An insightful interview about the development of special effects for the Transformers Movie has been posted at IGN.com.
Read more about how ILM worked with Michael Bay during the development process, as well as Scott Farrar’s commitment to ensure the sequel continues to push boundaries. Says Farrar: “It’s a circus and we’re going to raise the tight-rope a little higher next time.”
To read the article in its original context, click here. The text of the interview has been mirrored in the discussion thread below.
ams
You continue to fill your posts with arrogant jabs at other board members. This thread is clearly not going to get back on track, so we'll just finish it and follow-up discussions can be taken to PM.
Draven
I had a long and well thought out reply written for this thread, agreeing with some points raised by Q#1, and disagreeing with others.
But then I read
And decided not to bother. I have better things to do that "debate" with the kind of person who resorts to shit like that.
Chaos Prime
Yea, Primes lips were definitely on his chin. They were way lower then human anatomy would have allowed. But then again, Transformers don't have to follow human anatomy.
Quintesson #1
Can you provide me with ONE image pre-movie concept art that looks like TF movie art?
No you can't.
EDIT: It's funny btw, that you still call me a G1 purist, while I'm not as I'm in favour of a Tank Megatron, for one. But like I said, you've never been able to understand other people due to your massive prejudices and lack of imagination. There's no point argueing with you since all you do is compare people's ideas with toys and cartoons. You have no imagination. Therefore you should not be in such a discussion.
The closest thing I got myself to, as a SELF TAUGHT COMIC artist and not a fully educated illustrator or concept artist, was this:
I'm currently working on this:
G1 Purist, huh? I've never seen a Megatron like that. Yet it actually looks like Megatron. I wonder why. (Btw he's supposed to be a Russian T-90 main battle tank, if you care to know).
You however, can't see beyond this Optimus picture either as you've commented before that you could see it as most as a cartoon Prime. I had to giggle, cause so much detail will never be put in a cartoon. Is it enough to be in a movie. Not yet no. But you dismiss the entire IDEA and CONCEPT because you lack the imagination. If you go to my site and click on the Optimus pic, you'll realise that, despite me not being too known of a name since I'm just your average fan artist, that Optimus Pic has gotten 180 favourites. That's twice as much as most of my other pictures got and it got 104 in one day, which was what my top two pics of the time got in 1,5 and 3 years! While 95% of the comments speaking on preference about which one they would have wanted, was in favour of something similar to my design. :/ Not just there, but on about every message board. Even on Don Murphy's you cool smell that the most, though by now used to the Movie's Prime, would have really enjoyed seeing something like my design on screen.
But then you said it was only suited for a cartoon, which made me laugh anyway. You aren't capable of forethought as you lack the imagination. Virtually everything I analysed about the movie in advance was true (I only didn't think there'd be so many immature sex jokes I think ), you already admitted you weren't quite capable of estimating if even the cheating would happen or not. :/ Apparently you HAVE to have seen something first before you can judge it, that's what you said anyway on the movie designs "you have to see it moving first". Oh wait no, you already dismiss this off hand because you've yet to see anything.
That says something, doesn't it?
Star Cracker
*SIGH* Saying that an alien robot doesn't need to follow human anatomy and then posting a link that compares the likenesses of said alien robot to a human being seems slightly contradictory.
Sorry, but that mouth needs to be moved up, and then some definition for a chin should be made. Also, I'm not sure what's up with the REALLY Long nose. It looks fine until about where the nostrils would normally, fall. Then it's unneccessarily long, which is probably throwing off the rest of its face.
Regardless of how you spin it, poor anatomy is poor anatomy. There's just too many human/humanoid references that Prime's drawing upon to just conveniently make excuses.
HyperGeek_1984
Amen.
I just can't for life of me understand why every thread about the movie turns into an "I'm right and your wrong" bitch-fest. Is the simple idea of live and let live to hard for people to understand?
I loved the movie despite its many flaws (and maybe even to some bizarre extent because of them), as did most of my friends. My girlfriend on the other hand didn't care for it (she liked to robots and Sam, but not much else). Did we fight about it? Did we argue about it? No. And do you know why we didn't?
BECAUSE IT'S A GODDAMN FUCKING MOVIE AND NOT THE END OF THE WORLD!
Grow up, move on, and maybe even direct that energy towards something worthwhile. Or at least shut up and stop making this place so miserable for everyone else, and that goes for BOTH “sides.”
