Why Thomas’ CGI Transition Worked…and then it didn’t 

The joke at 9:34 didn’t export properly-but y’know what, since it comes directly after a spiel about software malfunctioning, I’m going to say it works 🤷🏽‍♂️

What I remember about the original series was that it had a sense of magical realism to it: while the trains could talk with humans as if they were people, they also worked as normal trains doing their task in the real. As time went on however, the magical realism went out the window resulting in the unrealistic depiction that we have now.

In TheUnluckyTug's video on the review of season's 14 to 15, I can't remember who exactly it was but they had a really good point about Mattel working with trains as a limitation rather than the core appeal. It's truly sad because they bought a toy brand expecting it to sell and are doing anything to keep it afloat. Just sad man.

Seasons 19 to 21 were the peak of the CGI era imo. It was visually appealing and gave off the feeling that Mitton's work was being honored and carried on spiritually. The lighting, the camera angles, it just felt like the older episodes but also felt like it's own thing too. Nothing has been able to top these seasons.

I haven't thought about Thomas since I was like 5 but new CGI stuff looks shockingly good. Also that 2d animated tomas is just the sadest thing I've ever seen. Our boy deserved better

If Thomas came back on tv as a purely model show, with the old faces, I’d watch it in a heartbeat. The show always gave me that same feeling as playing with model trains, except there’s so much more trains and much more room to play.

I’m just imagining him calling nitrogen and saying “hello there I really like hiro of the rails and I uh really love it” and the secretary being like oh wow thank you very much you know how about I tell the animators that “ok goodbye” goodbye 😂

It must’ve been SO FUN to work on Thomas back in the day.

The sad thing about the Nitrogen era is literally everything except the writing was in place, but was still very successful.

Note: The reason why the cgi faces and humans look weird in S12 is because Stardust Pictures got more involved in Designing the Renders even though Nitrogen did the CGI Models behind the scenes (Because they look more similar to HIT Era)

To me Thomas will allways be a model railway/stop motion series. What gives it, its charm. I grew up with a lot of stop motion animation, 3D cgi didn't really catch on before i got a little older. But i still adore the style it brings, kinda off kilter and sometimes oddly creepy. But i kinda appreciate it for that. Besides, it did translate well to other languages. Without all the lip syncing.

This is a very fair analysis on the cgi era. I’ll freely admit that I’m very partial to the cgi series, especially when compared to the model era. I too loved Hero of the Rails when it came out and its one of the only cgi Thomas productions that I actually enjoy watching. But after seeing this, I do have more appreciation for what cgi Thomas wanted to be.

Wait a second I’m watching a documentary about Thomas the Train

Thomas was better in model form. Although there were some good times in cgi, model episodes were just much better

1:30 "This was provided by nit-noot" GOT ME ROLIN😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

The CGI Era certainly did have a lot of potential and was quite well animated but so many times writers forgot or didn't know what Thomas was really about but of course that problem was already starting to become apparent in some of Hits later model series. Railway values was a core element that just seemed to get lost to time. Though Andrew Brenner did manage to get things back on track as he at least cared about what the characters were supposed to be.

When i was a kid, i noticed that some of the episodes had mostly still faces and the others had lively faces, I never knew that the reason was because some were videos of models while others were animated

Fun fact: HOT Animation, the studio behind Bob the Builder, helped provide the CGI smoke effects as well as other visual elements in S12.

I personally like Nitrogen’s animation the best! It may not be shiny like Arc’s Animations but the visual look and feel of Season 13-16 felt the most like Thomas and the same island of Sodor we all know and love!

