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Post by dinosauria101 on Oct 17, 2023 1:59:04 GMT 5
New clip. They show us some brontothere footage and some further footage of existing animals together with already shown footage....I like those brontotheres almost as much as WWB's. www.reddit.com/r/Dinosaurs/comments/1794cnl/life_on_our_planet_new_tv_spot/Exalt , I found confirmation of the 25-30% VFX thing that you mentioned but I could not find. This comment makes a good point: I do think the article could be wrong given how wrong the Prehistoric Planet season 3 articles were. On the other hand, so does this one. This would be a disappointment even independently from any expectations of LOOP being like the Trilogy of Life 2.0: I am simply not that big on the talking head-majority documentaries. I reallllllly hope those trailers aren't clickbait. The reddish-brown coloration on the Megacerops does look pretty good. The localized hair running down the back, throat, and legs(?) is an intriguing choice, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it from the perspective of plausibility. If I were the one designing it I would have probably just done the usual hairless grey look brontotheres are given, but this is a pretty good change of pace. I think it's probably my favorite model we've seen so far. Honestly the hair is one thing I don't find aesthetically pleasing....it is why I said almost as good as WWB instead of as good as WWB. But to each their own, and I guess it's lucky you like it.  What are your thoughts on the potential for 25-30% VFX and the claims of an inaccurate T. rex model by the way? Edit: 8 pages! Wanna bet we'll reach at least 9 (or maybe 10) by October 25? |
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Post by Exalt on Oct 17, 2023 2:03:39 GMT 5
I'm fairly neutral on the Megacerops but when you consider that brontotheres are actually closer to horses than rhinos, could you argue that moving slightly away from the rhino look is understandable?
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Post by Exalt on Oct 17, 2023 2:56:19 GMT 5
We got part of a segment involving Arthropleura. I did not realize that centipedes and millipedes are often either blind, or have poor vision.
There's also a segment showing slightly more of the Titanis and Smilodon bit, but I think that the narration isn't final, like how that T.Rex clip we got before season 1 of Prehistoric planet had different narration than the actual episode, though I think that this case is more obvious.
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Post by Infinity Blade on Oct 17, 2023 6:27:32 GMT 5
The reddish-brown coloration on the Megacerops does look pretty good. The localized hair running down the back, throat, and legs(?) is an intriguing choice, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it from the perspective of plausibility. If I were the one designing it I would have probably just done the usual hairless grey look brontotheres are given, but this is a pretty good change of pace. I think it's probably my favorite model we've seen so far. Honestly the hair is one thing I don't find aesthetically pleasing....it is why I said almost as good as WWB instead of as good as WWB. But to each their own, and I guess it's lucky you like it. What are your thoughts on the potential for 25-30% VFX and the claims of an inaccurate T. rex model by the way? Edit: 8 pages! Wanna bet we'll reach at least 9 (or maybe 10) by October 25? Someone on Twitter took time to illustrate just how a LOOP rex looks off, particularly the face. If I find that thread, I'll link it here. So we know the LOOP rex isn't perfect. All the advertising so far pointed towards nothing but segments of animals, whether live-action shots or CGI. If it really does turn out to be just a fraction of animal segments, and the rest just talking heads, etc., I...wouldn't be shocked...but it would irk me far more than any paleontological inaccuracy. |
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Post by Exalt on Oct 17, 2023 6:37:21 GMT 5
I honestly don't know what to think, we will have to see what we get, this is part of why I have emphasized keeping our expectations moderated.
Also, I never heard about supposed Prehistoric Planet season 3 articles...
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Post by dinosauria101 on Oct 17, 2023 6:53:42 GMT 5
I honestly don't know what to think, we will have to see what we get, this is part of why I have emphasized keeping our expectations moderated. Also, I never heard about supposed Prehistoric Planet season 3 articles... You have a fair point on the first. Yeah it's a wise choice.....even notwithstanding the fact that 25-30% VFX would be disappointing free of expectations, keeping expectations moderate is wise. Articles covered in this comment and following comments: theworldofanimals.proboards.com/post/64802/threadAs for your other 2 comments: don't know about the Megacerops, and the rest took the words out of my mouth! Thank you for sharing.  |
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Post by Exalt on Oct 17, 2023 7:00:44 GMT 5
The rest?
Also, one thing you might also want to keep in mind is that even if the animals are cg, some of the backgrounds and such may not be, just like in PhP or Walking With.
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Post by dinosauria101 on Oct 17, 2023 7:09:01 GMT 5
The rest? Also, one thing you might also want to keep in mind is that even if the animals are cg, some of the backgrounds and such may not be, just like in PhP or Walking With. I mean the Arthropleura, Titanis, Smilodon, and T. rex stuff you mentioned. Possible real life backgrounds, yay! |
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Post by dinosauria101 on Oct 17, 2023 16:42:37 GMT 5
I found a promo image of the terror birds. Could this be an image of what Exalt was talking about?  |
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Post by theropod on Oct 17, 2023 18:07:53 GMT 5
So there’s information saying that less than a third of LOOP is actually going to be cgi?
While that doesn’t automatically mean it wouldn’t be a good documentary, that would still be a major disappointment. I think I wasn’t the only one who, after watching the trailer, was sort of expecting it to be like WWD or PP in showing us 100% recreated prehistoric ecosystems.
More than making another talking-heads documentary in principle, what would be most troubling would be the imo quite misleading marketing and branding of this show as something much more than what it is or was ever intended to be. I suppose it would be possible that it was just an honest mistake and lack of consideration for what sort of expectation the title and trailer create, but it seems a lot more likely that it was deliberate dishonesty.
