Extra special guests surprise
(laughing)
So there's some things that you really have to consider when you're shooting like this and do you want me to blow your minds even further?
Hey, welcome back to another episode of VFX artists reacts.
Today we are going to watch some really cool clips. And we got an extra special guest surprise. Don't click that X button
(laughing)
This is from 'Solo a Star Wars story' and there's something really interesting about this sequence.
One, is like it's a pretty sweet train heist sequence and all that but, it ends in a very climactic way.
Here, let's just watch it.
Whoa, that's pretty cool. Oh
That's neat
What's actually cool about this shot?
Is that everything is fake, except for the explosion.
Wait, is this for real?
It was actually inspired by our good friend Gavin from the Slow Mo guys
So what they did was they actually took a phantom camera
They 3D printed the mountain and put it in a giant fish tank and they shot it something like 45
different times and from different angles.
So what you're seeing are real air bubbles within water
wrapping around the edges of the mountain so it's like the perfect simulation of a shot because it is flawless simulation. Its reality.
I love that they used real elements. That is salty waterfall level cool
Like, that is awesome
Right! Speaking of using real elements,There's a robot in this movie, that was basically a real robot that was filmed on set
It's the same thing they did on Game of Thrones
They would have like this crazy-looking skeleton dude with like a green screen leg and they would just remove the leg
Here's the thing about all of this though
they go through all the trouble erasing out all of the internals and they're like
We're gonna keep all of the actual costume bits in and then we remove the green screen then we fill in all the internal bits
And then we replace the entire costume
Sometimes full CG is actually easier than combining real and CG together
If you can just render it all in CG and have it work together the lighting and the shadows
It might just be faster
Plus it probably ends up looking better with the actual like matte paintings of the environment and all that stuff
You can see the biggest changes are the actual reflections of the sky on the machine itself
She could have just been wearing a mocap suit rather than the actual
Robotic suit but it does put her 1 and a better mindset for acting like a robot and to the best lighting reference you can
Possibly have so this is just a very high budget version of bird up the worst show on television
You got some poppy seeds in your mouth
This is an example of a lot of great reference on set
But ultimately it gets replaced with a CG model. And so an otter robot that also looked great was done very practically
There's a robot from 'I am mother'. I think you should take a look. Oh, right. Yes
Did you know there were people out there?
I'm as surprised as you!
There's a Droid here
I still really want to see that movie, it looked really cool.
Dude! You knew we're gonna talk about this how have you not seen it yet?
You're supposed to do your research!
Get him out of here!
I haven't seen Solo!
Get out of this shot!
All right, I'm gonna fire up my new teleportation spell and we're getting some of you here who has seen I am Mother
Hi!
The ... Subscribe! is going on?!
Sorry to do this to you. So abruptly
I recognize all of this. Am I in a VFX artists react?
You are. 
- Right now?
You are
So right now you are and for those of you who don't know
This is Grant's Victoria. The director of I am mother. So just to be clear though, clen hasn't seen it
So have you seen it thought way too many times?
Yeah, but I am very happy to comment on anything that you need me to talk about
So the robot and I am mother you guys put together a suit that is by far one of the best practical robots to have
Ever seen but you also have some CG robot shots
Yeah, it's almost the secret of the film because we really wanted to celebrate practical effects when we were making this
But, when you're making a low-budget film, there are a bunch of things that the script called for
that we couldn't let the suit do. 
-Wait, how many suits did you have?
-One. 
-You only had one suit?! 
-One suit
So,
- Well what happens if you broke the suit?
end of movie; end of career
NO!
Let's take a look at some shots from the film and see if you can tell what CG and what's real
Mother chillin'
The babies in this film get born in 24 hours just an easy-bake oven for babies
So that real baby was interacting with that robot there
so maybe the hands are practical and they're like that whole chest is computer generated?
CG? CG robot with baby? Can't get babies to act. 
It's true! you canno- I can vouch for that!
Oh, and now it's no longer a baby; It's a little girl
Oh, yeah, it's changing! 
