VFX Artists React to Bad & Great CGi 139 (ft. Robert Legato)

Wren and Niko are joined again by VFX legend Robert Legato, who has worked on some of film history's biggest movies over the last several decades. Movies like The Aviator, Avatar, and The Lion King just to name a few. Get comfy because he has a LOT of stories to tell.

Creative Tools ►

Chapters ►
0:00 Welcome Back Robert Legato!
0:34 The Aviator
4:04 Avatar - Inventing Virtual Cinematography
6:54 Building Your Family Tree
8:57 Simul-Cam
9:45 The Lion King Live Action
11:04 The Jungle Book Live Action
12:51 Working with Legendary Directors

[atuck]

It's crazy how regularly you guys have Academy Award winning filmmakers on the couch, this series has come so far

[mstieler]

The bit with the weird-scale plane was fantastic.
"I can't shoot this, this is absurd, what the f*** is wrong with you?"
"Just look through the camera. Look through the camera."
"...why does that look alright?"

[fossoso]

13:04 The visual explanation for when he says "it's the balls enough to do something they've never done before" with the arrows sent me😂

[JacksonKillroy]

*looking at an old shot of his that hasn't aged that well*
nonchalantly: "yeah this sucks, I could do it better in unreal now"
I love this man

[peterdocter]

Series idea: Camera men react! Give some love to the guys doing the camera work and most probably get some cool stories and inside info on the camera shots!

[glennmorganfan]

"What can go wrong here is that I've never thought of it before so therefore it can't work"

I think that is the realest statement that has ever been said on this channel.

[myredenvelopes]

So you're looking for aviation miniature scenes? I give you Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. There is a shot of Sulu flying a UH-1 series "Huey" helicopter across San Francisco Bay, but the studio could not get the proper permits to fly an actual helicopter. So what they did was fly a model Huey in such a way that it appeared to be several hundred feet off the ground, as well as several hundred feet away. BONUS: Check the insert shot of Sulu flipping random switches. The wiper starts moving, and at the bottom of the frame, you can see the finger of a member of the film crew manually moving the wiper!

By the way, a similar technique was used in the opening sequence of The Towering Inferno (1974), albeit with a mix of real and miniature footage, as well as an attempted rooftop rescue scene.

[cainaoliveira]

maaan, bringing Jon Favreau would be the Jackie Chan level of guest, and bringing the guy that MADE the technique used in Avatar was also absurdly cool

[UlyssesTC]

Just casually dropping he's the reason I had to wait almost a decade and a half for Battle Angel.

[reaganmonkey]

It’d be interesting to see you guys do a “Lion King” (2019) vs “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe” (2005) lion effects.

[YeOldeAccount]

I know the movie itself gets a lot of flak, but Pearl Harbor (2001), for all its problems, has some of the best CGI aerial combat I've ever seen. Realistic? Maybe not. But hella fun to watch.

[spdcrzy]

4:00 "I can do it in unreal now" because of COURSE he's kept up on the latest technology his entire life. Why wouldn't he be able to? IDK why this never occurred to me before.

[leonpeters-malone]

Obligatory talking about the seaplane escape scene from The Phantom, 1996.

There's some great moments with it and I think the effects, trickery holds up to this day.

There's a few moments I think I see cuts, when they transition to from different shots, different effects. Would love to see you guys react to it.

[MissMisnomer_]

Using puppets to help the young actor better engage with the story and characters is such a good idea and so unexpectably adorable

[Thomas_H._Smith]

Idea for a future VFX react:

Please react to The Adventures of Prince Achmed from 1926. If you want some mind-blowing old but gold visuals, that's your film.

Albeit I don't know if it would fall more under VFX Artists or Animators react.

[gshak]

Would love to see John Favreau on the couch. His range from Elf to Iron Man to Lion King is absolutely incredible.

[TheStorytellingDad]

Yes! I’ve been waiting to see some clips from The Aviator; one of my favorite movies that used special effects to elaborate the story, not rely on it.

[illusion]

Speaking of aviation, have y'all reviewed The Rocketeer? It was the first live action superhero film to truly be executed exactly as seen in the comics it was based on as opposed to Tim Burton's live action depiction of Batman in his own stylized version.

[euansmith]

That shot with the small aero-engines is so clever and effective.

[lacklustre]

For plane films, it has to be Wings (1927)