Working for Bay was one of the highlights of my time at ILM. The Transformers movies were before my time, but the dude knows exactly what he wants, never messes you about with unclear feedback and dailies with him were always highly entertaining. Dude would and did approve some shots on almost their first version because he knows when something works. Very rare in a director.
@@YISTECHwho cares ?? Maybe because of this filmmakers doesn’t really care to give us the perfect cgi anymore. As long as they deliver the movie than that’s enough. Look at the flash / thor movie recently. Astrocious.
Imagine it if you'd grown up in the 80s when we didn't wonder when we'd get a Transformers movie.....but IF. I saw the 1986 animated Transformers movie at the theater when I was 5 years old and even then I knew logically that a Transformers movie couldn't ever be anything but a cartoon because a Transformers that looked "real" was LITERALLY impossible in the 80s. I bullshit you not...seven years later when my friends and I saw Jurassic Park the very first thing we all said to each other was "Do you think this means that an actual Transformers movie is something that could happen now?" It was still 14 years away but....the game had changed. It was crazy to see something go from seemingly impossible to possible..
I mean, for all its flaws, the movie did create a whole new massive generation of Transformers fans. Some of them became animators and worked on modern mecha movies we all love and cherish.
@@LordSlevendesigns were great in bayverse. Finally transformers looked like aliens and not human made robots. I love g1 but on the silver screen we need something more realistic
i always loved the "CLING CLANG PLING CLAN" metal sounds the Transformers made wilhe fighting or doing anything in general, because it really felt like a giant alien robot and the sounds are just satisfying.
Short answer: Transformers was released during a time where CGI wasn’t used as much in films, so companies were not stretched thin since animation teams were not working on multiple projects, which is why CGI hasn’t been good in general since Infinity War nowadays. Teams are given multiple projects without enough time. The CGI in the Bay films progressively got better because the Transformers movies revived a dying franchise that caught everyone off guard and made everyone want to buy Camaros thanks to product placement, and Bay used real explosions and real locations as opposed to CG explosions and green-screening. He actually filmed the battle of Chicago in Chicago and made the city look like a warzone to entertain us. His crew put effort into the eye candy. Also, these movies fuck
not accurate imo. there's been more cgi and less before and after. it's a director who understood cgi will never look good on it's own. you have to have practical effects for a move to look good. especially long term. dude gets that cgi is for enhancing effects, not the effect itself.
Also the production schedule was more organized and respected for better or for worse (but generally better for VFX). One of the biggest problems with modern movies is that they want to fix the movies on post and they date the release date of the movie years in advance, which gives the VFX artists very little time to finish and polish VFX. For example black panther awful PS2 cutscene like final battle was made in 2 weeks or something like that. Back in the 2000 VFX in post production didn't had the burden of fixing the entire movie if it was working. They also didn't had a hard deadline to deliver at all cost (I don't remember news of studios dating a movie years in advance, at most release windows given expected time for production cycle once it was greenlit and it was common for a film to sleep 6 months to a year, they only announced a date when they were ready to market the movie), which obviously give the opportunity of giving more time to polish the effects if the studio believes in the movie and want to put more money on it. It's ridiculous how rushed VFX today look like. And we can see that comparing to older installment in the same franchises, were older movies look better.
the most common sense one too. People whine about robot screentime a lot but these things are indeed hell to put in the middle of a real moving environment. There's a reason to why every scene with a transformer is iconic in some way as they dont have a lot of scenes/time to make with to spare
a very important and overlooked factor is the style of lighting that the film used / what the style of 2007 was. contrast was extremely heavy, blacks were crushed, highlights were blown out. the cinematographer was not afraid to utilize shadows. compare this to many modern films and cameras that can capture an extremely wide dynamic range. many blockbuster directors and color artists tend to gravitate towards a low-contrast, flat look. the harsh lighting techniques of the Transformers films only help the direction and the visual effects. it truly takes a team to execute realism.
Something I've always love about this movie is the animation of the transformation. They're not these awkward transitions where a jumble of parts all move at once to create the robot form. Instead, the animators took their time by making parts move and settle before the next one does the same. It gives so much clarity and detail so that the audience knows exactly where each part goes when the bots transform.
There's so much inertia and really appropriate blocks/segments to the transformation. Like when Optimus transformed on the highway while driving, it started in large chunks with heavy movement that planted him into the ground below him, then those chunks transformed into smaller segments which in turn had their own layer of intricate details in transformation. It was SO smart.
Yeah, each transformation was basically based on motion and intent. Unlike older transformers media, they didn't have one transformation. Every single time they transform is basically unique
ROTB dropped the ball hard. They should’ve made the toys in advance and gussied them up a bit for the movie. That way there are actual transformation schemes to work with!
Also the sfx are just nice on the ears as well. I can't tell you how many times I rewound a segment from any of the movies just to listen to the transformation sounds.
@@aashishdhiman5847it’s nostalgic, but objectively speaking, the Amazing Spider Man films have the best graphics. Not even the MCU Spider-Man movies look anywhere near that good.
Also, Revenge of the Sith in 2005, the opening space battle and General Grevious still look incredible today and better than most modern blockbusters, which is crazy because Attack of the Clones looks like dogshit, ROTS was an insane step up
The opening scene blew our minds, and we were grown ups already. But the cool factor that broke the scale for me was the roller skater Decepticon splitting a bus in half. That has to be one of the coolest scenes in cinema ever. The script, on the other hand...
Bay is an absolute master of direction for VFX. The fact that he did 3 movies in native stereo 3D with so many different camera types still blows my mind.
@@cosmicreaverkassadin1143 Yeah, where the hell did that 200million dolar budget go too??? Dark of the Moon cost around 195Million and came out back in 2011!!!! as still looks better than Rise of the Beasts with 2023 technology.
@@speedyazi5029 The 2nd and 3rd films got better, the 4th film didn't improve but stayed the same level, was still amazing, and 5th was a slight drop off in how good the CGI was but it was still really good.
