EDIT(As opposed to CGI, I refer mostly to how the two shows appear from an aesthetic perspective). Transformers: Prime has always looked pretty good however, I've always had the opinion that most of the budget was spent on the bots themselves. The models were gorgeous; you could see every tiny detail.

Do not hotlink images -2005 staff

The problem with this is that everything else was simply bland, even the humans looked terrible. I think that the animation studio tried to get away with this by stylizing everything but, it just didn't work. As a result, the art styles felt inconsistent - at least for me.

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Beast Wars' animation was great for its time and it did well in bringing Earth to life but, Beast Machines did even better due to the huge leap in animation quality. Not only does the quality hold up and even surpass some CGI shows today, the reason why I believe that Beast Machines is the best CGI Transformers show to date is because the level of detail is spread evenly, from the characters to the environment.

I'm watching Beast Machines now and I'm quite impressed with the quality of the CGI and compare it to the recent Transformers: Prime and find that the consistent art style and details makes for more entertaining viewing.

Do not hotlink images -2005 staff

 

Better aesthetically, maybe. Probably also higher-cost. Though the simple increases in technology between 2000 and now probably means that Prime was more capable in terms of complexity and motion of the animation.

 

Although technically Prime looks better than Beast Machines, I still think that Beast Machines is better to watch from a visual standpoint.

 

I think it's better aesthetically, but Prime's is pretty clearly higher industry standard.

Both the stories they serve are a resounding "meh".

 

I think the thread title should be "Animation" not "CGI." Because that mkes it sound like the models and detail were better.

But I ultimately agree with your point. Prime had clashing goals with it's animation. The models were detailed and the vehicles realistic... but the bots' overall aesthetic coupled with the humans looked absolutely out of palce with realistic stylings. Seeing what looks like a Pixar-style human enter a nearly photo real car was jarring. And the textures on teh robots, as you said, were very detailed and realistic, then they give them exaggerated proportions and smooth like-Animated-but-not-as-unique-or-characterful faces.

Beast Machines, however, knew it's style and everything fit together. The designs were sleak and worked with the details present on their textures and bodies. Cybertron was all harsh lines and large, angular shapes, and everythign was given a matte texture that made it feel like everything was meant to evoke a cel-animated cartoon. Even the explosions were solid and way more attractive and timeless than Beast Wars or Prime's limited effects. Despite fire effects in BM looking "plastic" they still fit with the solid, matte stylings of the world.

Beast Machines worked with what it had. It made full use of what CGI could do at the time, and styled itself around the limitations so as not to have them be limitations. It was on a desolate world, everything move dramatically and stylishly. The sadows were harsh and made for an almost constantly dynamic look.

Prime, meanwhile, is set on a populated Earth with about six people living on it. It constantly shows it's limitations when it comes to action, such as these really stylised robots moving awkwardly as they struggle between obscenely over-the-top stunts and realistic movement with weight. The textures are hit and miss, the explosion effects more often than not just look like dust clouds, and it's characters can't even remain consistent in detail. Optimus is roughly four times as detailed as Megatron, featuring a number of small mechanical bits, joint, segmented armour etc. All details Megatron lacks completely.

Beast Machines will look just as good ten years from now as it does today, because it didn't try to be super realistic. Prime has just ended and it's already aging poorly due to the above reasons.

 

Beast Machines definitely had its own unique style and was consistent.

That said, I didn't like it's smoothy-smoothness. It felt very artificial and "fake" to me. Not my cup of tea.

 

Disagree.

Beast Machines took place on Cybertron. It's easier to say that Jasper Nevada looked plain in comparison. You can get a lot out of having metal corridors that are closed in looking better then a vast open field of desert... It's the same thing older games used to do. Use corridors and tight areas to give you a better field of vision and allow "more" in your scene.

However overall the detail and animation alone in Prime was so much better. Beast Machines WAS a step up from the prior Beast Wars (Not story) but it still doesn't compare to Prime. Just compare the animation quality and the movement and the close quarters combat that Prime had compared to what Beast Machines had. No comparison.

Beast Machines also used "tricks" or "cheating" as you called it, I mean they didn't even transform... it was more like morphing...

As for the Humans in Prime. That was limited but it was also more of a art style direction.

