Brian Cassil Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 http://home.comcast.net/~cassils/commercial_dancingcar.wmv I thought this was really cool and so decided to share it here. I've heard rumblings of a live action transformers movie for a year or two now and when I saw this I immediatly wondered if it was a small project possibly used as a testing ground for the effects on the new movie. If so, I can't wait for it! Transformers was my favorite cartoon as a kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 That is SO cool!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 Now check this one out! This looks real to me. http://www.r50rd.co.uk/research/internal/v2i/engin/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Warner Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 That would be pretty sweet as a movie--I loved the transformers as a kid...just bought my son a transformer for christmas. I kind of hope he doesn't like it so I can play with it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kainoa Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 Now check this one out! This looks real to me. http://www.r50rd.co.uk/research/internal/v2i/engin/ That looks totally cool + very real...although i'm still skeptical. The site looks very convincing, but some of the video looks animated (although extremely well done). As for Transformers, yes that would be a fantastic movie. "Transformers: The Movie" (the old cartoon one), is still one of my all-time favs. It was one of the first movies I had to get on DVD. In fact, I listen to songs from the soundtrack to get "pumped up" while working Here was some of my fav toy characters: JetFire (only because the toy was a Robotech Veritech fighter replica)SideSwipe (duh...he was a red lamborghini)Metroplex (the huge honken city) . Sorry, i just get all excited about this stuff.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted December 17, 2004 Author Share Posted December 17, 2004 It's sort of a love-hate thing I have with the animated movie. The movie was really good, but it essentially destroyed the cartoon series. And no need to apologize for getting all pumped up about transformers, believe me. BTW, latest rumors about the live action movie is that Spielberg has aquired the rights to it which means it will be a Dreamworks production and I also heard Robert Zemekis is likely to Direct it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted December 17, 2004 Author Share Posted December 17, 2004 Now check this one out! This looks real to me. http://www.r50rd.co.uk/research/internal/v2i/engin/ I would say with about 100% surity that the robot stopping the car is cg, and only ok cg at that. However the robot arm looks like it could be real, but still wouldn't be surprised if it is cg too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted December 17, 2004 Share Posted December 17, 2004 I would say with about 100% surity that the robot stopping the car is cg, and only ok cg at that. So what makes you think that? The only thing I could spot that might make it look fake is the shadow cast by the robot is different from that of the car. But besides that I would say it looks pretty convincing. More importantly, why would he build a real robotic arm of that capability & then go to the length of faking the car stopping movie? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted December 17, 2004 Author Share Posted December 17, 2004 Yeah the shadow looks extremely forced to me. Like someone tried a little too hard to ground the robot to the scene. Also, are we to believe that someone risked thier life by driving a car full speed into a wall? The wall and the cones seem to stand out from the scene a lot too. For that matter I think the car might be cg. Not that any of this is bad. Pretty cool effects. It may be someones work in progress and the robot stopping the car is showing where he want's to be and at the same time showing off someones animations skill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunDon Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 And I gotta say, if someone had built a biped robot that huge and dexterious, we'd have heard about it. Honda's doing remarkable work with Asimo, but a contraption like this is lightyears beyond their current work. And that's a pretty well funded robotics engineering team. I'd loveee to see a new Transformers movie. Though Bob Zemeckis better stay the hell away -- he's shat on my childhood enough at this point. I'm also not quite sure how they'd deal with a realistic, CG Transformers movie... they'd have to be pretty incredible cars to not look like crap after they got into a fight. Though considering they are alien technology, I assume they merely emulate earth vehicles with much higher-grade metals. ;-) Thanks for posting this guys! Shaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted December 20, 2004 Author Share Posted December 20, 2004 Though Bob Zemeckis better stay the hell away -- he's shat on my childhood enough at this point. I presume your speaking of "The Polar Express". I haven't seen it nor do I have any desire too. He has done some films that I like though, mainly Forest Gump, but transformers doesn't really seem his style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunDon Posted December 21, 2004 Share Posted December 21, 2004 The Polar Express pissed me off on two levels... I loved the book as a kid, and when I saw the teaser I was amazed at how brilliantly it captured the book's illustrative style. But they balooned the plot to fit the feature-length runtime, which was just unsustainable. And the hero still complaining that he couldn't believe in Santa after traveling on a magic train to the North Pole and being Santa's guest of honor... I mean, c'mon. Once and for all, enough with the film adaptations of children's stories -- Hollywood is bad enough when it has to pare down books into screenplays, but at least there's a developed plot. And on the professional CG level, it set me back years with my friends. Everyone's back to professing that human-like computer animation is impossible and artists should give up. Their troglodyte-attitudes aside, I saw both Shreks, and I never heard anyone complain that the facial (mouth movement especially) animation bothered them as I did after Polar Express. That they could fail on such a fundamental element with a CG human cast is shameful -- yes, I recognize it's very difficult and I couldn't do better myself, but plenty of studios have already. I bring up Gollum, and of course everyone discounts him because he wasn't supposed to be human. Yet his face was extremely emotive and all aspects of his animation held