There's not a single thing I'd change in this movie. It's an absolute perfection and it brilliantly captures everything I'm nostalgic about those times. It's every bit as cool today as it was when I was a 6 year old witnessing it for the first time.
the metallic reflections and blending of blue screen was really good in a lot of these movies. Also it helps when theres so much visual pollution in every shot that you cant tell exactly whats going on until you rewatch it 8 times.
I revisited the featurettes for the 2nd film a while ago. It was the heyday of BTS material. I realized the CG of these movies was a monumental effort when they said the model of the villain Devastator was so absurdly large it would crash the computer if it tried to open the entire thing. They essentially had to build, if not animate him, in parts.
When I was a wee boy, this was the coolest thing ever. The realism was something so strong I never even questioned how they did it. I just saw it and accepted there were live-action models or something in the shots with people but my god this is somehow cooler…
You know what mad props on bay with using practical effects for things that could of been cgi, *cough* Snyder and disney *cough* like say what you will about bay himself but he prioritized the cgi in things that needed it
As someone born in 2000 I was so obsessed with this movie growing up I used to rent the DVD from the library and then go through the transformation sequences frame by frame trying to track where all the pieces were going and how the transformation worked and felt. Almost *20 years later* and it still looks amazing!
This movie shocked me when it came out. Unbelievably life like and stands up to this day. Looks great in 4K on OLED and is better than movies out in the past couple of years for visuals.
This movie and the next 3 are near and dear to my heart because despite whatever was being said about them, they were confident in what they did being something worthwhile. Heck, it even inspired me to go to college to be a film major.
Yes, finally. A video praising Transformers CGI! Yeah im a H U G E Transformers fan but i genuinely think the Transformers movies had some of the best CGI ever! And keep in mind. The first movie and ROTF came out in 2007 and 2009. That. Is. Unreal!! Compared to movies now? Not even CLOSE. God knows what modern CGI has turned into now
This movie got me into transformers and by far my favorite part of it was always the transformations It was super cool to see someone talk about the cgi
I'm kinda just glad to see someone having good things to say about this movie. This was one of my favorite movies in my teens. Everyone shits on Michael Bay movies and the excessive use of CG, but the artists deserve all the credit in the world
This is still my favorite movie of my entire life and seein' all the tricks they did to achieve that realism, it's mind blowing and it makes me appreciate even more
What I love is that the difference in cleanliness on the characters between robot and vehicle mode works in more ways than one. On one hand, it helps the animators/artists dealing with the shiny, reflecting surfaces in rendering, but it also adds to the fact the Cybertronians are "robots in disguise", so naturally there would be something about their bodies that allows their disguised forms to look shiny and clean, or at least depending on the type of vehicle they scanned if it was already dirty/rusty or not as shiny, then the robot mode is the real them with all the scratches, dings, etc. One theory is that it's basically a holographic projection, similar to how they can "scan" a vehicle form and know all the ins and outs of it and replicate it perfectly. Can't be in disguise when you turn into a Camaro that looks like it had a giant wad of steel wool dragged all over it with grease poured on after.
The exterior of the vehicle and the way they transform in the movies is kind of explained with the "ultra dense liquid metal core". They're absorbing and reforming parts into and out of themselves so the battle damage doesn't show in vehicle mode
I think is cheap tbh, is clear that the animators had a limitation with reflective surfaces in the robot mode so they decided to dirty them up, but the car manufacturers sponsors can't have their cars dirty in the movie, so they never bothered with the inconsistency.
Just rewatched this last month and was blown away At how Much Better it looked in 2007 than modern movies. Glad to see I wasn’t just blinded by nostalgia. The team that worked on this film were miracle workers, and it goes to show that focusing on quality and hard work delivers a much better and more memorable product!
This really makes you appreciate these things even more. I knew that it was an ordeal to make this thing possible, but I had no clue just hire Herculean a task this was. Bravo to the people who made this happen.
I was 18 years old when this first movie came out and it blew my mind (just as Jurassic Park and Starship Troopers did when I was a kid). One year later I went to collage (3D graphics and animation was my major) and we talked alot in class about this movie. That was what we wanted to reach and did alot of analyzing on how they were made. But 1.8 million polygons... cant even get it into my head lol. So yeah this movie was important for me. Love the designs, amazing cgi and just a fun movie. Rare these days.
Transformers 1,2,3 for me are one of the best looking movies ever made , with mindblowing CGI and music and sound design.I love these movies so much , and I dont care about critics.
I realized that the transformers looked way more scratched up in robot mode than in vehicle mode when I was like 9, but I didn't really know why thanks explaining.
People hate on these movies but learning about all of the technical work that went into them makes me defend them every time. We didn't know how good we had it.
I grew up watching Transformers 1&2 and Star trek 2009.. Now I work for the very studio that created them. NICE (one of my supervisors on my previous show was a supervisor on startrek 09. damn)
I went to school for digital animation and rigs are always incredibly finicky to make and use, so I've always wondered how the hell they were able to build a rig for these robot models that transform their shape and function. Most rigs would just break or behave erratically if you tried to do this. This is the first video that has ever explained how they did this!
They are kinda terrible. Sure, I absolutely commend the artists who were tasked with bringing them to life but they're extremely cluttered and ugly. The original designs are iconic because they're so simplistic or "goofy" as you say. You can instantly tell who each one is at a glance or when it's busy. The 2018 movie Bumblebee does a much better job. You still get awesome transformations but now they don't look like a jumble of Dad's spare parts glued together.
they are criticising the design which is very complex. not the cgi. modern transformers are less detailed with relevant proportions. this is why it's hard to see these in a fight. hard is make out the fight scenes
This is an incredible video about the most underrated piece of CGI ever! Great job. Maybe make a video about how Age or Extinction and later films dropped the ball on the effects? It just never looked as photo-real after 4.
