hey everyone welcome to visual effects
artist reacts your best
show remember all the hair from The
Little Mermaid well what if you instead
of putting it underwater you just used
it for a ghost oh freaky that's a puppet
yeah isn't it crazy we're going to be
taking a look at this really old film
from dozens of years ago cuz they do
some interesting things with mir's he
has gloves cuz he has to stick his hands
into liquid
[Music]
mercury wait that that guy has half his
head hold up that's a sick shot though
we're looking at AI not the software but
the actual movie directed by Stephen
Spielberg Stanley kubri wow I'm on the
edge of my seat I'm not even going to
summarize my cool stuff because it's so
cool I'm going to show it to you right
[Music]
now I think there's something in my
house this is a movie called The Nigh
house it came out in 2021 and I want to
show you some really cool really clever
dude I want to see that
yeah is there's a reflection that looks
like a
person there oh cool wait no that there
was someone in the reflection and it
moves a little bit yeah it does move I
saw eyeballs there for a moment isn't
that creepy that's super creepy show me
another horror movies really like to
make you wait for it o
interesting ah it's so
cool want to see one more how are they
going to top that one
oh o oh that was interesting okay I saw
that right
away spook man that's creepy it's like
those sculptures made out of garbage
where you L up to just the right spot
and it's like a person such a nice
visual impact when everything comes
together basically you guessed it you
know there's perspective work going on
this guy Patrick hovar his Twitter
thread is all documenting the steps he
took to create these illusion
it's all about like getting the depth
that's like the first step you want to
have like a little shape in the
background and then you figure out your
foreground shape so the door shot part
of the background is you know shaped and
then there's actually like a small
frosted section on the glass in the
foreground that moves and then brings it
into alignment that's cool I didn't
realize that at first cuz this one is
really confusing me because it didn't
look like a reflection but I couldn't
see what was actually making that shape
cuz it looked to be in camera so I mean
most of it is until it moves obviously
the movement is the VFX so then the next
shot with in the basement that is really
interesting cuz that's like custom 3D
printed molding that was specifically
designed to resemble a face silhouette I
noticed it cuz on the other side on the
right side there it's also that same
face shape yeah and you can see like
they're lighting things really
specifically a little bit of edge light
on that cabinet in the background to get
the outline same with like the edge
light on the pillar all these shots so
far require some decoration in your
pre-existing set but the last one is a
whole set built from scratch for that
shot oh wow and you can see like the
designs they like all right how do we
create the face silhouette okay where
are we putting our paintings oh yeah to
create the shoulders there yeah so
that's all built out to create the
silhouette practically I personally feel
like the augmentation and like the
moving picture frames like maybe it
works in the context of the film but for
some reason I'm like ah like kind of
cool when it it's all practical at first
you know and you you're suspending your
disbelief fully versus like those
sliding paintings where you're like oh
I'm I'm seeing V effects man is it
Halloween or what cuz I also have a clip
from a monster movie Halloween was
literally like a day
ago you guys just aren't ready to finish
I see I
see what under the
bed now we looked at Little Mermaid and
we looked at hair and underwater hair
and how even though she'd like move in
different ways the hair wouldn't follow
the laws of physics and we talking about
does it break our immersion does it make
it feel cartoony does it not make it
feel cartoony well what if instead of
worrying about trying to match reality
you just embrace the fact that you
breaking the laws of physics and use
that to make something creepy and weird
and
unnerving wa freaky don't move real fast
she's
mad it actually it made me jump when I
was researching too actually that was I
was not prepared for
that the most efficient way walk
w
for a brief moment I got Thomas the Tank
Engine Vibes for just a moment so I
actually I think the mama effects are
super well done the movement is crazy
like the posing is crazy the design of
the face is like really disturbing it
almost looked like they SED her going
backwards so that her hair would go
forward but they played her going
forward so that the hair stuck forward
yeah using the hair to like have it just
be constantly floating and disobeying
the laws of gravity really makes it a
ghost like it's like using the uncanny
Valley for like film making purposes
it's like let's let VFX be slightly
broken and let's use that to make it
creepy the other thing is like the
movement is really crazy and that's like
that's one of those things where it's
hard to animate some like this just from
scratch and like feel it out you just
got to spend lots and lots of time but
to get this figured out and when they're
experimenting with this they actually
made a puppet instead and a lot of the
movement that you see here from the CG
creature is inspired directly and taken
directly from how the puppet moves
that's a puppet yeah isn't it crazy
that's like that's a real hand that's a
real hand right there so I want to
clarify it's special kind of puppet and
that it's a person
puppet it's like the person is there but
other people are moving them and like
lifting them so that they you don't have
natural movement from a person you have
like extra forces affecting them it's
one of the challenges you face when
you're animating a CG character is
making sure the center of gravity is
always in the right spot like if a
character lifts their leg their body