Models were better, but CGI helped build much bigger tracks to greater destinations. ❤😊

The 2009 era of Thomas was very well done. Visually the trains were very smooth. I liked how the trains weren't too complex but they felt fairly realistic

I remember when rewatching "Blue Mountain Mystery" the moment that Nitrogen did their best with their animation was at the beginning part after the intro when it did slow camera movement angles from a tree that had realistic leaves with little water drops right before we cut to Thomas with Annie and Clarabel. It was very beautiful. 😊👍🍃 The engines, road vehicles and rolling stock all didn't start having bouncing controls until "Journey beyond Sodor". Some of the newer Trainz 2019 models have been getting those controls for the past 2 years. I actually did wonder if when the engines, road vehicles and coaches and breakvans bounce, the passengers, guards and crews can get tossed around in them and for the trucks the cargo would move around and I don't know if they can feel what they're carrying. All Engines Go animation I can't handle any of their content in any episode I have to see after 3 or 4 minutes before wanting to turn that trash off no matter how worse it gets because I can't bare seeing engines jumping, bending and rerailing themselves... 😡😠 Chuggington's animation was boring to me as a kid because I wanted to see locomotives being like real engines. l:(

As someone who hasn’t touched any Thomas content since the 2000s, I found this video very informative and fascinating. Well done!

i think why i liked thomas is that its just simple, not to flashy, not too flat, just right, and with the right amount of expressions. I used to wonder why i liked Thomas and not Chuggingtown but after hearing your point about the newer animations (about how trains cannot realistically move and animate that much) i think i finally understand why i liked thomas better lmao (i know its weird its a kids cartoon and i expect it to be realistic, idk my 14 year old self just doesnt like trains expressing too much)

I never saw Thomas in CGI, considering I was 11 in 2007 and had kind of grown out of it at that stage. However, it does seem like it looked good! As a kid I never thought the static faces were creepy, it was just how it was and I didn’t think much of it. The initial transition to CGI was nice because it was subtle enough but still improved the show without completely overturning the original designs or charm.

It always annoys me when people act like CGI is inherently inferior to 2D animation. You can have personal preferences, but CGI isn't exactly easy. (Source: I think animating in Unreal Engine 4 at college increased my blood pressure.)

Lmfao I had absolutely no idea Thomas had any sort of community on RU-vid. This video is dope 🔥

Mattel is going to have to learn one of these days that flash can only go so far, when the flash loses its luster, what’s left?

I remember HATING the cgi shift, but it's nice to look back at the change with a more mature eye.

When they went full on CG, that’s around the time I grew out of Thomas. Glad I was able to just barley be old enough to grow up with the OG show lol

I felt the CGI era of Thomas was like a video game that keeps updating and the graphics keep getting better. XD

Maybe if HiT Entertainment hadn't wasted so much money on building new engine props, only to use them once just to advertise their toys and then never use them again, then maybe the Season 12 format could've gone on for a bit longer like they'd planned.

I feel more appreciation for the cgi series than Tug has expressed within the last 3 years.

I grew up on the physical model version. With today’s cgi technology they should use cgi to make it in the same style and look as the models but with the fidelity you get from cgi (think Lego movie).

I hear a lot of people complain about Nitrogen's animation, and while yes, Arc's animation in their later seasons was really good, i prefer the darker and dirtier shades of color with nitrogen, it added to the atmosphere of a railway and it's environment. It felt really realistic to me

3:23 Pingu just walking across the screen be like 😎

I grew up watching the original series with the model trains, and I do remember disliking the animated shift to CGI. Looking at these shows now as an adult I can appreciate the CGI shift as it kept the series alive for another generation of young fans and was headed by a studio that, while not the best at writing, still respected the source material by continuing the world that had been built by the author and the original show creators, while also adding their own flare to it like the dynamic cameras, attention to detail of even the undercarriage of the trains and even the momentum based physics that the trains would have

I don’t mind the 2D episodes. I put them on for my kids often. To me, it solves the issue that the CGI version so obviously had during the last seasons. Writers were quickly running out of ways to keep sentient machines normally confined to rails interesting. As much as I love the original shows, and their respect to the original books and stories, it’s really hard to write an episode where if you’re going to have a setting for a scene, you’d have to find a way to have rails built into it or it won’t make sense for the characters to be there. I like the fact that the 2D show just really threw this out the window in order to give the characters almost infinitely more ways to interact with their environment, and thus open more opportunity for the writers to come up with new adventures. Because in the end, I need it to keep my kids engaged for 5 minutes while I make them lunch or something 😂

If we ever get another theatrical Thomas movie, I just want it to look something like the model era but still using cgi. Kinda like the Lego movie, but they limit themselves with how much movement they make. Maybe they can go back to just showing still facial expressions and human figure models and no actual movement. All the trains can be redesigned to somewhat resemble the original books; looking a little bit like realistic old stream engines from the 1940s and 50s?

