The Energon Pub

...atleast make it look like something that resembles Transformers, like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9syS4Izz2d8

Now look at those and put human beings next to them. Its not going to look realistic at all. I'm not saying the movie designs are perfect, but using anything thats close to the toy or cartoon designs would look like exactly what they are, toys and cartoon characters.

tentagil wrote:Now look at those and put human beings next to them. Its not going to look realistic at all. I'm not saying the movie designs are perfect, but using anything thats close to the toy or cartoon designs would look like exactly what they are, toys and cartoon characters.

I agree. Although not completely satisfied with the movie designs, I can completely understand the mental process that went into them. The public at large would not be able to take the movie seriously if it just looked like it was derived from a toon. Let's face it: The movie has to appeal to the general non-tf public or it would never have a chance of making its money back or funding any sequels. What we don't want is another "Serenity".
That YouTube clip not only was really bad cgi by today's standards, but it also featured non-utilitarian vehicles (no passenger or storage areas) with lots of mass-shifting (parts growing out of nowhere, adjusting their size from one mode to another). Great for toys and toons, but really bad for a live action SciFi.

maybe not for the movie but this i would have liked for a latterday tv series

Damn! Now that's impressive CGI work for a fan to do. So many models!

I agree that if they made the Transformers look too much like the cartoon or toys, they wouldn't look as realistic in the movie. I would have prefered designs that at least resembled the characters they were supposed to be however.

I think you could, to some extent, use G1-based designs for a realistic movie, but as good as these are, there'd need a to be a lot more design work on them before they'd be ready. These look like toys; with a ton of extra detailing, they might pass for the real thing.

This guy is called Rainking, he's got his own site......some really good stuff there
http://www.iaconcity.com

I'm not saying I like the video I posted here either, it varies from G1, ie-MP OP, Bulky Jetfire, etc., but atleast I can make out that they are Transformers. I specifally was talking about design.

I don't like my Robots w/ fangs, claws or toes, hence why I never liked beast wars. That is MY opinion, not a criticism.

I like my Robots to look like....ER....ROBOTS!!

I agree with what Dev said, the designs had to change from the cartoon.

However...

I think that a lot more could have been done color-wise to appeal to the fan base and tie in G1 characters. It seems to me like they took Beast Wars and G1 and threw them in the blender on high. The only G1 relation is that they have Earth Alt modes like trucks and Jets, etc. Take a good look at Ironhide's face for example. in the new trailer where he is spinning upside down It almost looks like he has a cat's face.

I distinctly remember a lot of flaming at Don Murphy when the preliminary sketches came out a year and a half ago about how Starscream was the bastard love child of Optimus Primal and Waspinator. His response was that "These are NOT finished designs". Total BS. All that really was was damage control on the part of the producer in defense of the designs. they are the same now as they were then. I understand why they did what they did, I just respectfully disagree.

If it was my movie to make, Optimus Prime would have looked just as fine as a peterbuilt without the flames. In fact, I think his design for the movie rocks. I just would have messed with his color pallate a little and changed the blue to more of a steel blue.

Ironhide could have just as easily been a red GMC truck, Ratchet could have used a little less yellow and a little more white, etc. and they would have still looked just as real-world believable and yet retained a little more of the character they came from.

But, it's Bay's film and we just get to watch.

Just my .2 cents

the CGI should be: http://www.threedy.com/site/forum/showthread.php?t=51862

As cool as that looks though where did the extra parts come from? One thing the movie is staying away from is mass shifting and parts coming from pocket dimensions. Everything for each transformation is in the transformer in both modes.

With that Devastator the thighs, the chest piece, all the combiner parts have no where to go in Alt mode jsut like with the toy. I like it, jsut don't think it would have worked with what they are trying to do for the movie.

Actually, it looks like the thighs might actually come from Long Haul there, but yeah, everything else would need to be hidden in Trailerland.

kibble pieces could form a drone of some sort similar to micromaster gestalts

Or that. Be nice if you could take all those parts and combine them into a new Transformer.

'god constructicon bomber, follow us to battle!'
'i don't have any movement'
'why'
'if i move, something will fall off, most likely devastators head'
'why did we let the g1 terrorists control the movie?'

