Or Bayshit...

Sorry, just had to be thrown out there... the other great mystery is how come all the cars are perfectly pristine and shiny, but then everytime the 'transformers' transform, they are covered in chips and dings and pitted and scarred, and then transform and are perfectly shiny and clean again... the robot and vehicle CGI models don't even have the same skins on them for chissake... just a complete lack of continuity...

 

or, y'know, their nanomachines might have more important things to do in robot mode than make them look shiny.

 

Now they have nanomachines?

EDIT: And besides, as soon as they transform and standup for the first time in the alleyway the botmode surfaces are a mess... they haven't even actually done anything yet, but they're already covered in chips and dings... they didn't even feign effort for making the designs consistent or believable.

 

It's been explained.

The transformers, when clean, do not look real.

As for making the vehicle modes match the robot mode damage, it would be impossible, since the CG (and thus the robot mode damage) was done long after the live action parts were filmed.

 

So we just accept blatant discontinuity as being the result of the designers just shooting themselves in the foot? I agree that the bots would look off if they were shiny clean... it just seems like either some subtlety or different approach could have yielded more convincing results...

 

I still can't get over the fact that we're watching robot aliens transform into earthly vehicles! And they look cool! and this world is crazy! And it's amazing!

...forget the Transformations! I didn't even know it was CGI until in got nominated for awards in that category! Amazing!

 

Actually the renderers were very careful to find a balance between the beautifully clean cars but having the robots look like battle-scarred warriors. It's only in the final battle everyone looks very dirty.

 

That's not true. Go look at the alley scene... every alt-mode surface you see is a mess on the closeups...

 

Ratchet's front wheels "float" from his hand area to his shoulder area when transforming in the alley.

 

I know in my head that there's cheating going on, but that shot in Mission City, when that little thing comes out of Ironhide's side and grabs his wheels and moves them elsewhere tells my heart that anything we see in the movie is possible.

 

No they don't, he puts them on the a piece that holds them in place in robot mode, which lowers them the rest of the way into position.

 

Yeah, they just crash landed on earth after a space trip trough several million light years and they can't be clean?? What a bunch of wussies!

 

His(Promethum5) argument is valid since they scanned practically clean vehicle modes. There is a problem with clean/unclean vehicle surfaces, but if there were scratches and dings in vehicle mode, they couldn't have the cool, kickass vehicle modes. The Concept Camaro is too valuable(and sexahy) to scratch up

 

As I explained before, regardless of the desire (or lack thereof) to damage the vehicles or have clean robot modes, it was pretty much impossible, for the reasons I went over already.

 

Mmmm, maybe, I'll have to watch it again even slower. Regardless, if he "puts" them somewhere, as you suggest, they are detatched at some point... a la floating!

 

I know the grill becomes Prime's chest, just like in G1. Quite honestly, I don't ever think it would be possible to know how they transform. Which leads me to ask, will it ever be possible to make a movie accurate toy by both appearance and transformation? If so, it would take years.... I mean years to engineer that into a toy. Anbd just imagine the price. But If they were to make a movie accurate transforming Prime or Bumblebee for about $120, I'd get him. Who knows? They might make those for the Masterpiece toyline in the future.

For 3D model textures, I know for a fact they screwed up the texturing swaps. In the introduction scene with Prime and the other Autobots, when Ratchet fires that laser at Bumblebee's throat; his textures are suddenly battle-scarred, really battle scarred. Then they return back to normal. That's obviously an error. I have some images of Prime in robot mode, I've noticed he has "gold rings" that just float, with no joint or bone attachments. I do realize that some 3D models just seem to have "floating" components, whenever joints are not applied.

 

^^^While I clearly recall the instance of Bumblebee during Ratchet's laser-thingie, I've never noticed Prime's floating gold rings. Anyone got a screen capture?

 

I always thought when they transform and roll out after the S7 looked bad for Bumblebee how his door and trunk lid appear from nowhere and just flaps down, I dunno watch it it just doesn't look right. I'm not complaining I'm fine if they cheat but that part looked ridiculous to me I wasn't buying it.