Them: “Let’s make Thomas realistic but make him fly or something”

Yes! Thank you for making this video!

If Pierce Brosnan was still on the show he would have narrated the Model versions of Series 12, 13 and 14 which would be Model/CGI and probably the Show would have come to an end in 2011 and with a reboot in sight 3 years later :/

Once jam bought the license to Thomas and Friends, it was pretty much the end

I didn’t expect myself to watch an entire 16 minute long video about Thomas the tank engine…but I did. Well done

i like the way you present your videos! appreciate the cgi appreciation

I never really watched Thomas with any amount of regularity, but from my perspective, the original animation with the frozen faces and static humans was what defined it as unique. The transition to CGI feels like a deviation from a big part of what defined the show as something special. It was probably a necessary change to keep the next generation of children engaged, but to my eyes it looks like the show losing its soul. Not to say the animation was bad, it just doesn't look like Thomas to me.

big world seasons were pretty fun to work on and eventually lead. I was a bit iffy on the moving trains at first when they introduced it, but it did grow on me and add a lot more character as people got used to it. noticed a few of my shots in here too haha. The S19 shot at 10:09 & the shots between 11:34 - 11:41

Part pf the trains was that they could not shake or move. Like... if Tobi got hit by snow, he couldnt just... shake it off. He was stuck with it on himself until some maintenance crew removed it. Same with tar, jam,fish, cheese, coal etc. It made the engines, well, engines. And actually interesting and expressive.

this show made up my childhood entirely until i was about 7-8, i wouldnt stop watching it, even going out of my way to see more of it (older seasons, live things, etc). seeing how its just fell really hurts me internally, but all things have a station where they cant go further. also the 2d style just cannot sit with me, as much as i try to bear it. at least i still have mountains of DVDs just in case lol.

Bro was so inspired he actually called up nitrogen themselves HE DID NOT FEAR EMBARRASSMENT HE WALKED UP TO THEM WITH INSPIRATION IN MIND

I wish that arc Productions didn't get bankrupt and getting more season cuz I like the CGI Style in season 19 till 20

I'm not even that big into Thomas the Train, and you managed to get me interested enough to watch a nearly 20 minute video on the thing. RU-vid's algorithm really do be bringing me to strange places.

I personally didn’t mind the transition from models to CGI. Because as long as the show was written the same as it’s always been, I was cool with it. (Besides, I personally LOVED the sound of the engines braking and sparks⚡️flying everywhere.) We got gems such as Hero Of The Rails, Day Of the Diesels, Tale Of the Brave, The Adventure Begins, and my personal favorite: Sodor’s Legend Of The Lost Treasure. There we’re a few hiccups(COUGH Misty Island Rescue and the “Splish Splash Splosh” special), but other than it was fine for a while. But after “Big World, Big Adventures” came out, it was over. The characters were wobbling all over the place like this was Chuggington, there was way too much singing, Thomas himself became the Narrator, and the writing was just awful.😣 By 2019, I knew it was time to call it a day for my favorite childhood show.

sure the CGI trains and people could react in the moment and express themselves with body language, but that's what every other show, live action and animated does. what made Thomas different and special were the limitations imposed by it's format. the world doesn't need more of the same, it needs different, special, magical

0:00 OMG! I love Mitchells vs the Machines!!!😍😍😍

The CGI series is basically a study in great ideas being executed badly. Another example is the voice acting. All our characters have their own voices now? Great! I always liked having just a narrator just fine but Japan made the series work with individual voices and one of magic Railroad’s stronger points is the voice direction, so I was excited to see where it went and see these characters get new development from literally having their own voice. What we got was slow, monotonous performances that seemed to be playing to the youngest, dumbest audience possible, where everyone had high, shrill irritating voices, save for Gordon and Hiro. Bonus points for extremely forced, stereotypical, irritating British accents. These all become especially noticeable as the show becomes louder, more babyish and more garish to the point it’s grating and a complete overload for anyone.