Age of extinction looked even better. Each film got better visually. The last knight had a strange mix though. Some shots looks unbelievable and others blend way too much with the background
The CGI artists masterfully brought these designs to life, but that’s different than the designs themselves. It’s kinda like an idea versus its execution. The cluttered designs make many characters, especially decepticons, hard to recognize, and in action scenes the close up shots along with the designs make it difficult to understand what’s going on. I personally have a soft spot for the Bay designs but so understand why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea
@@fegreninja7197 every character is completely distinct from one another. It's impossible to get them mixed up. They all have different shapes and sizes
@@novustalks7525 I will say that the silhouettes for the main cast are distinctive enough to stand out, and I’ve watched the Bay movies so many times I can recognize everyone. But for general audiences, 5-10 characters are recognizable and everyone else fades into a mosaic of gunmetal grey shrapnel, most prominently with the Decepticons. Blackout and Grindor are literally the same guy. Onslaught is just Long Haul with a different alt mode we barely see. In fact, Long Haul’s cgi model is used countless times in the movies, with little changes in color or design. I won’t deny that that G1 and Transformers in general likes to reuse character designs for different characters, but at least they gave each of them distinct color schemes instead of desaturated greens and greys. At the end of the day, I enjoyed most of the bay movies and, like I said before, I have a soft spot for the designs. I just think it’d be hard to recognize who’s fighting who when characters blend in with each other.
I was 20 years old when the news about Transformers movie came out. I was debating with my friend as to how they'll pull it off. I thought it would suck. When I watched the trailer, I went on to watch it at least 5 times to believe what I was seeing. I'm glad this movie happened.
The scene with Optimus and the bus is incredible. In photos it looks real. The whole film is nearly flawless as far as how it looks. The human special effects are the only bits that can look pants.
Michael Bay let them cook, and they COOKED. Understanding how to mix real and fake and creating proper shot schedules and layouts to get that integration done was this movie's greatest success.
Black magic doesn´t stop considering how toy designers nowadays make these concepts possible in real life, or at least achieve unbelievable approximations, great vid!
visual effect of this movie have to be COOL as they possible. just few days ago I just talk with friends about what makes Kamen Rider (basically kids show with rubber suit + plastic armor and fireworks) from 20 years ago more likable than Hollywood today, because show like that doesn't care about logic and realism, just all hands to create the coolest scene as they possible, meanwhile Hollywood tough have that value in the past, they grew into the opposite direction by making everything more ugly and awkward as possible because that's how real people and physics will react in that situation in real world.
It also helps that where as Hollywood tries to be the next 'best X' 'most innovative Y' 'best screenplay' etc all at the same time, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, etc just try to be the best Kamen rider/Sentai/etc they can be and to make the most out of what tools they have.
I understand people that prefer the OG designs. I get it. But I always prefered the Bay designs. I loved watching every single piece moving somewhere so that another piece could move elsewhere and becoming this extremely complex design and animation. I love the transformations and the way they move around in the set.
Gosh, seeing all those shots of behind the scenes mayhem actually happening just strengthens my love for this movie. We all know there is some stuff that should not have been put into this movie, whole franchise in fact, but it's easily forgivable in hindsight. Such a timeless movie for all us 2000's kids.
I always appreciated the fact Bay himself said he wanted the transformers to be agile, jump and move quickly in battles. I really appreciated that element on the Bay transformers franchise regardless of its storytelling.
That's why movies that use alot of CGI don't necessarily lack the craftsmanship we know from old movies. With Transformers they went past what technology allowed with reflections at that time and hand painted in the correct look. This is what makes the movie so impressive still nowadays, because it went beyond technical capabilities to get a never seen look.
I really like the fact their faces don't emote as much as the humans. It makes them more alien, which is exactly what you want from what is supposed to be a robotic alien species.
This movie still looks amazing in 2024, it’s just a testament to how much the detail and visual effects paid off. Insanely admirable to everyone who worked on this film.
Never understood why people hated the transformers movies, because they were so great and their CGI is still untouched. It’s one of the best CGI and action movies of all time, at least the first trilogy. Optimus prime is still the most badass character of all time with unparalleled coolness. The humor was great too and man the action is just perfect. Me and my brothers anyways loved to watch them together. Just wished Micheal bay would have invested more time in the story to make it more fluent with less plot holes, then maybe transformers 5 wouldn’t have been a flop and we would have gotten more movies. Still the bay verse will always be one of my all time favorite franchises.
If i had a choice between a visual spectacle and making a transformer just act like a human, i think i want a visual spectacle. If you reintroduce a franchise to a new generation with this much talent, why sacrifice it all to introduce the next generation what the old 80's generation grew up with?
Also to note that this film's cgi rendering has a similar dynamic range that celluloid film has. The shadows match the exact shade in the scene's lighting, we saw different levels of the glossiness of the metal surfaces, slight discolorations like green shadows also helped, lens flares making the image look muddy, and highly reflective specs angled at hard light ends up clipping and creating a lens flare to the camera.
I remember as a kid I had the bright idea to watch Optimus Prime's transformations so that I could put my giant toy of him back into car form since I lost the instructions. Sadly, it didn't work
Thank you for making this video essay brother. After watching the most recent Transformers film, I had a real desire to revisit the original Bay movies. It still felt unbelievable just how real the Transfomers looked in those movies. This video really highlights the effort and intentionality behind Bay and the movie team to help the audience suspend their disbelief during the film. 10/10! 🔥
Great video! You hit the nail on the head here. I dont envy the poor souls that had to work on this, but I really respect their ability to find a solution to every problem that came their way! They created a masterpiece of VFX that people still talk about!
I feel like the CG absolutely peaked in dark of the moon/age of extinction. from the weight to the more realistic movement/fluidity, compared to the tiny bit of exaggeration and cartoony movement in the first movie. every time i watch those two, im convinced the whole time that the transformers are genuinely there filming with the actors. it’ll never get old for me
You know, this really makes me appreciate the team that made this film so much more. I'm sure a lot of this wasn't easy, but I'm so glad they did such an amazing job to make it look this good. Because this was one of my favorite films growing up and I'm sure a lot of it was thanks to how real they made the transformers look
I remember seeing Jazz get ripped apart by Megatron on my second or third watch. The emotional weight was just never there, nobody cared not even the autobots themselves. You’d think being in generation 1 and Optimus’ first lieutenant they would of at least acknowledged it
They did acknowledge it and mourn him, albeit briefly, at the end of the fight. Plus he was the character who suggested they should go after Bee after he'd been captured, which is one of the most "emotional" moments the bots got in that movie.
