Computer-generated imagery or CGI has allowed for a massive range of new stories to be told through movies and TV.
Black holes, dragons, superheroes.
"Oh my!"
I used to think CGI was some sort of mysterious nerd magic
that can only be made by a powerful supercomputer at a Hollywood studio.
However, I began my own visual effects career when I realized this wasn't the case.
I realized that this was an actual career path for thousands of artists across the world.
I now work for a small production studio called Corridor Digital and we're known for using visual effects to make fun short films on YouTube.
"You have to go faster!"
I love bringing things to life that didn't previously exist.
At the heart of that for me are visual effects.
I am a big fan.
However, not everyone shares my excitement about that and I get it. It's fine.
Sometimes the effects just suck.
Sometimes you can just tell that it's fake and that's a bit of a bummer.
You watch movies to enjoy stories,
but when the CGI is bad, it can take you out of it.
Last year, for instance,
I walked out of the theater having just seen Black Panther
Now, I really enjoyed this movie.
However, I was disappointed by the quality of CGI,
particularly in the final fight scene and it turned out I wasn't alone either.
I asked Twitter what movies they thought had bad effects,
and they overwhelmingly responded with Black Panther.
I am hesitant to just openly criticize the effects of the movie
because a lot of overworked artists helped create them.
And I think about those artists a lot.
But you know who doesn't think about them?
Basically everyone else.
You see there's a common misconception
regarding how CGI is created.
People tend to think effects are just made by computers rather than actual people,
like an Instagram filter.
They think we just press a button and poof!
Movie magic.
Hollywood VFX pipeline, however, is really complicated
First, you need proper onset data acquisition to feed to the camera tracking department
where a bunch of sculptors will then build detailed 3d models to send off to
Texture artists to make them look real.
And once lighting is set, render farms are managed 24 hours a day to spit out clean looking CGI,
only to lay it on a compositors desk who performs video Photoshop to blend everything into a final image.
And if you didn't get all that, it's alright.
Just know that every one of these steps can only begin once the previous step has been completed.
But if any of those steps break down,
those next in line are stuck polishing a turd, as we say in the industry.
You'd be surprised how often that happens.
And yet, visual effects are so ubiquitous now that they just don't wow us anymore.
We've become desensitized.
And while not everyone is an artist, everyone is a critic.
If anything is slightly off, audiences can tell it looks fake,
even if they don't know how.
So what tips us off?
Well, the first sign is that it simply isn't photo real.
The lighting or materials don't represent reality well enough
to look like a real photograph.
It's a simple idea but a pretty tall order
and it's a little unfair even, because we all have a lot of experience with reality.
We see it every waking moment
Everything that you can see has a material property that defines how it reacts to light
and therefore how you observe it
Things like color,
reflectivity,
physical texture,
transparency.
Skin for example is slightly transparent and absorbs the light that hits it.
You don't realize it but you know
exactly what all these visible properties are
without even having to think about it.
So when they're off, you can tell.
And it's not just about how CGI looks but how it moves, too.
Bad CGI can oftentimes look photo-real when paused,
but in motion looks wrong.
There are three main ways we replicate motion in the digital world
and one is animation,
where the motion is designed from scratch.
Another is through simulation
which is putting some rules into a program and then letting it decide where things should fall.
And finally, there is motion capture
which records the movements of an actor in order to most accurately replicate
the subtle ways in which they move.
Depending on the film,
usually a combination of these three techniques are used
And the recent Planet of the Apes movies are actually great examples of this.
Motion capture provides the core movement of the skeleton and face,
something that's super challenging to create without reference.
Those gray skin suits aren't just fashion statements after all.
But add it on top of that,
are simulations of muscle and hair that actually react to the motion of the performer.
When added together,
this looks more natural,
but that's not to say that there isn't any human intervention.
Animators usually have to step in to make alterations so that not only everything works together,
but that it fits the vision of the director.
And the results are exciting because through this,
we can create digital
characters that perform like real people.
Now these days CGI is usually pretty solid.
We've gotten good enough at rendering and moving things to pass initial inspection.
But there is one area of scrutiny where only absolute perfection is acceptable.
Realistic human faces.
People can scrutinize faces to an incredible degree.
I mean, they are the defining feature in how we tell each other apart.
So when we try to create human faces,
we can experience what is called the "uncanny valley".
This graph plots our emotional response against the realism of a fake person.
The far-left signifies characters that are super obviously not real people
so there's an emotional disconnect.
But as they get more realistic, we begin to connect more.
Gollum from Lord of the Rings, for instance,
is very lifelike and we can even connect with him as a person.
But his proportions are all wrong, so you're never fooled into thinking he's actually human.
The familiarity just isn't fully there.
It's the same reason why we enjoy animated movies like The Incredibles,
but feel disturbed when watching The Polar Express.
You see something weird happens when characters begin to get this realistic.
They fall into the uncanny valley and we can have an adverse reaction.
I'm willing to bet you won't describe this as cute.
"Meow"
And there have been many examples of human CGI characters that fall into this valley.
In fact, it's something that artists are still struggling with today.
Even Star Wars Rogue One,
which has some of the most realistic digital humans ever created failed to be absolutely perfect.
We may not be disturbed anymore, but we can still instinctually identify something is off
I mean maybe its the lighting or the eyes or the motion of the lips.
Honestly,
I don't know.
Currently, I can only think of two examples that truly succeeded in climbing out of the uncanny valley.
Take a look at this shot from the movie Logan.
You may have figured this younger Wolverine was the result of some,
you know, simple digital makeup.
But nope, Hugh Jackman's face was 100%
recreated and rendered.
And this just blows my mind cuz there are dozens more examples like this in the movie
but no one could tell.
The other example is Rachel from Blade Runner 2049
and this is a character from the original movie,
but is CGI in the sequel.