 

The transformations in Beast Wars were accurate to how they would physically transform as a toy, it would be even easier for the animators to do the Same for Beast Machines. The only difference was because of how organic the robot modes were.

 

Everything you described is exactly what I meant by Beast Machines knowing it's limitations and working around them, verses Prime suffering from them.

By setting itself on a dark, unpopulated Cybertron it got way more mileage out of it's assets. prime's biggest mistake was putitng itself on unpopulated populated Earth, then giving the Autobots means to venture out... to cities devoid of people and the same fucking canyons and forests.

Beast Machines also wins out in Animation, because Priem usually had absolutely awful movement. As I described, they went from moving realistically to leaping hundreds of feet into the air, spinning a dozen tiems, then shooting straight down. The final fight between Megatron and Opitmus in BM was more impressive than all of Prime together. Hell, his backflips at the start of the battle was more impressive looking than any acrobatics in Prime.

And on the subject of transformation, again, BM covered this by having that be the point... and it STILL had better looking transformations since at least in BM everyone had different styles, like Rattrap spinning his wheels around or Blackarachnia absorbing her legs one at a time. Prime... everyone transforms the same, boring, uncreative way. The young and energetic Bumblebee transforms with the same fast-paced jittery motions as the elder Ratchet. And again, the point of BM was that they "morphed' due to being more organic. What's Prime's excuse for every robot looking nothing like they can actually transform?

 

Eh. I just don't see it.

 

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Prime had some mass-shifting, but all in all the transformation sequences were well-done and pretty specific.

 

Really? Because all I see is a blur of parts exploding out and reforming into a standing robot.

Granted, I don't expect them to be movie-level intricacy with a bajillion parts moving fluidly and naturally and make it look like the robot's actually getting up off the ground, but if they couldn't produce quality withn the limitations of the CGI, why did they make it CGI? Or at least not so complex, so maybe we could actually see how they transform? I mean, I know Knock Out's doors become his arms and his headlamps end up on his chest, but I couldn't follow them in that gif or any other instance of him transforming. The only parts I could track were his wheels really badly fling across his body, connected to nothing. Everything just blurs and looks like a mess of nothing until the very end where it all practically snapps in place then slowly comes together to make it look like the parts moved, even though they didn't.

The mass-shifting isn't the problem, the fact that it looks so phoney and jittery does. Again, everyone in Prime transforms like that. Yet in BW, Cheetor had a very quick and fluid transformation, Rhinox threw his weight around when he transformed. Rattrap unfolded like he was emerging from a hidey-hole. Dinobot violently changed shape. Optimus either had a slow, deliberate motion, or hopped in the air. Everyone in Prime just breaks apart and a robot comes out of nowhere.

 

I find the cgi and animation in Prime more pleasing to the eye than I did BM, but when compairing what could be done at the time each was produced, BM would win.

And KnockOut's transformation was pretty awesome. While driving he does a backflip and his back wheels are shrugged up to his shoulders. I usually hate it when TF series fill time by repeatedly showing transformations (Japanese animation *cough), but Prime would've benefitted from slowing some of them down to show them off imo. They left it up to the fans to slow mo the transformation scenes to figure out how they worked.

 

haha no. not even close. don't give me wrong. the cgi in beast wars and beast machines, *which the image you showed IS beast wars.* is great for the 90's. but these days, it is really lousy.

 

I do prefer BM's CGI. It's not like I've ever had a problem with Prime's CGI, but, they showed off too much. To me, a lot of the battle scenes just looked like a lot of big effects, but nothing really happened, if that makes sense. It didn't seem that way in BM to me, particularly not in the final battle. But, speaking of final battles, I still haven't seen Predacons Rising, so maybe they did some good stuff with that.

 

To compare the three, beast machines was the worst.

 

Worse than BW? You mean in terms of CGI? If so, that's incredibly wrong.

 

The term you're looking for is "all flash and no substance", and I'm sure that everyone here would agree with that sentiment.

 

That's exactly it! Particularly when they'd fight with the Star Saber and Dark Star Saber. Those were the worst, to me. They moved the camera round a lot so as to make it look fast, which, to be fair, it was, but, they could as well have been bashing sticks.