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chrono

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Posts posted by chrono

  1. LOL! Now I see where your problem mainly lies.

    Part of it's your assuming. "People" call 3D CG, CG because that's what they 'generally' associate it with. Anime fans have known for a while now that most anime is done on computer.

    But your main issue is Human made vs Computer made(generated). The designs are ALL Human made, thus ALL of the CG is Human made, but generated on the Computer. The Computer's don't make anything except what they are told to make.

    Save your brain and consider the computer as today's pencil. Well until Singularity hits then we're all screwed! ^_^

    The mecha drawing, animation and choreography in Frontier is gorgeous IMO and beats any other mecha anime ever, IMO.

    *facepalm*

    3D cg vs 2D hand generated. You can not compare mechanical 3D vs mechanical 2D. One is technical 'perfect' everytime vs one that 'perfect' from an artistic viewpoint.

    *sigh* (gods i hate that stupid kindergarden debate)

    Choreography is the ONLY viable way to compare, and then that's full on subjective. IMO.

    You should go watch Moonlight Mile.

  2. Personally, I'm not worried. Word of mouth has been very positive for the show so far and the ratings have been respectable.

    Online Word of mouth or actual public word of mouth?

    But anyways ep 7 had plenty of feeling like a mid-series show, including the op & ed changes. I'm looking for a much accelerated story to push through whatever they are attempting. The flat out lack of story driving underlying plot is the gapping sekku(spl) of this series. The 3D hasn't changed a wit, still jarring changes between 2D scenes & 3D ones.

    Also it looked like quite a close copy of Mai-Hime ep7 with the rescue scene & the magical girl transform BS during the concert/battle. Nearly ROFL'ed outta my chair at how bad it was. :lol:

    Only REAL neat thing was that they've turned each Macross Fleet into a bunch of mini-nations that show that the NUN is about as worthless as it's original roots (kawa really has a beef with govt doesn't he!). So the situation could easily be considered an anime version of THE CULTURE, except for the fighter planes....

  3. Given the surprisingly low ratings for episode 7, I'm wondering if something like what happened with Macross Plus is happening here, in that for some reason Frontier appeals more to overseas fans than it does to Japanese?

    Graham

    I'm not surprised. Given how the ratings have been low since the beginning and the "plot" has only kicked in. Throw in the multiple other "School Drama's" that have come before and that they have been less flat and far more engrossing than M:F. AND that it's also being shown when Gundam 00, and CodeG are also on. The low ratings are not surprising at all!

    Music & Mecha action can only carry an anime so far and the characters and story have to carry it the rest of the way.

  4. It's handwavium Graham, nothing more. Michel's rifle didn't kill the yellow one that was chasing down Alto in the beginning and it only "killed" the red one because it was a "head shot" handwavium hax.

    I'd buy the "different tatics" argument if the red one in the city wasn't killed of with a hax "laxor knife" via Gundam. :rolleyes:

    The 'enemy' is only as tough as the plot needs it to be. (aka Plot Armor)

  5. Check out the "Art of..." books of SW EP 1-3, you'll be amazed just how many physical models were used in the FX shots. The modelers did a perfect job in making it impossible to distinguish the physical models from the CG sets.

    I suggest that you re-read those SW "Art of..." books because many, if not all, of those models were concept sculpts and not practical models. Sculpts that were then scanned into digital by the folks at ILM. Lucas learned a lot from Ep 1 and eps 2 & 3 show that with a better mixture of FX.

    Also those SW were polished by digital artists to ensure it worked.

    @JsARCLIGHT, I completely agree with you! That 'impossible shot' tends to break the immersion that the producer/director/writer intents with the scene/world. Very distracting. <_<

  6. This episode gave me some speculative ideas about Frontier's storyline...

    Considering the opening GITS-like cyberization, I think

    Brera

    is a

    "Special Forces"

    character let loose against the NUNS colonial ships. He is

    "special"

    in the same way as Sharon Apple was,

    for military and political purposes by whoever is really behind the Vajra. Also, he was really just observing instead of fighting the Vajra like the SMS crew were doing. He even shot Alto's (well, Luca's) mech!

