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Filmmakers use Visual Effects to create the illusion of achieving things that, to do for real, would either be too dangerous, too expensive, too complicated, or just plain impossible.
Whether it's to give someone superpowers, make them fly through the air, or fall from a massive height, make them look like they're interacting with a Computer generated beast, or actually becoming one themselves.
The hardest part for the VFX team is finding the best method, or inventing the right technique to obtain the best result possible.
The hardest part for the actors is trying to remain in character and give a convincing performance whilst looking like, well, like a bit of a twit.
For Alice in Wonderland, the visual effects teams made. Matt Lucas perform as Tweedledee and Tweedledum dressed in a fat green costume on stilts, they made Johnny Depp talk to a green stick, Mia Wasikowska fight against, well, absolutely nothing and Crispin Glover ride this odd-looking contraption.
Interestingly enough, for this shot, they only used Crispen's head, everything else was CGI, which begs the question,
Why bother with the whole contraption in the first place? and,
Is everything the VFX teams do, really necessary? or are they just having a bit of fun making the actors look stupid?
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The thing with Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug was that he did the full body motion capture as least partially for his method acting. It helped him get into character and figure out how to sound, use the right tone of voice, behave, etc.
Yeah! I noticed he's a very good method actor
Was about to add that aswell. One could imagine that it's easier to get into character or deliver better voice acting when actually acting like you're a Dragon. The other alternative would be the standard way; standing infront of a screen seeing the scene and doing the voice acting synced to the viewed scene.
They should have just got a voice actor if he needs to do all that to provide a voice. I get it, they want someone famous to do the voice so went with a non voice actor, but its silly. Imagine every voice actor doing such silly things.
Well, I think for this one it's also quite incorrect. for smaug, yes there were quite some movements that were thrown away. But I believe a large part of the motion capture was still translated to the way the dragon moved. Same can be seen with Gollum. Andy Serkis is not visible in the final CGI version, but his movements and way of moving the character will still be reflective of the mocap session done for the character
@@geroutathat they did actually use some of his movements in the actual film there are a couple of videos on it not like attacking your point or anything I think what your saying also makes perfect sense but I think some people in the comments aren’t understanding that they did use some of the movements
"Was it really necessary to wear the helmet?" Yes. It's necessary so the actor knows where his/her eyes are supposed to be focusing; it's important so the VFX editors can render scale consistently without making size variations in different shots.
It also helps provide lightning reference which is incredibly valuable for the artists
also for if there is meant to be a collision
Seriously. 6 minutes of the same question over and over and the answer is always: yes. They wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t necessary.
The "seemingly pointless exercises" are important for actors to get into character. It's a lot easier to "be a dragon" if you are crawling around like one compared to just sitting in a chair.
Yip, he insisted on doing that and Jackson accommodated him.
They’re actors; they should know how to act.
@@dboboc yep, they decided that crawling on the ground would be better. so I guess they know.
@@dboboc That's what they're doing
Sitting in a chair, with a coffee, having camera A and camera B rolling, watching two people standing and talking to each other on the plane that's completely green.
Utmost respect to the unsung heroes of our generation, VFX ARTISTS & EDITORS!
and animators
And writers
Benedict Cumberbatch looked like he was having a blast with Smaug. That must have been such a trip (I think originally they were just going to use his voice)
It is actually his voice in the movies
He actually stated in interviews after what fun it was to do Smaug. So yes he was indeed having fun. I don't think his was a good example of why do they make actors look silly because he certainly wasn't feeling like he looked silly.
He did it also to be more in character.
@@victoria7ttrue, I think those movements were even needed to simulate the reality of how smaug spoke, he couldn't have just been still
I remember reading about the film and fx crew saying they usually had a hard time getting him out of character when shooting was done, he kept crawling around on the floor being smaug and no one could stop him because he was smaug
What's helpful to understand with CGI and motion-capture is that it's not exactly or not always puppeteering a digital model, but gathering reference footage from which the animation team can work. So while they may not use all the shots of seemingly silly footage of people in greenscreen costumes, the way the actors move will make the end result much more convincing because it comes from a performance. That isn't to say that animators can't put character into their animations, but, from what I've seen, their jobs seem to be much easier when they get a great performance out of the actors.
At 3:19 you've just answered your own question - giving the actors something tangible to work with gives a much better performance which gives a much better product in the end.