up near-flawlessly when you had two human references in the same frame. I do like Bob Zemeckis. The Back to the Future movies very much marked my youth, and Contact is a beautiful movie. And Jodie Foster's awesome. I've read the movie was all Hanks' idea, Zemeckis just ran with it... if only this were the end of Hanks' hopelessly derivative career behind the camera. Whoa. I ranted. Anyway, Transformers -- I'll cross my fingers that if it happens some of the 80s campiness survives. Shaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bricklyne Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 Wow, someone loves really their Transformers, huh? Easy there Shaun, I'm with you. I'm also a bit torn about this idea about the Transformers movie, seeing as how the cartoon was such a big part of my childhood. I really hope they don't screw it up. And yes, Zemeckis is also on my probation list after 'Polar Express' fiasco. Although, on another level I can understand how the producers and a director can be caught between a rock and a hard place in trying to revive a former franchise like this. On the one hand you have a potentially ready-set fan base in the form of people like us who faithfully followed the original series' in our youth, but trying to capture the 'cool' factor is a near impossibilty because part of what made stuff like the Transfomers so cool back then was because with the lack of movie CG and the like back then, animated sci-fI like the Transfomers, and even Robotech for others was what came closest to what the Matrix would be for today's kids. And of course, all the campiness in with all the eighties' brought was just priceless and simply unmatchable today. And then on the other hand you have the challenge of trying to capture today's younger generation who theoretically should be the Studios' cash cow for the next decade or so with a trilogy. And if any of you have a prepubescent cousin, nephew or even your own kids, then you know how difficult it is to convince them that something like 'Tom and Jerry' is actually a fun cartoon without all the slick animation ala MTV's Ultimate spiderman series. So the studios inevitably cave in to today's youth expectations and 'compromise' the spirit of the original work. Jackson was able to get away with it with the LOTR series because outside of Bakshi's incomplete animated attempt there was no basis of comparison with a rabid loyal following. Books are therefore easier than older animated series or remakes, to convert to movie franchises today, as the directors can start afresh with a completely new visual diection. Anyways, I really really hope they don't screw this movie by focusing too much of the CGI and forget to give it a decent if not plausible ( for us 'older fans) story. Does anyone know if they are also still planning on doing a Thundercats big screen live action adaptation as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jucaro Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 Anyways, I really really hope they don't screw this movie by focusing too much of the CGI and forget to give it a decent if not plausible ( for us 'older fans) story. Does anyone know if they are also still planning on doing a Thundercats big screen live action adaptation as well? Might as well join Silver Hawks and MASK (the dual vehicles, not The Mask..of Loki) Those Giant-robot-mix-with-live-action flics are better left with the japanese pop-culture (remember Brain 17, Bioman..etc) The americanized version of Power Rangers is already bad enough. I hope they dont brutalize The Transformers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest STU_P Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 Sorry to disappoint everyone but this is nothing to do with transformers, I'm afraid it's just a tv commercial for the new Citroen C4 car, it's currently running on British Television, but I must agree it's pretty cool even better on a big screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jucaro Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 I'm not disappointed (yet) The 'transformer' commercial is cool. But there really is a Tranformers Live action movie in the making. http://movies.go.com/moviesdynamic/movies/movie?id=634433 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leed Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 There is an Interview with Jose Perez, who produced the mini Cooper robot bits at http://www.r50rd.co.uk in Jan 3d world. if you are interested. My 3 year old saw the dancing car on tv the other night and he has standing staring with his mouth open, "Dad can we have a car like that one?" he said at the end.... Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaunDon Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 You're totally right, Clarence. I've gotta keep reminding myself that I'm no longer and will never again be the target audience for a Transformers remake. ;-) I just hope that someone with someone passion and quirkiness picks this up. I've gotta say the live-action part kinda scares me... I have a hard time envisioning how well the universe would translate if put into a photo-real world of today setting. But the bottom line is I'm excited someone is picking this up and forking over more cash than I'll ever earn to do it. I can disown it if it sucks, but there's at least a shot that it won't, right? Just please... bring back Optimus Prime. He totally was my hero back in the first grade. Shaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Cassil Posted December 22, 2004 Author Share Posted December 22, 2004 Sorry to disappoint everyone but this is nothing to do with transformers, I'm afraid it's just a tv commercial for the new Citroen C4 car, it's currently running on British Television, but I must agree it's pretty cool even better on a big screen. Still, I would not be surprised if in a couple of years we learn that the effects for this commercial were done as a sort of testing ground for the effects on the movie. The head looks very much like optimus to me. The timing of it seems very interesting as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Nelson Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 Here's the story behind the mini robot. And I was so hoping that it was real! http://www.newtek-europe.com/uk/community/lightwave/perez/1.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IC Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 There's a feature on the Citreon in this month's 3DWorld. If any of you don't get that mag, I'd recommend it. It's a constant source of info and inspiration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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