So you're a kid or International Brand that wants to make a video guaranteed to go viral.
You've done your research, looked at what's out there, and quickly realized that trick shots are where it's at.
Videos of people throwing objects at seemingly impossible targets and hitting them are irresistibly satisfying to watch,
and it never gets old either!
Dude Perfect have been making trick shot videos for eight years
and rank as the 22nd most subscribed channel on all of YouTube.
Can you imagine if someone was on YouTube even longer and ranked as 11413th?
It's like, why even bother?
The good news is I can teach you everything you need to know about making trick shot videos.
I'll even demonstrate in the same gravitational environment most of you would be working with.
Uuugh! Ahh... heh...
Basically, you've got your two main types of video.
One where you make the trick shot and act like it's no big deal,
and one where you make it and act like it's the greatest achievement of your entire life!
Whoa! I did it!
Come on.
Whatever the reaction, you're gonna have to work hard to convince people that the video is real,
'cause a lot of trick shots are faked with visual effects, as has been proven again and again.
I've talked about how this "Guy catching glasses with face" video was faked for Ray-Ban
by a couple of filmmakers who to this day refuse to admit that I explained their primitive effects correctly...
"There are moments where he was on to us but never really completely nailed, and there are a few instances where he was wrong."
...and how this NFL Fantasy Files campaign used more advanced techniques to push the skills of professional athletes into the realm of superhuman.
And more recently young Jaden Rollins, drunk on attention, put on a mask and – accompanied by some familiar copyrighted music –
explained the visual effects behind this David Beckham viral video
semi-adequately.
Now, as an accomplished athlete myself,
I don't need visual effects to make trick shots.
My legendary skills on the court are enough.
Scuse me, scuse me!
Here it comes, baby, here it comes!
[Out of breath] Here we go...
[ ♪ Exciting music ♪ ]
Why?
Okay, well, clearly it's not the best weather for this right now, and uh...
my right glute is acting up so
why don't I just explain the visual effects to you?
It's easy if you break the shot down into its essential components:
pick a good stationary angle and capture an empty background plate,
film the ball throw, and erase the miss.
If you're skilled like me, the ball might not even land in the shot, saving you some work.
Film a successful hit made from close range,
trying to give the ball enough velocity to make it look like it was thrown from a greater distance.
If it left the frame after the throw, it's simple to fuse the two shots together.
If it didn't, it's still...
relatively simple.
All you have to do is make a realistic 3D model of the ball,
capture a spherical environment map of the location for lighting,
match the look of the CG ball to the real one,
then animate a transitional motion to bridge the gap between the throw and the hit.
And if the hit never happened in real life,
keep the ball digital all the way to the end,
adding a CG double of the basket and running a physics simulation to guide the motion of the net.
You know, just play around with it.
If you make it look real enough you're not guaranteed a viral video but,
you might just become a good visual effects artist and...
have to move to Canada to find work.
Excuse me.
[Police sirens]
Not all of you are into visual effects though. I can appreciate that.
I don't get it, but I appreciate it.
But what if I told you there's another way?
What if even a sedentary YouTuber like yourself could pick a target and,
without gimmicks, without effects or editing tricks of any kind,
walk 18 feet away and score a perfect shot?
Piece of cake.
The secret? Time, effort and a healthy appreciation of probability.
The quick scene you just saw made it look like I'm great at talking and throwing a ball
because it unfairly represented my success rate at both.
In reality it takes me an average of five attempts to say any line coherently...
"As is the case with some of these crazy... dashboard camera... f**k."
...and a link in the description will lead you to a 21-minute video showing
the 37 agonizing takes of raw footage it took to capture this successful throw.
Watch if you dare.
Or check out this video some students made,
measuring how the probability of scoring a basket decreases with distance.
"To use this equation substitute x for the distance in meters."
They did well, but left an important factor out of their calculations:
the participants' skill level and how it grows over time.
After throwing the ball at my target dozens of times in a row,
adjusting my aim, and getting used to the weight,
it probably wouldn't take me as many tries to get the shot right were I crazy enough to attempt this again.
If I put in months of daily practice I could probably hit the cup on almost every try.
But some people spend most of their lives honing their skills to a level that ends up looking like pure magic to the rest of us.
And when you throw some natural talent into the mix,
like with the members of Dude Perfect, the results are completely unbelievable,
but they actually do these stunts!
They really did set a world record making a shot from the third tier of a stadium,
beat that record from the top of an even bigger stadium,
and successfully shot a ball into a hoop from an airplane on the second attempt!
Dude Perfect videos are real. So please stop asking me about it.
Sometimes people are just really good at what they do.
And if you can't top their skills or figure out a creative original approach,
then maybe this particular genre of viral video is just not for you.
Try filming a sleepy kitten or something.
Or maybe a reaction video.
I hear those are highly engaging.