Yep the Transformers themselves weren’t actually characters in these films. They were just big toys for Bay to smash together and blow up. No personality, no character development, and they never felt like the main focus.
Just to throw it out there, but never once did I ever think “there’s not enough transformers in this movie.” The efforts of all these artists surely paid off because these movies are gold
I think they really wanted to show off what they could do with these characters. It’s why it has the best transformation sequences in all of Bay’s movies. That scene right before Bee gets captured, he’s transforming AS he’s doing a burnout, like as a car enthusiast that’s awesome. They also paid attention to detail, like every car part had its place in robot mode; you could even see the LS3 that the Camaro had behind Bee’s neck.
The visual spectacle of each Transformer is all the reason one needs to watch and enjoy the movies. I feel that the incredible work of the CGI is enough to outweigh the sub-par stories they were created to tell. You can't see VFX this good anywhere else.
In the summer of 2006, I was on the studio’s tour at universal studios and on the lot we drove past some streets where there were big craters in the roads, cars flipped over, and stuff on fire, basically looking like a big war zone and I realized years later that it was the first Transformers movie that they were filming, amazing attention to detail.
people seem to have this idea that because a film is more modern it should have better cgi but conveniently forget cgi is made by humans theirs a ton of factors that effects the end result but most of the time bad cgi is because of overworked and underfunded artist who keep having to do more because studios think its an easy way to fix problems but don't give them the time to do it properly
Working for Bay was one of the highlights of my time at ILM. The Transformers movies were before my time, but the dude knows exactly what he wants, never messes you about with unclear feedback and dailies with him were always highly entertaining. Dude would and did approve some shots on almost their first version because he knows when something works. Very rare in a director.
Indeed a rare quality im starting to appreciate now with the current state of studios and their being over worked.
fr, and now he's going to make a Skibidi Toilet movie LMAO
@@dkkanofkash8798 nooooo 😭😭😭 why skibidi toilet movie? Its only been a year ☠️☠️☠️😭😭😭😭
@@dkkanofkash8798 honestly i deadass might watch it if it ever does come out💀
That's awesome dude
It's absolutely insane that none of the Bayverse films won Oscars for visual effects, soundtrack or sound effects.
Who cares. We know now that the Oscar's hold no weight.
Realistic CGI doesn’t distract me on how bad this movie is.
@@marcusaguilar874 Which part of "Oscar for visual effect" did you miss?
@@marcusaguilar874 Tell us you're stupid without telling us
@@YISTECHwho cares ?? Maybe because of this filmmakers doesn’t really care to give us the perfect cgi anymore. As long as they deliver the movie than that’s enough. Look at the flash / thor movie recently. Astrocious.
Michael Bay really nailed the cool factor, because for me, a 7 year old kid in 2007, this was literally the coolest thing I've seen in my life
Imagine it if you'd grown up in the 80s when we didn't wonder when we'd get a Transformers movie.....but IF. I saw the 1986 animated Transformers movie at the theater when I was 5 years old and even then I knew logically that a Transformers movie couldn't ever be anything but a cartoon because a Transformers that looked "real" was LITERALLY impossible in the 80s. I bullshit you not...seven years later when my friends and I saw Jurassic Park the very first thing we all said to each other was "Do you think this means that an actual Transformers movie is something that could happen now?" It was still 14 years away but....the game had changed. It was crazy to see something go from seemingly impossible to possible..
I would be scared of the autobots and decepticons if i was 7 years old watching this movie
I mean, for all its flaws, the movie did create a whole new massive generation of Transformers fans. Some of them became animators and worked on modern mecha movies we all love and cherish.
It's still after all that years.
@@davidsavage5630 that's awesome
We took Transformers 1-3 for granted. I rewatched them a couple months ago. Still incredibly fun.
4 is pretty good too
@@ProfessorArt1 4 is actually good but the disappearance of Sam and the old Autobot team ruined the mood for a lot of fans
The sequels are terrible.
@shinndig1293 the third one was underrated, tbf and ROTF has a lot of great moments.
@@shinndig1293 Disagree
This movie from 2007 looks better than 90% of the big-budget movies we have today
I may not like the designs of the transformers but I can't deny the cg was amazing
Nope. Cheap ass cgi. Looked bad then and didn’t age well at all.
@@LordSlevendesigns were great in bayverse. Finally transformers looked like aliens and not human made robots.
I love g1 but on the silver screen we need something more realistic
@@nathanreddent2427sure sure little Timmy, go watch your stupid a$$ flash movie
@@nathanreddent2427 Nope
i always loved the "CLING CLANG PLING CLAN" metal sounds the Transformers made wilhe fighting or doing anything in general, because it really felt like a giant alien robot and the sounds are just satisfying.
Yea that’s like vfx right? It’s like lightsaber sounds in Star Wars it just makes it cool as fuck
@@kimicrewe4443 it would be sfx and yeah it adds a whole new layer to the experience
It is still a crime that this didn't win the visual effects Oscar.
It’s doesn’t matter, atleast the movie win our childhood’s heart❤
I had to look up what won that year.. Golden Compass??! Wow, that is a crime.
@@0t3n4layf” I will kill them all”
Even the original soundtrack or the sound design not winning an Oscar is a massive crime.
Meanwhile Golden Compass won, and that film aged like fucking milk.
Short answer: Transformers was released during a time where CGI wasn’t used as much in films, so companies were not stretched thin since animation teams were not working on multiple projects, which is why CGI hasn’t been good in general since Infinity War nowadays. Teams are given multiple projects without enough time.
The CGI in the Bay films progressively got better because the Transformers movies revived a dying franchise that caught everyone off guard and made everyone want to buy Camaros thanks to product placement, and Bay used real explosions and real locations as opposed to CG explosions and green-screening. He actually filmed the battle of Chicago in Chicago and made the city look like a warzone to entertain us. His crew put effort into the eye candy.
Also, these movies fuck
The latest Transformers reboot movie released last yr had noticeably poor CGI than this 2007 one.
Disagree with the CGI getting better and better. The 4 and 5 movies had bad CGI in many shots.
not accurate imo. there's been more cgi and less before and after. it's a director who understood cgi will never look good on it's own. you have to have practical effects for a move to look good. especially long term. dude gets that cgi is for enhancing effects, not the effect itself.
