'Shoddy CG' - Really? Surely not!

yeah that's the part I was thinking of, when he's standing in a dust cloud.

There where only two or three bits that really stood out as CGI, most of it was better then average and a few shots where just amazing. As I state on the podcast we recorded last night (not downloadable yet) if the people at ILM get passed over for an Oscar like the 1st movie then the fix is in.

Say what you want about the movie's plot and characters, but the special effects are truly remarkable. The fact that it blew several of ILM's computers should be evidence of how much detail and work went into the CGI.

It's getting harder these days to tell what constitutes as amazing special effects since the technology has advanced where any movie, blockbuster or not, can have CGI.

I do wish they hadn't reused shots from the first movie and even within the film itself (like Soundwave looking over the Earth).

Yes, it was. Its called Compositing. Only much more attention was made to combineing the robots and other elements onto live action film than combineing the two actors in the car with a background.

They don't render out 100% completed frames of the film anyway. They render out different layers that the compositing people blend together.

Wonder if the King Kong fight is harder or the Forest fight here - King Kong was rendered fully whereas the TFs were partly rendered (ie only the parts seen by the camera). That could've lost TF1 the Oscar.

Did ILM do all the CG this time? On the last movie Bays production company did some minor scenes, could that be the difference also? To me it was all great but I've only seen the movie once - it's a lot to take in LOL!

Ever thingly shot was beyond awsome for me

Different companies were involved. ILM did the majority of the stuff. Digital Domain did the Alice stuff IIRC. And there are likely several other smaller companies that handled a "little something here and there". With the limited time to do all the shots and the (sometimes) huge work load, most summer blockbusters use multiple effects companies anymore.

The only part I thought had "dodgy CGI" was when the Cube sliver was falling through the floors in Sam's house.

I thought the best-looking part was right after Mudflap got sucked into Devastator and it showed Leo, Simmons, and Skids... the way Skids looked was FANTASTIC.

I just saw the movie today I thought the effects were awesome. Even though I didn't think this sequel was quite as good overall as the first, hands-down both movies have the most mind-blowing computer animation I've ever seen.

Honestly, I can't understand how a movie with ordinary BBC "Walking With Dinosaurs" level effects (The Golden Compass) could beat out the first Transformers film in 07'. "Dinosaurs" effects are very good, but just don't come up to the level of either Transformers film. CGI flesh and blood animals are old hat. The best I can figure is that it had to much more to do with Hollywood usually being anti-war and anti-military. But IMO, overall, the CGI was awesome. I'd have to watch the film again to really notice the deficiencies pointed out here. I'll do that when it comes out on DVD.