But I suppose it’s not really totally clear what is meant by 25-30% cgi, so perhaps it’s to early to jump to conclusions that there will be talking heads. Maybe there will be some sort of comparison with extant animals (which would explain some of the extant animal footage in the trailer) instead, sort of like on The Future is Wild? We still wouldn’t be getting as much representation of extinct animals as we hoped for, but in my book contrasting the animated portrayals of extinct ecosystems with actual films of modern analogues would certainly preferable to contrasting them with footage of boring human beings sitting in the lab, and would in fact be a somewhat novel spin on the whole paleodocumentary concept.
But whatever it will end up being stylistically, regardless of any disappointments, it still seems quite unlikely it won’t at least be an above-average paleo documentary, unless the footage that’s been released so far is literally all there is.
Has the clip of the Smilodon and Titanis been posted yet?
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Post by dinosauria101 on Oct 17, 2023 18:40:20 GMT 5
So there’s information saying that less than a third of LOOP is actually going to be cgi? It's worse than that if true. Unless it's misinformation, it said 25-30% VFX, which according to Wikipedia is not just CGI but also CGI integrated into real filmed scenes. My biggest concern about that is that I figured a continuous showing of animals compatible with a 25-30% showing of VFX would have the CGI animals against real filmed backgrounds like Exalt mentioned.....but if Wikipedia is right then not even that would do it. Agreed. I do like a handful of the talking head documentaries like Prehistoric Assassins, if a talking head LOOP is comparable to documentaries like that it would still likely be worth the watch. I think we all were TBH. So I can get behind everything you say in this quote too. BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Literally NOTHING in the trailers indicated anything of the sort, which from my experience with disappointments usually tends to be a red flag for deliberate dishonesty. True that it's not totally clear, but if taken at face value, I have very large concerns about the 25-30% VFX statement as outlined above. I really, really hope these concerns are unfounded. That cannot be overstated - if they are not unfounded I'm probably deleting my Netflix. Agreed that it would definitely be preferable. And at times appreciable too - for example, if they will compare and contrast the Smilodons/cave lions with African lions, or the woolly mammoths with elephants. That being said, I do know of at least 1 palaeodocumentary which did the extant animal compare and contrast (COTD) and ended up a dumpster fire with all the talking heads and reused CGI. As much as it pains me to say it, it can't be ruled out LOOP will be like that too. I am not as skeptical of the bolded as I would like to be. Please, please, please, let me be proven wrong! Not yet! Thank you for sharing it. |
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Post by Exalt on Oct 17, 2023 20:41:04 GMT 5
Well, it can't be literally all there is, because there has to be connective tissue, surely, plus there are at least two species in the book that have not been in trailers.
But yes, that'd be a bit absurd.
Edit: Here is the Arthropleura clip. Considering we saw it dance with another of it's kind before, this isn't even the entirety of footage for a species that isn't even a headliner.
I understand the concerns and I agree, but I can punch a hole or two here.
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Post by theropod on Oct 17, 2023 22:09:35 GMT 5
Yes, which is why that is luckily an improbable scenario in this case, meaning that even if we don’t get a documentary that is to all our tastes in terms of consisting of 100% recreations of extinct ecosystems, 0% talking heads, like we had on WW and PP, we are at least still likely to get quite a decent programme overall. Let’s just hope that this won’t be another Ice Age Giants. That documentary also advertised itself using some truly great animation (e.g. trailer→), but sadly once it came out it was revealed that what we saw on the trailer was almost all the animation that’s in the entire program, with most of it just being the presenter talking and looking at stuff, for which there was no indication beforehand. I really hope this kind of dishonest advertising for paleo documentaries doesn’t become the norm, or else we might not know what to get psyched about in the future. |
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Post by dinosauria101 on Oct 17, 2023 22:16:08 GMT 5
Let’s just hope that this won’t be another Ice Age Giants. That documentary also advertised itself using some truly great animation (e.g. trailer→), but sadly once it came out it was revealed that what we saw on the trailer was almost all the animation that’s in the entire program, with most of it just being the presenter talking and looking at stuff, for which there was no indication beforehand. Thank you for the warning! Now I know I probably shouldn't bother entertainment-reviewing it like I intended to. I couldn't agree more. TBH though, I don't know what's the point of this dishonest advertising. All it does is get angry, disappointed viewers: it would presumably benefit both the producers and the viewer if trailers were consistently honest about the content. |
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Post by theropod on Oct 17, 2023 23:23:21 GMT 5
Yes, it probably would. But then, it’s already been quite fittingly compared to clickbait here, where one could say the same.
Although something that I honestly don’t get is why, when they have already invested in creating that many models and filming that many environments, they wouldn’t use that to their full advantage rather than using it a little bit. I mean of course it is more work and expense to create animated content filling an entire hour rather than just 20 minutes. However, there is also certainly going to be a scaling effect, as the work for building models and software will only have to be done once, so it the cost per minute will go down.
And surely, since they are willing to create so many models, filling the entire programme with animation shouldn’t be prohibitively expensive for them, especially considering other documentary series like WWD, When Dinosaurs Roamed America or Dinosaur Planet had no problem doing the latter over two decades ago. Costs should have gone down since then, but more importantly, they were seemingly quite capable of finding the means to create a staggering diversity of high-quality models, making it just not seem very plausible that they were that concerned with the cost or effort it would take (otherwise they could have easily reduced the diversity they are showing and it would likely not have been that obvious to many people).
I wondered about the same thing back in 2013 with Ice Age Giants; having such excellent animation and quite a large variety of taxa represented, but then showing so little of them just seems like a waste. If you go through all the trouble of painstakingly designing so many models, why not use them for more than few brief glimpses?
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