Also the production schedule was more organized and respected for better or for worse (but generally better for VFX). One of the biggest problems with modern movies is that they want to fix the movies on post and they date the release date of the movie years in advance, which gives the VFX artists very little time to finish and polish VFX. For example black panther awful PS2 cutscene like final battle was made in 2 weeks or something like that.
Back in the 2000 VFX in post production didn't had the burden of fixing the entire movie if it was working. They also didn't had a hard deadline to deliver at all cost (I don't remember news of studios dating a movie years in advance, at most release windows given expected time for production cycle once it was greenlit and it was common for a film to sleep 6 months to a year, they only announced a date when they were ready to market the movie), which obviously give the opportunity of giving more time to polish the effects if the studio believes in the movie and want to put more money on it.
It's ridiculous how rushed VFX today look like. And we can see that comparing to older installment in the same franchises, were older movies look better.
@@angelsunemtoledocabllero5801 the bay films had really good cgi. especially the first 3. 4-5 was still good, but i rolled my eyes with nanobots
This is by far the best retrospective on the process behind Transformers 2007's cgi, glad I was able to help 🤘
the most common sense one too. People whine about robot screentime a lot but these things are indeed hell to put in the middle of a real moving environment. There's a reason to why every scene with a transformer is iconic in some way as they dont have a lot of scenes/time to make with to spare
Ur a g lad
Theorymus coming in clutch with the behind the scenes footage, I'm 100% sure that without you most the beyverse's history would've been lost forever
The goat theorymus💯
GOD!!!!!
a very important and overlooked factor is the style of lighting that the film used / what the style of 2007 was. contrast was extremely heavy, blacks were crushed, highlights were blown out. the cinematographer was not afraid to utilize shadows. compare this to many modern films and cameras that can capture an extremely wide dynamic range. many blockbuster directors and color artists tend to gravitate towards a low-contrast, flat look. the harsh lighting techniques of the Transformers films only help the direction and the visual effects. it truly takes a team to execute realism.
That kind of image has always been signature to Michael Bay, as far back as Bad Boys and still used all the way up to AmbuLAnce.
@@anthonyrousseau8050 maybe that's why Spielberg and co. chose him to helm the project in the first place, who knows
High contrast is something many games have stepped away from too for the worse. Battlefield 3 vs 2042 for example.
i wish this high contrast looks was still utilized in modern movies and video games
@@auralian1428very good comparison
Something I've always love about this movie is the animation of the transformation.
They're not these awkward transitions where a jumble of parts all move at once to create the robot form. Instead, the animators took their time by making parts move and settle before the next one does the same. It gives so much clarity and detail so that the audience knows exactly where each part goes when the bots transform.
There's so much inertia and really appropriate blocks/segments to the transformation. Like when Optimus transformed on the highway while driving, it started in large chunks with heavy movement that planted him into the ground below him, then those chunks transformed into smaller segments which in turn had their own layer of intricate details in transformation. It was SO smart.
Yeah, each transformation was basically based on motion and intent. Unlike older transformers media, they didn't have one transformation. Every single time they transform is basically unique
ROTB dropped the ball hard. They should’ve made the toys in advance and gussied them up a bit for the movie. That way there are actual transformation schemes to work with!
Also the sfx are just nice on the ears as well. I can't tell you how many times I rewound a segment from any of the movies just to listen to the transformation sounds.
Realistic CGI doesn’t distract me on how bad this movie is.
People don't hate CGI, they hate half-assed concepts and shoddy craftsmanship.
No, I hate CGI. It's great for video games, but it looks like shit on screen.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Transformers 1 were amazing CGI experiences in 2007.
Spiderman 3 also came in 2007 and it's CGI looks better than newer Spiderman movies.
@@aashishdhiman5847it’s nostalgic, but objectively speaking, the Amazing Spider Man films have the best graphics. Not even the MCU Spider-Man movies look anywhere near that good.
they pushed the realism, it was stylish af
Also, Revenge of the Sith in 2005, the opening space battle and General Grevious still look incredible today and better than most modern blockbusters, which is crazy because Attack of the Clones looks like dogshit, ROTS was an insane step up
@@Teeheehee093attack of the clones looks good what do you mean?
The opening scene blew our minds, and we were grown ups already. But the cool factor that broke the scale for me was the roller skater Decepticon splitting a bus in half. That has to be one of the coolest scenes in cinema ever. The script, on the other hand...
Script wasn’t even that bad…shia was good
Bayformers is like porn, you don't watch it for the plot
@@artLopez24 Sorry, I'll agree Shia was good, but the script was awful.
Bay is an absolute master of direction for VFX. The fact that he did 3 movies in native stereo 3D with so many different camera types still blows my mind.
Too bad he isn’t a playwright
There’s a reason why top directors like James Cameron and Steven Spielberg praise and respect Michael
@@wifine1951 good point. And both of those directors are also massive geniuses when it comes to use of stereoscopic film
@@wifine1951imagine if he got good writer on top of his god like visual effect
In my oppinion every Bayverse Transformers movie had FANTASTIC CGI
it's a fact!
The best tbh. The latest TF rise of the beast was garbage
@@cosmicreaverkassadin1143 Agreed, that movie might as well be called Transformers: Rise of the Generic
@@spiderman-2416 cgi was just horrendous and abysmal not gonna lie
@@cosmicreaverkassadin1143 Yeah, where the hell did that 200million dolar budget go too??? Dark of the Moon cost around 195Million and came out back in 2011!!!! as still looks better than Rise of the Beasts with 2023 technology.
Love them or hate them ABSOLUTELY no one can say the cgi was lacking in the bayverse
It lacked after the first film. The 4th and 5th were globs of machines with zero actual presence or power that they had in TF1 which is incredible.
@@speedyazi5029disagree cus the cgi was still better than most cgi movies
@@speedyazi5029 The 2nd and 3rd films got better, the 4th film didn't improve but stayed the same level, was still amazing, and 5th was a slight drop off in how good the CGI was but it was still really good.
@@speedyazi5029TF4 had better cgi than this. Each film improved on it.
