One of the things that you can’t get away from with the Transformers movies is that they’re effects laden bonanzas. With this in mind, the most important people involved with Transformers 3 aren’t its human actors, Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf (although they may think they are) – they’re the geniuses behind ILM (Industrial Light and Magic).

Scott Benza, the animation supervisor on the Transformers movies with ILM, recently spoke with SCI FI Wire about what we can expect from Transformers 3. He stated that we can expect to see some cosmetic changes on Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, with Prime looking more, well, Prime like (he said heroic, but we’re reading between the lines).

Scott Benza commented:

Our two lead characters, Optimus and Bumblebee, needed to be updated for the next chapter in the Transformers series. Bumblebee’s matured a little bit, so I would just say look for subtle changes to his physique that have him look more mature. We always want the robots to look cooler than they did the last time, so [Optimus Prime is] going to look a little more heroic, I would say.

We always want the robots to look cooler than they did the last time, so he’s going to look a little more heroic, I would say

Scott Farrar, visual effects supervisor on the Transformers films with ILM, added:

[Prime will have] little tiny things that maybe the average viewer isn’t going to notice but probably the fanboys will. You actually will run into pieces that are maybe always in the way, and wouldn’t it be nice if that part wasn’t there? Maybe you make a shift in the shoulder, in the chest or what have you. So it might be proportioning, but it also might be for usability, so [the animators]’ task could be easier, too.

The script for Transformers 3 isn’t complete yet, but the team at ILM are aware of some details that will impact their work – so they’re getting a head start. They also confirmed that they are working on new characters, but no mention of Dinobots yet…

We will keep banging that drum until Michael Bay listens too!