Cory Bauer
Not that an alien robot needs to follow the anatomy of a human being in the first place, but his lips weren't on his chin.
I find it fascinating that you and the other G1 purists around the web have to rely on a non-existant, hypothetical design as the epitome of what a live-action Transformer should look like. Did you ever consider that this imaginary design that takes heavy visual cues from a $20 toy while looking nothing like a $20 toy is possibly nothing more than a pipe dream? Surely, with all of the talented fan artists out there, someone would have come up with an illustration or drawing that you could point to and say, "that's what I think a live-action transformer should look like". I'm not asking for a multi-million dollar 3D model. Ben Proctor's concept art didn't cost millions and milions of dollars, after all.
Can't you point me to just one sketch that doesn't require I imagine how awesome it would be if it didn't look so much like an inexpensive toy? Just one that looks like it belongs in a Hollywood sci-fi film instead of a Saturday morning cartoon?
Star Cracker
Is it really so much an issue of giving Prime lips as it is someone goofed and completely forgot the rules of proper anatomy so his face looks unnaturally long? Last time I checked, my mouth was NOT on my chin.
Now as far as the cheating goes, I don't think it's all that relevant until you consider the fact that G1 redesigns and upgrades (and general TF robot mode aesthetic *Yes, RID, A,E,C, and nearly every Japanese TF show has set something of a precedent on how a TF in robot mode should look, so it's not just G1), were implausible because of the cheating involved (mass shifting, morphing, etc. and then they do a 180 and USE the EXACT CHEATS they said they wouldn't use is plain insulting.
But whatever. Honestly though, I will admit, the sequel probably won't be as jaded in terms of negativity as this was, but only because the most ardent of anti-LA fans will know what level of expectation to set (I'm thinking about six-feet on the negative Y-axis myself).
Feralstorm
Negativity is always looked on more negatively, because it's negative, while Postive posts prompt positive attitudes, 'cause they're more positive. If you were speaking out and fighting against glowing, gushing posts that say "Hey, stepping on puppies is the KEWLEST!", then this persecution complex might be more justified, but you're not – it's about movie opinions.
(sorry ams, I type slow.)
ams
Guys, we've veered pretty significantly off the general topic of the thread (myself included), folks have gotten a bit hot, and we may be saying some things we'll wish we hadn't later.
We're not getting anywhere in convincing one another, so I'd like to ask that we get back on topic and continue our discussion on the ILM interview specifically. Any further personal references or attacks will be edited from people's posts.
Thanks.
Superion33
Leave it alone, man. Some people on this board are just abusive like that. Its funny how they call us haters but return the same amount of hate back towards US. Calling us names, ridiculing our views, etc. The thing is, we supposed "haters" never hated anything about anyone else. We had gripes with the MOVIE, the PRODUCERS, and the DECISIONS made in the movie. They, "the likers" as you put it, equate that to a personal attack on themselves. Like we are making fun of them for liking the movie. True, some haters do hate others and not just the movie, as there are likers who hate anyone who that hates the movie. However, most of us just either hate or like the movie. I don't know where the first punch was thrown that made each other start calling names. Was it the Geewunners jab?
I must admit that I have not been above all this name calling. There is only so much Geewunners, "Bay raped my childhood", calling me closed-minded, etc etc etc you can take before you start retaliating with "blind-faith defenders of the faith that would worship a pile of crap if Hasbro slapped a TF logo on it". Honestly, I would rather debate arguments than name call. I would rather debate supporting arguments and rebuttals and what not than just call each other names.
The funny thing is, on this board, its amazing how partial it is. It condemns anyone who dislikes the movie and supports anyone who likes the movie. Its almost as if anyone who doesn't like the movie should just shut up and be quiet. I am hoping thats not what anyone wants: so silence the opinions of others. Opinions like "OMG, I just peed myself, that leaked design pic rawked!" are ok while the first one that says they didn't like it should "wait till the movie is released, and they have seen it in all its entirety before they can comment". People are allowed to gush like a school girl if they have positive comments and are criticized if they have a negative opinion of the movie. The same with those threads about how much money TF made and how its so high ranking. I didn't see Draven criticizing any of those people, yet when I used that same list to make an argument, he jumped down my throat. Not very consistent, if you ask me. But I guess thats to be expected from someone who calls himself "Mister Abusing". Frankly, your absence will not be missed by yours truly…
Chaos Prime
Thank you Draven for being the voice of reason.