Only the forst3 films were done by ILM, one of the best VFX studios out there. Everything afterward was done by a different studio
There's not a single thing I'd change in this movie. It's an absolute perfection and it brilliantly captures everything I'm nostalgic about those times. It's every bit as cool today as it was when I was a 6 year old witnessing it for the first time.
the metallic reflections and blending of blue screen was really good in a lot of these movies. Also it helps when theres so much visual pollution in every shot that you cant tell exactly whats going on until you rewatch it 8 times.
Visual pollution is a good term. I’m going to use it in the future
Sounds like a skill issue
Honest trailers ahh opinion
one of the editors even said in one of the interviews that the amount of editing they did on this movie, even made the PC crash LMAOO
that was for devestator on transformers revenge of the fallen
The Transformers movies really are some of ILM's best work.
heh especially when devistator's rendering destroyed all their PCs
Its comforting to hear that also in a big production like this they had to adjust shaders per-scene.
Great video.
babe wakeup new cgy upload
Love your work man
Is CGY Gav from Slomo Guys?
I was a huge Transformers fan when I was a little boy. It still blows my mind that how great and exiting this movie was and still is.
I revisited the featurettes for the 2nd film a while ago. It was the heyday of BTS material. I realized the CG of these movies was a monumental effort when they said the model of the villain Devastator was so absurdly large it would crash the computer if it tried to open the entire thing. They essentially had to build, if not animate him, in parts.
When trying to render Devastator’s transformation, a computer actually melted in their office
When I was a wee boy, this was the coolest thing ever. The realism was something so strong I never even questioned how they did it. I just saw it and accepted there were live-action models or something in the shots with people but my god this is somehow cooler…
You know what mad props on bay with using practical effects for things that could of been cgi, *cough* Snyder and disney *cough* like say what you will about bay himself but he prioritized the cgi in things that needed it
Zack Uses Practical effects doe…..
@@RydellAggin12 rewatch the mediocre slop that was ZSJL and you’ll see hundreds of things that did not need to be cg
@@harrylane4what is the unnecessary hate for? He literally made the mech suit practically
As someone born in 2000 I was so obsessed with this movie growing up I used to rent the DVD from the library and then go through the transformation sequences frame by frame trying to track where all the pieces were going and how the transformation worked and felt. Almost *20 years later* and it still looks amazing!
This movie shocked me when it came out. Unbelievably life like and stands up to this day. Looks great in 4K on OLED and is better than movies out in the past couple of years for visuals.
FINALLY someone talks about the insane transformers cgi
i just started internally crying when you mentioned the buffed & shiny cars & THUS the massive pressure put onto the vfx team.
This movie and the next 3 are near and dear to my heart because despite whatever was being said about them, they were confident in what they did being something worthwhile. Heck, it even inspired me to go to college to be a film major.
Yes, finally. A video praising Transformers CGI! Yeah im a H U G E Transformers fan but i genuinely think the Transformers movies had some of the best CGI ever! And keep in mind. The first movie and ROTF came out in 2007 and 2009. That. Is. Unreal!! Compared to movies now? Not even CLOSE. God knows what modern CGI has turned into now
to a sh*t. Inlike back in 2007 :/
This video is a love letter to Transformers 2007. I love it.
This movie got me into transformers and by far my favorite part of it was always the transformations
It was super cool to see someone talk about the cgi
I'm kinda just glad to see someone having good things to say about this movie. This was one of my favorite movies in my teens. Everyone shits on Michael Bay movies and the excessive use of CG, but the artists deserve all the credit in the world
This is still my favorite movie of my entire life and seein' all the tricks they did to achieve that realism, it's mind blowing and it makes me appreciate even more
Transformers 2007 definitely will stand the test of time....Epic !
0:17 Pretty sure the CGI begins where the giant bi-pedal robot is.
Except there's a good to fair chance some shots are full CG but you might not have realised it.
every shot of a helicopter in the air from above is CGI
What I love is that the difference in cleanliness on the characters between robot and vehicle mode works in more ways than one.
On one hand, it helps the animators/artists dealing with the shiny, reflecting surfaces in rendering, but it also adds to the fact the Cybertronians are "robots in disguise", so naturally there would be something about their bodies that allows their disguised forms to look shiny and clean, or at least depending on the type of vehicle they scanned if it was already dirty/rusty or not as shiny, then the robot mode is the real them with all the scratches, dings, etc. One theory is that it's basically a holographic projection, similar to how they can "scan" a vehicle form and know all the ins and outs of it and replicate it perfectly. Can't be in disguise when you turn into a Camaro that looks like it had a giant wad of steel wool dragged all over it with grease poured on after.
The exterior of the vehicle and the way they transform in the movies is kind of explained with the "ultra dense liquid metal core". They're absorbing and reforming parts into and out of themselves so the battle damage doesn't show in vehicle mode
I think is cheap tbh, is clear that the animators had a limitation with reflective surfaces in the robot mode so they decided to dirty them up, but the car manufacturers sponsors can't have their cars dirty in the movie, so they never bothered with the inconsistency.
@@CoracaoAcidental98 Did you watch the video in regards to the looks of the transformers?
The compositing on this film is still some of the best ever done. You can tell ILM really took the time and care to craft these comps.
The bit in Transformers 1 where the robots are standing on the dam talking... Still some of the best CGI I have ever seen
Just rewatched this last month and was blown away At how Much Better it looked in 2007 than modern movies. Glad to see I wasn’t just blinded by nostalgia. The team that worked on this film were miracle workers, and it goes to show that focusing on quality and hard work delivers a much better and more memorable product!
The desert scene with the military vs the decept. lives in my head rent free. That scene is so well made honestly
10:38 "They really did fly a plane through a building-" JESUS my brain went places that planes should never usually go 😂
"Mr President, a Transformer has hit the second tower"
To be fair, that is a very decepticon thing to do.
They hit the Pentagon D:
This really makes you appreciate these things even more. I knew that it was an ordeal to make this thing possible, but I had no clue just hire Herculean a task this was.
Bravo to the people who made this happen.
