What The Transformers Movies Look Like Without Special Effects

Even as the "Transformers" movies have dipped in popularity and box office dominance, they've remained some of the most spectacular sci-fi action films ever made. At their peak, they were billion-dollar blockbusters, evolved from a children's animated television show in the '80s to some of the biggest movies of all time. Dazzling audiences with a mix of high-octane action and heartfelt drama, they've made a mesmerizing transformation of their own.

At the center of the saga is the fusion of human drama and eye-popping visual effects. Directed by visionaries like Michael Bay, Travis Knight, and Steven Caple Jr., the "Transformers" films have brought the Autobots and Decepticons to life using bleeding-edge technology in ways that were previously unimaginable. The making of these movies is a complex process that blends live-action sequences with state-of-the-art CGI and practical effects that seamlessly integrate human actors with the colossal, shape-shifting robots. The line between reality and fantasy is blurred, and the impossible becomes amazingly real.

Unfortunately, the craftsmanship and dedication that goes into creating these lifelike robotic characters is often overlooked and is sometimes even easy to ignore because the meticulous creation process is rarely understood. So prepare to roll out as we take a look behind the magic to show you what the "Transformers" movies look like before all of those fancy special effects.

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" one-upped the previous two films in many ways, particularly in terms of pure spectacle. In the film, the Decepticons lead an all-out attack on the city of Chicago, which sends entire skyscrapers tumbling to the street below. In one key scene, a group of characters are sent sliding down the side of the collapsing structure, where they manage to shatter some windows and are able to make it inside the building. To make it happen required a lot of moving parts — not the least of which was a group of stuntmen.

In this image from the making of the scene, the stunt performers and actors in question — along with a cameraman — go slip-sliding down a false glass facade constructed to give them something to interact with. Along with plenty of blue screen elements, the facade was built atop a wooden frame that was then angled to simulate the toppling building. They were sent down to a curved ramp and a padded safety area below. Later, in post-production, the background elements were removed, and a mix of live-action photography of the city — as well as CGI enhancements like falling glass, rock, smoke, and more — were composited in. In some places, only the actors themselves were used, removed like a cookie cutter, and placed into a CGI environment.

Though it's true that the Transformers are created entirely on a computer, that doesn't mean they weren't actually there on set at all. While what we see on screen is indeed CGI — with countless hours spent by digital artists designing and animating some of the most complex movements ever seen in VFX — full-scale physical models of some robot characters were created for some scenes. At least, in the case of "Bumblebee," a part of the title character.

More than just a simple prop, the head, shoulders, and torso of Bumblee were built at full scale and used around the set for a variety of purposes. A stand-in like this can prove useful for setting up camera angles, lighting, and staging of scenes, but it's also crucial for the actors' performances. With a physical representation of Bumblebee there, cast members like Hailee Steinfeld could have a real-life scene partner to interact with. Providing not just an eye line, but a physical body that she can see, touch, and act opposite, allows for a sense of realness and believability that is otherwise difficult to achieve.

The creation of CGI Autobots and Decepticons might be one of the most complicated elements of the "Transformers" films. While the original cartoons had the robots looking fairly simple, director Michael Bay has always endeavored to make them more. Each has hundreds or thousands of complex moving parts, and FX designers have gone to excruciating lengths to make every part of each robot move and transform in a way that would work in the real world. That takes testing and retesting, and in this image, we see a highway battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron before the CGI has been fully rendered, while artists are still working out the movements of the characters on screen.

This incomplete render of the robots helps designers perfect the scene without having to do 100% of the work for each attempt. Colors are simpler, if present at all, and many of the finer details are missing. This step allows them to rehearse the scene over and over just like they would with flesh-and-blood actors, to see what works and what doesn't. They can choreograph the fight, adjust movements or even entire elements, and study the angles to get proper lighting and reflections. This all helps to make sure they are interacting believably with the surrounding photography as well as on-set props, actors, and vehicles.

The "Transformer" films have seen a parade of Hollywood stars right from the beginning. From Shia LaBeouf and Frances McDormand to Mark Wahlberg and John Cena, the series has pulled in names from all corners of Tinseltown. The fourth film, "Age of Extinction," even found a way to give director Michael Bay a cameo thanks to a little visual effects wizardry. The moment comes during a battle between Autobots and Decepticons on the open road, and when Optimus Prime goes flying through the back of a truck, eagle-eyed viewers can spot him as a panicked passenger.

To make the scene happen, they didn't even have to put Bay behind the windshield of the truck. After filming the vehicle driving down the road, a separate shot of Michael Bay was photographed in front of a green screen. With nothing but Bay's screaming visage to work with, CGI technicians were able to place him inside the truck and make it seem as if he was right there when the fight on the freeway was going down. It's a tough one to spot, but it's one of those scenes that once you notice it, can't be unseen.

The second film in the saga, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," introduced several new ideas to the series. At the beginning of the film, we're introduced to Alice (Isabel Lucas), a young woman who becomes obsessed with Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), only to be revealed as a Decepticon known as a Pretender. While in his dorm, Alice reveals her true nature, with her face opening up to reveal robot parts before her entire body transforms. To achieve this effect, Lucas first had to be filmed acting out all of the Pretender's movements — before and after she transformed.

