How Christopher Nolan Tricks You with VFX - Practical vs CGI

Exploring the practical and visual effects of Christopher Nolan's films from a VFX artists perspective.

This is the first in a number of video essays designed to breakdown and teach VFX principals to audiences, hobbyists, and filmmakers.

Subscribe! I'm taking what I learned on Hollywood movies to make my own short film based on the Last of Us. Follow along and I'll take you through every step of the process, from writing and casting to the editing and visual effects.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:29 Compositing vs CGI
2:33 The Miniatures of Interstellar
3:21 Street Bending Breakdown
4:10 Switching Between CG and Practical Effects
5:45 I'm Making a Zombie Movie

[madrid_seu]

Nolan: *doesn't wanna use greenscreen on interstellar*
the interns at the VFX studio: sob while rotoscoping E V E R Y T H I N G.

[Fragile_Media]

Sam Raimi used a lot of the same techniques on his Spider-Man films. Using CG within a sequence but always making sure to end on a practical shot so the audience is pulled back into reality

[RapidActionAnimations]

This really demonstrates how a mixture of cgi and practical effects can give you the best result. Using practical effects when possible and cgi only when necessary allows for better and more believable effects.

[Brycensbeans]

Bro, so I have been following you for like 5 months and J decided to check out your YouTube and let me tell you, this is the best analyzation video for CGI that I have ever seen. An absolute hidden gem

[benfilms]

Hey I care from TikTok, love your content and I’m excited to see your movie

[KOZATCHELLO]

i really find treasur when found your channel ; the best unreal cinematix explainer ; thank you so much

[mashedpotatoes]

am i dumb or why is everyone from tiktok while im here to support the editor of many of grandsons' videos lol

[DavidMoore-odkv]

You need to do longer videos, I’ve never been so upset at a video ending 😂

[cynicshminic]

Underrated video - really well put together

[wcsah]

Great work showing what was up while you explained it verbally. good video!

[carnotauros]

A genuinely good video, very interesting to watch and I can tell that you have experience. Thank you, I'm looking forward to seeing your channel grow :)

[EscafandraVision]

Good job, very nice. Loved the motions.

[Samsonmanase]

More directors need to take this inspiration

[aadhilthanseer]

What a great video. Hats off to your work. Looking forward to see your shortfilm based LoU

[actualphotons]

Wow this is a great video. Looking forward to more.

[OCUBOX]

Remember, when it comes to those city shots (ones where the VFX gods have perfected), the whole shot (Even the ones helicopter shot) could be completely digital, as they're mostly shot to use the camera track data to direct the 3D cameras. Also, I've accepted that being a compositor is something I have giving up. Why? I'm not prepared to spend the years it will take to be a GOD on Flame/Nuke. Just realised a theme with the names of these programs. Though as you can see, I'm still drawn to CGI stuff, having wasted 3yrs in Digital Animation.
My advice, skip school/Uni and learn from places like Gnomon/FXPHD/Animation Mentor/CMIVFX/CGMA/Even DigitalTutors etc!

[alfiemccormack]

599th sub. Lmao. Nah love this. Actually entertaining. Good job

[VilkanVisions]

Can't wait for more videos, subbed :)

[sauravallen]

Dude, this is a well put together video! Subbed!

[wcsah]

One thing that I think could take this kind of video to the next level would be just a little bit more systematic discussion of the tools used. It was really helpful when you said, "he ends every CGI sequence with a practical to convince you everything that came before was real" -- just wished there were a little bit more of that clear systematized thinking in the earlier examples, I think?