in last week's VFX artists react video
we talked about the muzzle flashes in
John wick and how they're not an
accurate representation of real muzzle
flashes they serve the purpose of the
movie but I think we can improve them I
think we can make them better so that's
one of the things we do here at corridor
fake guns now this is not going to be
quite as crazy of a change as a Scorpion
King instead of we're going to see as us
taking an artistry in craft that we have
spent years honing we're gonna try to
make them more accurate to real-life
muzzle flashes would be an improvement
would it be unnoticeable what does
matter in the world of action and what
subtle things can make a difference you
will see some scenes for John wick with
the gun effects completely redone by us
and you let us know if you think it's an
improvement it's time to get to work are
you thinking John wick a lot John wick
dude me too I love it an amazing
choreography those gun effects I just I
don't think they look all that great
here's the first house
the most important thing is the burst of
light and they're getting that the
exposure of the muzzle flashes feels off
like I feel like they need to be more
blown out they're shooting in almost
complete darkness yeah I mean the gun
handling is great we do a lot of action
videos here at corridor especially with
guns you've been doing gun videos for a
long time we've hardened real guns for
various videos we've done blank firing
guns for various videos we've done a lot
of CG muzzle flashes because when you're
on set both real guns and blank firing
guns tend not to be too practical the
thing is if blank firing guns are
actually dangerous because you're still
ejecting a ton of force from the front
of the pistol now we talked about this
in our visual effects artist react ever
so that went up last week but when
you're in this close quarters you can't
use a blank firing gun because it can
actually hurt and kill the person in
front you with just that muzzle
explosion so if we leave close quarter
combat scenes they're using barrel plug
blank guns functionally very similar to
a gas blowback airsoft gun and they're
adding the effects afterwards of the
gunshots thanks to our experience doing
it for real we know what it should look
like so let's break it down friend by
frame for a second here we have a muzzle
flash and we have some fake lighting
being added to the scene you know
they're kind of lightening up the people
around it but the fake lighting is only
right here and the side of this guy's
not getting hit with light the
background here is not really getting it
with light there's no shadow of like
John wick on the background and in the
second frame there's just a weird half
transparent muzzle flash that's not what
happens in real life when you film blank
firing guns you shouldn't have a big
puff of fire with another half
transparent smaller puff of fire as if
the guns inhaling the muzzle flash back
into it this is like one of the most
common errors of muzzle flashes is
having it stick to the gun like it came
out here the guns moving but the air the
expanding gasses that are the muzzle
flash are there in front and that
they're not parented with the gun they
would stay where they were initially I
mean we don't know that he's not firing
a fully auto pistol right on two shots
off
there's also no smoke coming out of this
guns and it's one of the things that
really sells the power of the gun that
shows you those expanding gases those
forces that are injecting that little
piece of metal out of the gun because in
real life if you shoot a pistol within a
third of a second just smoke for the
muzzle flash will have you ejected out
about six feet the smoke from a muzzle
flash is what gives a gun it's powered
by not having the smoke in these scenes
with John wick they're missing a huge
portrait of what could really make these
muzzle flashes hit hard actually the
thing that bugs me when I watch this
scene is the sound design to be honest
if you listen to it you hear the Zips
and zaps your lips that actually sounds
closer to what an airsoft pistol sounds
like yeah than a real gun so that's
literally just the sound of the
mechanical elements because then when
you're listening to in the scene you can
just hear that happening no gunshots I'm
gonna go back a few frames let's just
make sure we know Gunny's using and that
looks like an HK something with an
extended compensator awesome okay so
it's not a suppressor it shouldn't be
going pew I want to feel the effect of
the sound of these guns filling every
corner of the room let's do a quick
demonstration so pay attention not to
the initial bang because that lasts for
a friend pay attention to the tail this
time everyone just shuts up explodes
you'll hear it tail is a lot shorter but
it's got that boom eNOS so it's hard to
describe what the Frick is booming it's
like it's like imagine of marshmallow
exploding really hard
[Laughter]
yeah all right so let's see we can make
John wick even better let's see if we
can fix the molar flashes and try