needs to shift over the other leg you
know so that they're still balanced
whereas here you have a real life
looking creature that lifts its leg and
then like it leans over the Gap the way
yeah where lift it leg it's just yeah so
that that justifies using the wires and
whatnot cuz you can have a contortionist
like move really creepily but like right
there for instance the Motions are
always based off of Gravity cuz it's
like you got to support your weight but
if you're on that and then you have a
wire kind of pulling you off center like
right there that that really creates
some unnatural motion it's super cool
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link below back to
react so back in 2004 a movie named Kern
came out
Kern and this is like this is right at
the era when people are like wait we can
shoot on green screens and replace the
backgrounds and you can definitely see
how much work it was and you can also
kind of definitely see like it was made
in like after effects but it's super
cool super speed
yes damn yes let's go it's pretty anime
I don't know why we don't see more like
film making like this these days like
wall running yeah like truly just being
like it's going to move like a cartoon
and we're going to let it move like a
cartoon so we can heighten our
reality that's a big b made spin dude he
caught it and spun so fast to burn off
the momentum oh yeah this is so out
there yeah oh my God he just CED chopped
it yeah and he's glaring through the
karate chop slice I don't know who at
probably just another robot but he's
hoping somebody's seeing how cool he
looks it's like somehow they pull off
the anime aesthetic you can see a strong
sense of like movement Direction and
like composition and like utilizing the
fact that everything's being done in
post just to like build out crazy shots
like I guarantee Zack Snider is watching
this he's like oh my gosh yeah yeah yeah
you're right he's like yo 300 we should
do it like this exactly like to us this
was like oh I can just shoot my buddy in
a costume on a a green bed sheet and it
can look like this as long as I spend
enough time in Photoshop and after
effects little did we know it takes a
lot of time in Photoshop and after
effects and a lot of assets which were
not easy to find back then I know it's
not like action VFX was around yeah no
action Essentials wasn't even around
yeah I remember when the trailer for
this came out and we were like making
you know basically the same style of
films I was so blown away I was so
excited for the future of film making
when I saw the trailer for this I was
like this is me Yep this is like
what I will be I propose that we build a
robot
CH hey talking about AI yeah all right
so one that's good AI is a topic I think
we should probably hold off on talking
about it's so divisive all right so
Stanley kubri was working on this film
called AI that Stephen Spielberg took
over on like the height of his Hollywood
Blockbusters you know budgets unlimited
anybody he wants will work with him and
this is like the best visuals you could
possibly get at this
time so ilm did a lot of the visual
effects here and actually for this scene
they had Stan Winston's practical effect
shop do a bunch of the robot puppets and
work and they actually know a group of
actors that are for uh disabled people
and amputees so they need to have
somebody like with you know a robot arm
or something like that they have
somebody they can reach out to that can
do the performances what wait that that
guy has half his head hold up that's a
sick shot though oh my God y so he's not
actually holding an eyeball he's just
like picking up something and then puts
it against his eye and they track in
that eyeball because otherwise he'd be
putting a real eyeball prop into his
eyeball yep all these people are people
actually wearing like blue stuff on
their faces and then having things put
over that and ilm is going in and
rebuilding that stuff with 3D there's a
shot that's a trailer shot isn't it yeah
pretty sure that's a trailer shot I look
how they have specific sticks for
ponytails what do we
do we run now good Ted is that Ted
that's
Ted that little bear looks good the bear
is half CG half puppet kind of you know
you see this a lot in especially like
this era of movies where you need to
have something real that you can film
The Way They puppeteered the little
teddy bear is really interesting cuz
they have it stuck to one guy and it's
like on a rig and then his feet attached
to the bear's feet so if he walks the
little bear in front of him also walks
oh just like an automata yeah with those
robots exactly well it's like you have
to scale your own motion down too yeah
which is kind of funny like you have to
take little baby steps and then you know
people are working the hands people are
working the face like there's you know
you're running power and all these
different things to it of course it gets
very complicated but the idea of
basically just having it be like a on to
one it looks really realistic it's great
I love
[Music]
that so this scene here is actually once
again like a fully practical scene 800
extras on the scene big money big money
Spielberg a big money Spielberg special
big money Spielberg special but also
it's got that like kubri
Allure kubri allure yeah like what kind
of genus ideas was that man cooking up
before his
[Applause]
passing so the special effects guys for
this had to rig up a system to
practically shoot robot puppets through
a spinning Blade with Fire in front of a
crowd of 800 people and the band and I
believe that's either Chris Tucker or
Chris Rock did you kind of shoot me over
the propeller thing to instruct the uh
the actors there how to like how to
handle the the puppets and robots so
they don't break them and one of those
guys is uh doing the mouth work while
they attempt to show really that's
awesome dude that that's a good that's a
good fun
fact yes that's all on a wire and
practical except for that very ending
but also what's crazy is this shot has
