Behind the high-tech scenes of this summer’s biggest blockbuster with the geeks who turned blazing concept cars into galaxy-saving Autobots

For a pivotal fight scene between Bonecrusher (left) and Optimus Prime, the layout team at Industrial Light & Magic used custom software to track a CGI version of the film camera (top). To continue with real-time, on-the-fly transformations, animators work with lower-resolution renders (middle) and coordinate with the creature development team to match up machinery and slot the digital wizardry back into the final cut (bottom).

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/movies/Transformers_Best_Special_Effects_Ever’; digg_skin = ‘compact’;

By Matt Sullivan
Images Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures

Published on: July 3, 2007

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KEYWORDS

• movies
• Digital Hollywood
• special effects
• Transformers

More than 750 parts stretching a half-mile long. Some 350 engineers working round-the-clock. Thousands of rusty, old mechanic photos — clutch plates, transmissions, brake discs — spilling across the table. All for one beat-up Camaro? Sure doesn’t sound like your average auto manufacturer.

“The idea is they’re not fresh off the showroom floor,” says Jeff White, the man charged with creating the yellow sports car and 13 others for a big new garage. He’s right: They’re supposed to look realer than that. And be from outer space. And turn into 30-ft. robots. And save the universe.

That’s all in a day’s work for the motor magicians at George Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), who for the last two years have been juggling the limits of the possible (turning a real car into a fake robot and figuring out what the heck to put inside) and the demands of reality (studio budgets, GM sponsorship, the wrath of fanboys worldwide) to build the most painstaking — and maybe most believable — effects achievement in movie history: Transformers.

When it revs up at the box office this Fourth of July, Michael Bay’s $150 million adaptation of the legendary 1980s cartoon and toy series will include nearly 50 so-called transformations. Hand-rendered metallic uncorkings of real-life cars, trucks and helicopters represented uncharted territory for the gooey-alien experts at ILM, each transformation taking six months to imagine and each re-engineering the way digital Hollywood does computer graphics imagery (CGI).

“How are we gonna get this thing from a car into the robot and back in a believable way?” White, the film’s digital production supervisor, asked the Transformers crew in 2005, when, after their back-and-forth with toymaker Hasbro, the F/X plan consisted of little more than robot sketches and shiny new Hummers — and not much in between. “Of course, Michael Bay wants a lot of energy, he wants ninja-fighting warriors that can punch and put their arms over their heads and do all this crazy stuff,” White says. “So we had to design these really complicated systems — how do all these systems match together and fly over each other to keep it looking real? And that was a huge challenge.” Continued…

Printable Version

If you have the QuickTime plug-in, you can view a trailer from 300 by simply clicking the image.

http://www.bandainamcogames.co.jp/press/release/pdf/52-081.pdf

Open Beta in COMING SUMMER>>>>>> developed in Korea~ 

^o^japan, osaka, 京都,神戶~~自由行

i do think my fd really look like japanese.. for this red temple, it’s 清水寺. many couples go there to wish for good luck.

and there are 2 magic stones there, if u close your eyes and stil can walk straightly from 1 rock to another, it means your true love will appear very soon…

and so interestingly, when one of my fds walk from 1 ending.. she didn’t know that another guy also started from the other end…

fds of both sides keep silence and encourage them to walk closer and closer… finally, ahhahaha, they hit each other>>> SO FUNNY!

it was cold yesterday. but luckily, the sun still came out~

we took the ferry at the pier near IFC. Along the way, we saw cyberport. we arrived lamma very soon.

it was a very relaxing trip. we walked from ” yong chu wan” to ” sok ku wan” and then back to ” yong chu wan” again..

coz the route is pretty short. the way we back, we saw the beautiful sunset. ^0^

and then we took a rest on a beach. it was a very lovely afernoon.

For dinner, we had seafood there. we chose an outdoor place near the sea. although.. we found it to be very cold later.. but the feel is good.

There was a very interesting waiter. he kept wandering besides us and always join our conversation suddenly. haha, he made me laughed so much>>

After dinner, we walked around there, and found a little coffee shop and had a hot drinks there.  haha, we were the only customers… 

finally, we took the 8: 45 pm ferry back to central~

maybe next week, we should try a more difficult route, so that we don’t need to walk back again, haha~~

we had dinner there

if i can go travelling, i always like to visit some ” Mysterious Places”. 

actually, South America, i do think it’s a very pretty place.

argentina, chile, Peru…brazil..

although it’s really expensive to get there ~~ if i have the chance to go adventure. i definitely wanna visit Peru!

just seeing these photos, it makes people imagine alot.. what a fantasy place! Riding horse to get there, breathing the freshest air, seeing the greatest sunset, touching the mist that come between the mountains, chatting with the friendly natives.

*o*  ^o^ > 0 <

it must be a very inspiring place>> hope i can be there once!

http://www.cgsphere.com/

what can u think of from a primitive sphere?

what kind of technique , creativity can u show from sphere design?

sphere design.. really interesting, a test for yourself and share with others about your primitive thoughts .

1sphere: sun 

3 spheres: mickey mouse

2 spheres: a pair of eyes, snowman

actually, in our mind, there are so many assumptions that everything got their Default shape.

how come there’s no retangular/irregular CDs? no circular TV?

no cylindrical fridge? if coca colar can becomes blue, will we consider it as Pocari/ coke? it seems only Pocari used the blue can & it looks so specia. everytime i buy pocari,  50 % is because of its outllook~~

Ocean blue>> Refreshing , right?

 i really like those reality show, even the american next top model . the competition is so rigorous.

i recalled for “project runway”,  last season, chloe’s collection won.

Her collection is really glorious!!!! if anybody has interest, u can check it out here: http://www.bravotv.com/Project_Runway_2/Episodes/Episode_14/Rate_the_Runway/Chloe_2.shtml#rw_top

really pretty dresses!!!!!!!!!!

i even got the mp3 : )

I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus
Underneath the mistletoe last night.
She didn’t see me creep
down the stairs to have a peep;
She thought that I was tucked
up in my bedroom fast asleep.  

Then, I saw Mommy tickle Santa Claus
Underneath his beard so snowy white;   
Oh, what a laugh it would have been
If Daddy had only seen   
Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night.