As a 3d animator on the show from Arc to near the end of the production in jamfilled; i can say with out a doubt its was not a time issue, Mattel was happy with the way the show looked. like you think, they just wanted to make it more bright and colourful to get attract a younger audience and decided to go the 2d rout

Very informative! I'm left curious to see your impressions on watching the 2D series, if not as Thomas then on its own merit as a railway-themed cartoon.

14:17 I actually do like how these guys look.

Thomas isn't meant to be entirely cartoonish. The focus was on realistic train problems and how the solved them. Changing the show in order to make the trains more expressive, kind of ruined it.

4:30 I love the KSP space music in here

Yo bring this series back with a video explaining how the two episodes "Buzzy Bees" and "The Green Controller" are both cinematic masterpieces that changed your life forever Because I know for a fact you have not been the same since the viewing of those two masterpieces

But my favorite part about the CGI series were the camera angles they always fascinated me as a kid especially when the sparks flew when they applied their brakes

Excellent work Caleb!

Excellent and fair discussion about the CGI Transition.

If I were in charge of plot development, I would have just made the series as just trains doing things that trains do. For example; what does a PRR K4s class 4-6-2 steam engine do? It pulls passenger trains, and what does a N&W A class 2-6-6-4 do? It pulls freight. No stupid shit, no unnecessary plots, and good writing, occasionally delving into the practices that railway workers and owners have to deal with. Sure it might sound boring, but it would demonstrate it in a way that is visually appealing.

For three of the animation studios, they are good and awkward at different things: 1. Nitrogen - Good with replicating the character renders/props (almost if you count James), adding weight to them (especially for braking and made them feel real and heavy) and use actual references with the models brought to the studio. Bad at texture and just reuse the same traveling close-up shots over and over again. 2. Arc - Good with texture, camera panning shots that would be impossible to film with models on a grand scale, amazing backdrops and have the full budget to improve their animation quality. Bad with braking and returnee character renders (Bill & Ben, Oliver, Duncan, etc.) 3. Jam Filled - Good with camera panning shots like their predecessors, but too cartoony and made the engines weightless that would predict the 2D reboot. Other than that, CGI Thomas pretty much like the models had a run of its time until the end, and I can't deny how much passion everyone did into the show.

It woulda been cool if they’d made a video game based on all the sets they made for the cgi era Just so it’d be eternal

When season 12 came out, I wasn’t thrilled w/ the animation change, but when Hero of the Rails dropped in, it actually looked better. I wonder what classic stop-motion series they’re going to make into a CGI reboot next.

I grew up during the original change from the model series to cgi, and the transition was well done to say the least. I remember getting a dvd copy of every thomas movie to come out since like 2004 to 2016 for my birthday every year, and watching the cgi of the series evolve was kinda cool.

Great analysis!

You know, I'll still never understand the thought process behind the bouncing in the BWBA era and tail end of the Andrew Brenner Era. From what I can tell, the bouncing was part of Mattel's plan to make the show more marketable towards the preschool demographic, but if that was the case, then.... that's just plain dumb. The thing is that I honestly didn't actually notice the bouncing in JBS until everyone started talking about it a while after it was released. And I was around 12 or so when I first saw JBS and season 21. If a 12 year old doesn't notice a small detail like that, then some 3 year olds won't either. That's the thing about bouncing, it's just kinda pointless, it doesn't make the show better, nor does it ruin it. It's just kinda there. Like was it really necessary to put extra time and resources into this bouncing animation that a lot of kids probably never even noticed?

