VFX Artists React to Bad & Great CGi 157

Sam, Jordan, and Niko look at some shockingly photoreal effects from Deadpool & Wolverine. They also dive into the art of claymation and puppeteering with some classic films.

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0:00 Welcome Back to VFX Artists React
0:50 Return to Oz
03:41 VESSI - Sponsor
04:32 More Return to Oz
9:45 Deadpool & Wolverine
18:02 Ray Harryhausen Claymation

[glennmorganfan]

I LOVE when they look at the way things were done in the old days and are amazed/impressed/confused. As someone that does Practical stuff that makes me SO happy.

[codexdelux]

I've worked as a VFX artist on multiple stop motion films. I wouldn't say anything went horribly wrong, but certainly there have been challenges, ranging from things that were just mistakes, to things that were hard to plan for.

Most of the mistakes were stuff like this:
Animators forgot something in the shot, like leaving a screwdriver in the shot or something else that needed to be painted out.
Animator stood in front of a light, or put down a cellphone with lights on or wore a different color shirt from one day to the next that affected the bounce light, which had to be fixed in comp.

Most stuff you do on a stop motion isn't really mistakes though, its the stuff you have to deal with on all productions like
Set-shifts:
These happen when something changes the set over time. either were parts of the set slowly become softer and bend (like flowers) when they are under heat from lights for a day.
Or moisture changes from one day to the other makes the whole wooden table the set is standing one shift and contort (often in the middle of a shot since most animators will only do 3-5 seconds per day).
deflickering the shots because of natural power grid differences during the day, which makes all the lights flicker all the time.

The stuff that came more out of the blue was when we animated stuff that was flying on two's and realizing it looked way to choppy, so we had to manually reanimated all the in-between frames of the character flying to ease out the animation (this is quite tricky cause you have to actually understand how its supposed to move, you can't just go 50% on all frames, cause animation curves should ease in and out etc..)
Roto of anything is suddenly not as easy cause normal interpolation doesn't work on two's, but at the same time, suddenly an animator will do something on ones or three's because that makes it flow better so you can't just reduce the framerate an roto on 12 fps either.

I guess the biggest curveball was on a film called "In the Forest of Hucky Bucky" where there's a Old bear whose son has been kidnapped by some farmers who are gonna sell him to the circus, and he was supposed to have a sad face, but the two heads we had for him (it was animated with a rig instead of the printed head swap like skellington) which was happy and sad, was more in the lines of happy and sociopath.
So we had to manually warp his face in comp to make him look sad about his son instead of a serial killer :P

[otisdriftwood]

One of the coolest things about Cassandra Nova’s design is her slightly too long fingers - it’s super subtle but unsettling

[davebrainvfx]

3:34 My late father was a stop motion animator and a regular faux pas in the 16mm Bolex days (When the eye piece was on the side of the camera rather than through the lens) was spending all day animating frame-by-frame, before realising they had left the lens cap on all day.

[godchidvonsteuben]

The lighting effect on the 2.5 D rock face is genius. Simple in execution, genius in conception.

[kareningram]

I love it when you guys geek out over old school effects and talk about how they were done. I think what we can do with computers nowadays is truly magic, but what they did back then with clay and mirrors and other trickery was so clever. It's amazing what special effects have been able to do for movies for over a century and how it has evolved. I don't think I could ever get tired of learning about this stuff with you guys. Thank you.

[TheReelStuff]

Jordan's knowledge and enthusiasm is such a great addition, after Clint left it was concerning but Jordan really cares and knows his stuff

[ethananderson]

Stop motion animator here, I cannot tell you how many shots I’ve had ruined by someone knocking a light or a tripod, a puppet breaking, gravity settling things while you’re on lunch break, etc. NOBODY sneeze when on set

[jacob_s]

That's really just amazing that Cassandra and Paradox were fully CGI. That is without a doubt the best face cgi I've ever seen.

[BenBAdventures]

Growing up, Will Vinton, one of the creators/pioneers of claymation was my sisters best friends dad. His original claymation projects from when he was in college can be found on YouTube, he founded Will Vinton Studios (now known as Liaka studios) makers of Coraline)) before it was bought by Phil Knight of Nike.
Anyways, I highly recommend looking into his Closed Mondays, one of his early projects. Really freaking cool dude RIP Will

[KlyeKlyeKlye]

The old CG (Clay Graphics) has always blown my mind, imagine what people must have thought when they first saw something like that, I don't think we'll ever experience that kind of thing nowadays.

[Timothy]

SO glad you guys did some more of Harryhausen’s work. One Million Years B.C. is such amazing attention to detail, especially regarding the integration with the plate photography. I watched it all the time as a kid and it holds up amazingly well looking back at it now.

[DenisRyan]

I know one of the team that did the "fingers-through-the-head" scene. As soon as I got out of the theatre, I messaged him and told him of horrifically creeped out I was during that scene. He did great.

[Phoenix_]

I will always have the utmost respect for stop motion artists! So much manual labor!

[NotThatOneThisOne]

The guy in the robot in Return to Oz was a presenter from a famous UK children's TV show, Blue Peter. You should be able to find a clip from him explaining it. Pretty sure he was walking backwards so that the legs kicked up properly.

[JaredLitherland]

You guys should do a whole episode on Harryhausen. 'The Golden Voyage of Sinbad' is my favorite. Fight with the 6-armed Kali statue is so awesome. Plus, Caroline Munroe (better known as Stella in 'Star Crash') is absolutely beautiful.

[Jack-qsgh]

17:14 I don't think it is said enough but THANK YOU to all the artists who create these movies. I cannot imagine the amount of hours put in and I hope the support from Marvel and Disney has gotten better. Once again THANK YOU, THANK YOU and THANK YOU.

[SteveForteGMR]

Ray Harryhausen is just the absolute GOAT for creature effects. I'd hate to think what things were like if he hadn't done the films he did. He inspired so many of the great FX studios.

[berndbernd]

17:23 to be fair... 5 out of the 6 people fighting the bad guys have healing factors, and gambit survied having his movie canceled!

[thork]

You'll want to get a little further into Harryhausen's Dynamation setups. Note that he doesn't just have his puppets in front of a rear-projected plate, but that the FOREGROUND is also part of the same plate, exposed separately, so it looks like the puppets are standing within the space of the original shot. You can see a slight realignment of the "ground" in one of the dinosaur-attack shots just after 18:51.