Why did Transformers Look SO Realistic?

I made even *MORE* Transformers CGI Content here:

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Also I just wanna give a Massive Thank You To @bruto77 and especially to @Theorymus for helping support me on this video. Particularly without Theorymus’ help this video probably wouldn’t have been anywhere near as thorough or visually diverse.

So if you love this movie for sure go check @Theorymus for some fantastic deep coverage of the Bay-Formers Lore.
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
01:05 - How Michael Bay Influenced the Film's CGI
2:30 - The Power Of Reflections
4:26 - Squeezing Realism Out Of The Robots
6:00 - Art Direction + Dirt
7:13 - The Big Problem With Doing This
8:14 - Transformers had Incredible Practical Effects
8:38 - Brilliant
10:07 - What Actually was Practical?
11:44 - The Secret Weapon of Transformers
13:25 - Metal Faces Don't "Just Work"
15:24 - The Absurd Amount of Physical Detail Needed
17:06 - There's More to this Physical Detail than Meets The Eye
18:01 - Breaking Computer Animation
19:00 - Skeletons!
20:45 - Robot Brawlers
23:00 - Why The Transformers Were Barely In This Film
24:55 - Outro And Thanks
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SOURCES:

[as]

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.

[danielqw]

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

[yigithan.kilinc]

This movie from 2007 looks better than 90% of the big-budget movies we have today

[TheatreJosh]

It is still a crime that this didn't win the visual effects Oscar.

[Theorymus]

This is by far the best retrospective on the process behind Transformers 2007's cgi, glad I was able to help 🤘

[SourRobo]

We took Transformers 1-3 for granted. I rewatched them a couple months ago. Still incredibly fun.

[aryandairshad]

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.

[vjbd]

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Transformers 1 were amazing CGI experiences in 2007.

[kelownatechkid]

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.

[dev]

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.

[giggajames]

It's absolutely insane that none of the Bayverse films won Oscars for visual effects, soundtrack or sound effects.

[imakeplaylists]

Love them or hate them ABSOLUTELY no one can say the cgi was lacking in the bayverse

[ADR]

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.

[logger]

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

[scorpioproductions]

The Transformers movies really are some of ILM's best work.

[robertsamuelmcmahon]

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.

[Membrillo]

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...

[TheSsjJoker]

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

[UsernameTed]

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.

[gojiplusone]

People don't hate CGI, they hate half-assed concepts and shoddy craftsmanship.