With this to work with, artists at Digital Domain were able to overlay CGI depicting the Pretender's robot elements, erasing parts of Lucas' body as needed, until nothing was left. It begins with cracks appearing across her face before she opens her mouth to reveal a robot, and more parts of her head expand and open as her true self emerges. Additional computer-generated elements like the slime inside Alice's robot mouth were also inserted to give her an almost supernatural look. It's a combination of multiple layers of CGI, and it all combines to create a convincing monstrosity.

In filmmaking, the art of special effects has come a long way since the early days. Storyboards were and still remain one of the most useful tools for planning a scene, with artists drawing sketches of individual moments to show how the camera should be positioned, where the characters should move, and how the action flows from one moment to the next. But thanks to CGI, digital sequences called animatics can be created, as crude versions of the final scene in its entirety using quick 3D mockups of the environment and characters. This "pre-viz" has become a critical component in making CGI-heavy movies like "Transformers."

In this shot of one such pre-viz moment from "Revenge of the Fallen," an early stand-in for Optimus Prime is quickly assembled to give filmmakers an idea of what the scene will look like. It allows them to set up the camera, and move it through the scene, while the characters play out their parts. This is from the moment where Prime is looking for Sam, just before he's impaled through the back. The entire sequence involved a highly choreographed fight scene between multiple Transformers, and this pre-viz allowed director Michael Bay to get precise movements planned out well in advance.

Background photography is one of the most important steps for Michael Bay when putting together the most exciting shots of the "Transformers" films. Having those real backgrounds helps sell the scene, and for "Revenge of the Fallen," a battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron in the forest was one of the most complex to get right. That meant lots of pre-visualization, which allowed Bay and his team to plan ahead to get what they needed on location.

In a behind-the-scenes featurette, this sequence was the subject of discussion because of how complicated it was to create. As described by VFX specialists, Michael Bay wanted the fight to be almost like martial arts, with the Transformers behaving more like characters in an Akira Kurosawa film than the big, lumbering robots of the original cartoon. But as massive robots the size of small buildings, every move they made would kick up dirt or knock down trees. Those early pre-viz sequences allowed Bay to plan out exactly what he needed to capture the footage of the forest.

A before-and-after comparison shot shows the chaos, as the smoking forest scene is filmed first. Later, the Transformers are added in, and the movements, smoke, and dirt that were staged during the shooting were timed perfectly with the movements of the CGI robots.

Set extensions are a key component to making movies these days, as digital effects can turn any real-life location into something it's not. But often this means constructing massive walls of blue or green fabric to help special effects teams to mask out the backgrounds and work their magic. On the set of "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts," we can see just how this was done for a scene where Optimus Prime rolls up onto the scene.

Set in 1994, "Rise of the Beasts" is a prequel to the earlier films, and shows Optimus Prime in his classic Mack truck form. As he enters the shot we can see the museum in the background, and a large blue structure atop it and behind it. That's because the building on location only forms part of the larger structure in the film. The blue screen, which appears many stories tall, is there to provide space for the digital artists to work to create a different building entirely. In the final film, the museum is much different than what is seen here and is the site of a massive brawl between the Autobots and the Terrorcons, led by Optimus and Scourge respectively. 

"Rise of the Beasts" doesn't include Megatron, the infamous leader of the Decepticons. Instead, it's Scourge (voiced by Peter Dinklage) who leads an animalistic faction called the Terrorcons, and they're after the Transwarp Key, the movie's MacGuffin. While duking it out with the Autobots, Scourge uses a blaster to blow holes in the face of the museum, sending Noah and museum intern Elena (Dominique Fishback) running for cover and smashing dinosaur skeletons in the process. 

To film that scene, the interior of the museum was built and then destroyed while cameras captured the action. Explosive charges and Hollywood pyrotechnics created the damage caused by Scourge's blaster, and wires were used to pull props across the room to make the force seem even more explosive. The final scene is just seconds of screen time, but it's clear that plenty of time and effort was taken to create this single over-the-top moment.

With so many CGI characters in the "Transformers" movies, it can often be a struggle to convince the audience that the human characters are side-by-side with their robot counterparts. To create this illusion, filmmakers use many different methods while shooting scenes that involve both humans and robots. Sometimes it's a fully-constructed robot replica — or a piece of them at least — which allows actors to physically interact with a real object. Other times, there's simply nothing there at all, and actors must use their talents alone. 

In this shot from the making of "Revenge of the Fallen," a production assistant holds aloft a cutout of the head of the robot character. This is typically used for scenes that don't require direct interaction but it gives the actors a reference point to create a consistent eye line. Without it, actors like Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox could be looking all over the place, never quite sure of where Bumblebee's face was. With something as simple as a cardboard head on a stick, they can give believable responses to a character that isn't there. 

Interactions on screen between humans and robots in "Transformers" movies can be tricky at the easiest of moments. At the toughest, it can seem downright impossible on paper. After all, when a scene describes the 30-foot-tall Optimus Prime lifting a teenager off the ground and holding him in mid-air, filmmakers might scratch their heads at how to achieve it when Prime doesn't exist. In a behind-the-scenes featurette for "Rise of the Beasts," we learned exactly how they did it, and this side-by-side shot shows the before and after.

To make it seem like Prime was holding Noah 10 feet off the ground, actor Anthony Ramos was strapped into an elaborate crane rig. Monitored by safety technicians and other crew members, Ramos is lifted off his feet and suspended in the air, while cameras film the action from various angles. In post-production, a large, hulking CGI version of Optimus is added, whose animated movements can track the motion of Ramos on the crane. Now, the scene becomes a vibrant reminder of just how large and scary even the most noble Transformers can be.