The quest to make her unquestionably real took the effects team over a year
and the results were so convincing
I had no idea she wasn't real
Blade Runner 2049 ended up winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 2018
and at first I was honestly a little disappointed.
You see, I thought War for the Planet of the Apes
deserved the Oscar because creating a cast of lifelike characters is an incredible technical achievement.
But here's the thing:
great visual effects are about more than just technical achievement.
It has to be about artistic expression as well.
And that is something 2049 had in spades.
I mean that movie
Oh that movie had an aesthetic!
And Academy voters were swayed by the visual artistry.
That, and some voters apparently really thought that
the Planet of the Apes crew were just really good at getting the Apes to behave
so well on camera.
Remember,
we just press buttons.
But for real though movies like these push the bounds of Technology and managed to do one very important thing
Create the ability to tell better stories
At the end of the day that is the most important role of great visual effects
They need to serve the story when the effects of the movie are flashy just for the sake of being flashy
It doesn't serve any purpose other than to create a spectacle event
You know what? I'm talking about the disaster movies the monster flicks the Transformers films the Justice League
More and more movies are relying on CGI to hide a weak plot
And that's causing audiences to turn their noses up at they desire movies with real practical effects
And I understand knowing that what you're seeing is real and tangible can be exciting
But I think what people are really craving is merely suspension of disbelief
When they notice CGI the illusion is shattered
So they naturally just want less of that
Director Christopher Nolan agrees with the sentiment and strives to capture as much as possible in camera
He claims he only uses visual effects as a last resort, but I believe that's not really the case
oh, I have no doubt and if he could have dropped Anne Hathaway into a wormhole or burn Aaron Eckhart's face off he would have
No, no
he just simply knows that CGI is a tool and knows exactly how to use that tool to make you forget that you're watching a
Movie that was the magic of Jurassic Park this movie came out 26 years ago and the effects are so good
They hold them today, but do they though do they really?
Notice anything weird about this shot
All right, yes the rapture disappears for one frame
And yes, that's actually in the movie. The effects were groundbreaking at the time
But if you really go back and look at only the CGI, I think you'll find that they really don't hold up
It just doesn't matter because they were used in such creative ways that for the first time in history a movie made you believe
That dinosaurs were real
And I think that that's something that the recent sequels failed to do because on a technical level Jurassic world has far superior CGI
But it's never really grounded in reality. It just feels like it was too preoccupied with whether it could use CGI
It didn't stop to think of it should
Normally though you only ever notice CGI when it is been in fact, the best visual effects are never noticed to begin with they're invisible
David Fincher is such a perfectionist when it comes to creative control that he would rather
Create digital blood than to leave it up to chance by splashing it around in real life
The steam is just so good at it. You never noticed
Did you know that is movie this social network has a thousand VFX shots in it?
Yeah
The Facebook movie has more V effects than the 2014 Godzilla movie like what?
turning one person into twins who interact with each other is pretty technical stuff that
hundreds of artists worked very hard to make sure you wouldn't notice but
There is one final factor that can really dictate the quality of CGI and that is time
The biggest issue with effects today isn't the talent of the artist creating them but the time needed to do so
However, moviemaking is a business and more time means more money and release dates are incredibly important to the bottom line of a blockbuster
So films trying to meet deadlines can become rushed and this was ultimately the problem with Black Panther
now it's important to note that most of the effects in this movie are actually great, but there were
2,500 of them and even though the work was divided between 13 different VFX studios there simply wasn't enough time to do everything properly
They were refilling the final fight scene in October
But the movie still had to come out in February which left only a matter of weeks
To do all of the effects for that entire scene from scratch
The company that took on this challenge has even won the VFX Oscars for all four of these movies
the results prove that great CGI
Cannot be rushed like all forms of art quality comes down to a function of skill and time the greatest
Renaissance artist took years to complete their paintings and if I try to paint something great
It wouldn't matter how much time I spent because I lack the skill and I think you'll find that even great
Artists would deliver shoddy work when rushed to complete it
So in the movie industry where time is finite artists have to strike a balance no movie has ever finished. It just gets released
So the next time you're watching a summer blockbuster?
Even if the visuals fall flat take a moment to appreciate all of the hard work that went unnoticed
visual effects artists are artists after all they pour their blood sweat and tears into these stories that capture our
Imaginations and sometimes even their best work may have been invisible all along
What you just saw was actually a TEDx talk that I performed at the University of Pennsylvania in March 2019
And it was an awesome experience
But it was also one of the most challenging things I had ever done turns out making a TED talk is pretty hard
But we've decided to film the entire
Process so that we can show you a behind the scenes look on what it's like to give a TED talk
So be sure to subscribe to the channel so you can actually see that video when it drops in a couple days
and now for something that I've always wanted to say
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. I really enjoyed doing it. I hope you enjoyed it as well
But now for a word from our sponsor audible because I'm gonna talk about an audio book called skyward by Brandon Sanderson
one of my favorite authors
It's a story that basically combines top gun' What's how to train your dragon, but like with spaceships, it's pretty great
I'm actually listening to this for a second time because he's got a sequel coming out in a month and it's all on audible and
speaking of audible you can get this for free plus two audible originals when you go to audible.com slash court or crew or my texting
Corridor crew that's 500 500 now if you're a freak of nature in Santos it isn't for you
that's okay because there are audible originals which are
Exclusive audio titles from worlds as diverse as theater journalism and literature and you can check all of this out by going to audible.com/veritasium
To day along with two audible originals, it's great
Do it right now do it do it
Turns writing a TEDTalk is a lot harder than I originally thought it would be I just did all this stuff last night I've written
5,000 words, I think I'm gonna pretty much throw all of it away. I
Think I'm ready. I'm not ready Oh God already