After watching Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which was fantastic btw, and seeing the astonishing mo-cap work done for all the apes, it got me thinking. Could this technology be used the transformers? I'm only familiar with the basics of it, so I'm not sure if could work. For those of you who are familiar with it, would it work? Would it be cheaper than cgi? Could it look better than cgi? If a Transformers reboot were to happen would you want cgi or mo-cap? etc.

 

I think they are essentially the same thing. mo-cap is used for getting more realistic movement and a base skeleton that cgi gets put on top of. I don't see why it couldn't work. I think Michael Bay has said that he wants Optimus to look more like expert gymnast with a high degree of martial arts training. He doesn't want them to look completely normal moving around.

 

I would support it. The only thing I would do differently is have the performers were some kind of custom "weighted" mo-cap suits. These bots are big and heavy, so if you want more realistic movements you gotta make them move like they have more gravity working against them.

 

I think ILM is doing a great job without mo-cap. Plus actor's facial expressions would be unrecognizable and useless with all the extra parts on the robot faces. ILM animates faces based on voice actors' performances anyway.

 

I thought lockdown was motion capture but apparently not. I think it would cool to see Cullen walking and talking as Prime.

 

There were a few shots in AOE that I was sure were mo-cap. But I guess not.

 

I'm sure I've seen a behind the scenes feature that had Michael bay doing motion capture for Megatron meeting the fallen during the full CGI scene in ROTF

 

I think it would be pointless in the TF's movies, ILM is already doing a pretty good job with it.. Lockdown in AOE was surprisingly good in both body and face movements. I just think them going to motion capture would be a waste, because what they have now is fine.

 

I'm sure they used motion capture for the Dreads highway chase in DOTM! The way they ran was waaayyy too human-like. Everytime I watch that scene I'm amazed. LOL

 

That was all key-frame animation. Besides, the way that one was running on two legs was a bit too un-realistic.

These days, it seems that largely, the realms of mo-cap are in WETA Digital's 'doman.' ILM largely relies on animation moreso. That was largely how the Jaegers and Kaiju in 'Pacific Rim' were done.

 

It could work but you have to think about all the "kibble" on the transformers it could cause some clipping issues. Other then then that I couldn't see why not.

 

For the facial expressions, at least.

 

I remember seeing a featurette about ILM designing Sentinel Prime and how they would watch Leonard Nimoy's perfomance and take visual cues from his expressions while reading the lines. I wonder if they did that with Peter Cullen as well? Optimus got some really great emotional expressions in DotM, some of it pretty subtle that I didn't really catch until watching in close up on an HD monitor. Looking forward to seeing AoE in a similar way.

 

Would be difficult when filming scenes with humans interacting with TFs. When acting, the actors need to be looking up as the TFs are tall. That's why they use poles with faces stuck on the top. If they used people in mo cap suites we'd end up with the actors staring at the TFs legs and feet.

 

this.

 

I never saw that problem in King Kong which had a gorilla of 25 ft tall 

 

Let me show you to the Ladder section of Home Depot...

 

If they do it I'd like it be full cgi something like beowulf.

 

the old saying "if it's not broke, don't fix it", ILM have been doing a great job evoking emotions and expressions on the robot's faces without the need of mo-cap.

 

That'd be cool in some way.