Don’t Worry About How The Transformers Will Look

John Campea 24 Comments

ILM-LogoPeople need to relax about how the Transformers will visually look in the movie next summer. No, I’m not talking about Bumblebee not being a VW, or Megatron not being a gun, or the fact that Optimus Prime is going to be a long nose truck instead of a flat nosed truck (which makes total sense to me after reading Bay’s reasoning for that… not that I cared much before reading his article). Yes, people do need to relax about these things too… but I’m not talking about that.

The thing I’m talking about is the CGI. How will the “robots in disguise” look when transformed and doing epic city destroying battle! Many people (including me) has said in the past that much of the “success” of The Transformers will depend on this element. Well no one has to worry… because the very best company in the business is doing the visual effects and animating then… ILM (Industrial Light and Magic). Yeah, Lucas’ company.

In the VFX world, there is ILM, and then there is everybody else. ILM isn’t the only great VFX company out there (WETA, Rythym and Hues, ComputerCafe, Rainmaker) but they are the best of the best and they are working The Transformers.

There are going to be lots of things to be worried about on The Transformers, but how these things will look is certainly not one of them.

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24 thoughts on “Don’t Worry About How The Transformers Will Look”

  2. Weta didn’t do Narnia’s digital effects…get your facts straight…the
    workshop did the live action stuff. I don’t see how anyone can doubt ILM’s ability after seeing dead man’s chest…Davy Jones’ whole head was CG…including the eyes.

  3. WETA sucks nuts. ANY….ANY effects house IN THE WORLD, can do awesome effects with a budget of 300 bejillion dollars like LOTR had.

    ANY company.

    ILM has always been the frontrunner, and they may have the highest low-point of all houses, but when the budget reaches a certain size there are plenty of effects-houses who can make the effects convincing and real.

  5. ILM used to be the best, but WETA is far better at effects, I’m sorry. Just compare Lord of the Rings or Narnia with the last three Star Wars movies in terms of effects. ILM isn’t the tops any more, not even close.

    I liked Hulk’s effects too, I thought they were really effective myself.

  6. Well, they did that amazing work with Dead Man Chest ( I love it ) but… best CGI company ? C¬¥mon man. Remember Mummy Returns ? Craaaaaaaap. Weta is as good as ILM can be.

  7. isnt it funny how “opinions are like a**holes, everybody has one”.
    I actually thought that the HULK CGI was pretty good. I’ll admit they made some bad choices story-wise (i.e. – hulk dogs), but in and of itself I liked what I saw. And yes, the scene in “The Wild, Wild West” did suck, but c’mon, it was 7 years ago. Thats an eternity concerning CGI. And dont get your feathers ruffled, Im not callg you an a-hole, it was just the expression I thought of when I read your post. I actually agreed with everything else you said.

  11. hey John,

    All your George Lucas dick sucking is disgusting to me!

    NO, ILM is capable of making bad vfx just like any other company. Look at XXX: State of the Union with all the bad visual fx thwards the end?
    or, Hulk with its gigantic cartoon as the main character? What an embarrasment that was. Every second Hulk was on screen it took me out of the movie. Hulk probably has one of the most egregious uses of computer animation in movie history. The movie centered on a main character that looked like a bad cartoon with bad cartoony villains (the hulk dogs, phantom nolte, etc.).

    Remember the terrible fx in Wild Wild West? The sequences where they were flying the machine was god awful.

    or all the fake looking spiders in Starship Troopers?
    Remember Van Helsing and all its crap fx?

  13. HAHAHA… oh Carter.. sometimes you just make me howl.

    I think i remember you once saying that you worked in the VFX field (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).

    If so, ask ANYONE you work with.. or ask ANYONE who works in a real VFX house who the best is, and who is the King of the Hill. 90% of the time you’ll get the same answer… ILM.

    It’s not even close. Not by a mile. Especially when John Knoll is the creative head.

  14. oh and ILM are not the best anymore…..they live on that reputation but they do as good and as bad work as any of the other big houses these days……

  15. i don’t care about the type of truck they picked for optimus…and i am sure the effects will be stellar…..

    What I am concerned about is the cheap looking backwoods redneck paint job they have given optimus prime with fucking lame ass flames down the sides……have you guys seen that shit???
    it looks terrible ..it was up on aint it cool news but partamount made them take it down..it is awful…

    optimus prime with red and blue flames down the sides……

    maybe larry the cable guy is doing his voice???

    i thought this was going to be a hard edged gritty film?? optimus prime looks awful…

    I hadn’t worried about bay directing this up until I saw that picture….

    then i remembered oh thats right..this is the guy who gave us “animal crackers” in armageddon….

  17. hey john, you don’t suppose bay is bullshitting you with that excuse right? i mean you did try to see for yourself with the scaling.. maybe it was bay making the movie completely into his own image… so far the movie isn’t exciting everyone but ppl who aren’t totally aware of what’s going on with it. i wanted to see Transformers.. based BASED like it was said, on G1– not bay’s idea of what transformers could be in his vision.. sorry no stupid flames, i get new, and i get change, i don’t get reinventing the wheel:

    decepticon’s have very limited lines
    megs not being shown till the end
    Prime’s look, and possibly No C&W
    Sound-freakin bite?!?!?!
    IF You enjoy mediocrity then this movie sounds like is chokked full of it…

    why don’t you say how the truck bay chose happnens to be the most famous and efficient of all the trucks.. it’s a popularity choice.. not a size issue.

  20. I wasn’t too sure if we were allowed to mention Transformers again though. Especially with no report of the first pics of Prime on the site – I thought the rebellion was still in full flight.

    I agree with slybri, human faces are the exception. Everything else, no problems for CG companies, especially ILM.

  22. I think we’ve passed the point of having to worry about special effects being cheesy, especially when doing robots. It used to be that the CGI effects stood out, that they didn’t blend well with the scene. NOw they blend pretty seamlessly and you can’t tell the CGI from the real stuff. The only problem left for CGI is doing humans close up. They still can’t do that very well, yet. Robots though? That’s a piece of cake.

    I still have problems with green screen effects though. Sometimes you can see an odd greenish tinge on the actor’s costumes, especially in dark backgrounds. I noticed this in Superman Returns, when Supes and Lois are returning from their Romantic Flight Reprise and landing on Lois’s terrace. An odd green tint to their outfits.

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