-hat looks real to me because of how it's moving like the slight jiggles the stuff
It's hard to get that right
- the little girl's obviously CG as well
Throughout that whole sequence of shots, it's all real.
-There's one shot that made me think like: 'okay, that was pretty dang real.' It was the close-up on the wrist
You get the really nice detail in the highlights and scratches and stuff
See, what's interesting is that shot is completely real but an otter shot that's equally tight and closed and is actually CG. -Really?
Yeah, credit to the VFX guys of Film they built the CG mother
After we've made the real mother so that it's all about photo scans and like lidar scanning mother.
-Okay,
Why would you choose to have the baby holding on to a CG hand rather than a practical hand?
In this instance,
We've got a better performance from the baby when the baby was interacting with a real mother
Oh! That makes- you know, that makes sense.
There she is looking at a robot that's completely real 
- Oh wow!
-So wait, like it was it was changeable. Initially
We had the baby interacting with the robot, with the head off
So like she understood that like the really sweet man. That was playing mother
Luke Walker, was inside this bit of costume and eventually we put the head on
But the shot where the baby gets put on the floor and you see mother's feet, that's actually CG
I actually thought that was real because the babies interacting.
Yep, no, that's CG.
-that shot's flawless
Those things Were gonna sit side by side in this sequence and throughout the whole film.
The bar was set really high. It was basically
Realism like it's got to look real and the VFX guys got that.
So okay, even sitting down at the table there
I actually thought that was a real shot, but that's a computer-generated shot now
Yeah, So well the original plan on shots like this were that like let's have the real suit,
and then just replace the hands. Like let's have the hands go fast, right?
Oh, yeah
But it actually proved to be more difficult to get those arms to feel like they were locked to the body than it was to
Just completely replace mother and that was something that we felt increasingly confident doing
That's the story that's-
-wait, why is he in his underwear?
it was like -this was like the last day of second-unit photography
and so there was nothing for Luke to wear and so he was just gonna do it in the clothes that he was wearing but,
The VFX guys were like it's all black like in a dark environment
we can't see you and then Luke being the
exhibitionist that he is, is like 'what about skin like would you be able to track and follow this thing?'
Hey! Well, it would also give great lighting reference as well.
On any otter visual effects artists react episode I would ask you how did you make the CG suits
look surreal, but at this time I'm gonna flip it. How did you make the real suit look so CG
It's ultimately about hiding the fact that there's a person in there, right you want the audience to suspend disbelief
And there's a bunch of tricks that we're doing to be able to do that mother's head is actually sitting a couple of inches above
Luke's head and that allows you to create these sort of
Cavities like in around our neck line that make it look like there's nowhere to hide a person
That would- that took like six months like to get worked out like what exactly mother looked like
I knew I always wanted it to look like a real robot
The robot kinda reminds me of like the eventual evolution of the Boston Dynamic Robot. 
-Totally
I want to see Clint in a mocap CG mother suit fighting
Mother like that'll be great. 
- As a director on this project,
How much of a difference do you think it would make having a practical versus a CG suit?
what exactly are you seeing in the performance that changes pot of it is like everybody actually being on the same page and sharing the
Same reality and that's like within the confines of the scenes
Can You describe to us what we're seeing with this weird like-
-I wanna know all about this this blue screen suit that you've developed
Yeah, it kind of looks like wow
This is a really high-end film with a fancy blue version of mother that they're using for CG
But this is actually a black foam suit that whether built before they built the real suit as a test case
-But you still have the suit sitting around
Exactly, and we just got a couple of cans of blue spray paint and we just spray painted it blue
Like, that's it
It's so important because when you've got that
Interaction from an actor like with what's ultimately going to become a CG thing. You need the terrain to sort of map
At one point
I know you guys were shooting at a beach but it's all this like foggy
Tree sort of stuff and I couldn't really see too much of the original beach in the shot
All of the outside world is filmed on the same Beach like so when clara reaches the beach
That's the same place where the bunker door is, right?
