Magazine Confirms Seven Constructicons

TFW2005's Dinobot Nuva has posted a scan from an article in the current issue of Nick Magazine that has comments from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen lead animator Shawn Kelly were he talks about eyes and the complexity of Devastator and merging seven vehicles. This is, to my knowledge, the first time someone directly associated with the movie has confirmed that seven vehicles combine to form Devastator. Previous mentions were second hand information in articles, a toy, and novelizations.


Devastator

Says Shawn, "Devastator is easily the most complicated character we've ever done because of his size, which is absolutely gigantic. Just trying to figure out how he might form into this giant thing and then walk around was a huge challenge." Animating Devastator required so much computing power that one artist's computer overheated and its insides melted!

"We tried to make a scary transformation for [Devastator] where things are slamming together and getting pulled around. All seven vehicles are shoving themselves together and clicking into place as he grows into this giant, scary dude."

Emotion via the Eyes:

An important part of making the robots look real is their eyes. According to Shawn, "We had to pay a lot of attention to the robots' eyes because a lot of them don't have much more to their face. As long as we can bring the eyes to life, it works pretty well." To do this, animators spent time studying real eyes to see how they move and blink. They also filmed each other and studied the eyes of different actors as they recorded their lines.

Transformers 2 Performing Pickup Shots

Turns out that Transformers 2 production is not quite finished as the cast performed some pickup shots this week for the film. This information is supported by an interview with Tyrese, a tweet from Megan Fox and a video of the area that includes shots of Shia, Fox, Optimus and Bumblebee.

Megan's tweet:

surprise surprise! shia and i were filming some more scenes the other day. can't wait for everyone to see :)

Tyrese on the shoot and pickups with SciFi Wire:

"Yeah, we did some new scenes, some new shots, got to the set around 10 this morning," Gibson said in a group interview. "Today we officially wrapped Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. Any missing pieces there were, we picked them up today. They're going to go ahead and put it in the chop shop and put the magic around it and go ahead and add it into the film."

What exactly were the pickup shots you did today?
Gibson: I can't really speak on it, but that was a nice try.

Did you get to go to Egypt?
Gibson: No, I didn't get to go to Egypt. I was supposed to go, but you won't be able to tell I'm not there. ...

Will you be part of the third one?
Gibson: I didn't die in 2. I can tell you that.

Based on Megan Fox's outfit, Shia's burnt shirt (as seen here), the background, and set, this appears to be pickup shots for the Egyptian desert sequences. They may also being doing pickups for Princeton based on the outfits of some of the other people on set. The magic of Hollywood where one scene has the potential to have been crafted from literally around the world. Thanks to Megatron for the video link.

EW Article Reveals "Space Bridge"? (Updated)

The April 24th is of Entertainment Weekly showed up in my mailbox today with a summer movie preview of various films including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. One related story, Shia LaBeouf's hand status, was already appeared online. The main Transformers related articles was not. So with that in mind, below are excerpts from the article including how Shia's injury was incorporated into the film. I would scan, except I don't have a scanner.

Michael Bay remembers the day that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen nearly fell apart. It was Sunday, July 27, 2008. "I always look on CNN.com," says the filmmaker. "And there it was: Shia LaBeouf in a car crash... Oh, God. I read it and thought, 'No, this can't be true."

But it was. The 22-year-old star, who was about one-third of the way through shooting the sequel to Bay's 2007 hit Transformers, had seriously injured his left hand in an early-morning traffic accident in West Hollywood.

While he was naturally concerned about LaBeouf's health, Bay also had a movie to finish. With his leading man's cooperation, he moved decisively to keep from shutting down the production, and a bandaged LaBeouf returned to the set after just a few weeks - against the advice of one of his doctors, the actor says. The screenwriters tweaked the script so that his character...get hurt in a sort of teleportation device called a "space bridge." LaBeouf agreed to postpone additional surgery on his hand until after the shoot wrapped in October, and he was outfitted with a custom-made hand cast designed to be both photogenic and superprotective. (There has even been talk of replacing LaBeouf's hand with CG; Bay says it was ruled as too expensive and "a pain in the neck.")