@@jacksonkerr2095 Only if they cant act. The thing is, most people in hollywood are just popular people, they cant really act. Most just did sexual favours to get there. An actor could make you believe there is an imaginary snake infront of them a hollywood actor would demand a snake be made so they can interact with it and get in charachter.
Anyone remembering the early 90’s game “prince of Persia”? The amazing animations were all made from reference animations: kzhead.info/sun/jbuYlamwf6KKjYE/bejne.html
The helmets are useful for actors to have the correct point to aim their eyes to. As for the lotion capture for the dragon, it could be used to help animators to find the right place in body movement
Lotion capture? 🤭 can't let that lotion get away! seize it! seize it all!
Get that lotion immediately! It has done the unimaginable. It has done crimes… crimes you wouldn’t even think of. I can’t stand to see it free another second.
It puts the lotion capture on its skin.
Voice is body, ask any voice actor and wait until they stop cringing at you to see what they say about Benedict Cumberbatch not needing to do any of that... There is no drama without action.
As stated in the end. It is better for the VFX artists to have too much material to work with, rather than too little. But likewise can dressing up the people that play the fully VFX characters be important, since it can help the actors keep track of who is what. And where things supposedly are. As can be seen in Marval's behind the scenes, they often have a cardboard cut out of the character's head rigged up on a pole from the actor's back. So that the other actors knows where head height is going to be. So that the VFX team doesn't also have to correct their gaze in post.
the head wasn't necessary , they could've just use a paper with two dots as thanos's eye
I can agree. One time I had to 3D model a clock that was on the wall. But the people that where on set taking pictures of everything did not make a photograph of the clock. You could just see it in one Picture but not good. At the end I had to Look at clocks and I found one that was pretty close to the real one. But still it would have been way easyer than this if they just took a picture.
@@andrewcliffordlimantono1699 But consider: it's easier to act against something that actually looks like a living thing than a paper with two dots.
a lot of it boils down to exactly whats on the tin-- the actors are Acting...whether that means hugging a giant plush cushion (which will be CG'ed into a pig-puppy thing) or wearing a super-inflated suit (to be CG'ed into Beauty's Beast), it gives the actors more material to Act with...before "Fellowship of the Ring" filmed and edited the Balrog Bridge scene, no one even knew what a Balrog was supposed to look like; they just figured "it HAS to be at least This Tall, right?" and stuck a tennis ball onto the end of a long pole...Ian McKellen was tempted to shout "YOU SHALL NOT...BOUNCE!" to the ball, but in the end, Gandalf was 'looking at' the Balrog, making direct eye contact... ...years later, for filming part of The Hobbit, Gandalf's height-difference over the Hobbits was accomplished by filming separate shots-- one of a "full-sized" scene complete with props (all made bigger to make the actors look smaller), and one of Ian McKellen alone on a stage of green boxes of various heights...it was such a heartbreaking method to superimpose the two shots together, making Ian exclaim "this isnt why i became an actor!" before finishing the scene...
Most of them are for reference, some of them are for both reference and to help actors to have something to interact with, which will also help to glue the scene together much better.
You said it at the end of the video and mostly people who work in the industry we know the reason. We don't have time to mess around on set. Long hours and stressful times all along
From an editing point of view its all down the final cut. It may seem unnecessary at the end as certain shots or angles are removed. Alot like deleted scenes in movies our extended versions of films. Think of it as starting a painting, u buy all the colours and brushes, and dont know what u might need until u start/finish the project. But its better have it all there ready before putting brush to paper x
All the silly helmet, costumes and those physical things that the crew brings using green or blue colors before the VFX production is actually meant for the VFX to obtain the right scale that the directors and the writers wants. Because its quite difficult for the VFX artist to create such an amazing scenes if they need to just estimate the height and the scale of the creature if they dont have an actual things to measure.
This is called art: creativity to the level beyond imagination.
IDK about all the other ones. BUT Funny enough Benedict Cumberbatch asked to get on all four so that he could find the right voice and attitude towards it. Lol by far the most motivating video to watch if i ever want to do voice acting stuff haha also very entertaining. EDIT: Also I HAD NO IDEA Channing Tatum wasn't actually there, WTF WOAH. Also I like how you created this quick and simple idea to help blow up and now this is the first video I've seen where you break down Film. I like this channel.