something in the sound design to really
make these guns feel powerful so I'm
gonna do is I'm gonna start with a
couple scenes that we erase the second
muzzle flash that's there for a second
frame and put our Mosel flash elements
in there I'm going to try to adjust the
lighting I'm going to add smoke I'm
gonna add counter bloom what are you
gonna do
no but it's gonna be sick what I'm
thinking is I'm actually going to snag
some of these firecrackers record them
that's gonna make the whole thing way
more punch here it's gonna get a really
transform the scene the guns sound
different as well as look different
let's do it
hey guys it's John here Jake how are you
hey since everyone is trying to make the
muzzle flash is in my movie a little bit
better I thought I'd come in here and
offer everyone a little bit of advice on
how today's sponsor Squarespace can make
your lives better
how's that sound guys sound good hey
guys john here what are you working on
now so you don't have a problem in the
future making sure our robot is rigged
up in unity well guess what with
Squarespace you can make one post on
your Squarespace website and that'll
post automatically on all those profiles
like Twitter Facebook and Tumblr also
it's optimized so you don't to worry
about the titles not fitting or the
number of words you're using not working
consider that next time you do a
presentation definitely to get this I
consider that I'm John you're working
again I'm always working I'm retired
how do you know that what are you
working on we're fixing your movie do
you know who's gonna own this video at
the end of the day
corridor digital well with Squarespace
they offer 100% content ownership
meaning that all the stuff that you put
onto your Squarespace website you own so
will in this video I hope so if you
decide you don't want to use Squarespace
one day they offer one-click portability
meaning that you get all that
information right back to you what are
you working on Sam
yeah I'm just working trying to get this
robot working in real time and unity for
a state grant presentation how many
people are gonna work on this robot with
you know one I work a lot
it would probably really helpful if you
worked with other people that's not true
and so that's what's great about square
space square space offers multiple
contributors to the same website also
you can toggle access meaning that if
you don't like that guy over there
selim hey guess what you can't actually
have that permission butBut you can your
robot is going through thank you you
would if it's gonna work yeah it's great
now I'm psyched Jake's dressed up like
John Wayne is coming over here hey what
are you working on Squarespace offers
you traffic oversight on any of your
websites meaning that if you need to
know who comes to your website where
they come from
scores cuase can tell you that super
useful actually less detects it out so
if you're interested in starting your
own Squarespace just goes just go to
squarespace.com slash corridor crew and
you get 10% off your first purchase is
your leg okay that's
I'm working on it hold on guys okay
Jake's being weird today baby yeah so
like what they're using it's kinda like
80s drums gated reverb the drums cuz
they have a normal gun sound effect
where it goes they're cutting it off
shorts that goes they're not using
indoor samples they're using like gun on
the range sound effects it's Michael to
fix that so I'm just gonna do a quick
little audio pass here to punch it up a
bit
two things one get some custom explosion
Foley using some firecrackers and then
I'm also gonna dig into my sound packs
touch it up a little bit here don't be
alarmed let's do that again but I hope I
don't need the the pop so much I I need
everything
the thing is is that when it explodes
everyone needs to be totally quiet or
else it's unusable no thanks now takes
me to my happy place entirely honest
like that sulfur smell is this like ball
rocket fights 4th of July all sorts of
shenanigans well Sam's blowing scrap
that I'm sitting here working on the
effects for this shot so here's the raw
scene okay focus on one muzzle flash
here this one this guy shoots right here
all the flashes don't just move stuck to
the end of the gun once they come out
the gun that's where it comes out of
it's like blowing smoke you know you can
move your mouth the smoke stays where
you blew it out not to mention it's kind
of fading out and looking weird in the
second frame and muzzle flashes only
exists for one frame so the very first
thing you have to do is I said erase the
second muzzle flash here we have that so
the next thing I did is I added one of
our muzzle flash elements that we filmed
ourselves out in the desert from an
actual pistol so a couple interesting
things to point out here you can see a
really bright point where it's coming
out of the gun you can see sparks the
sparks continue for a couple of frames
that element brings a lot of light I'm
taking this muzzle flash then putting it
on top of the other muzzle flash for the
very first frame their base muzzle flash
