For close to three decades, DigiPen assistant lecturer Randall Ng has seen many sides of the video game industry. He began his career in 1996 as a creator of marketing and promotional materials for Atari Games Corporation, but he soon discovered other ways to apply his diverse skillset to game productions as well — including martial arts choreography, motion capture performance, and voice work. Then in 1999, after leveling up his digital art skills, Ng transitioned into a new role as a 3D modeler and animator, lending his artistic talents to major AAA games like Justice League Heroes, Halo 4, and more.
Despite his stellar resume, however, Ng is known by many for a different reason. Outside his work on video games, Ng has enjoyed something of a parallel career, creating fan-made content for a pop-culture brand involving shapeshifting robotic creatures from outer space — otherwise known as Transformers. As someone who experienced the Transformers zeitgeist firsthand as a child of the 80s, Ng’s fervor for the franchise continued into adulthood, taking on a whole new dimension in the late 2000s. That’s when he began devoting his spare time to a series of 3D animated short films based on the original lineup of Transformers characters, sometimes referred to as Generation One. With the help of YouTube, his amateur creations quickly found a receptive online audience, and Ng soon joined forces with a fellow creator known as DR. SMOOV, who provided story development and voice work. Together, they began collaborating on videos — ranging from action shorts to comedy sketches and more — that have been watched and enjoyed by millions. Today, in addition to teaching 3D animation at DigiPen, Ng continues to make new Transformers content in his spare time (including an ongoing feature-length film made in Unreal Engine), occasionally appearing as a panelist and speaker at fan conventions around the country.
His hobbyist and professional pursuits officially crossed paths in 2021 when Ng was hired to work at visual effects studio MPC on the 2024 blockbuster film, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts — a job that also landed him his first Hollywood film credit. We recently sat down with Ng to ask him about his thoughts on the 40th anniversary of Transformers, as well as his constantly evolving creative life.
This year, the Transformers franchise celebrated its 40th anniversary! Looking back to the start, what are some of your earliest memories of Transformers?
I watched the cartoon and I bought the toys. I never got an Optimus Prime when I was younger, because he was kind of harder to find. Back then, as a kid, you didn’t really have the money either. We’d go down to Toys “R” Us and it’d be like, “Oh, there’s no Optimus Prime here, but here are the other ones. Here’s the Minibot. We rode our bikes all the way here. Should we get it?” Of course, now that I’m older, I can pretty much buy what I want. But I still have a lot of my original collection.
What was it about the Transformers animated series that appealed to you as a kid?
It was the classic good versus evil with likable characters. It had fantastic character voices. The stories were good. It was one of those things where out of all the shows that were out there during the time, Transformers was different. I love Looney Tunes and Bugs Bunny, stuff like that. But that’s a different genre. And I mean, hey, do you like robots? Do you like cars? Well, these cars turn into robots!
You had been working in the game industry for a number of years when you decided to put some of the professional skills you’d been building toward making original Transformers fan content. What made you decide to start doing that?
After the original cartoon series ended, there was kind of a gap. So the next Transformers that we wound up seeing was called Beast Wars, and that was in 3D. And I know a lot of people like the show, but for me, I wanted to see more of the vehicles. I wasn’t too keen on the prehistoric animals turning into robots thing. Personally, I wanted more of that Generation One, but they just never went all the way back to where I wanted it. So I decided, “Well, wait a minute, I’m an artist. I can make my own stuff. Maybe I’ll make the stuff that I want to see.”
I decided I could just go ahead and model some Transformers. I know how to rig. I know how to animate. Let me just go ahead and have Megatron fighting Optimus. Maybe I’ll have one of my other favorites, Prowl versus Soundwave or something like that. So I just started making up these scenarios, these little combat skits. That’s how that started. And I think that was back around 2006 when I actually started to have that idea.
Soon after that, you started working with another creator named DR. SMOOV. How did the two of you begin collaborating?
He is a really amazing voice actor. He can do over 20 of the original Transformers voices, like almost perfectly. I had been enjoying his videos for a few years. He would come up with this really hilarious stuff where he was having the characters say things on top of original footage. I remember thinking, “This sounds like the show, but I know it’s not.” It was brilliant voice performance, brilliant writing, really good humor.
So the way that we wound up collaborating was I had my Megatron versus Optimus Prime fight that I animated. I figured maybe I could have a little dialogue with them, so I messaged DR. SMOOV through YouTube and said, “Hey, I love your work. This is my stuff. Would you be interested in voicing Optimus Prime and Megatron for the video?” And I didn’t know if he’d actually seen my videos, but he wrote back and said, “Yeah, I love your stuff too.” I sent him a few lines for Megatron and a few for Optimus, and then a few days later I got an audio file from him.