Seven weeks after LaBeouf's accident, the actor is hard at work on Revenge of the Fallen, his face, arms, and one good hand covered in fake sweat-that is, Vaseline. They and several dozen uniform-clad extras playing soldiers are nestled among desert dunes in a picturesque corner New Mexico near the White Sands National Monument.

"We've blown up so many things," says LaBeouf, squinting hard in the reflected sunlight. "A fish tank, a helicopter, concrete tubes. We blew up a library. This set you're looking at? This will all be gone." Indeed, the buildings were constructed with charges built right into them. They're dressed up to look like an Egyptian village, which will later be intercut with IMAX location photography of a real town near the pyramids of Giza. That's the site of the film's final showdown between the good-guy Autobots and bad-guy Decepticons, including the title character, a Lucifer-like figure actually called the Fallen.

Standing atop a dune, Bay is barking into a megaphone at some crew members who've gotten a little too chatty. "Let's have some quiet and some respect!" he yells. "It's not many sets that have live F-16s flying over!" Minutes later, six F-16 warplanes thunder past overhead, piloted by military personnel - though not at taxpayer expense, Bay hastens to point out.

The Space Bridge is from the G1 cartoons that was built by the Constructicons (and designed by Soundwave if remember right) that allows instant transportation between Earth and Cybertron. It was really a story convenience to allow stories to be set on Cybertron with established characters while introducing new ones (such as Shockwave). How this could play into the movie should be interesting. Maybe it is how so many Decepticons get to Earth without the attention grabbing blaze across the skyline before crashing through something. Of course, if your goal is destruction, not a bad way to go about it as the trailers show.

Update: TFW2005 has scans of the article here to read the stuff I left out.

On Set With Robert Zuckerman

EDFX has posted a video with Set Photographer Robert Zuckerman about his career and work both on and off Hollywood film sets. In the video is specifically some footage as he works on the Princeton set last June as part of his work on Transformers 2. He doesn't reveal any movie spoilers but it’s an interesting video.

The video is below. Click here for background and examples of Zuckerman's work from Transformers I. You can also see more of his non-film work at his blog Kindsight. Thanks to Edward for the link.

Piece of the AllSpark (Updated)

Thanks to Brian, here is a picture of the AllSpark fragment and prop container as seen in one of the movie stills (below) from USA Today last year. The photo was taken at the LG Booth as part of the promotion between LG and Transformers. Exactly what part the fragment plays in the movie has yet to be revealed.






Update: Via TFW2005, below is the picture of the LG Versa Limited Edition Transformers 2 cell phone. I have no idea what the availability plan or cost of these phones will be.

Fox-y New Movie Stills

Megan-Fox.net, always a good place to go to drool over the lovely Mrs. Fox, has scored some new photos from Transformers 2. The photos provide a few shots of the human heroes in various bits of danger and an awesome high-tech set that would be perfect for a LAN party.

Obviously my favorite is the one with Megan Fox, partly for the obvious reason and partly for the amusement of the long sleeve shirt in the desert as to hide her Marilyn tattoo on her mid arm as the sand would probably cause make-up problems. As a side note, a bit of fun while watching her movies is to note how costumes, make-up and stage directions are used to hide that tat (How to Lose Friends had her holding shoes at strange angles and times). Thanks to Grant for the heads-up.

60 Robots in Transformers 2?

For a while now the number of Transformers in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen numbered around 40 but a new article from Variety is pegging that number around 60. The article, part of the nod to Michael Bay for his Vanguard Award, discusses the demands Bay has for the visual effects work being done by ILM and Digital Domain for movie.