isn't that bad but it's missing some of
these details and that's what I'm
bringing back in with mine it also
doesn't just stick to the gun
arbitrarily that look really weird so
the next thing the most important thing
in my opinion is the smoke smoke gives
the guns their punch back in the day we
were filming sync we needed some smoke
for our muzzle flashes and so we got an
air compressor and some flour and we
shot the flour out of an air compressor
and then we ramp the footage so you get
a more acceleration at the beginning and
that first come out of the gun works so
well for showing the power of a
there it is boom the smoke should be
about twice the length the muzzle flash
based on all my studying of actual gun
shooting and then should move at a
pretty good speed alright so now we have
our flash and our smoking there the last
thing I need to do is add some fake
lighting so there's already a little bit
of fake lighting in the scene but it
feels a little dark like this the wall
behind the guy should be lit up the wall
below key on his arm should be lit up
I'm going to brighten them myself and
when everything is said and done you get
something kind of like this you can see
the smoke you can see the sparks looks
pretty good and pretty punchy kind of
Babur awesome some muzzle flashes here
for you guys happy a little flare yeah
this is like one of my biggest pet
peeves I'm happy I can show you guys how
I would do it I'm just a passionate
individual that loves action movies
terminator i watch this every night when
I go to sleep
check out Brian frenzies video t2 muscle
spray Brian frenzy played the law and
vghs I'm being completely serious if
anybody from John wick production team
sees this video and would like us to do
muzzle flashes for your movie I would
love to do that it would be super cool
send us an email and so I'm starting to
chop up the original audio track and do
some creative fades at which time the
gun fires the sound in the original
audio disc so this is basically what's
happening on the original audio track
that initial like spike I'm taking them
out and replacing them with my own
punchy elements these tails here this is
the gun and just for reference that's
where I'm at a little more punchy a
little more poppy ready to show some the
effects here might be effects sir I'm
really nervous about a sound design
we're more professional muzzle flashes
than we are professional sound designers
so be nice to me okay so I haven't
actually seen any of this these are
these are fresh eyeballs seeing your
muzzle flashes hear this let's get a
refresher of the original the original
Jonathan walk
that's pretty deep right back wait
that's actually Keanu here's our version
these are the improved ones
[Applause]
sit-outs home that looks so much better
everything looks really good I'm gonna
be completely honest I didn't really
notice a difference I noticed the smoke
the smoke made them feel a little less
like Video Copilot tutorial no friends
Andrew I noticed the the nice sparks
coming out of the gun - those look
really good and just like show you guys
some before and after like here's the
original of John wick Bing here's that
same shot that looks so much better
see that's the thing about muzzle
flashes in motion it's really hard to
tell the difference but when you
actually pause and look at the flash
it's very clear the sparks look so good
trying some fake shadows under the wall
it really makes it feel like it's an
actual lighting that's there these are
such better muzzle flashes what muzzle
flashes did you guys use what collection
did you use these are the pistol side
desert muzzle flashes that you filmed
out in the desert with Adrian back in
the day just saying paid off
speaking of weak-ass guns I actually
decided to go the other way so it's
nothing but you guys just buckle your
seatbelts hold onto your pants because
we're about to get don't let me dad some
bigwig energy let's do it
we don't
an improvement mortar round no joke no I
feel like once they make like the tents
John wick movie is actually going to
look like cracking the last bullet is
like Michelangelo inside the wall I
would he shoots through the wall quote I
was like I was like to bleep blow up a
whole wall alright well let us know what
you guys thought was this an improvement
on the original John wick do you feel
like our muzzle flashes are better or do
you feel like Peters muzzle flashes were
the best muzzle flashes that anybody
could ever make and that's what the next
John wick movie should have inside of
them also please leave a comment if
there are any other scenes you would
like us to take a look at any other
movies whatever it is please leave a
comment below and don't forget to
subscribe
just in case we do it for some reason
when everyone does their muzzle flashes
it's this shape it's either this or the
dreaded like you know what I'm saying
like it's it's more it's more this one
it's the most common one they do it's
like this way me no no I'm not done what
for this shape in the most of the old
ones