Radd

From everything I've seen, the DYRL updated VF design is meant to be the "official" VF-1 design, and the VF-1X update within the Macross universe shows no exterior differences.

I'll just repaste my post from another thread: I agree with you Keith. I simply believe it's a matter of presentation. In M7, it's presented in a way that seems like magical power beams, whereas if Kawamori had done M7, while someone else did Plus, it probably would have been presented in a way that would have been more palatable to fans of Plus. Additionally, I also think Arthur C. Clark's "any significantly advanced technology" comment applies to Protoculture technology such as the "magical" things we see in Zero. *edit* Just thought I'd add, I prefere the Plus approach (and Zero, given it's context). I hope any new series takes more that sort of approach, though I'm definitely a fan of the themes (which are not at all different from the themes in every other Macross presentation) and characters from M7. I'd also prefere a new era and new characters explored. New mecha, too, unless they give us a series based around the VF-4 (I realize I'm in the minority opinion with my adoration of that particular VF). Of course, hopes and idle speculation are just that. I'm looking forward to having some actual news on the series, it's setting, mecha, and characters.

Definitely anime magic. According to size charts for SDF, Kamjin stands at little more than half the height of a VF-1. Looking at the 1/60 scale toys, Millia stands about half as tall as a VF-1. Maybe a little taller than half, but shorter than Kamjin. The destroids from SDF are all a couple heads taller than Kamjin, but significantly shorter than a VF1. A VF-1 is about 2/3 the height of a Battlepod. Unfortunately, the size comparison picture is rather close to the binding of the book I found it in, otherwise I'd scan it. I know others have posted it on the forums before. On the 'spiritua' thing, two things I took away from Macross 7 in context to the other series. First, it does not seem to me that spiritua is intended to be as "magical" as the directing in 7 often makes it out to be. I imagine if Kawamori directed a DYRL style movie version of M7, you wouldn't see the glowing light shooting from Basara or Mylene as they break in to song, it was more of a visual interpretation for the audience. Rather, it seems to be more of an emotional/willpower sort of idea. Technologicially, the Protoculture were able to tap into that. On another level, the Protodevlin can draw sustenance from it. "Anima spiritua" seems to be a regenerating form of this will/energy/emotion. Anyone "could" create anima spiritua. Basara is not some superhuman because he's able to generate it, rather he simply has the right mindset/attitude, and the willpower to do so. In fact, it seemed to me a major plot point and the entire crux of the story was Basara trying to convince everyone of this, though he didn't think of it in terms of spiritua, but rather an outlook on life.

No, I mean this part I'm putting in bold. What 'talented friend' as opposed to what professionally produced film? I must have missed something.

I still want to see or hear more before I canb say for certain that I'll drop full theatre price on this. I must admit, the action sequences I've seen have my hopes up. I still hate the designs, but that alone isn't a deal breaker for me. Just means I won't buy the toys.

I don't understand this comment at all. What are you talking about?

Have you ever had to deal with clients on any sort of animation or graphic design project? Ever had to deal with the "average joe" passing over something you slaved away at for months, then getting all googly-eyed at something you slapped together in an hour using 3D Max and Character Studio? There's a reason they call it the "untrained eye". Now, while I'm still in agreement that the animation is the weakest part of the Clone Wars trailer, watching Starcraft movie sequences really gives me the exact opposite impression. Yes, it's a shame that motion and physics seem to take the biggest hit in most CG tv series ('ve met my share of very talented animators who've gone without work because fluid/realistic motion is such a low priority in everything except high budget features), but it is still noticeably better than Starcraft FMV sequences and any currently running CG tv series I've been unfortunate enough to catch a glimpse of. Especially when you look at the scope. In Starcraft FMV, you're only seeing an average of one two characters in a scene, and maybe a few zerglings loping around. You'll also notice that in the old Blizzard FMV sequences, they cheat a lot. Lots of awkward camera angles, lots of smoke and dark shadows to conceal where they're cutting corners further, and only ever very little character animation amidst long pan shots across landscape and spacecraft flying around. When you do see lots of characters onscreen, it's like a split second shot, or a long distance shot where the characters are little lumps bounding across the landscape.

You don't need to go see every movie that sucks to learn that Hollywood makes awful movies and that there are things you can look for to reasonably discern decent movies from utter trash before you've plunked down the price of admission at the theatre. From the trailers, to the 'Making of' special, to comments made by the director himself, a reasonable person would have been able to glean all the information they needed to know whether or not seeing 'Alien versus Predator' in a first run theatre would be worth it (or even the cheap theatre...or renting it...). A tv series makes it even easier. You can watch a few episodes, and if everything you see is crap, no need to watch more.

My experience says that the "casual eye" cannot discern crap CG from decent quality hand drawn animation, or real world puppetry from CG 8 years ago. The "casual eye" often has trouble discerning quality at all, and tends to confuse "quality" with "style". I'm not suggesting that of you, specifically, and please do not confuse me with an overzealous Star Wars fan out to pour accolades onto everything with the Star Wars brand pasted on to it. From a purely technical standpoint, I believe the comment comparing this animation to 90's videogame cinematics is a rather extreme exaggeration. I'm not saying that this is the best TV CG I've seen either, just that it is better than a lot of tv CG I've seen even in recent years. I will agree that the actual motion is the weakest part of what was shown. Read other people's comments in this thread before making that claim. I didn't single you or your post for my own reply to the thread.

If it's the exact same toy just in different colours and with awful black streaks I'll grab the Takara version. If they make it so the toy isn't so fragile and they tone down the terrible "weathering" I'll grab the Hasbro version.

Eh, I hope Takara simply releases an improved version in the original MP colours so I can pick that up. Avoid the overzealous carbon scoring issue altogether.

