Bumblebee Visual Effects

BUMBLEBEE

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Brought on during the early stages of post-production, Cantina channeled their retro sensibilities to deliver a multitude of visual effects for the latest entry in the Transformers franchise. Working closely with visionary director Travis Knight and VFX supervisor Jason Smith, Cantina was tasked with designing, animating, and compositing multiple HUDs, holograms, monitors, and user interfaces present throughout Bumblebee.

RETRO AESTHETIC

We were hugely inspired by some of the more iconic HUDs and GUIs of the 1980s like Terminator and War Games, and constantly found ourselves referencing some of the more obscure gems like Max Headroom, The Last Starfighter, and concept cars of the time. We also of course referenced The Transformers: The Movie (1986), which, outside of being a very influential piece of the source material, has a ton of really beautiful HUD and technology design in its own right.

HOLOGRAMS

It was a unique challenge to design Bumblebee’s technology as a faux piece of history, rather than slickly designed tech from 2018 being forced into 1987. We went to great lengths researching analog video quirks from the 80s to replicate in our hologram designs, such as flickering refresh rates, display aliasing, and color abnormalities.

DECEPTICONS

Throughout the film, two Decepticons attempt to hunt down and destroy Bumblebee using an advanced set of Cybertronian tools and technologies. Keeping with our old-school CG aesthetic, we developed an array of ambient graphics which Shatter and Dropkick would use during various scenes. We also developed another unique set of HUDs for the two Decepticon villains featured in the film, with a more angular design language and heavier military influence.

CYBERTRON

During the opening sequence of the film, there are a few glimpses of Cantina tech featured on the Transformers’ home world of Cybertron. Perhaps the most iconic of which are the various ambient screens of the Autobots’ semi-sentient computer system, Teletraan I. In wanting to stay true to the rich lore of the franchise, we also generated multiple typefaces based on the two distinct Cybertronian alphabets, with unique styles depending on the source of the technology featuring it on screen.