"Michael took the production value up many, many notches," [ILM's lead VFX supervisor for TF2 Scott Farrar] says. "Just the backgrounds alone are huge. It's a combination of 'Apocalypse Now' and 'Ben-Hur,' in regards to fantastic backgrounds and the unbelievable sets we worked at around the world."

Everyone involved in "Revenge of the Fallen" is keeping the details under wraps, but Farrar says there are some 60 robot characters, and they play in settings around the world. Some, like refineries at night, were chosen to boost the visual drama and show off the scale of the giant 'bots.

What's more, this time the Transformers will interact much more with the world around them. Farrar highlights "the splashes and the hits and the fighting on dirt or moving, banging into trees," explaining, "Things splinter and break, they spit, they outgas, they sweat, they snort."

One new challenge is that several sequences will be shown in Imax format, approximately 16 times larger than 35mm, which means the CG work must be finished at much higher resolution. At that scale, it can take several days to render a final frame.

All this is on top of creating a new family of giant robots. "(Bay) had to learn a whole litany of new things by getting into this robot culture on the first film," Farrar says. "I don't think he'd ever worked on a film where he'd done so much directing of animated characters. So he's really taken it to heart, and I think not everybody does, but he actually enjoys the process."

A few things of note. One is "60 robot characters". Now there is a difference between an appearance and an actual character. For the purposes of VFX, whether a Transformer is in the background, foreground, on screen for two seconds or 20 minutes, a rather detailed design effort has to go into creating that 3-D object so it can be inserted into the film properly. As a result, if there is a scene on Cybertron, one moment could have "60 robot characters" in it. I think that there may be up to 40 named characters and the rest are probably background for whatever a particular scene needs.

The second thing of note is something that Transformers 2 will probably not get credit for being the first film to have VFX used extensively for IMAX scenes. The Dark Knight was one of the first major summer movies to have scenes specifically created for the IMAX and proved that studios could make money off of IMAX, but they "cheated" it a touch by filming rather standard scenes in the format. Michael Bay's use in Transformers 2 much more ambitious, complicated and expensive with CGI Transformers effects that have to scaled accordingly. Personally I was unimpressed by The Dark Knight IMAX Experience compared with the regular theatrical movie and hope that Transformers 2 IMAX Experience creates a much more dramatic distinction between the two formats.

MTV's Spoilers Transformers 2 Clip

Today Spoilers aired on MTV that included about a minute clip of Transformers 2 behind the scenes action that shows people running, things exploding, and bodies flying through the air. Especially fun was seeing moments that we already saw via fan videos and reports from Bethlehem, Princeton and the Queensway Bridge. Thanks to Katsuhono for the line.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Update: Found by b.skow, click here for the YouTube version.

A New Twist on Fallen Concept? (Update 2)

A new post LS2.com (via TFormers) adds an interesting twist to what "The Fallen" may be in the title Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. Currently there are two camps, either it’s a brand new character named "The Fallen" based on a comic book concept from a few years or it is symbolic naming for the return of Megatron (possibly renamed to Galvatron).

According to "-=boM=-", there now might be another potential meaning. BoM was apparently a military extra on the set when filming occurred at Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands in New Mexico around October. A claim supported by pictures from the set. Big spoiler warning for below and note this is completely unverified.

First post by -=boM=-:

"Can't wait...i'm in it as an extra. I am a Navy Seal doing a battle scene against the Decepticons. I filmed out at White Sands and on Hollomans flight line. Filmed for 4 days and had a blast. Tons of pics on my Facebook."

Follow up reply:

I had to chase a bunch of villagers out of the area because the Decepticons were attacking, then had to protect Optimus Prime's body. There were a shitload of us out there.

The food and catering was awesome. A lot of downtime. Just like a deployment.

I did an interview for the DVD. We will see if that is on it too. The asked me a bunch of questions about the military. The autobots are behind me on top of a sand dune. I did a GM plug. They liked that.