all of the robot puppets that the Stan
Winston shop built working at the same
time and they had something like 42
puppeteer and technicians on set to do
that shot and I think it's something
like 12 or 13 it's a lot of Puppets like
yeah and here like you might be like
wondering where are the puppeteers so
they dug out a pit below this jail cell
I about to say this has got to be like
an elevated set yep so all the Puppeteer
can be below cuz most of these puppets
are like wire puppets and like Rod
puppets and hydraulic puppets so
everybody's underneath like making the
puppets work and do their thing while
they film up on top but this is like
this is the era where you would think
people would be doing like CG robots but
it's still too early for that so
everything has to be based in in reality
somehow it's so nice especially like
when you're directing children to have
something like this on set versus like
just a green thing yeah prevents Gandalf
[Laughter]
tears no Gandalf tears is like a VFX
term I
think this when there's too many things
that are either on a green screen or not
real that you're supposed to act against
do not take me for some conjurer of
cheap tricks you just you're like I'm
done
[Music]
[Applause]
so there's this old French movie called
orus and there's this really interesting
moment where this guy walks through a
mirror into the mired realm and I want
to see if you guys know how this is done
I love the Mir
realm ooh look at them reversing footage
that's pretty cool honestly like it's
such a simple gag but like what's the
gag just reversing the footage running
the film back backwards which as we
found out you can't just reverse film
later on like if it's in your edit oh
without mirring the footage you have to
commit to it being backwards yeah unless
you want to reprint
it here we go oh yeah we're already
doing
[Music]
tricks nice love it see you can only go
through the mirror with the special
gloves dishwashing
gloves oh nice he has gloves because he
has to stick his hands into liquid
mercury that's great the costume design
that's pretty cool too wow this is
really neat this is like there's a lot
of cool techniques Happening Here the
first person view with a hole cut in the
wall to like the liquid mercury with the
gloves the Reversed footage putting the
gloves on and then like the peppers
ghost effect where you just have a kind
of a two-way mirror kind of effect going
yeah we know what it's called now the
pepper ghost effect yeah have the green
gas and the
Dracula so the set is actually a perfect
mirror as well mhm and that's just a
doorway effectively so it's you have one
room and then you have the exact same
layout but mirrored on the other side of
the mirror also I I do want to point out
on this last shot here they did put up
an actual glass pane there so you get
some of those Reflections from the room
on it to give that sort of mirrored look
and I don't think the reflections line
up super perfectly oh no they don't the
fireplace is definitely not in the oppos
of the room close but you kind of get
like a little bit of a ghosting
alignment issue there and they try to
get around that by just blasting light
on the other side of the room or maybe
on this side of the room maybe as they
go around then they start shining the
light on this side of the room they
bring the reflection more from that
glass yeah yeah I see that cool yeah
they darken that room and bring the
light up on the other side is that
really Mercury it is very very
reflective and I think you could get
away with something like this in water
but I think it'd probably easier just to
get a big tub of mercury or gallium or
something he's probably having to like
lean over a stool or something m and
then like dip into the Mercury at first
I thought it was a doll cuz the face
looked really weird oh you're right cuz
you obviously you can't have it on the
wall I didn't even occur of me that he's
not
standing you probably just using a big
Magnet or something to the metal up
you're right he has to be like lying on
like a plank and like sticking his hands
downwards that POV shot is super
inventive and such like an outlier for
something you'd see at the time although
you can definitely tell that it's like
there's a camera guy and then like a guy
with his hands off to the side they're
doing their best doing their best yeah
he like okay line it up line it up oh we
made it like go around the dude and the
dude's like trying not like you watch a
guy in the white he's trying his best
not to move he's like he he does move at
the last moment and you can see him in
the two real mirrors on either side and
he's very carefully in place there and
those mirrors are positioned in such a
way that you don't actually see the
mirror they're going through and then he
gets out of the way just in time yeah
but his reflective double
doesn't yeah it works though it very
cool what a fun movie that was that was
a delight I hope the rest of the movie
is just as delightful R thank you for
bringing it on the show I'm usually the
person that brings old clips and I'm
glad you brought I'm glad I brought one
for once hey and you know what to all
you OG's out there watching movies from
the 1950s or whatever more suggestions
like this please like these are the
hardest ones to find I love these tricks
so if you have any like old black and
white films with a crazy visual effect
please leave a suggestion down below now
in real life in this episode we talked
about a lot of stuff stuff that doesn't
make it onto the YouTube episodes but
those the little tidbits will they get
scraped up off the floor and put into
the website video and trust me that's
what you're here for at the end of the
day so consider subscribing to Corridor
digital.com if you want to watch some
extended visual effects artist react
episodes that have some extra stuff
perhaps too juicy for YouTube yeah where
you can taste the floor scraps yeah it's
more like the more like pan scrapings
I'd say than floor scraps but yeah what
you get the
point