New Robotech Shadow Chronicles Vid

[Dangard Ace]

Titan A.E. looked better.

[bandit29]

Yuck. The CG looked liked it was from a Playstation game from 1996....

[big F]

Titan A.E. looked better.

That`s because it was better. They had more than beer money to spend on the Animation. Even if the story was a bit kidified. I just love to watch the Earth blowing up bit. Now if they blow up the earth in RT Shadow whatever then may be that will be agood thing.

[areaseven]

Titan A.E. looked better.

That's not really saying much. The helicopter sequences in Golgo 13: The Professional looked way better then that.

[The Shade]

Anybody know what they're saying over at RT.com? I'm too lazy to scoot over there.

[Ishimaru]

Anybody know what they're saying over at RT.com? I'm too lazy to scoot over there.

Same but last time I checked the Community Boards were empty because people were tired of waiting for TSC.

There was just nothing to talk about anymore.

[kensei]

I thought the animation was supposed to be OVA quality? I find it funny because it's being touted as the "award winning Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles".

Holy crap was that ugly! That CG was state of the art like 10 years ago, probably 15! I can't believe no one's mentioned how ugly it was in the reviews. And I don't know who Chase Masterson is, but she sounds very annoying. dialogue was definitely cheesy. I came into the trailer with an open mind because everyone's been saying how it's not that bad... well that trailer either highlighted all the worst parts or it really is that bad and people are in denial.

vinnie

Chase sounds like a kid.

I feel sorry for them, they really tried to live up to M0.

[Keith]

Dare I saw G-Saviour's CG looked better, or is that too cruel?

[Mog]

Hrmf, missile barrages should not look like wildly arching "laser"-shots.

Just my own personal opinion. But to each his own.

[jenius]

Out of curiosity, I have two questions:

1) Is it actually cheaper these days (or equivalent in price) to do average (insert your own adjective there for whatever you'd call RT's) 3D animation than excellent quality 2D hand drawn (or in the hand drawn style as I doubt anything is hand drawn any more) animation?

2) If it's still cheaper to do animation 2D style, would you have preferred RT to go that route and shirk 3D entirely?

[Ishimaru]

Macross Plus CG looked better...and that was 1994.

[big F]

Dare I saw G-Saviour's CG looked better, or is that too cruel?

I was just thinking that. G-Saviour was produced in 1999 for the 20th aniversary on computers that are like pocket calculators to what the top animation houses now use.

When you look at what people are producing in thier spare time as Fan Fic movies nowadays Its hard to understand why HG couldnt do better. Some fan fic movies I`ve seen recently are as good as the original multimilllion pound/dollar/yen stuff produced by the big HollyWood studios.

If you want an idea of what the pinacle of Fan fic looks like just check these out.

http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/1024/

May not be all your cup of hot bevarage but you`ll get the idea.

Now if only we could get someone to do Macross stuff...........

[chrono]

Chase sounds like a kid.

I feel sorry for them, they really tried to live up to M0.

If this is the same Chase Masterson then if you've ever watched ST: DS9 then you've seen her. Nicely stacked, but her voice wasn't really good enough for VA work.

Oh and congrats on getting a freaking clue about bad cgi that I said was bad looking when the first trailer came out...

[Beltane70]

Macross Plus CG looked better...and that was 1994.

Not that I'm defending bad CG, but wasn't Macross Plus' CG just limited to enhancing the standard cel animation instead of totally replacing it?

[Ishimaru]

Not that I'm defending bad CG, but wasn't Macross Plus' CG just limited to enhancing the standard cel animation instead of totally replacing it?

Still looked better though...

[kensei]

Oh and congrats on getting a freaking clue about bad cgi that I said was bad looking when the first trailer came out...

No need to get your knickers in a knot. I for one am open minded and was hoping that they would improve. But unfortunately not.

Edited November 26, 2006 by kensei

[justvinnie]

Out of morbid curiosity, I wanted to see what the RT fans thought of the new trailer. They PRAISE it! What the hell, are they blind or just retarded? That has got to be one of the worst trailers I've ever seen. If what they claim is true, that this is better than the previous two trailers, then I have no hope for this "OVA". And they even compare it to BSG.

I really tried to keep an open mind before I saw the trailer. A properly done RT OVA could be pretty good. But this is hardly properly done.

vinnie

PS: They promote people like Memodominion or something like that to commander? I thought it was pretty bad when they hired bankofkev, but seriously it's like if you worship all things RT, they'll promote you even if you are a retard.

[jenius]

PS: They promote people like Memodominion or something like that to commander? I thought it was pretty bad when they hired bankofkev, but seriously it's like if you worship all things RT, they'll promote you even if you are a retard.

