rewatching Transformers Prime and I got me an idea. So here's the set up:

Megatron is so drugged up on dark energon that he legitimately starts going insane. He slowly descends into madness as Unicron tries to possess his body and keeps on influencing his decisions more and more. Megatron cannot go without more than a few hours without a dose of dark energon lest he get violent and just start attacking everything around him. This Megatron is much more volatile, addictive, has extreme mood swings, is having is intelligence and tactical experience deteriorate at a rapid rate, and he's slowly being possessed by Unicron. In short, Megatron is going batshit crazy and taking it out on his subordinates.

This causes an alliance of Decepticon leaders to team up and just kick Megatron out and team up with the Autobots to get rid of Unicron aka the cybertronian equivalent of Satan.

Now the Decepticon leaders involved include:

Starscream: No real surprise here but there is a twist. Ya see Starscream has always had some sort of a rapport with Megatron. Sure he was always planning on killing him and taking over the Decepticons, but there was mutual respect there and it was kinda fun. Plus the fact that Starscream would not have been Megatron's second in command for so long if all he was was a backstabbing coward. Starscream must've been a tactical genius and fantastic general. Only problem was that he'd get impulsive whenever his ambition clouded his judgement, which was often. But now Megatron is so dangerous and volatile that the "game" he played with Starscream is now impossible. Any interaction could be his last and Starscream knows it. Forget ambition, this is now a question of survival. Megatron's failing sanity also means that more and more Decepticon troops are turning to Starscream to manage things because Megatron is just not in his right mind anymore to address issues rationally. While Starscream would normally be thrilled at this, he's also aware that he's in mortal peril everyday and now his priority is making sure the Decepticons live another day under Megatron's rule. There's also the fact that Unicron is planning to destroy Cybertron and Earth along with it using Megatron's body which also does not work for Starscream because should both palents be destroyed he'll having nothing to rule over but spce dust.

Shockwave: Even though the TFP version does have emotions and is really just stunted from his years in isolation, this Shockwave is still ruled by logic. While he used to respect Megatron's intellect and experience as a war lord, the current Megatron is making more and more tactical blunders and letting his emotions guide him into making impulsive illogical descisions. His addiction to dark energon is clearly the issue but he refuses to address it and quit, the ultimate illogical blunder from Shockwave's perspective. Unsurprisingly, Shockwave also finds the destruction of Cybertron, his home world, and Earth, his current home filled with all sorts of potential scientific discoveries, to be most illogical. This causes Shockwave to reflect on why he joined the Decepticons in the first place and look at the historical records to figure out why the war lasted for so long. Shockwave discovers that, ironically, the Autobots and Decepticons were the same in terms of ideology: both sides wanted an equal meritocratic society for Cybertron. They only disagreed on the methods of carrying out said ideology: Auotbots preferred diplomacy while Decepticons preferred violence. The only reason the war lasted for so long is Megatron's hatred for Optimus spreading to the other Decepticons in the form of a collective hatred for the Autobots. From Shockwave's perspective, this whole damn war was just completely unnecessary and illogical. For the first time ever, Shockwave is embaressed that he got caught up in this illogical hatred that led to the war which devastated their home planet and drove their species near extinction.

Soundwave: Seeing his liege slowly start to fall into insanity prompts a deep reflection from Soundwave. Specifically, he thinks back to the Megatron he swore his loyalty to and the current Megatron driving the Decepticons to ruin with his addiction. Its when Soundwave opens Megatron's original manifesto, the one containing the ideals which he joined the Decepticons for, that Soundwave starts coming out of his blind loyalty and realize just how much the Decepticons have strayed. He's heartbroken when he, like Shockwave, also realizes that this whole war was just a pointless disaster that destroyed his homeworld. Now with Megatron slowly being possessed, he threatens to destroy both Soundwave's home planet as well as this new world they've taken refuge in. From Soundwave's perspective, the Megatron he followed is dead and his body is currently being paraded around as a puppet for Unicron. Ironically, its his loyalty to Megatron that prompts Soundwave to act. He vows to get the Decepatons back on track with their original mission of equality and peace. He views killing Megatron not as a betrayal, but as putting his old master out of his misery and making amends for tolerating all the bloodshed for so many years.

Knockout & Breakdown: Knockout and Breakdown are conjux endura. Their loyalties are to themselves and each other above all, including the Decepticon cause. Hell, the initial reason they joined was because they felt it was their best shot at surviving. But now with Megatron's spiralling addiction, his maddness, and his possession by Unicron, his leadership cannot be tolerated. Breakdown has a code of conduct he abides by and was actually deeply loyal to the original Decepticon cause as well as Megatron. But seeing his liege's new volatile personality and begin disregarding even the well being of his troops left him deeply disillusioned. Then he was captured by MECH and left to die by Megatron. This was the ultimate betrayal for both Breakdown and Knockout. Knockout was never truly loyal to the cause, he just wanted him and Breakdown to survive. Seeing his conjux endura abandoned even though he was one of the strongest troops was the last straw for Knockout. It's what caused him to defy Megatron's orders and work with the Autobots to rescue Breakdown. For Breakdown, the fact that he had to be rescued by the Autobots, his worst enemies, and Knockout, his conjux endure who was a medic and not a combattent, confirmed that Megatron was no longer worthy of loyalty. Breakdown survived, sure, but that was only because of Knockout's medical expertise and the coorperation from the Autobots.

So now Starscream, Soundwave, Shockwave, Knockout, and Breakdown have formed a secret alliance with three goals:

Eliminate both Megatron and Unicron

Get the Decepticons back on track as an organization and ideologically as the good guys they once were before the Civil War

End the war with the Autobots and rebuild Cybertronian society

Warning! Thus Au includes:

Drug addicted and Unicron possessed Megatron with heavy themes of sacrilage and substance abuse

Exploration of cybertronian religous culture through Unicron possessing Megatron

WaveWave

Knockout x Breakdown

Competant Starscream putting his ambitions on hold for the sake of the Decepticons and Cybertron as a whole

Decepticons and Autobots uniting under the banner of Cybertronian in order to defeat Unicron/Megatron

Megatron dies in the end and his poor soul is put out of its misery

Shockwave just being extremely emotionally stunted rather than emotionless

Soundwave's cassettes (designs for Rumble and Frenzy + designs for Ravage + Buzzsaw and Lasebeak being identical apart from differing color schemes; Rumble & Frenzy stay stuck on Soundwave's back as weapons while Laserbeak and Buzzsaw share Soundwave's chest)

[greyliliy]

Forever amused that Prime Rumble is almost the same size, if not bigger if you count bulk, than Soundwave.