Micheal Bay loves the military. I got to speak with him very briefly. He gets so angry on set at the actors but doesn't dare yell or demean the military. It was a trip. He said something to me like do you want a job as a DA (Directors Assistant), I said hell yeah. He was getting pissed at his DA. His DA was like trust me you dont want this job.

I have two closeup shots if they do decide to put them in the movie. One was walking with the camera on the tracks going along with me but at a slower pace. The camera was right on the side of my face following me but at a slower rate. There were two others behind me. The other close up was while I was defending from a corner of a building on one knee. The boom camera went from the ground to over head of us all. I was up front in the scene. The camera came up to my face then began to ascend over the area. It was pretty cool.

Another scene was Optimus getting dropped off by a chinook. I had to run up to the area then stop as Optimus was getting dropped.

Another was with Josh and Tyrese when they argue with The President on the flightline. I am in the background.

As much time as I spent filming (9-10 hours a day for 4 days) I hope I am seen at least once. Hell I'll be happy to be on teh DVD.

If the post above is true then apparently Optimus Prime may possibly fall fighting the Decepticons and maybe return seeking revenge on them. The only problem I have with this idea is "revenge" would be very un-Optimus Prime like. I am inclined to dismiss this idea. However, Prime dying could have possibilities, or it simply could be Prime gets severely injured (commercial shows a possible beat down) and is unconscious requiring an escort during recovery.

Now to support that boM was an extra (but not the Prime plot point), he posted a HUGE gallery of pictures from the set that includes pictures of most of the Autobot vehicle cast including Ratchet, who has been missing from most of the sets leading to speculation that his character dies. Below are just 12 pictures out of 117 that he posted so be sure to go here to view them all.

Images removed per demand from Paramount Pictures.
Update: As read abobe, the Holloman set pics are getting pulled from the web by Paramount. My best guess is the pictures revealed a plot point since the vehicles have been known for a while now and the set itself was featured on ET and Insider. My best, mostly uneducated guess, for the reason behind the cease and desist is the shot of Josh Duhamel, Shia and Megan. In it Josh and Megan's body language seems to be of anguish or concern over a prone Sam, who is wearing a costume that is the same as the burnt and bloody costume from August. I guess this set is where Shia received those injuries for the film.

Update 2: To add fire to the above, according to the Latino Review, boM had initially used the word "corpse" instead of "body" when talking about Optimus. The change was made when a poster noted that they never actually referred to him as dead. Thanks to Ian and Chris for the info.

Autobot Fleet, Helicopter Painting Pictures

A few pictures from past Transformers sets have come up again. First up is a gallery of pictures that show the work that went into converting helicopters into the Shanghai police copters used for the Bethlehem set back in June. Below is a before, during, and after pictures but a whole lot more are at the full huge gallery here.
Thanks to Mike taking and providing the pictures for us.

Spoiler-TV posted to pictures Queensway Bridge, Long Beach, CA that shows off the entire known Autobot fleet (except for the always absent Ratchet).

Empire, USA Today TF2 Articles (Updated)

As promised, articles are now online from USA Today and Empire magazine about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. USA Today's articles (here and here) have no pictures and provides less spoiler information and more confirmation of a few rumors that have leaked over the few months. Empire Online teases their magazine article while providing the dynamic but spoiler free images in this post. To summarize:

