hungry and PMSy
I agree, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
zrath , this is pretty darned funny! XD
For the record, while I haven't sat down and watched either movie, I HAVE seen some of the 'good parts', like the forest fight, and Devastator on the pyramid...yes, including the excruciating 'scrotum' line. And something surprised me about them.
Even tho I don't like Bay, I expected to be wowed by the action sequences. I really did. I like action flicks, CGI, and TFs, and good wresling/fighting matches. But to my surprise I was almost immediately bored...and I can only find a couple reasons for it.
1) It was too clean; like video game footage, where they have to limit the detail just enough to fit in the amount of memory the game is expected to utilize, and make the environment properly interactive. And it looked to me like the two film stocks were just slightly different speeds...tho I know it was both digital. There was just something a tiny bit 'off' about the syncing of the animation into the film.
2) Did none of the ILM guys actually go out and look at a forest? Ever? Bay's attention to environmental detail is still as laughable as when my ex-husband spotted grass on the asteroid in Armageddon. In fact, this detail that jumped up and smacked me in the face is also grass - this time in the forest fight. It was evenly colored, nicely manicured, and up to the tree trunks. In a forest with many many pine trees. This does not happen in real life. Even in a deciduous forest. Leaves cover the ground even in summer as they take over a year to break down (yard composting is a speeded up process thanks to humans); grass only grows in meadows and open spaces away from the trees, especially away from trees that would dwarf TFs. Pine needles are even worse - they acidify the ground, making it difficult for most plants to live underneath them, and are heavy water suckers. That's why its difficult to have a nice looking lawn when you've got a pine in your yard, and a pine forest is pretty much denuded of everything except trees when you get into the middle of it. On the edges and in the open areas it does have many plants in the open spaces between trees, but 99% of them are NOT grass. Also, the dead husks of the grasses from the year before are interspersed with the new growth, and much other plant life is mixed in, so there is no even green color, or height, or even shape. On top of that, giant alien machines just walking through the forest should have caused tremendous damage to the undergrowth, just as your normal construction equipment does. But...they didn't. And they didn't cause tremendous forest fires with all those sparks and shooting in a dry forest. Just a few trees actually caught fire - the whole damn forest around them should have been burning by the end, especially since Bay likes fires and explosions! Okay, rant pretty much done.
One question, tho, for those who've seen the whole thing - did Prime's transformation ALWAYS take that damned long? Even in the middle of battle?
I watched Dragonheart for the first time since it came out the other day, as I found a VHS copy in one of the secondhand stores (the one 14 miles south that I've done consignments at since it opened a few years ago, not the jerk mechanic's gas enfumed store across the street), and was amazed how well the CGI holds up, even in comparison to today's movies. Actually, ESPECIALLY in comparison to some of the bigger flicks, like Harry Potter, where the poor facial animation drives me batty. Not only does Draco (as in the dragon...gads, that name's never going to be useable for the animal again, is it!) look like he actually lives in the environment, but they were able to make him emote extremely well without losing the sense of limiting bone structure underneath and scaly skin. A lot of animators nowadays go too far either direction - slack faces that cause eyes to look dead, or overdone cartooniness that makes the character look like they have no bones.
My only complaint is that they didn't animate the grass being moved and squished by his passing. ;)
--Moony
zrath , this is pretty darned funny! XDFor the record, while I haven't sat down and watched either movie, I HAVE seen some of the 'good parts', like the forest fight, and Devastator on the pyramid...yes, including the excruciating 'scrotum' line. And something surprised me about them.
Even tho I don't like Bay, I expected to be wowed by the action sequences. I really did. I like action flicks, CGI, and TFs, and good wresling/fighting matches. But to my surprise I was almost immediately bored...and I can only find a couple reasons for it.
1) It was too clean; like video game footage, where they have to limit the detail just enough to fit in the amount of memory the game is expected to utilize, and make the environment properly interactive. And it looked to me like the two film stocks were just slightly different speeds...tho I know it was both digital. There was just something a tiny bit 'off' about the syncing of the animation into the film.
2) Did none of the ILM guys actually go out and look at a forest? Ever? Bay's attention to environmental detail is still as laughable as when my ex-husband spotted grass on the asteroid in Armageddon. In fact, this detail that jumped up and smacked me in the face is also grass - this time in the forest fight. It was evenly colored, nicely manicured, and up to the tree trunks. In a forest with many many pine trees. This does not happen in real life. Even in a deciduous forest. Leaves cover the ground even in summer as they take over a year to break down (yard composting is a speeded up process thanks to humans); grass only grows in meadows and open spaces away from the trees, especially away from trees that would dwarf TFs. Pine needles are even worse - they acidify the ground, making it difficult for most plants to live underneath them, and are heavy water suckers. That's why its difficult to have a nice looking lawn when you've got a pine in your yard, and a pine forest is pretty much denuded of everything except trees when you get into the middle of it. On the edges and in the open areas it does have many plants in the open spaces between trees, but 99% of them are NOT grass. Also, the dead husks of the grasses from the year before are interspersed with the new growth, and much other plant life is mixed in, so there is no even green color, or height, or even shape. On top of that, giant alien machines just walking through the forest should have caused tremendous damage to the undergrowth, just as your normal construction equipment does. But...they didn't. And they didn't cause tremendous forest fires with all those sparks and shooting in a dry forest. Just a few trees actually caught fire - the whole damn forest around them should have been burning by the end, especially since Bay likes fires and explosions! Okay, rant pretty much done.
One question, tho, for those who've seen the whole thing - did Prime's transformation ALWAYS take that damned long? Even in the middle of battle?
I watched Dragonheart for the first time since it came out the other day, as I found a VHS copy in one of the secondhand stores (the one 14 miles south that I've done consignments at since it opened a few years ago, not the jerk mechanic's gas enfumed store across the street), and was amazed how well the CGI holds up, even in comparison to today's movies. Actually, ESPECIALLY in comparison to some of the bigger flicks, like Harry Potter, where the poor facial animation drives me batty. Not only does Draco (as in the dragon...gads, that name's never going to be useable for the animal again, is it!) look like he actually lives in the environment, but they were able to make him emote extremely well without losing the sense of limiting bone structure underneath and scaly skin. A lot of animators nowadays go too far either direction - slack faces that cause eyes to look dead, or overdone cartooniness that makes the character look like they have no bones.
My only complaint is that they didn't animate the grass being moved and squished by his passing. ;)
--Moony
apathetic
giggly
cranky
downloadin'!
hee hee hee
exhausted
guilty
anxious