But we used CG to kind of create the variety and the landscapes to make it feel like you've covered a greater
Terrain, I think this movie's really showcasing a pretty big turning point of visual effects where you guys had a budget,
But it's not a huge budget
They had I know exactly what you mean like, you know, netflix bought the film at Sundance
It was made completely independently. It was made in Australia, and we'd never had enough money
But we were working with VFX companies that were really, skilled really passionate and really wanting to prove themselves
Well grant is amazing having you here amazing being here
And if you want to kind of get in touch with you
What's what's the best way to do that Instagram @GrantSpitori great
And do you want me to teleport you back to Australia? That would be super convenient. It is a long flight
All right. Here we go
All right Clint. Get back over here. I
Its your foot okay?
- yeah, I'm fine dude!
I got a great Instagram shot of that
Speaking of Instagram, you can follow us @CorridorDigital go check it out
Should we do our Patreon one?
-Oh, yeah dude Patreon!
- Singing- (Patreon)
All right. So if you support us on Patreon,
You can vote on what one of the videos will be that we react to.
-this winner came out a left field
-Space Jam!
Let's see if I remember how to do this.
Man, Michael Jackson.. Michael Jordan
Michael Jackson.
Excuse me, Pardon
- Yo, yo easy on the trousers Daffy
- Pardon me,
This is at the beginning of motion tracking like camera tracking like the movies before that
Were still doing it manually and they ended up kind of developing their own software to do all of the camera tracking
They filmed all of Michael Jackson... 
- Jordan
Yeah, they shot any of their people on a green-screen stage with red tracking markers, and then they recreated the entire court digitally
You guys ready?
- I'm set to take the rack, Jack!
Those Monstars will wish they never been born!
This is the first time I remember seeing Looney Tunes with like
Proper shading as opposed to the classic 2D shading the hand-drawn 2D drawings of each of the Looney Tunes characters
There's just one pass flat lighting right, and they do a whole pass of like any shading and they would be able to adjust that
And blur it out where necessary if they needed to adjust the amount of directional lighting on them.
That is was pretty sweet.
Oh, how do you think a cartoon character passes a basketball to a real-life person? Like Michael Jackson... Dang it.
Michael Jordan is maybe using him for 10 basketball. 
I think it's one of the first photo scans.
-Oh, really?
- Really?
They took hundreds of photos of this basketball from every possible angle and recreated it in 3D. Anytime the cartoon characters are dribbling around,
They're dribbling a 3D Wrendered ball and they made it look as close to the real ball that Michael Jackson (...) was using on set
(Waiting for Wren to realise...)
-Ding-  the penny drops
I DID IT AGAIN!!!! I did it again!!!!
If you guys have a movie or a show with some sweet visual effects, please leave a comment down below
We read them all. We actually have a really fun time going through all the comments. So, please keep it up
Let's take it from 1998 to the Year 2019 here
Woahhhh!!! Blast Off!!!
Gaaaaaaahhhh BOOM!
Let's talk about Gemini Man
Gemini Man! Gemini Man.
All right, so we just had a chance to see Gemini man in theaters, all of us, in 3D at 120 frames per second
but let's just say that I actually really enjoyed the action in this movie and
- The action was the best part,
It was pretty cool. 
- That was what they were trying to do with the Hobbit back in the day
I wasn't the biggest fan of that kind of high frame rate on The Hobbit.
-It needed to be even higher, 
- but, this was different.
So there's some things that you really have to consider when you're shooting like this,
I think and we dug down into it when you're watching something. That's 4k at 120 frames per second in 3D
You can tell when the actors are wearing makeup
- Did any of the actors wear makeup in this movie?
- No
I mean there's subtle makeup here and there, traditional makeup is not present in this movie
But here's the thing, so fight scenes right, when you can see every little bit of motion
You can tell when a sudden man is gonna throw their face before the hand connects out how to return your frames for so
-Oh Right. 
you don't see that at 24. So, these fight scenes they need to actually go in and reanimate them
So when somebody throws a punch the face doesn't move until the hand is pushing the face
But you know what? We're digressing because what the heck, who is that? That's young Will Smith
Let's talk a little bit about some of the technology they had to do in Gemini man to get him to look real
You know, I like talking about how pore's got a stretch. 