    I'm rethinking now

    if the Vajra are really Protoculture or just a man-made experiment by a rebel group against the UNS and/or NUNS

    .

    B))

    The "cat" is just to far outta the bag for the AUN to play much of a part anymore.

    It IS beginning to look like the 117th Fleet was doing Bioweapon research and a powermonger from the old AUN, the Vajra carrier has hints of VF-X design in it, got a hold of it.

  7. I`m really fascinated how some people say that CG looks good in comparison to hand drawn or large scale models in anime and science fiction.

    3D in anime is extremely hard to get 'right'. Strain got the closest before they brought in the spaceships then it went down hill.

    Old school SDF has line detail that "implies" something else and a new 3D versions have huge amounts of easily seen detail. So far the 2 design ideals just haven't met. Macross Frontier is a clean example of mismatched ideals. With it's low end character detail and it's high end mechanical detail.

    Do you think CG technology can ever match models for large ships etc? Or do you think it already has?

    In time when the 20's-30's somethings have died off and they are willing to throw money at getting it right. :lol:

  8. Ahhh....there's a very fine line between "style" and art quality. You raised a good example citing Noein as an example. Noein had its own art style, which was consistent since EPISODE 1. It didn't pretend to be a high budget sci-fi show. It didn't hide that its budget was lower than most anime series of that time. It was just Noien, and people appreciated it for that. Remember the pencil sketch episode? I won't consider that an art degradation but probably there due to artistic reasons (and MAYBE budgetary concerns?)

    The art in NOEIN had issues as fast as the second episode. The quality jumps and fluxs through it and well before & by ep 10 was showing a lack of quality. As for it's art style it was the manga author's style. Not a budgetary or for artistic reasons. Strain was slightly more consistent, but like all anime it suffered as well.

    Consistence is a myth in art and anime. ^_^

    but Sheryl looks like some kind of nocturnal tree-dwelling creature...

    BAWHAHAHAHA!! :lol:

  9. Klan is about the only character in MF that is likable because she doesn't put up a front and is the physical embodiment of the tsundere. ^_^

    edit: No graphic or vulgar descriptions/depictions of sex or sexual content.

    (ie typical mod stupidity. it was censored!)

  10. Any how, what do you guys think, pro's, con's, positives & negatives???!!!!

    PRO's - THE MUSIC!. Which rates right up there with BONES. I look forward to buying the compilation discs.

    CON's - Basically every thing else.

    - The character designs & characters themselves are unimpressive and without anymore depth than in episode 1 even when at episode 4 and clearly is continuing the M7 tradition of lifeless shallow characters. Sadly not even the slightly good secondary Klein Klan (however the correct name is spelled) can over come this. What you see is literally what you get. :blink:

    - The story, when it raises it's microscopic head, is even worse because it is across the board lacking in any deep. But when the story isn't there the entire show basically falls apart into a visual organism of landscape panning, dog fighting with deus Mechania(spl) monster fighting, and sparse, shallow school yard chatter. :unsure:

    - The 3D CGI is grossly over used to the point of visual distraction because of it's lacking scene integration and destroys the disbelieve that the show attempts to build. The fights come off as about Super Robot as they can get equaling SHMUPS, ie shallow, lacking, & meaningless twitch-fests where you pray that the final boss is worth the effort of playing. You literally don't care who wins in any fight. :wacko:

    So far it's PERFECTLY continuing the Macross Seven & Mai Hime premises in every way. <_<

  11. Over analyzing & over defended. :wacko:

    Episode 4 is about as pure homage as you can get without directly copying it as are nearly all of the episodes and even the one that aren't completely homage identical themes run through them leaving a "been there" after taste that is often slightly "wtf!". At least with the original there was an underlaying forward driving plot element. Right now it's just school-dickery with Macross elements thrown in.

    But anyways I gave it 4 episodes to prove itself and it simply hasn't, so moving on...

  12. I think Mandarin is too big of a threat to be wasted on the 2nd movie... I'm assuming there's going to be a third movie.

