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Apple TV+ "Prehistoric Planet" looks absolutely amazing

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
iu
 

GymWolf

Member
I personally disagree on color grading, but on animations i'm more than 100% with you.

If Walking with Dinosaurs is still enjoyable today despite the dated CG is largely due to animations being on a league of their own compared to any documentary came later (and imo also Jurassic World movies).

Not sure i'd call Prehistoric Planet's animations perfect from what i can see, as there's still something slightly cartoony about it, but it's obviously a step in the right direction.


Plausible, studios nowdays demand thousands of shots in a short time. But personally, i think what's really lacking in most companies today is real and utter talent in creating believable images. Being able to use ZBrush, Nuke, OpenEXR and so on doesn't make you an artist, if you get what i mean.

Take Kon-Tiki, absolutely incredible VFX, made by 19 guys ten years ago:




That was talent. But talent is not common.

The funny thing? Years later, that very same company, now hugely increased in number, worked on that awful Blue shot in Fallen Kingdom. I find this bit interesting:

"We have a talented team of roughly 100 people in our Stockholm office, 40% of which have joined us from abroad."

Holy shit at that cg shark:messenger_open_mouth:
 

Mossybrew

Member
Watched the first episode, pretty cool, though I am like constantly distracted by my inner skeptic going "how do they know THAT?" multiple times during the episode. Was kinda fun to do some research after, I wish there was like a small companion episode to each explaining the science and theories.
 

Kimahri

Banned
Watched the first episode, pretty cool, though I am like constantly distracted by my inner skeptic going "how do they know THAT?" multiple times during the episode. Was kinda fun to do some research after, I wish there was like a small companion episode to each explaining the science and theories.
There is, Attenborough even mentions it at the end of each episode. Go to the showpage.

Now, granted, it's only like 4 minutes tackling some point from the episode. Like one of them is just did dinosaurs have feathers, and they show some fossils and talk to some paleontologists.
 

Aggelos

Member
Today's episode was absolutely gorgeous.

I'm just stunned that this even exists. I love this show so much. I hope it's a massive success.

Ya man, the Freshwater episode was fantastic. This must be the most fascinating and arresting dinosaurs' documentary yet, although some guesswork on how the dinos would behave and live was involved. Still, that guesswork is based off of modern animals and their traits/characteristics/behaviors.
The realistic velociraptors were fantastic, and we didn't see them figuring out how to open doors.



Behind-the-scenes science stuff
 
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Vick

Gold Member
After three episodes i have to say, that while it's unquestionably an A Tier documentary, and some shots look legit 100% photorealistic, i feel Walking with Dinosaurs as a whole is still unmatched imo.
 

Rockondevil

Gold Member
3 episodes in and it's great so far. Awesome to have a more modern take on what we know about dinosaurs.
The traits of the dinosaurs is sometimes questionable, though it makes sense that it's probably based off of our current animals.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
Whenever I think of dinosaurs I always go down a rabbit hole. If the asteroid never wiped out the dinosaurs, would humans have ever existed? There is some evidence of some early primates that may have existed around that time, but would they have been hunted or eaten into extinction? And even if they didn’t exist then, would they ever have been able to evolve with dinosaurs around?

And then I think about would the planet have been better off without humans and just having dinosaurs? The planet would’ve definitely been healthier and more organic. Humans changed a lot. We kinda junked up its beauty. We’ve had wars, done so many bad things. Then again, humans also did a lot of great in this world. That asteroid is one of the biggest historical moments in not just the history of the earth, but the history of the universe if humans eventually go on to explore vast swaths of space.
 

Kimahri

Banned
I love that they included several of the new species in Jurassic World Dominion in this show. Just thr sheer mountain of difference in design.

I really wish JW would lean away from the monster movie angle. "real" dinos like this are just so magnificent snd wonderful.

Anf you can have both scale and frathery. Look at the atrociraptorin ep 5, and the carnotaurus. Old and new ideas about dinosaurs, while both still being based in science.
 

Aggelos

Member
It physically hurt me hearing Sir David Attenborough say, 'Only on Apple TV+'.

Sounds like you don't dig Apple's subscription platform at all. I guess Apple CEO Tim Cook must have paid money hats to have a good dino documentary on his platform (and right before Jurassic World Dominion releases in theatres).
But as K Kimahri pointed out, there's a workaround.






I'm absolutely stunned, watched the first episode and had several "how the fuck does this look so real" moments throughout. Just insane.
It was their intention to be photorealistic from the get-go. Obviously, they spared no expense on photorealism.
I'd say hands-down the best-looking dino documentary that I've ever seen in my whole life. And in terms of content and (scientific) presentation it's A-tier, to boot.



"The concept art and creature design was created by Jellyfish Pictures, while computer-generated imagery was developed by Moving Picture Company and intended to be photorealistic, as with their previous productions The Jungle Book (2016) and The Lion King (2019). "





A couple of reviews reckon :











More Behind-the-scenes science stuff. They're labeled as "Prehistoric Planet - Uncovered". Be sure to check'em out on Apple TV's channel.







 
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kittoo

Cretinously credulous
The CGI is bonkers. I was looking really hard but found maybe a single very brief shot where I could guess it was CGI. Crazy good. Seems as real as any other David Attenborough documentary.
 

AJUMP23

Member
I have gotten through the first two episodes. Pretty fun. The CG is great but there is still some uncanny valley in it.

8 year old loves it. 11 year old is bored.
 

sinnergy

Member
The CGI is bonkers. I was looking really hard but found maybe a single very brief shot where I could guess it was CGI. Crazy good. Seems as real as any other David Attenborough documentary.
What I find particularly fascinating, is that it watches as a regular nature documentary as if it was filmed in a continent as Africa ..

It’s that convincing, that’s the real star of this showing .
 

Tams

Gold Member
You can watch apple tv+ outside the walled garden, don't need an iDevice to access it, https://support.apple.com/guide/tvplus/welcome/web

At the minimum a 3 month subscription is well worth it.
Nothing to do with my dislike of Apple products or Apple in general, even though I do have that.

No, to me Sir David Attenborough will always be associated with the BBC. Yes, I know this was made by BBC Studios, but it being behind anyone else's service just irks me.

And yes, I'm well aware that it's not for me or anyone else to demand what work he takes up and that in his role he has no control as to who gets the rights to show it.
 
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nkarafo

Member
And ofc, even they can't resist the "magestic roar" trope shots where the monst... sorry, the animals strike a pose and try to be impressive for the camera.
 
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Kimahri

Banned
And ofc, even they can't resist the "magestic roar" shots where the monst... sorry, the animals strike a pose and try to be impressive for the camera, roaring at their prey so it gets scared and runs away?

Nature, how does it work?

Did you even watch it? Doesn't sound like it.
 

Kimahri

Banned
Just a couple of the trailers here have shots that indicate this.
Yeah, you know how trailers work. Cut by pr teams to lure people in.

There's no roaring, no clichéd behaviour. Just animals being animals. There are mating rituals , dancing, swimming rexes, and not a dingle roar.

So yeah, nature, how it works.
 
The apple store in Sydney has a huge graphic of the T-Rex in water that was certainly eye catching. Going to have to check this out :)
 
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