The animation actually looks pretty good for a tv series, I'm not certain what everyone is complaining about as far as that goes. If this were a movie, I'd say it's sub-par, but this is a tv series isn't it? I can only assume the majority of complaints are confusing a style they don't care for with actual quality of production. Lots of people seem to do that. That or an expectation of high budget movie effects in a tv series. As for the designs, well opinions are opinions and you know what they say about opinions. Personally, I'm sick unto death with all of the attempts at "realistic" CG that simply winds up looking creepy due to "uncanney valley" syndrome. I'm sick of realistic CG in general, and on principle because it's what so many high end productions aim for. Personally, I think this looks stylish, and and a nice change of pace from all that.

I don't believe that most Americans believe that if the victim left it out, the thief had a right to take it. It's just that people tend to lump a disproportionate part of the blame onto the victim for not taking more precautions, and lose sight of the real issue. Of course, if we all take responsibility for our own actions, if we put a valuable item into a place it risks being stolen, we take that risk. Sure. Maybe the object should have been better protected. However, if you linger on that, you lose perspective of the real issue. If any blame is to be doled out, it should be aimed entirely with the thief. The victim already has a lesson learned and the results of their risk to deal with, pointing the finger at them does no one any good, and only reinforces the idea that this sort of behaviour ought to be expected and even accepted.

LePoseur has a point, though. There's no reason why people can't protect themselves while at the same time recognizing the faults of our society. It's a sad statement of our society that we must keep everything under lock and key. To place a significant portion of the blame on the victim for not protecting themselves enough only seems to encourage the idea that we simply must expect this sort of behaviour, and that is simply not the case.

Actually, Planet X was discovered, caused a big controversy, and now the Solar system only has like 8 "planets" and a bunch of "planetoids".

More immersive force feedback is always welcome, and it's already existed a long time, just not in console pads. Even when Nintendo first introduced the N64 rumble pack, I'd seen flight sticks with much more in depth force feedback. I understood even then why console force feed back was limited to rumble, but it would be nice to see consoles grow in to that as the technology becomes smaller and cheaper.

Not so much "suffering" as "reveling in".

Heh, I also loved the delirium scenes. Very 80's, and very Gilliam-esque. In fact, there were a lot of shots in that movie which made me think of 70's and 80's movies, and even further back. The kind of shots you just don't see in films these days. At least not often.

I thought the third movie was great. I was dismayed, though, by the audience I saw it with. They laughed loud enough that you couldn't hear anything else during the slapstick, but there were several very witty and well written pieces of dialogue in there that only myself, my wife, and the friend we brought with us laughed at. I also rather enjoyed the storytelling and writing overall. There were some awkward bits that seemed contrived and forced, but nothing too terribly jarring given context. The ending was not typical Hollywood fare, and I very much appreciated that. They introduced a lot in this movie, but thankfully they did not try to explore it all. There simply was not time to get through all of the necessary storytelling, character development, and conflict resolution that they needed to get in there and flesh out everything else. All of the new things introduced where delightfully underplayed and subtle enough to provide room for future expansion (the only reason they wouldn't make more movies is if Disney hates money, and we know that's not true) without bogging down the movie at hand. I realize I'm in the minority here, but I thought they did the best they could with Calypso as well. The way the story played out, there was no way she was taking a side, and letting her tromp all over the British would have been far too deus ex machina anyway. As it was, she put her two enemies seperate from outside interference and let them duke it out. I also am coming to realize that I'm in the minority of those who like their movies with a healthy dose of plot. There was not a moment in the third movie that I felt was dragging on, which is more than I can say for the second movie. Not only did all of the dialogue-heavy/action-light sequences move the story along, quite well in my opinion, but they also really helped to establish the larger world. Unfortunately, I also left the theatre before the credits had finished rolling. It's not something I'm happy about, and it's something I try to avoid when going out to see a movie...unless the movie was not very good. This time, however, the movie turned out to be longer than we had expected, and my wife and I both had to drop off our friend and run to work as quickly as possible. As it was, we left when the credits first began rolling, and made it to work just in time. Such are the problems working third shift weekends.

Well, they made the fishing pole, and I wanted the fishing pole, but now it appears difficult if not impossible to obtain. That's really all I was saying. We can toss around differing opinions all day.

Wow, seems the Kiss version of Rodimus is out of stock everywhere. I know there's an Alternator's version coming, but I'm not big on the way they're doing the G1 style flames, plus I really wanted him to have the fishing pole and it does not seem the Alt version will have that. That puts a damper on my weekend. I was all set to order him.

I'll probably pass on Soundwave. I'm not likely to ever use the MP3 functionality, and I don't care to pay so much for what appears to be a rather small figure. If there was a $20 version with no MP3 player, I'd be placing my preorder now.

Straight-on shots don't really do the robot mode justice. He looks really good duking it out with MP Prime. I do wish the cannon was a bit smaller, and that Meg's had come with all of the U.N.C.L.E. parts, but overall he's a fantastic toy on the same level as MP Prime. Better in some ways, worse in others. I'd still highly reccomend getting one.

Heh, I don't even care one bit about G1 colours, so long as they don't go overboard on them and make him look gaudy. I like this subdued style, as opposed to, say, the Classics colour scheme. I just don't want him to break when I Transform him, or feel that I should need to keep him in one mode or another.

Agreed. Mine has literally been the centerpiece of my Macross collection since pretty much the day I got it. Now that I've finally got some Ikea display cases I'm moving all my Macross toys to those, so the Konig Monster will no longer be in the centre, but I plan to put it on one of the top shelves, along with a 1/100 Emerald Force VF-19 model kit and a 1/100 Toynami VF-1. (Also a couple Matchbox Destroid toys, which I'm certain are way out of scale, but hey.)