Ian: Good warp effect! That's a lot of fun.
Umu: So the next video that you'll be reacting to is a girl group called Cosmic Girls or
WJSN and this song is called Secret. This was released in 2016 under Starship Entertainment in
Yuehua?
Yuehua Entertainment. It looks like the visual effects were done by a person named ?? and
Fantasy Lab and the director is Z Yong Kim.
Animation done by Ellen Kim, go ahead
Ian: So all of this would have been generated images, of course, it would have been a combination of 3d elements and 2d elements
Combining into the finished shot. They might have done some some space stuff and then like taking a still image of clouds again
Just speculating but it's sort of how we would do it if we were doing a video like this
This one was a sky replacement
They would have isolated the ground and then added in some of these clouds could have been in the original shot
but the the planet in the sky and the shooting stars and the red and everything, would have been enhanced from that and
combined with
Elements of the sky that were already there. And they might also be doing some color to the flowers and stuff on the ground
Something like this, because it's a large-scale area
They probably didn't do green-screen on, it's more likely that they were just using the sky
Timing it so that it would be a clear day
And then if there were parts where the sky was clouds and planes and all that behind it
They then did have to do a little bit of rotoscoping to separate the foreground from the background
But it's a large area that probably wouldn't have used like a green-screen or anything. They would have just used the sky
The sort of elf ears there, would've been a practical makeup piece that they're putting on
This one as she sort of moves
there's a little bit of a white halo around her face that indicates to me that this was a sky replacement and
That there's a little bit of an edge there. If you know what to look for is sort of a indicator of that
I'm guessing that the feathers would have been
Added in although they could have had them on set and then sort of augmented them with the purples and the the glows
But based on how they were sort of moving and how the colors stayed with them. I think that they were added in after the fact
This, they would have shot the town in the car on like a green screen and then built the background digitally and
Integrated it in with the reflections
colors and everything
This would have been a graphics element that somebody made to
incorporate into the heads-up display and
It's a bunch of different layers that sort of form shapes that look like monitors and displays and everything
The lightning is probably a combination of
Changing the lighting on set so that there's a flash of blue and then when that happens adding in a lightning bolt in the background
That water droplet floating through the air would have been a digital element that they're
Creating and simulating and shooting reflections for, to integrate it into the scene
This would have been the talent on a green screen and then, adding in the atmospheres in the background and everything
This is what they call a particle system
it has an emitter that is tracked into her eye and
It spits out particles every frame essentially. And then they're adding a glow effect to it, to kind of make it sparkle
Some other thing, is before where the car would have been on the set and they would've been sitting on it
But the whole thing would be on a green screen and then the earth and space and the asteroids in the background would be computer-generated
Purple lighting and everything would have been on set as well
That they would have had the the camera moving around the car whether it was on a something like a dolly on a jib or
possibly a steadicam
And then you have to track the motion of it so that the space elements follow the same kind of thing where there's a
Blue or green screen that key that out and then anything that went beyond that you have to cut out through rotoscoping
This would have been an element that they created using like, it kind of looks like
Space source images and then they're distorting it and turning it into like an energy ball kind of thing
Good warp effect! That's a lot of fun.
That, they would have had probably a blank page and then as the
Pendulum swung over it. They would have animated the glowing design on there
The wings could be a generated element and the glowy sort of trails coming off them,
Probably are as well. Although they could do something like shooting
Burning steel wool and having the little embers going through it and then sort of stretching that out in time
So it creates long trails. It's a little bit hard to control doing something like that
And so my guess is it would have been CG sort of effect that they're they're doing to create the base for that
This I think would all be practical. I think that they have a light inside of the book where you can't see it and
then the
foreground elements sort of drop in practically
That would have been somebody on a blue screen and moving the camera and adding sort of the entering the atmosphere sort of effect
That is
Very similar to what's called a double exposure when stuff a shot on the film, you would basically take the film
Expose it and then before processing it
reexpose it to another image where the darkest parts were you would get this sort of overlay effect and
The stars were it's in the shadow or the dark of their hair
This is recreating that and so you would have two or three source images that you're then combining on the computer
Umu: Yeah, so that one part where the car was by, was that, do you like the effect or you thought it was cheesy?
Ian: I liked it was
A fun effect. I liked this video quite a bit
It looked like it would have been a lot of fun to work on
Because so much of it was the sort of sky placement
You'd spend a lot of time setting a look on on one or two of the shots
And then you go through and match that to sort of every shot. It had a lot of cool elements in it
That were a lot of fun. 
Umu: Right. How do you think the visual effects artists did with creating this?
Strange mystical world? 
Ian: I think they did a pretty good job
It did what it needed to for the video which was conveying this sort of,
Otherworldly place and, and they drove the sort of narrative of the I guess summoning, very well with the visuals
Umu: Cool. Ok. So this is the one that I was telling you, about how they come to a party and their heads fall off. So this is SHINee
so there are five members, and this was released in 2015 and the film is by
STWT and the director is Shin Kiwon ??