That was the first thing that I thought of when watching this clip. I remember Andy Serkis telling Benedict Cumberbatch to not think of it like you’re just doing a voice. That even though they won’t use that footage, there are little things about the ways you move that the animators can pull out and extrapolate into the actual character.
Would it not have been easier if Cavill just had a fake moustache instead for the other movie??
Was in his contract that he couldn’t remove it
That was the obvious and original suggestion and even the director was OK with it, but Paramount Pictures executives refused to do it and insisted on Cavill keeping the mustache.
@@Case_ Thats might be actually dumbest decision of all...
It's what makes fans blaming WB so stupid. They offered everything they could to make it work, and Paramount refused since they didn't have to. WB even offered to pay for a fake mustache, CGI a fake mustache, or the downtime to Cavill to regrow it. It's a level of petty matched by when Marvel wanted to use Empire State University in the Hulk movie as where Bruce's colleague was. Sony denied them. Marvel also asked to have Spider-Man just swing by in a background shot. Nope. They're last effort to have a Spider-Man cameo was asking if they'd fight Tobey Maguire in a crowd with no lines. Sony said they'd sue.
@@bryanwoods3373 Yep, no matter how you slice it, the whole CGI mustache thing is 100% caused by Universal's pettiness.
I love learning about the behind-the-scenes ways to produce entertainment.
@2:03 I don't think they wanted the arms specifically, but more the movement of the rest of the body when he waves his arms. The same with the "fake horse contrapment", the proper head/body movement gives a template for the Vfx artists.
It's not about having reference as much as having 2 options. Directors want to stay with live action as much as possible to avoid an overly digital look. But that method often doesn't work and they have to replace it with full digital imagery. If it was all about reference they wouldn't be putting everything in green screen, which is the last thing you'd want for reference. They're shooting live action with those mattes (at great expense) hoping it might make the final shot, but they can't know for sure.
The Benedict Cumberbatch/ Smaug behind the scenes is one of the coolest & most impressive bits of acting I have ever seen. To just gloss over that is frankly a shame.
Plus, it was method to be in character and give belief and credibility to his voice as well as the effort and exertion when he moves to make it more natural.
@@eddiek8179 agree on all counts. So good.
behind the scenes footage seems to have died recently, but i always love seeing it purely because of the free comedy you get.
It's easy to tell after the premiere what was needed and what wasn't, when during the production a lot of things change from day to day, sometimes whole shots go to waste, because the vision changes.
Great video. Amazing how they make these things look real. Love this channel.
Thank you so much 😀
The editing and music were excellent mate 👌
Benedict Cumberbatch did this himself to get in character and to generally express how the dragon could move and react - body language. He wasn't dragged through that.
A lot of that is to put the actor in the world makes for a more real performance like when Grant spins his arms and when Benedict was doing the dragon
simply magic...Truly it gives life to your imagination. My tribute to the hard working VFX/CGI professionals (oh and the software).
Personally, I think Superman with a twirly mustache and a black fedora might be an interesting change of pace.
These ´silly costumes’ help for characters sizes… how the lights will affect them so we can recreate them in cg.. sometimes create shadows on main characters..blablabla…. Lots of reasons actually 🤷🏻♂️
actors: acting in front of a green screen is so hard Voice actors: hold my microphone (Literally most of the time all they have around them is microphone)
Wouldn't the bear head be useful to cast more accurate shadows on Leonardo DiCaprio's body? In a corridor crew video a VFX supervisor explains how simulated shadows often ruins a fx shot..
This whole video felt like the introduction to the main content. I was waiting for a splash screen and the main video to begin. Then it was over.
Well behind every great movie there's some great VFX artists skills😉
"Did they really have to..." no. But VFX artists will always tell you it's better to do more than less to get the best quality final shot.
And some of it makes sense if you think. Having the bear helmet is for line of sight and height reference. The various pieces for the giant pig are for the different stunts. A head shell isn't going to maintain shape and give the impact the foam head will.
this entire video felt like the intro to an hour long video essay.
For the actors trying to act it out despite the silliness still helps with tgeir acting itself. As much as there are scenes that will be not used, that is more of a thing in shooting a film in genral where they do shoot a lit of scenes that will end up in the cutting room anyways.