Personally I don't know why folks are making a big stink about animation cheats. It's just splitting hairs in my opinion. For the most part the transformations looked good enough for me, and I wasn't a big fan of the movie.
Chaos Prime
To me the G1 movie will always better then the live action movie, but I'm still planning on getting the live action one when it comes out.
normtrooper
Alright I didn't realize I had to be that specific. I am talking about the scene when Vader was watching Luke get zapped, at this point vader is looking at him, and I can feel vader's emotions. I know the helmet comes off later and I wasn't talking about that. I am sorry I should have been more clear and for that I do apologize.
Also I want to make it clear that I love Transformers and I am not one of the haters, read my post again I make it clear that I liked it, I was simply showing my opinion as a lifelong Transformers fan. I have seen the movie 4 times in the theatre and once in IMAX, I also own all of the toys. I don't want to be seen as a hater of this film, so I had to clarify this. I also own the graphic novel V for Vendetta, I agree the novel is better than the fillm. But that is irrelevent I still felt the V mask translated emotion fine on screen. In conclusion I am not a hater and bring on Transformers 2!
Night Flame
This sentence right here seems to epitomize why you are so very, very frustrated here, and why, in turn, your words are frustrating others to the point they are. You believe this should be a battle to be won between those who enjoyed the movie, and those who didn't. Let me inform you there are no winners in such a battle. Only those who feel vindicated but resentful, and those who feel anger and regret. Niether of those positions is one I care to be in, which is why it's difficult to participate in movie discussions at all. At no point are we allowed the possibility of rational discussion. It's always, "you're with me, or you're against me."
Why can't we each have our opinions, state them reasonably, and let it go?
I enjoyed the movie, for the most part, and am quite frankly tired of searching for the place where I can have a reasonable discussion of the funnest thing I experienced this summer. Why must each and every opportunity that comes along for movie discussion turn into another round of trying to find a brick to smash my head into repeatedly?
QuantumShock
We all cheat in life, don't we ?
Ravenxl7
I'm not 100% sure that's the exact phrase, but, I think it gets my point across .
Quintesson #1
It does not feel like a victory Draven. That too is the whole point I was trying to make…
I'm not. You may perceive it as such, but I'm not. I wish I hadn't been right so I could have enjoyed the movie as well.
Yay for geewunner generalisations and implicating you should go back to a cartoon. AGAIN. Thanks Cory, you've never done that before eh? Hostility and insulting tone anyone? You don't even realise how insulting you are being just now, do you?
You should add, while insulting in the manner you just did again a line above this one. And that's exactly one of the causes of a lot of hostility within the 'hater' posts. Not the cheating itself, that's completely irrelevant because it's not even an argument for either side even though you falsely monopolised it as being in favour of your side of the story.
It's the manner in which you acted in relation to the cheating and how you tried to humiliate others using that argument that's the real problem.
And again… You completely fail to step away from your prejudice about what people want and again you completely fail to use your imagination.
Did you see movie toys on screen?
I don't think so.
So why do you expect massively improved AlternatorISH designs to have looked exactly like toys on screen, if Alternators were just named as an example of how you could upgrade one thing respectfull into the next thing? When people named Alternators as example, they don't mean exactly like Alternators… How can someone make you understand this, if there's not yet anything existing that would be like that would be? For you lack the imagination to perceive this and require a fully worked out visible example, because you can't fathom anything more than that. :/
That's the flaw in your thinking. You can't imagine what your argueing against and compare it to the nearest thing you can imagine. A toystyle that's been used as an example of how to upgrade in a simple manner. You've never seen the complex version, not even in your head, yet you dismiss it off hand and do exactly that which you criticise "haters" for… :/
And ffs, stop using the word hater. It's discriminating and insulting.
ams
*shrug*
Ok, looks like we're not going to be able to understand one another. I guess we'll leave it at that.
Cory Bauer
Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back now.
In the end, movie haters still lose, because they've still only got their G1 DVD boxsets, and the lovers have this year's movie and a sequel already in the works.
Regarding the cheating, people like myself were wrong about them not cheating; but the reason we were wrong is because ILM and Bay did such a stellar job with the robots that the illusion was there. The $20 Alternator designs you and other G1 fanatics insisted they should use wouldn't have been able to achieve that illusion, so the argument still stands: transformer designs of years past wouldn't have worked for what they were trying to accomplish.