TF Views

Dominic wrote:

Pixar wasn't on fox kids in the mid 90's so that doesn't count. Seriously, that's like comparing the original Land of the Lost to Star Wars. I challenge you to find a tv show on at the time that was better than BW in animation. Cause I sure don't remember seeing any.

I am just saying that there was better animation at the time. For "lowest bidder yeoman's job", BW was great. But, I am not going to say it was the best of its time.

The problem with your argument is that you're comparing Beast Wars to Pixar's work. TV show vs. movie. Of course Pixar can create superior visuals- they have a bigger budget, more time, and more staff. What other fully CGI shows ON TELEVISION were better looking than Beast Wars?

-recalls a few BM supporters in this thread once cursing the show.

Times change, and so do opinions.

Onslaught Six wrote:You mean the show wasn't toy accurate.

Transformers is a toyline first.

Except not all Transformers series have started out as a toyline first.

Beast Machines was probably the first series where Hasbro was developing the toys in conjunction with Mainframe already working on animating the show with both companies developing what they had based on concept art.

Transformers Prime would be another example, where Hasbro actually emphasized it being a TV show first and developing the toys later, which is why the toys are only just now being released while the show is already into its second season.

And then there are the War for Cybertron video game designs which weren't originally intended to get any toys but Hasbro decided to make a few figures for the Generations line after the fact.

Even with the movies, the concepts for the movies themselves was developed first with Hasbro basing the toys off of that.

I'll never understand this complaint. The toys were awesome. People just whined because they were too attached to a cartoon that they couldn't separate it from the toys.

One of the main points of the cartoon series is to sell toys isn't it? People generally want the toys to accurately represent the characters they're supposed to be. Some figures later on in the series were designed to be more show accurate (the motocycle and tank drones for example) but really Hasbro could have done a better job with the line. There's no reason for things like Nightscream getting an Ultra sized toy while Silverbolt got a Basic.

Dominic wrote:I am just saying that there was better animation at the time. For "lowest bidder yeoman's job", BW was great. But, I am not going to say it was the best of its time.

How was the work Mainframe did the "lowest bidder yeoman's job"? Seriously, find a CGI animation studio that was doing television at the time that was better than Mainframe. Heck, here it is almost 20 years later and Beast Wars still looks decent to some of today's shows.

The facial expressions of Beast Wars still rival a lot of television CGI that's being made today.

Dominic wrote:The show is supposed to compliment the toyline. And, during BW, the two were developed at the same time to keep them consistent. BM was a stumble backwards in this regard.

I take issue with this! BW's show wasn't developed at the same time as the toys--at least, not directly. Hasbro would make the toys, send them (or prototypes) to Mainframe, and say, "Make it like this." BM was developed toys and show simultaneously, with both differing from some of the original designs because of this. (Look up some of the old Hasbro design drawings, like for Jetstorm when he was red and named "Skybolt.")

-recalls a few BM supporters in this thread once cursing the show.

Not me!

Sparky Prime wrote: How was the work Mainframe did the "lowest bidder yeoman's job"? Seriously, find a CGI animation studio that was doing television at the time that was better than Mainframe. Heck, here it is almost 20 years later and Beast Wars still looks decent to some of today's shows.

Maybe he meant in comparison to the CGI on a show like Star Trek or Babylon 5?

Mako Crab wrote:

Sparky Prime wrote: How was the work Mainframe did the "lowest bidder yeoman's job"? Seriously, find a CGI animation studio that was doing television at the time that was better than Mainframe. Heck, here it is almost 20 years later and Beast Wars still looks decent to some of today's shows.

Maybe he meant in comparison to the CGI on a show like Star Trek or Babylon 5?

Maybe? But the budget for such things on a prime time adult show can't be compared to the budget for a kid's show.

Yeah, and blending CGI with primarily live action and starship models (at least until the later part of DS9 and Voyager, I dunno about Babylon 5) is a different thing from a series that's all CGI.

Yeah. Beast Wars and Machines can get away with its cartoony look, because the whole world they inhabit matches that look. But so much of the CGI in stuff like DS9, Voyager, Bab 5, and ESPECIALLY Xena and Hercules (among others) just looks jivey.

I never saw B5 and only saw a few episodes of Xena and Hercules but I thought the CGI in DS9 was pretty good. Particularly for Odo and the shapeshifters. Been a while since I've seen it though.

In general I'd say Star Trek had really good CGI as well, although fully CGI aliens really stuck out as being CGI aliens to me. Like Species 8472 in Voyager or the Gorn in Enterprise.