The next thing I know, I’m seeing and hearing what sounds like the original Optimus Prime and Megatron talking with the dialogue that I wrote on my 3D models. So I got really excited about that.
One of your first big successes was a short film called Transformers: Generation One. On your website, you mention how that film was included in the Shout! Factory 25th anniversary DVD collection for the Transformers original TV series, but the film first made a splash at a fan convention in 2009. Can you tell us about that experience?
There was a convention called BotCon, which is a Transformers convention, and it used to have a film festival where you could submit your own work. It’s in a different state every year, and in 2009 it was happening in L.A. I told DR. SMOOV, “Let’s try to put a short film together and submit it for this film festival. Let’s just go for it.”
When the time came, I was on a plane. It was delayed, so I got to the convention late. I missed the film festival. It was like, “Oh, well. I hope people liked it.” I got there and my name was on my badge, and someone came up to me and said, “Oh, are you the guy from the film festival?” And I was like, “I wasn’t even at the film festival.” They were like, “No, your name — congratulations!” I’m like, “What do you mean?” They said, “You got first place.”
Later on, I ran into Gregg Berger, who was the voice of Grimlock. I met with him and talked to him. He was like, “Oh, I saw your film festival thing. It was really good.” It was kind of crazy. Everything started to pick up from there.
After the film festival success, the two of you kept making new content. A lot of your videos have garnered millions of views, but there’s one video on your channel, a Transformers Gangnam Style music video, that has more than 103 million views. How many times did you have to listen to that song to make the video?
I listened to the song way more than I would have ever wanted to. It was one of those things where I just laughed at the idea. It was like, “Yeah, sure. Why don’t I do that?” I had a bunch of models. I could copy-paste the animation across them, and then I’d have a whole group of them dancing together at the end.
I spent weekends just throwing everything together with the models that I already created, and then it was done and I just put it out. It was like, “Look! Transformers Gangnam, haha.” Then the views just started going up. It went to a million — OK, cool. Then it hit two million, and then three million, and then four million. Then I was just really thinking to myself, “Who’s watching this? How can this goofy, stupid video get so many views?”
Even to this day, I get notifications, like, “Oh, five more comments today.” It was a completely throwaway video, but I think that’s maybe the charm of it.
Your contributions to the fan community have led to some neat opportunities where you’ve gotten to speak at conventions and work with some of the real-life Transformers voice actors. You’ve even collaborated with Transformers-affiliated musician Stan Bush on some of his official music videos. What have been some of your favorite interactions so far?
Meeting some of the original voice actors from the show has been really crazy. Like going back to that first time standing next to Gregg Berger, the voice of Grimlock. It’s like I recognize your voice, I’ve heard you be Grimlock, and now you know me by first name. And I’ve seen him at many conventions. At one convention, my table was next to his, so that was cool. It’s amazing too, because he’s also the voice of Odie, the slobbering dog from Garfield. So it’s like, “Oh, you’re Grimlock and you’re a slobbering dog.”
It’s been fun getting to know these voice actors and just talking to them, not just as a fan but actually as people — especially after admiring their work and their skill for so many years. Transformers was back in the 80s, but they’re still working as voice actors in video games and some of the new shows.
As of last year, you landed your first Hollywood film credit, working as a visual effects artist on Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. How did that opportunity come about?
Luckily, I’ve done my best to be a decent person, and I’ve made my friends during my time in the industry. So for Rise of the Beasts, there was another person who wound up working on the project who knew that I was a big Transformers fan, and he called me up and recommended me to the project. And from there I showed them my stuff, what I knew, and the rest is pretty much what it is.
I thought to myself, “I can’t believe I’m finally here!” I was actually working not just on an official project, but on the big screen. It felt like this had all come to something. And I just did everything that I could to bring my best to the project itself, so I could say, “You know what? If this opportunity never happens again, then at least I’ve put everything into it.”
Did you get to see the film in a theater?
Yeah. I was so excited, I wanted to bring my family there, so we went to an early showing. It wasn’t like I knew the movie already. I knew most of it, but I also knew some of the things were going to get moved around, depending on what the director wanted. So I did see a lot of things that were like, “Oh, wow! That’s different.” But then, of course, there were those scenes where I got to say, “Oh, that’s my scene right there! I worked on that.” It was great.
How has your experience as a Transformers content creator informed your work as an animation instructor at DigiPen? Does your love for the franchise make its way into the classroom?
One of the first slides I show in each class is a drawing I made in 1986, I think. It’s a drawing of Optimus Prime — absolutely terrible, horrible pencil drawing. And I put it next to one of my newer 3D models. I say, “Look, I’ve been a fan from back then. I’m a fan now. And now look, I actually worked on that project.” That’s because my enthusiasm and my passion has kept me going forward. So if I can do it, you can do it. That’s what I tell them. If you put your mind to it, you can achieve it.