Why is CGI so expensive and how has certain CGI effects affected the running time of the films. I know how revenge of the Fallen had Devastator melting the computers but what about others. Also why does it cost a lot to render a transformation. Also did they made the transformers in AOE slimmer with less kibble so that they would be easier to animate or because half the people in the theater still couldn't tell the difference between sideswipe and ratchet.

 

It costs mula because of the time. You don't think ILM would just make a full cgi movie for free did you? Nope, they want their fair share of the check. So, the more ILM has to render and animate, the more they get paid.

 

Because literally every single tiny piece of a robot is essentially hand-made, and hand-painted, just in a computer. It's all keyframe-animated, which means again by "hand."

CGI, good CGI, is incredibly difficult and time-consuming to achieve.

 

I was about to say pretty much the exact same thing.

 

Pretty sure people can easily tell Ratchet apart from Sideswipe.

 

Yep, I'm in animation.

If you want it to be good, it takes time. To give you an example, 24 frames (in 2D a frame is one drawing, in 3d modeling it is still the same just a CGI render) is equal to one second in filming.

Now tell me how many frames you need for a 2 hour and 1/2 film.

Just a basic walk cycle can take up to a week or more to get done and perferct, now add the rendering, colour shading and effects with that as well.


Now think how many people work on it.

Do you think all these people would devote their time and work hard on modeling, moving and giving life to these characters for free.

No.

Animation is long job, in college, we had to do a fat character walk, it had to walk across the page, I had well over 150 drawings to do so, that took about 14 straight days.

 

Look up any tutorial video on computer graphics bro saw one of a dude spending 20 minutes making a damn flower then remember how these bots all have over 10 thousand parts each and the fact that each frame has to be animated by hand and yes making these robots is extremely friggin difficult and time consuming and it costs a lot because of the man hours it's a lot of friggin work done by 60 to 100 man teams if I'm not mistaken.

 

Yeah everything that was made by hand is VERY expensive and difficult!

 

Time for renders, effort by EVERY member of a CGI team and most importantly the electricity bill.

 

While it's a little apples and oranges, it still gives you some relevant perspective:

How Pixar made Monsters University, its latest technological marvel | VentureBeat | Media | by Dean Takahashi

 

ah okay, thanks guys.