Isn't commander just a mod? C'mon, like we don't have some retarded mods on this board!

heh.. um, just kiddin', you guys are swell

You can't blame the RT folks for lovin' this teaser, it's got the trailer voice guy! Everything is cooler when the trailer voice guy talks about it! Besides, isn't it equally irrational to pan an OVA for the 90 seconds of it you know about as it is to LOVE it for the 90 seconds you know about? So far, all I know is the people who have seen it haven't really harped on the animation at all so it must not be THAT distracting when actually watching it. So, like it should, it boils down to the story. I mean, I don't know if you've watched much other 80s anime lately, but the animation in that is much worse than it is in TSC and I still love some of it to this day. Now, from what I hear the story is only so-so which means there should be plenty of great reasons to pan this show when it's officially available.

[Ishimaru]

As you guys might have heard this is no suprise. TSC DVD Release Date is Feb 6th.

Our predictions were right. I bet they are going to hold it back even longer and then then fandom will be dead.

Still another 2 months? I might forget about it this when the DVD gets released...

[ogami]

I know this "OVA" suppose to introduce Robotech to general public "again" + attract anime fans to it. However, those "low frame rate, out-of-date" CGs really are making the Robotech series look even worse...

And you are asking money for it?!?! What is HG thinking?!?

If I have $30 in my hand @ best buy and looking to buy an Anime DVD, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children is way more eye-catching then RSC.

Edited November 26, 2006 by ogami

[justvinnie]

Isn't commander just a mod? C'mon, like we don't have some retarded mods on this board!

heh.. um, just kiddin', you guys are swell

You can't blame the RT folks for lovin' this teaser, it's got the trailer voice guy! Everything is cooler when the trailer voice guy talks about it! Besides, isn't it equally irrational to pan an OVA for the 90 seconds of it you know about as it is to LOVE it for the 90 seconds you know about? So far, all I know is the people who have seen it haven't really harped on the animation at all so it must not be THAT distracting when actually watching it. So, like it should, it boils down to the story. I mean, I don't know if you've watched much other 80s anime lately, but the animation in that is much worse than it is in TSC and I still love some of it to this day. Now, from what I hear the story is only so-so which means there should be plenty of great reasons to pan this show when it's officially available.

I just hope "trailer voice guy" isn't ubiquitously present in the "OVA". As a child I didn't notice how grating the narrator was, but I can't stand to watch RT at all in part because of the narration nowadays.

I pan it for the defects I see: the animation and voice acting. The RT fanatics praise it for the animation and voice acting. I don't know it's story so that's not my criticism at all. That's why I think the RT fanatics are either blind (literally or by nostalgia) or retards to think that the animation is awesome.

Times change. We judge things within the context of their surroundings. Animation in the 80's shouldn't be compared to animation today. When I was a kid, stick figures were fine, but not so anymore. The fact that the animation is about what it was in the mid 90's is a sign of the lack of effort/funding in this "OVA".

As for story from what I heard, it uses the Sentinel storyline from the novels. I've read those novels, and I seriously doubt anything that is base on that could be better than average considering the source material was average at best. EOTC was pure crap though. I still own it and I don't know why.

vinnie

[big F]

Lets face it nowadays unless it`s top notch it gets panned. We are so used to really good special effects and glitzy storylines, anything thats not gets noticed for its short commings and forgotten for its good bits.

War of the Worlds got panned in the U.K but Cinematically it was good old fasioned cinema adventure. Probably didnt help that it was told from the American point of view and not following the original novel.

That said I still love it.

Give it a chance guys before we have a dvd burning.

[chrono]

Lets face it nowadays unless it`s top notch it gets panned. We are so used to really good special effects and glitzy storylines, anything thats not gets noticed for its short commings and forgotten for its good bits.

War of the Worlds got panned in the U.K but Cinematically it was good old fasioned cinema adventure. Probably didnt help that it was told from the American point of view and not following the original novel.

That said I still love it.

Give it a chance guys before we have a dvd burning.

I don't think that you need arse kicking 3D in order to have good looking 3D. That Kirby cartoon from not long ago used cel-shaded 3D and it was nearly seamless with the hand draw material. But there is a lot of simply bad issues visually with this trailer from bad model work to bad camera work.

Harmony, like many company's, didn't realize that even decent 3D work takes time and it's coming home to roost. Hell look how long it took for Macross: Zero and Diebuster!

[terry the lone wolf]

Screencaps from the Chinese subtitled trailer!

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[jenius]

Dr Lang sure made Janice have a pretty mouth...

[Keith]

Dr Lang sure made Janice have a pretty mouth...

......

[Mercurial Morpheus]

I'd been following this for awhile out of morbid curiousity. Aside from the trailers, I've seen ome of HG's con presentations. Anyone else seen these? They kind of explain why it's turning out this way.

Basically, whomever's running it details what's gone into, how it came to be, etcetera. I remember the Sac Anime one about seven or so monthes back. Sac-Anime's a small con, so there was little reason to miss it. I almost won another Max MPC (the only one I have) if I hadn't confused D.R. Movie with DR Master (I kept saying Dr.).