I was 18 years old when this first movie came out and it blew my mind (just as Jurassic Park and Starship Troopers did when I was a kid). One year later I went to collage (3D graphics and animation was my major) and we talked alot in class about this movie. That was what we wanted to reach and did alot of analyzing on how they were made. But 1.8 million polygons... cant even get it into my head lol.
So yeah this movie was important for me. Love the designs, amazing cgi and just a fun movie. Rare these days.
I think the fact the vehicle forms are so clean REALLY help tell the Audience that "Thats a Transformer"
All I remember is that I watched this movie with my jaw to the floor. I was mesmerised with the amount and quality of the CGI.
Transformers 1,2,3 for me are one of the best looking movies ever made , with mindblowing CGI and music and sound design.I love these movies so much , and I dont care about critics.
@@marekkos3513 bruh left 4
I see why this movie had so many product placements the budget must had been INSANE to pull all this off
I realized that the transformers looked way more scratched up in robot mode than in vehicle mode when I was like 9, but I didn't really know why thanks explaining.
These films were and still are the peak of cgi. Very few filks before looked this good, and few after reached these heights again
People hate on these movies but learning about all of the technical work that went into them makes me defend them every time. We didn't know how good we had it.
I grew up watching Transformers 1&2 and Star trek 2009.. Now I work for the very studio that created them. NICE (one of my supervisors on my previous show was a supervisor on startrek 09. damn)
I went to school for digital animation and rigs are always incredibly finicky to make and use, so I've always wondered how the hell they were able to build a rig for these robot models that transform their shape and function. Most rigs would just break or behave erratically if you tried to do this. This is the first video that has ever explained how they did this!
THIS HERE IS THE BEST REASON why we don't need AI video generation (which is a cardinal frickin sin if i do say so myself)
And the fanboys really had the audacity to call these designs "terrible" just because they didn't looked as goofy as the original ones from the 1980s.
They are kinda terrible. Sure, I absolutely commend the artists who were tasked with bringing them to life but they're extremely cluttered and ugly.
The original designs are iconic because they're so simplistic or "goofy" as you say. You can instantly tell who each one is at a glance or when it's busy.
The 2018 movie Bumblebee does a much better job. You still get awesome transformations but now they don't look like a jumble of Dad's spare parts glued together.
they are criticising the design which is very complex. not the cgi. modern transformers are less detailed with relevant proportions. this is why it's hard to see these in a fight. hard is make out the fight scenes
It's because there were times when I was genuinely confused about who was punching whom
They aren't good designs though. Just because the effects are well done does not redeem the designs of the robots themselves.
Not this fanboy. I like the Bay designs for the most part..
This is an incredible video about the most underrated piece of CGI ever! Great job. Maybe make a video about how Age or Extinction and later films dropped the ball on the effects? It just never looked as photo-real after 4.
Age of extinction looked even better. Each film got better visually. The last knight had a strange mix though. Some shots looks unbelievable and others blend way too much with the background
I can never understand how people can possibly complain about the designs. They're so detailed and realistic that you can almost touch them
The CGI artists masterfully brought these designs to life, but that’s different than the designs themselves. It’s kinda like an idea versus its execution. The cluttered designs make many characters, especially decepticons, hard to recognize, and in action scenes the close up shots along with the designs make it difficult to understand what’s going on. I personally have a soft spot for the Bay designs but so understand why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea
@@fegreninja7197 every character is completely distinct from one another. It's impossible to get them mixed up. They all have different shapes and sizes
@@novustalks7525 I will say that the silhouettes for the main cast are distinctive enough to stand out, and I’ve watched the Bay movies so many times I can recognize everyone. But for general audiences, 5-10 characters are recognizable and everyone else fades into a mosaic of gunmetal grey shrapnel, most prominently with the Decepticons. Blackout and Grindor are literally the same guy. Onslaught is just Long Haul with a different alt mode we barely see. In fact, Long Haul’s cgi model is used countless times in the movies, with little changes in color or design. I won’t deny that that G1 and Transformers in general likes to reuse character designs for different characters, but at least they gave each of them distinct color schemes instead of desaturated greens and greys.
At the end of the day, I enjoyed most of the bay movies and, like I said before, I have a soft spot for the designs. I just think it’d be hard to recognize who’s fighting who when characters blend in with each other.
I was 20 years old when the news about Transformers movie came out. I was debating with my friend as to how they'll pull it off. I thought it would suck. When I watched the trailer, I went on to watch it at least 5 times to believe what I was seeing. I'm glad this movie happened.
The scene with Optimus and the bus is incredible. In photos it looks real. The whole film is nearly flawless as far as how it looks. The human special effects are the only bits that can look pants.
Michael Bay let them cook, and they COOKED. Understanding how to mix real and fake and creating proper shot schedules and layouts to get that integration done was this movie's greatest success.
I love how they brought in a literal AC130 to do a gun run. TMK, yes, the crew of "Heavy Metal" were churning out 105's that fast on set.
I always felt like 2000’s / early 2010’s movies had a look to them that was just great
Black magic doesn´t stop considering how toy designers nowadays make these concepts possible in real life, or at least achieve unbelievable approximations, great vid!
visual effect of this movie have to be COOL as they possible.
just few days ago I just talk with friends about what makes Kamen Rider (basically kids show with rubber suit + plastic armor and fireworks) from 20 years ago more likable than Hollywood today, because show like that doesn't care about logic and realism, just all hands to create the coolest scene as they possible, meanwhile Hollywood tough have that value in the past, they grew into the opposite direction by making everything more ugly and awkward as possible because that's how real people and physics will react in that situation in real world.
It also helps that where as Hollywood tries to be the next 'best X' 'most innovative Y' 'best screenplay' etc all at the same time, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, etc just try to be the best Kamen rider/Sentai/etc they can be and to make the most out of what tools they have.
I understand people that prefer the OG designs. I get it. But I always prefered the Bay designs. I loved watching every single piece moving somewhere so that another piece could move elsewhere and becoming this extremely complex design and animation. I love the transformations and the way they move around in the set.