I am a theater person and we always try a lot stuffs to make each scenes look the best in the way we want. For some complicated scenes it simply takes a lot of effort, like trying different costumes, props, and settings and this is super time & energy consuming. Those complicated CGI movies must have to try a lot more things to make the outcomes more appealings, thats what I thought. So maybe we see here a bunch of clips that didn't show in real movies, but I think the production did't know that when they planed them. A thousand of modifications must be made afterwords and it really doen‘t do the justice to the crew when you ask if it was necessary over and over again.
Seems like actors are doing what it takes to prepare them for the roles they ought to play in any show or film they’re cast in. They can have fun whenever they want to, as long as it doesn’t disrupt the whole filming process altogether.
the one thing that vfx has always struggled with and will continue for some time (until AI can sort it out) is the way humans naturally move. it's easier to use green screen and dots on a human actor to superimpose onto a rendered figure than to try and do all that movement via cgi even if it's just the head, or face, or cheeks, or whatever...
2:45 you come across as ignorant from here on, they need the raptor heads, bear heads, etc. Specially for reference, be that lighting, size, shapes, and all sorts of things. Yeah some of these are silly but most of them are very necessary for the workers.
Why did they digitally add a new Channing Tatum scene instead of bringing back Tatum to reshoot the scene? He's still alive.
I guess it's also to avoid looking fake for unconvincing effects added, something that recently happened with Adipurush (Indian movie supposed to have been on a budget of Rs. 500 crore)
i miss the production in 80s movies, actual sets, actual costumes, plus it lifted alot of pressure off of visual effect artists shoulders, it was way more fleshed out and it gave the movies personality
All these "silly" references prove incredibly crucial even and especially when we think they're not needed.
People don't even realize how challenging it is to be an actor in a VFX world 😂
I am glad they have vfx. I hope they can use it so that we never have injuries to the actors. I hope Bruce Willis will get better or if there is a cure for that condition. Hopefully a lot of these actors who have these problems will lead to cures for all these conditions that ail people.
Personally I much prefer when they use tactile models for CGI reference. It's so obvious to me when an actor touches nothing at all or pushes at nothing and they CGI something in later. It breaks the immersion.
I suppose if you are 100% ignorant to "why" these things are done the way they are done, this might give a tiny idea to the reasons. But as many have already pointed out in comments prior to mine, (smart viewers)it is not entirely for the reasons given in the video. As an actor, a lot of the puppetry and supporting cast behind the scenes is extremely helpful for perception, direction, visual cues, and plain ole inspiration for character creation. An actor can give dialog in a solo scene when not expected to interact with other things that do not exist or supposed to exist with a varied degree of success.(depending on their skill set) But ever sense make believe characters were put on screen to interact with real life people, those tricks have been extremely important for the actors performance. Actors rely on interaction to give the range of emotional performance to make the scene as dramatic as asked for. The better question would be, are the actors that do this stuff, really having a good time with it? Or is it so little fun compared to playing off another real live actor that they just assume not? 🤔
Amazing video 👍🏻
I’ve raised pigs and that’s no 🐖! That’s a cross between the dog thing from never ending story and Eeyore.
Thanks for the video!
Have you ever taken a look into what effects were needed for the mummy series? especially the second movie?
Given how much CGI is used, all of these movies should be considered as Animation.
Well considering the stressful job of vfx artists, it's okay to have fun :--) . Well i would not let the chance to slip away 😜.
All the many things used to make a story come to life, and they somehow still overlook the continuity aspect of the movies.
What package?
Would have thought it obvious that these partial bodies etc need to be used as reference points.
Actually benedict himself wanted to crawl around on the floor and be dragon ish ive heard it was his idea
VFX team need these silly costumes and acting for them to edit more easily,. Im an artist too thats why i can relate to them..
They should bring the VFX team on the Red Carpet !!
Every artist knows how difficult it is to work without a reference. Imagine animating something without it.
Speaking as a former actor it really does help to act with something rather than nothing.
Benedict Cucumberbatch 😅 insisted on doing that himself. The cgi team did not need him to do any of that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Why does everyone keep bringing up Henry's mustache? He couldn't shave it because he was under contract
Amazing to watch. The vfx artists are doing an amazing job.
Yes
I knew that someone came in the future and reveals all secret behind movie green screen and that is you✌✌✌
Hey wait a minute, in the hobbit, he did the impersonation of the dragon to feel in character. They used his facial animation and movements for reference. And I'm pretty sure they used the original voice too.