I watched it with bemusement at the marketing, and some was rather appalled when he showed clips of Mospeada and said, "this was the state of the art in 1984". I take it he's never heard of Nausicaa or Macross: Do You Remember Love? At the panel, he explained that the Japanese studios told them to outsource to Korea. So they found D.R. Movie, and he mentioned some of their work. He did mention Yukikaze. Unfortunately, it seems most people came to the understanding that they did all of the CG work in it, which isn't true. Most of the important stuff was handled by a much more (I can't believe I'm saying this) compentent company. He then showed the clip.

First thing I noticed was the shear amount of CGI. I'm not a big fan of CGI for the sake of CGI, and this was a prime example why. Apart from the Invid launch, I really saw little that couldn't have been relatively easy to do by hand in that preview. I actually asked if all the ships would always be CG. I think he said mostly, but sometimes not. Seeing the motionless Alpha on the ground in full CG for no reason didn't build my hopes of that though.

This was all pretty early footage, so I gave the look of it some slack. The hand animation looked decent. All in all, i was largely underwhelmed. Talking to the rep later, along with some of what he said at the panel gave me a good idea why this happened. I'd asked about the abundence of CG in private, and he gave the good old "everybodies doing it" speech. Basically, they were of the notion that CGI battle scenes were the hip and cool thing to do, so they went with it.

All in all it was well recieved, with some kids saying it was the greatest animation they'd ever seen (compared to the like of Yu-Gi-Oh or something, I forget exactly). I loathed the overuse of CG, and thought the character design was a bit too lean. Everyone looked guant and musculer. Basically the whole selling point was how much more cutting edge the animation was compared to a 22 year old property (ya think?), and how great the vocal cast and studios working on it were.

I saw another trailer at Ani-Magic with a far more respectable rep and Tony Oliver. He played it first, then answered questions. This one was completed animation. The CGI had improved, but I still thought it blended terribly and lacked purpose. This was far from Macross Zero in both looks and usage (M0 actually used hand animation when CG was unnecessary, this doesn't). Basically, it looked like Xenogears. 2D characters in stark 3D enviroments. It wa just there to be there. Because CG is "the thing" now. Yet they didn't really put it to good use. The best direction was still the Invid launch. JustVinnie, the two reviews I've read did pan the CG. Hard. It elates me to no end. The straight scenes sans CG looked pretty good. Personally, I too find the CGI beneigth some fan efforts. Take this for example. The YouTube quality doesn't do it justice, but it's quicker this way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f1nRjD9PhA

This one had voice acting involved. Here's a simple question maybe someone can answer. Why does this show sound like a dub? It still has that rough, floating voice sound and stiff performance of something not in its own language. I've never seen a cartoon sound like this. Especially bad was the girl with short, pink hair. She sounded completely unnatural. I've heard fandubs with better mixing than this. Knowing I was in a room of Robotechies, I kept my mouth shut about it. Still, it irked me more than the CG in ways. That Chase Masterson line in the trailer was a prime example (Lita, why?). Hopefully it will improve. I doubt it.

The rep was much more understanding afterwards (Tom Bateman I think). He could completely understand my disapproval of the abundance of CG. We actually got to talking about Orguss. I asked why it wasn't choosen in favor of Mospeada. He wasn't sure, but remembered something about Carl Mecek supposedly hating the show. He'd never seen it, so i burned him some fansubs.

All in all, I'm still morbidly curious about it. Though I know to keep my expectations down (though I've always known to be wary about US produced anime). I'm hoping to be plensently surprised, but expect to feel about the same as watching a GONZO production where they went computer happy. I haven't even finished the Macross Saga of Robotech (switched to the real thing, and never looked back).

Edited November 27, 2006 by Mercurial Morpheus

[baronv]

The CG from this new trailer looks pretty much like the pre-production CG video they were showing as at Comic Con, and Anime Expo from 2-3 years ago.

[Knight26]

I am quite underwhelmed, I mean I can turn out better renders in AUTOCAD for goodness sakes. And who are these new enemies that are betraying them, did the sentinels go bad? The new baddy ship designs look like the Shivan's from Freespace.

[HoveringCheesecake]

It's the Haydonites. Basically, take End of the Circle and make a terrible movie about it. There ya go.

[jenius]

Especially bad was the girl with short, pink hair. She sounded completely unnatural.

If you're talking about Janice, she's a robot. They might have actually been trying to make her sound unnatural.

[1st Border Red Devil]

It's the Haydonites. Basically, take End of the Circle and make a terrible movie about it. There ya go.

Oh come on, EVERYONE knows how cool the Haydonites were in End of the Circle with their giant transforming planet.

[Knight26]

Giant transforming planet?

[The Shade]

Giant transforming planet?

I'll echo that sentiment.

[bsu legato]

I'll echo that sentiment.

It's best to just use your imagination on this one, folks. I can guarantee you that whatever you dream up will still be miles better than what was actually contained in the novel.