Please make a video on Pasific Rim. Another movie with phenomenal CGI that looks better than most the big-budget movies we see today
Gosh, seeing all those shots of behind the scenes mayhem actually happening just strengthens my love for this movie. We all know there is some stuff that should not have been put into this movie, whole franchise in fact, but it's easily forgivable in hindsight. Such a timeless movie for all us 2000's kids.
was the first Transformers anything i ever Saw, so cool to see a video on it,
Also Great to See the Scenes from Godzilla movies here too.
I always appreciated the fact Bay himself said he wanted the transformers to be agile, jump and move quickly in battles. I really appreciated that element on the Bay transformers franchise regardless of its storytelling.
That's why movies that use alot of CGI don't necessarily lack the craftsmanship we know from old movies. With Transformers they went past what technology allowed with reflections at that time and hand painted in the correct look. This is what makes the movie so impressive still nowadays, because it went beyond technical capabilities to get a never seen look.
I really like the fact their faces don't emote as much as the humans. It makes them more alien, which is exactly what you want from what is supposed to be a robotic alien species.
"But if Michael Bay wants super cool ninja fights, then Michael Bay gets super cool ninja fights" lol
This movie still looks amazing in 2024, it’s just a testament to how much the detail and visual effects paid off. Insanely admirable to everyone who worked on this film.
Optimus Prime, Davy Jones and Neytiri.
The Holy Trinity of 2000s CGI characters.
Never understood why people hated the transformers movies, because they were so great and their CGI is still untouched. It’s one of the best CGI and action movies of all time, at least the first trilogy. Optimus prime is still the most badass character of all time with unparalleled coolness. The humor was great too and man the action is just perfect. Me and my brothers anyways loved to watch them together. Just wished Micheal bay would have invested more time in the story to make it more fluent with less plot holes, then maybe transformers 5 wouldn’t have been a flop and we would have gotten more movies. Still the bay verse will always be one of my all time favorite franchises.
If i had a choice between a visual spectacle and making a transformer just act like a human, i think i want a visual spectacle. If you reintroduce a franchise to a new generation with this much talent, why sacrifice it all to introduce the next generation what the old 80's generation grew up with?
Also to note that this film's cgi rendering has a similar dynamic range that celluloid film has. The shadows match the exact shade in the scene's lighting, we saw different levels of the glossiness of the metal surfaces, slight discolorations like green shadows also helped, lens flares making the image look muddy, and highly reflective specs angled at hard light ends up clipping and creating a lens flare to the camera.
I remember as a kid I had the bright idea to watch Optimus Prime's transformations so that I could put my giant toy of him back into car form since I lost the instructions. Sadly, it didn't work
That idea is actually smart!
@@Ali-Adamantium Thank you!
Thank you for making this video essay brother. After watching the most recent Transformers film, I had a real desire to revisit the original Bay movies. It still felt unbelievable just how real the Transfomers looked in those movies. This video really highlights the effort and intentionality behind Bay and the movie team to help the audience suspend their disbelief during the film. 10/10! 🔥
1:00 instructions unclear, my jeans are now selling for $20 on eBay
Great video! You hit the nail on the head here. I dont envy the poor souls that had to work on this, but I really respect their ability to find a solution to every problem that came their way! They created a masterpiece of VFX that people still talk about!
How the HELL did they lose to Golden Compass?
🤔
I feel like the CG absolutely peaked in dark of the moon/age of extinction. from the weight to the more realistic movement/fluidity, compared to the tiny bit of exaggeration and cartoony movement in the first movie. every time i watch those two, im convinced the whole time that the transformers are genuinely there filming with the actors. it’ll never get old for me
the first transformers movie made me want to go to career as a 3d artist... that scorponok attack was too good
It is literally the best cgi in any film. to this day I've never seen any better. Not to mention the sound design. Pure action perfection.
It's so bizarre this video came out around the same time i got nostalgic about this film😆
You know, this really makes me appreciate the team that made this film so much more. I'm sure a lot of this wasn't easy, but I'm so glad they did such an amazing job to make it look this good. Because this was one of my favorite films growing up and I'm sure a lot of it was thanks to how real they made the transformers look
I remember seeing Jazz get ripped apart by Megatron on my second or third watch. The emotional weight was just never there, nobody cared not even the autobots themselves. You’d think being in generation 1 and Optimus’ first lieutenant they would of at least acknowledged it
They did acknowledge it and mourn him, albeit briefly, at the end of the fight. Plus he was the character who suggested they should go after Bee after he'd been captured, which is one of the most "emotional" moments the bots got in that movie.
Yeah those movies had zero depth.
Yep the Transformers themselves weren’t actually characters in these films. They were just big toys for Bay to smash together and blow up. No personality, no character development, and they never felt like the main focus.
Just to throw it out there, but never once did I ever think “there’s not enough transformers in this movie.” The efforts of all these artists surely paid off because these movies are gold
The CGI of the Michael Bay Transformers movies is amazing🔥💯
I think they really wanted to show off what they could do with these characters. It’s why it has the best transformation sequences in all of Bay’s movies. That scene right before Bee gets captured, he’s transforming AS he’s doing a burnout, like as a car enthusiast that’s awesome.
They also paid attention to detail, like every car part had its place in robot mode; you could even see the LS3 that the Camaro had behind Bee’s neck.
"This movie is one massive advert for cars and the military" yeah, and don't forget about the main thing... Transformers toys.
The visual spectacle of each Transformer is all the reason one needs to watch and enjoy the movies. I feel that the incredible work of the CGI is enough to outweigh the sub-par stories they were created to tell. You can't see VFX this good anywhere else.
I love this video so much, finally someone fully dives into this in a video!
In the summer of 2006, I was on the studio’s tour at universal studios and on the lot we drove past some streets where there were big craters in the roads, cars flipped over, and stuff on fire, basically looking like a big war zone and I realized years later that it was the first Transformers movie that they were filming, amazing attention to detail.
people seem to have this idea that because a film is more modern it should have better cgi but conveniently forget cgi is made by humans theirs a ton of factors that effects the end result but most of the time bad cgi is because of overworked and underfunded artist who keep having to do more because studios think its an easy way to fix problems but don't give them the time to do it properly
people make fun of Bay, but as a director he makes the most functional and complex set ups that just hit the heart of entertainment