- As a picture below shows, confirmation that Shia's hand injury was written into the movie.
- Story plot is for the Decepticons to capture Sam due to information he "learned about the origins of the Transformers and their ancient history of Earth."
- To counter Decepticon goes, "the US military and an international coalition has united with the good-guy Autobots." (This explains Matthew Marsden's role in the movie).
- Decepticon Soundwave is the "fearsome communications expert." (Nothing about alt mode).
- "...Devastator, whose arms and legs are built out of other Transformers." (This appears to confirm the gestalt rumor, but no details on how many TFs it takes to form him)
- "...Jetfire, a villain whose age and broken-down physicality leads him to help the Autobots." (Verifies that he will follow the G1 arc of joining the good guys and that he will likely have a crutch of sorts).
- New Mexico filming was for a plot point about running from "ancient temple while villainous Decepticons stomp and crush their way through a village in pursuit" and into a "line of tanks and soldiers blasting guns at the giant robots above and behind them."
- "Not that we don't trust (special effects coordinator James D.) Schwalm and the boys," he adds. "But even an eyelash flying at you at 700 miles an hour will cut you. You're running past them, and your clearance is only about 10 feet. These dudes are moving, and if one trips or falls and we run into the muzzle of a blank, that could blow your chest open or burn you."
- "The U.S. Department of Defense gave its official stamp of approval to the Michael Bay-directed film, not only allowing production amid the pristine dunes of the Army's New Mexico [White Sands] missile range, but also letting filmmakers follow jets and fighter planes through the sky from nearby Holloman Air Force Base. More scenes were shot on the Navy's aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, and Marines fill the ranks of the strike team battling the invading Transformers."
- "The film's Army liaison, Lt. Col. Gregory Bishop, notes: "As far as I know, this is the biggest joint military operation movie ever made, in terms of Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines. I can't think of one that's bigger."
- "Among the equipment the movie is using in this desert sequence alone: two A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog" tank-killing jets; six F-16 Fighting Falcons; 10 armored Humvees; the Army's Golden Knights parachute team; two Abrams tanks; two Bradley tanks; two missile-launcher vehicles; two armored personnel carriers; and a quarter-mile of the missile testing range, cleared of unexploded ordnance and built into an Egyptian town and temple. (Signs warn not to cross a perimeter just over the gypsum dunes, because live bombs could be hidden in the sand.)"
- Off-duty enlisted where used as pay extra for many scenes shot with the military's assistance.
- "The final battle the military is helping Bay create is supposed to be an enormous firefight in Egypt, but much of it is being shot in the White Sands dunes in a town built over the roughly quarter-mile cleared span."
- "After completing work in New Mexico, the cast and crew moved to Giza for scenes at the actual pyramids, getting first-time access to the 5,000-year-old site from the Egyptian government. "It plays a big plot point," Bay says, noting that they were allowed to shoot on the pyramids — not just around them."
- "The studio has to reimburse the U.S. Treasury for live munitions and other requests for troops or equipment that unit commanders don't consider to be valid battle simulation or part of military training, Bishop says."
- "During this shoot, an F-22 Raptor [Starscream] roars by like a mechanical arrowhead, blasting the earth with the banshee scream of its engines. It circles the set dozens of times before heading off to complete its scheduled training."

Overall not as much information as hoped. Hopefully once the Empire Magazine hits newsstands (not sure when) that will provide more details and context for the below pictures. Thanks to Rich and April for the links.



Update: USA Today has posted a six picture photo gallery (3 above, 3 new below) related to their articles. The Optimus Prime picture is the same as the Empire image just without all the text to covering it.

The Insider, ET Transformers 2 Set Reports

On Tuesday the Insider and Entertainment Tonight aired behind the scene reports from the Transformers set at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The videos include glimpses at scenes being filmed, interviews with Shia Labeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and Michael Bay. Lots of boom with moments involving exploding buildings, roadside booms and jets.

As far as actual movie spoiler type information, not a whole lot that I could see. The ET report revealed that White Sands is dressed for a town in Egypt. Their footage, probably shot sometime in the last week was for day 66 out of the --- day production schedule. Also it appears where in the first movie the military characters did the globe-trotting it appears that Shia and Megan join them this time. As previously reported this could extend to include Sam's parents but that was not verified by either set report.


The Insider and ET have posted their videos online. The Insider video is here, ET one is here (or below).


Updated: Added the above picture to the post. The screenshot is from the Insider set report at the 3:12 mark. It appears to be an animatic of a fight sequence between Bumblebee and maybe Barricade but that is just a guess.