I think the real difference seen between the movie designs and what people keep regarding as the "toy/cartoon" look of G1 designs has less to do with their designs and much more to do with whether one has millions of dollars of render farms available spending up to 38 hours processing some frames. Using computer processing power to help figure out where to put troublesome kibble probably didn't hurt either. =)

One should also consider the amount of talent it takes to both animate CG figures with the proper complexity of articulation and realistic physics (mass/momentum) and to film live-action actors in a way that convinces audiences the two are actually interacting in the same physical space.

And those issues are separate from aesthetics. Designs can be changed, improved upon, or altered to be made more "realistic" (according to most senses of the word) without fundamentally departing from the aesthetics. This has been the major point of contention in the fandom split over the movie designs.

BTW, I hope this discussion will remain civil. I've had enough arguments on TFans about this movie, to the point where I've been ready to quit the whole board. >_< Transtopia has been my one refuge from all that -- whatever personal views we have as fans of this franchise, everyone here believes in the same goal of great bashes and customs.

Well said.

And I do like that Devastator, as well as several other fan made versions of the G1 guys. For the most part they could have made the Movie designs closer to G1 and made then very realistic, but that wasn't their goal.

I think the biggest thing that keeps coming back up is that the movie isn't G1. Yes it shares character names, but its no more in the G1 universe then RID or the Unicron Trilogy are. Just like those shows its using the name names, and in many instances similiar roles for the characters, but in a separate world, with new characters mixed in and a completely different design aesthetic.

Personally the more I see them the more I love the movie designs, and as of today I've gotten enough of the movie toys to say that for me at least this line is a success. The majority of the figures are incredible Transformers regardless of their association to the movie.

and ya know. i personally love how this is going here...

i got tired of seeing ppl elsewhere whining and complaining about the movie... so far i dont think that i have actually seen it here... and it makes me happy....

yeah,transtopians seem to keep a cooler heads when it comes to the movie.(breaking tank treads in a transformation however will cause a riot.nods to tramp)

lol

I think the people here look at the figures in a completely different light though. We are all kitbashers and customizers. So we don't just see the figures, we see the potential in the figures. Which means even a lousy figure might end up as a must buy simply because of what he could become.

Less hangups with what came before, what past incarnations looked like, jsut generally more tolerance for change in designs because with change comes more ideas for our own designs.

That's exactly why this is my favorite site, because even if you like a design or figure someone else doesn't, they won't flame you for it or call you any number of insults.

Going with what Tentagil said, that's kind of my plan with the new figures is to customize them the way I want. Personally I'm not so sure about the Decepticon designs yet, but I actually love most of the Autobots. I just want to tweak the colors a bit.

Aww... feel the love. GROUP HUG!

Agreed. I don't have any of the movie figs yet (no money, and so far I've only seen the protoform Prime anyway), but from what I've seen most of 'em are actually pretty cool. I'm even quite liking the new Leader-class Megatron; I really like the jet mode, and I'm sure something could be done to the robot form to spruce it up.

*shrug* I've no love for this movie or its designs, and the discussions I've had the misfortune to partake in on other boards have sealed that opinion forever. That said, I recognize when a forum isn't the place to vent frustrations.

When I said I'd hoped the discussion would remain civil, it was precisely due to the potential of clashing opinion. I come here to learn customization techniques and the thought processes and creativity that you guys use behind them. Not to meet communication barriers because of differing opinions about something.

Back to the topic, I think the G1 designs (aesthetics) could have worked beautifully. Alternators preserved most of those aesthetics while taking articulation, complexity, realism in both the alt modes and as humanoid form robots all well beyond "the next level". The actual engineering itself of the Alts and MPs is still not suitable for a full-scale live-action movie of course.

But the point was that, with love and devotion and dedication to design effort, the Alt/MP lines managed to make even the toys alone so much more breathtakingly amazing and lifelike compared to the originals. They made the old G1 designs go in what fans thought was the right direction. As such, so many fans envisioned what could be done for G1 designs with the amount of effort and resources that has gone into just the technical side of the movie designs so far. And I'm just saying I don't think it was at all unreasonable for those fans to think that.

very eloquently put,my loquacious friend.btw speaking of tank treads,tramp did you notice brawl's

shut the slag up grimlockprime,Tramp might hear it.