2 is better than 1. Unused shouldn't mean unappreciated. The unused ones provide basis for retake, even if the retake is a simpler version. It's the same way people can say, "Why shoot the scene 10 times? We only need to see 1."
That's why there's the phrase... It's the magic of cinema!
I'm afraid the last (aka the first too) film that used graphics properly and 100% appropriate was The Matrix. Scenes without VFX look great there, and even more interesting, since you can see the amazing work done by the crew. P.S. Avatar is a great movie, but more likely a cartoon.
This reads as someone who simply doesn't know how many uses CGI has or what all movies it's been utilized in... it most definitely has a right place in films and although way overused nowadays saying the Matrix is the only acceptable use case is just silliness
@@stephengere3937 may be
@@stephengere3937 For the matrix the movie heavily relies on CGI but that does not take away the presence of the actors and also the amazing dialogue the movie has. That should be the aim. But in many other movies they r just filled with CGI ... things blowing up everywhere and other fancy things... the movie ends up looking bloated. Its like programmers trying to show off their latest CGI programs. Look at wat James Cameron did in Terminator1n2 VS wat he did in Avatar. Both movies relied on CGI but there is a clear difference Wat are those fancy creatures in Avatar, they look like cartoons. Compare to Terminator1n2
I thought it was the Terminator 2: Judgment Day
@@vaquezartup365 You don't have to like the movie, but the VFX in Avatar look fantastic. Even more so in the sequel. Your eyes don't work if you don't think so.
Shoutout to District 9 by Neill Blomkamp, the CGI was ahead of it's time.
Well after seeing this it makes me feel better watching all the CGI movies, because I see the actors really had to act, and it must be hard to act like that.
The probably looked at the footage and seen they didn’t like it so they cut it out or find ways to hide things they didn’t like.
Is quite hilariously bad that the actors get so much credit and money for playing a role in a movie while the people behind the scenes are the ones that actually bring the movie and it's characters to life.
Removing Henry Cavill's moustache in Josstice League was as unnecessary as the film itself
Smaug was imho really good played. Benedict did there really a good job. And the voice ...
The tools they use have nothing to do with the time the animators are given. The more tools and references used the more realistic the results will be.
Yes, they need all that to get in to character and look realistic at the end
it very informative 👍🏻👍🏻
Was it necessary? Well, yes. They are the experts in their fields. *WE ARE NOT*
As i heard its mostly for light reflections, thats still the most hard thing to render.
Nothing wrong with giving a leo a bear head to work with
Pay me millions and the ridiculous wouldn't exist, I'd be way too happy to notice any ridiculous thing other than the amount of money I was been paid.
i don't think they mind doing all that because at the end of the day, their back accounts are getting filled.
90% of these "Is is necessary" questions are where a real person interacts with the effect, so yes... yes they're necessary...
It's probably that they try to do it with physical stuff first, only to realize in the midst of making and shooting it, its way to much work so they make the vfx team make it
There is a lot more to it than the video suggests. The directors prefer to work on set with actual props on set, because it makes their job easier. Everything a DOP does has to work in frame and VFX stand-ins and props are a useful tool to get the camera layout right.
Certo, agora mostra os efeitos do antigo Jaspion.
I would like to see how the revenant bear scene was done in detail.
"What is your job?" "I dress in green suit and make actors look good on screen".
Of course they need all that. Try yourself to make a movie and cut everything by the bone for maximum efficiency, you will see that you forgot and also didn't forsaw so many things because you like every human are not all see all knowing and it was proven to be much better to have more than needed material than not enough.
Please do ZSJL too!!
Acting is still acting , even though you can’t see some of there bodies because of cgi, they still got act out the scene as if it weren’t there
I would be the actor laughing all the time 🤦🏽♀️😅😂
I question the commentators knowledge concerning vfx and actors workflows.
There is so many things you got wrong… what do you want Grant to do whith his arms ? The guy is acting, so he has to pretend to use spin his arms… And for Benedict, you know he’s the kind of actors who impersonates every characters he plays. It helps… and for all your helmets statements. They are used so they can be in scale for the vfx.
Some of these props are also for lighting references for the cgi
All these silly helmets are used as point of references for vfx artists and actors. Ofcourse you can make movies without any of these but for precise editing these are needed.
so that the actor can carry the feeling of having giant creature walking on their side, also so that actor feel involved
No.....I can't unseen dis !