Ian: So I'm guessing the glowing liquid is probably
Practical and it might be augmented a little bit
I'm guessing they have like bytes in the cup to make it sort of glow that way
Whereas this, would be cutting out their hands and skin and adding the sort of blue color to it and glowing it, like that
This probably would have been: shoot a take for the head
Shoot a take for the body and then use the knife
it could even be a practical knife that sort of fits around the neck that they then
Uses the sort of transition point. And then we'd cut out his head and sort of slide it across
I'm wondering if they had a
dummy head sort of thing, that they
Dropped down and then tracked in the sort of yellow citrusy texture at the base of the neck
But they would have had to match its movement and sort of make sure it stayed consistent as it rolled through the frame
This thing would have shot his head separate on like a green screen and
Then cut off below the neck and then sort of animated it flying through the air
I'm guessing it was
digital eyeballs that they animated flying out starting from sort of where his head is and then because it's
So out of focus in the background and being pretty easy to make it look
real without having to
Go through all of the like, you can kind of cut corners with it because a lot of it is hidden in the out-of-focusness
These probably would have been practical elements that they're rolling through the frame, just because it would have been easier to do that then
Build the element specifically for these shots
For this they're
essentially generating a patch of his face where his eyes should be, and shooting him normal and then covering up his eyes with the
Replacement and probably this was done by
freeze framing and cloning
Different parts of the skin over his eyes and then tracking that in.
Umu: So would you have to color, like pause, color it in, pause?
Ian: Umm more likely you'd only pause it once and then you would get a track of the face
and track that sort of still frame in, over it depending on how much the
perspective changes and whatnot
You need to do more complicated versions of that but for this movement
I think that they would have been able to pick a clean frame cover up the eyes and then track it in the shot
This my guess is they would have had the two actors be in the take and
situated together and then would have cut out below the neck and replaced it with a clean frame of the table and
The guy behind the table rather than like completely separate elements. I think the, they would have shot
essentially one take with him in front of it and then one take without and filled in this area with the
clean section
That was a camera underwater that they're filming from
Similar thing for what they did with the eyes. Grab a section,
paint over the nose, sort of even it out so that the lighting felt right and
Then track that in so it stayed on the face the entire time
This
That could have done a couple of different ways
It might be a fake sink that basically someone's just sticking their arm through and holding
The nose piece. That probably ends up being the easiest though, they could have also shot the arm separate
Coming off the bottom and integrated it into the sink plate. Both of those are equally likely
So this thing would have shot normally with the two guys
And I'm guessing that they had them together in the same scene then, they would have cut out the area of
the orange jacket guy's head, and replaced it with a clean frame of the background and
done a similar face treatment for the guy with no eyes. A lot of what makes a shot like this easier is
Having it blocked off
So the camera isn't moving it eliminates some variables in how things are moving in the background and whatnot and
Makes the process quicker and less work for the visual effects artist. We'd like locked off shots for this kind of thing
Umu: Okay!
Ian: That probably would have been a separate element that they shot of a confetti cannon
Blowing stuff in the air. Generally those are shot on green-screen
Or just straight black depending on how you're integrating them, both work and both have different advantages and disadvantages. It really depends on the shot
Some of those might not have needed to be a separate element they could have had a special-effects rig hidden behind them that is
continually blowing out and would help with some of the integration of it going like around them and
That can be done through how the shot is framed and how it, sort of what you're hiding with the blocking.
It's another way to do it.
Similar sort of effect, painting over the mouth and using that sort of patch to remove it
That's very common when we do digital beauty work
It's a similar process to that, we'll take wrinkles and pimples and whatnot, and sort of remove that and then track it in
That was probably
having something as a stand-in for the mouth that they place in the shot and then they shape a plate of somebody's singing and
Rotoscope it out and combine them together
That I'm guessing was a separate fire element
they might have shot a big burst of flame hitting sort of like a dummy or it could have been a
stock element that was
created or purchased and then the sort of after image of him being burned coming through could have been done as
Another plate as well. Either of those would've worked
I'm guessing that, that transition would have been one that was on set
they built the set to break apart like that just because it is usually simpler to do that sort of thing on set than
Isolating him from the background and the background
breaking apart and then a separate shot for that, that you then have to integrate him into.
Umu: There you go. So yeah out of the past six music videos
can you say which one was your favorite and why?
Ian: I really liked the one with the
Planet set extension and the, or the sky replacement and the, the space sequence
I liked how the effects contributed to the story and it would be a different music video without it and I'm a sucker for space
Umu: Alright and then
Do you see any difference between these type of visual effects versus what we put in American music videos?
Ian: They're actually very similar. I've worked on a number of videos that are
Very much
We're gonna add this kind of effect throughout the, like the glitches and whatnot to kind of spice up the video
And I've have also worked on a number of videos that was like creating an environment for the video doing ?? and
Going I guess more surreal with the visuals. It all depends on sort of the
genre of the the music and the
thing that the artist and the director are trying to do with the music video and also
How much time they have available for it and how much budget they have available for it. 
Umu: Right
Can you tell which of these videos had the biggest budget?  By the mountain of visual effects?
Ian: My guess would be the Cosmic Girls one just because almost every shot of that was some sort of effect the
This last one would have had a pretty big budget as well
And what budget really translates into is how many artist hours you can have on it?
And so the number of shots contributes to that, the size of the team
so like you have one person it might take longer, but you're only paying one person or is if you have
20 people working on effects on it, then you can get it done in a shorter amount of time
but you're paying everybody a day rate kind of thing. Stuff like where they're
Replacing the entire background and generating an entire world
That is generally more complicated and more expensive than grabbing
Small parts of the image and glitching them out. That isn't to say
One is better than the other. It's, it's more of just logistics
Umu: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Visiting the series, and until next time
Ian: Thanks for having me.
