/msb/ - Magic School Bus

The bus from the show doesn’t seem to exactly match any known bus from the real world, but seems to be modeled with several basic features of 80s and 70s design styles. The bus has a much more aerodynamic look than it's contemporaries with its curved lines at the back and smooth fenders on the front. This would place the bus in the 70s at least since after the 1973 oil crisis there was a flurry of moving towards more fuel efficient vehicles that were more streamlined. The grill of the bus is not exactly typical of any bus I've seen but does have a striking resemblance to the International trucks in that it has horizontal intake fins and is roughly oval shaped.

We are in luck as well because most modern busses that aren't flatnose have gone back to the sharply sloped engine bay and low fenders in order to give the driver a better view of kids that might be in front of the bus. Quite a few of the current models of busses right now have the same basic profile as the bus from the show, just large modern lights and differently shaped noses.

Last night saw us mostly finish the 1/3 view of the bus.

We made the eyes/headlights a separate set of layers for animation and left off the turn indicators for now. .AI file was uploaded to Thumper's deviantart

Conceptual front was completed before we had a small meeting that determined that screenshots from the show had a totally different nose shape. The artist was thinking that the nose of the bus was curved like an old VW Beetle and thus will require a complete rework. The angles we found while working the 1/3 will go a long ways towards getting the front view looking correct. We are also beginning to move towards a final color palette for the bus but some of us want lighter hues