I know Michael bay said "No mass shifting" to ILM for the making of the live action movies, but lets face it, some of the transformations wouldn't be possible without it. An example is Starscream. There's NO WAY he would be able to transform into a size comparable to prime in robot mode without some cheating (even though some say he makes up for height by being wide) because the Raptor is over twice as large as a Peterbilt truck. Share other examples you know.
Yeah. A lot of windshields and stuff never show up AT ALL in robot mode anywhere, from what I can tell. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of cheating going on with DOTM Megatron's and Sentinel's transformations. For Megatron a lot of parts seem to disappear and there are barely any identifiable parts in robot mode. Sentinel you never clearly see his transformation. I don't even know where that chest piece comes from. I'm pretty sure nothing on his alt mode has that shape. And even all his toys are mostly shellformers.
The cheating that bothered me the most was, after Starscreams attack in TF1, he flips over, and nearly morphs. If you watch it frame by frame, you'll see that he transforms in a very few frames. I understand that they didn't have as high a budget to be detailed with every transformation (like not showing Frenzy, by panning away, or not showing Jazz, by obscuring him), or when the group of Autobots goes to vehicle form, You see Bee and Jazz, and somewhat Ratchet, but Ironhide disappears. Since then I've come to accept it, but there are other issues I've had with some transformations. Like the first one of Ironhide in ROTF is too confusing, the camera seems to be too close to him, and the background just keeps spinning . . . makes me dizzy. Also the last transformation of Ironhide in DOTM, is kinda funky to me. There just doesn't seem to be enough of him (mass-wise) in mid transformaton, as large pieces keep popping into place from around the corners Another mass shifting is going on in Frenzy's head transformation, when he finally picks himself up, and starts walking, he seems to grow a new leg with every step, and every new leg is bigger than the last LOL! There are just as many great-perfect transformations throughout the series too though. Like Bee's first Robot to alt. made me do a double take in the theatre. I so didn't expect that, at first I thought he was going for a lion-like pose, getting on all fours, but the next thing I saw was his side doors, and hood closing, and there was the car?!?!?!?! Wow, that was just awesome. For a while I thought Barricade's first tuck and roll was too quick to be realistic, but once I was able to analyze it at home, I've noticed that his back already starts to transform while he's still running. Sorry for the lenghty post.