    Agreed! Mandarin only works with build-up, but even then the Rings throw a nasty curve into the equation. <_<

    IM works because it has a plausible reality to it. However Mandarin has a quite problematic "supervillian" magic issue that would throw IM into "WTF!?!?"-ville for many non fans in the audience. If they stick with plausible and semi-realistic villains, which IM has in spades, then it would be great.

    Using A.I.M. in the next film along with the Black Widow stealing the IM plans for "mother russia" would be good, because it would allow for plenty of potential "Armor Wars" later on.

  13. I'm normally too busy discussing toys to visit these sections, but I just caught up with Frontier and there's a couple of tings I want to get out of my chest.

    Not to polemisize or anything, I understand most people here is partial to anything Macross, but so far I've found Frontier a poor remake of more successful installments of the franchise.

    I feel the same way. None of the mains have much depth beyond their stereotypes and are usually boring to watch. Virtually no plot other than "We're expanding to perverse humanity." theme, and to boot the only "interesting" bit is Klan who is little more than a gimmick secondary character. So far it's Macross 7.1.

    But you really can't expect much from a scriptwriter who has little history beyond the My-Hime and Code Geass animes... :rolleyes:

  14. Do you actually know what the budget was for an average episode of Star Trek? It was $1 million per episode. Babylon 5 was $500,000 to $800,000 per episode. Deep Space Nine was $1.6 million per episode.

    *golf claps*

    Yeah costs are tight. However the costs involved with those shows also went towards realism (realism costs), and that's something anime doesn't have to worry about overly much. As for the CG B5 is roughly half to equal the same amount of polygons amounts that they have on M:F. Game level models today and each had a one week limit in which it had to be done. 2-10 computers with 1/20th of last years power on APPLES!

    It's flat out lack of experience with 3D...

    OR....

    They are intentionally using 1 level of model so they can use the perceived "time saved" for extra 2D-3D integration. Aka 'polishing'. However even then it's silly given how fast it takes to make a L.O.D. model (as fast as the renderer can swap out models).

    -----

    @DrunkenMaster2, Hell yeah!!! B)) Bring'm on! 45 foot tall... tight 'armor' BDU... 5' 6" audience... LOL!

  15. Chronocidal is correct, this is a series that is on a budget, no matter how impressive that budget may be for an anime.

    Yep he's correct that it's on a budget and a weekly series.

    However that near stopped Enterprise, TNG, Babylon 5, Aeon Kid(US title), and most major shows from using a high poly model or multi-LOD models to get great quality within budget. The whole "1 model" system never worked (except for physical models) and shows the inexperience that anime makers have with 3D. It is their inexperience because nearly every major professional package can make LOD's with ease and it's a simple matter of picking the LOD for the shot.

    But we'll see how ep 2 is. Can't wait to see the Loli Zentraedi. ;)

  16. I think they're seriously mixing the classic love triangle formula though... they've got enough characters for a love dodecahedron. :blink: My guess is there's going to be a lot of pairing off somewhere in the series.

    The white haired character at the end I'd guess is either Zentran or Meltran from the ear shape.. same as another main character interestingly... The design of the purple plane is too similar to the VF-25 to be a complete enemy, but I would guess maybe a serious rival, or possibly someone from another group like SMS with their own fighter designs (the company making the VF-25 could make multiple models based on the same basic frame).

    Then again... really crazy idea. Besides the white hair, that character looks an awful lot like Alto (same girlish figure too). Would be interesting if they're related, maybe brothers, or possibly old kabuki acquaintances.. the ears go against it, but maybe they're half brothers. :huh:

    I think that they are over reaching in reaction to how long and empty M7 was. Which can mean many things from a coherent plot line and story to a slaughters-fest like Gundam 00 has become. There's enough good designs here to pull a 52 ep series and have plenty of story material.

    As for the white haired person and Alto being kabuki's at one time.... well there's the yaoi fetish. Personally I hope that it's 25's AI, especially if M2 is officially part of the history.

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