-Oh, yeah,
Pore's stretch.
- POreS StrETCh
And Gemini Man,
they didn't just take a texture with pores and like figure out how to stretch, they took the model and they had a
Procedural generation of pores on the face if you look at the back your hand right, and you go like this
You'll see very fine wrinkles
And that's the platelets of your skin stacking up on top of each otter. And so the
Procedural pores and the procedural platelets let them have the wrinkles follow the appropriate cracks and crevices to get
Exactly. Perfect micro wrinkles for the skin. 
-Didn't Weta Digital do all the effects?
Yes, 
- what an effects company!
Yeah anyways,
Shush. So wrinkles is important to get right but skin tone is important to get right to so once again in
CG graphics, you might just throw texture on there right not in this movie. They had melanin simulation if you go like this
The blood gets pushed out of the parts of your skin that gets squished or pushed back into it
This is the kind of stuff you have to think about when you do the human face
It is not easy and you want me to blow your minds even further? The shots with Gemini man,
They are motion capturing his entire body and they rendered the entire body as a digital replacement.
The only problem I had with this movie, was the motion of a lot of different things 
- same the dirt bike
You've heard a pause on any of this. It looks flawless
But the motion is what doesn't work for me like that tail whip on the bike was like really quick
So when things break the rules of gravity like in this case the dirt bikes very subtle
But we can all tell that it doesn't feel right
It just goes to show that I think motion is pretty much the hardest thing to get right 
-he has to die
It's your darkness. You had to walk through this on your own.
- Dear animators,
Stop moving the upper lip, please because there is no muscle going from your nose down to your lip to pull it straight up
That's Garry's Mod. That's not reality. This one his bottom lip is pushing his top lip up. It looks correct
That looks... 
-yeah.
There's an otter scene that he's just in there. He's listening and he's emoting, and his upper lip goes:
Mmm, he like slides up and down is he's kind of like sneering and it's kind of a byproduct of morph targets and motion tracking
But it's not just Gemini man. anytime
There's a CG face if it looks fake take a look at the upper lip and watch it slide up on its own
Because there's no muscle there and subconsciously, you know it and anytime the CG face does it, you really can tell it's fake
Isn't that what we saw the deep fake do better with Princess Leia?
There's always someone who does the deep fake better
So couldn't you just do a deep fake on Will Smith and maybe fix the lip, you know?
I'm glad you asked friend. We want to do a deep fake of Will Smith and see how it compares to Gemini, man
It took us a while. We actually found a really really really good Will Smith impersonator. 
Super nice guy take a look at this:
I think it's one of the best Will Smith deep fakes. You've ever seen you may have seen our Tom Cruise
he fakes our Keanu Reeves deep fakes, and we've been perfecting the technology and we think we have
Have the perfect
- perfect
Will Smith deep fake
It's a lot of work, but we're finally here now you go
Make sure that the person underneath the deep fake like has the same statue the same mannerisms, right?
It's all about the performance and the personality. So, uh, we'll what's your favorite hot sauce
Red, Red Bird ...(???)
so realistic
so convincing it's all in the performance check out how high resolution it is and look like the
Expressions are perfectly captured. Can you show us a big expression maybe?
That's that's great. So I just wanna point out the key to this technology is having the perfect person underneath to capture that performance
So, I just want to say big thanks here to our
Will Smith impersonator for helping us out with the perfect deep fake, it was great
- That was good! I feel deep- I faked myself out, dude!
I faked myself out that time.
Gotcha. Thanks Dale Smith. Appreciate you being in our video
Super nice guy anyways, I didn't mean
If you do like action and you want to see action in a way
You haven't seen it before try to catch the high frame rate screening of it
- I do, I do highly recommend it absolutely. As a movie,
I have critiques but as an experience, you got to go see it and you know...
I would really, really, really like it here to subscribe if you're not subscribed already
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Are we scrolling now?
Yeah there scrolling, Dude. 
That's a lot.
Wait for that post-credit scene. Thanks
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