7:55 I was far out of the age range for 3D animated Thomas by the time it aired, but in retrospect I find the reused shots with different trains just as charming in 3D as the model animation doing the same was. It gives the island of Sodor a sense of verisimilitude (a word little me would've found amusing), an oft ignored component of world building. Now I think about it, the Thomas might've been what planted the seeds for my obsession with world building as an adult. 🤔

1:23 the golden years....... . i wanted a model train set SO BAD as a kid and man do i still have all that old Lionel O-27 gauge and wooden first gen Thomas stuff . my sisters kids are getting a kick out of it now lol

I'm surprised you didn't mention the Good Morning America interview that happened in 2009

The WOTW tripod sound effect, the video, opinions, jokes, is this dude just another version of me? 😂

the nitrogen era is my favourite era out of all the show so in the older times of the community when everyone constantly shat on it was sad. but i think we all have to realise something, 2008-2010 was the time when most model animated shows were transitioning into cgi (in the UK) and compared to the other shows that were now being CG animated at the time (bob, fireman sam), we seriously got very lucky because out of those shows thomas by far had the most detail and thought put into it, and atleast had people that KNEW what thomas was and they UNDERSTOOD the world that everyone that helped make the world built. the people at nitrogen genuinely cared about the show and respected what it was and didnt try to change it, and i think we should be glad with the fact that at least the show wasnt sold of to some cheap chinese animation company.

Me personally I stopped watching before big worlds big adventures, I did enjoy hiro of the rails and things like that but after 2016 I kinda left Thomas be. And now we have this 2d stuff… poor kids were robbed of something great

2:21 Gordon❗️❗️ Great job again with the video, very nice!

Awesome video m8🖖🤟 Incredibly comprehensive and I'm glad other people appreciate Nitrogen's animation. I also feel your pain with Maya. That program crashes more than the engines in the show.

Bro can do a whole documentary on why cheese has bubbles and can still make it entertaining

Thing I always liked about the CGI era was the trains getting their own voice actors, and especially the females. Lol, the narrators probably liked it better that way too then having to make up a bunch of voices.

Died to “I’m not Canadian I’m welsh”🤣🤣🤣🤣

THE "im not like other girls 😌" GOT ME BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

Hero of the Rails was and forever will be one of if not my favorite movie of all time.

Andrew Brenner really did save Thomas (Animation and Directing-wise and basically everything else), until Mattel ruined it with BWBA and AEG

This is the stuff you would watch at 3 am

2011: RWS Series More Stories in TV Style 2021: Hero of The Rails Season 12

CGI Thomas was something I found a bit off to what the show first started with, sure it's animation but the model episodes looked way better in appearance (at the time), even if there are things models can't do compare to CGI, I sometimes found it hard to accept it, and it was only the movies that convinced me that CGI Thomas is the course of direction which would keep the show going and to which has a TON of potential And now that I've come back as I have a T&F Renaissance, looking at the modern day show, I feel angry and sad, it's a show that has great stories to tell and also all about trains but has lost it's identity of what kind of a show it was, all the while corporate higher ups doesn't give a shit on what and how it was unless it could be make the cash

I did struggle with that word!

Y’know, looking back at the older seasons and the current state. I, and so many others, can no longer recognize the tank engine, and his friends, anymore. It is just sad knowing the one thing that has made a big part in our childhoods turn into this. But I can agree with everything said.

the live action + cgi was truly a golden age... while it lasted

This was great.

My biggest problem with the CGI era was only the fact that they switched around the timeline, other than that I liked it up to season 20.

Great vid 👍

Used to love watching this when i was younger

awesome video caleb

I was 4 in 2009 and hiro of the rails was my favorite movie and it still is

When I first saw Thomas in CGI I was blown away with how they made the details it was a fresh new approach and that’s what kept me interested as I grew older, they need to look more bad-ass!

“This was provided by N-, Ni-, NOOT NOOT!!”