Why did Davy Jones Look SO Realistic?

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Davy Jones from the Pirates of The Caribbean franchise is often hailed as the most visually impressive CGI character in cinematic history. But what sets him apart? Well, he holds the distinction of being the first character to utilize on-set motion capture, allowing his actor, Bill Nighy, to be physically present and interact with the rest of the cast.

This groundbreaking technology opened the door for subsequent characters to benefit from similar methods. One would expect improvements over time, right? Surprisingly, the quality of CGI characters didn't consistently advance. In this video, we'll delve into the reasons behind Davy Jones's success, explore where other characters fell short, and unravel a more profound aspect that goes beyond just CGI.

Join us as we dissect the intricacies of Davy Jones's VFX, uncovering why he achieved the pinnacle of photorealism and why subsequent characters struggled to match his impact

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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
0:57 - Performance
2:21 - What Makes Good CGI?
3:35 - What Gave Jones' Performance The Edge?
5:44 - The Usage Of CGI
6:37 - The Beard
9:00 - Lighting
12:31 - Finishing Touches
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#piratesofthecaribbean #johnnydepp #davyjones #vfx #filmmaking

[CGWHY]

Pinning this just to clean up some confusion: Alot of people are commenting "I thought Gollum and/or Jar Jar was the *first* motion captured character?" - And they're absolutely right, but what i'm talking about here is "on set" motion capture.

Because for earlier characters like Gollum their mocap was done "off set" in a custom motion capture studio, whereas Davy Jones had a special suit which meant he could be physically present on the set with the rest of the cast.

So my point was that Jones was the first "on set" motion capture character, not the first ever to be motion captured :)

I hope that helps clean up any confusion!

[cara-seyun]

I remember watching and not even questioning Davy Jones appearing
"crazy how they hired an actual cursed pirate for this movie"

[dadrian]

I'm a VFX artist. I had a rough day. I came here, watched your video and remembered again, why I actually love my job, besides everything

[tparadox]

In the mid-2000s they actually gave the artists time to make their art well. Maybe part of that was because you still needed to do a lot of R&D and/or because studio execs didn't understand it as well as they think they do now, but the industry has, for better or mostly worse, moved from "use CGI to do it better/do the impossible" to "use CGI to do it cheaper/do it faster".

[matthewm]

I remember when i saw the first pirates movie, and the transition of the pirates to the undead skeletons BLEW my mind. All of the movies with davey jones had such good CGI as well.

[HerHollyness]

I think there was probably one other key factor. Verbinski, coming from an effects background himself, gave the VFX team sufficient time to work on the CGI - something modern movies just don’t do. Verbinski deliberately shot Pirates 2 and 3 back to back and front-loaded a lot of the CGI-heavy shots so that they could be passed to the VFX team ASAP and give them as much time as possible to work on them. That’s what we need more of.

[hirohayashi]

Not just Davy Jones but the whole crew. What impressed me so much was how they pulled off the combination of "human-face" to deep sea creatures to the point that you will not have that ick that it was CGI that you're looking to. The performance of the actors especially Bill Nigh made the CGI unnoticeable.

[HexigonSB]

The way they used the tentacles to help portray his emotions further lends itself to the "necessary CGI" point. Scenes where Jones is agitated or enraged and his tentacles begin to writhe and wriggle (empty chest scene) were always so memorable to me and really complimented the choices that went into his character design.

[thurielangel]

I still remember being 10 or so years old and completely blown away not just by the Pirates films, but Davy Jones in particular. I could genuinely feel his emotions through the screen and it was one of the reasons I was so fascinated with him- also the creative use of his character design with the tentacles was so much fun to watch! It's sad how over a decade later, the state of CGI characters seems to actually have regressed from this masterpiece of a character.

[silvernight]

The fact that Jones’ CGI still holds up as incredibly realistic to this day just shows that the artists loved their work. No rush, they perfected what they knew they could and worked around what they couldn’t.

[billjobs]

I also love how they take advantage of the tentacles almost moving on their own to show Davey's emotions.
- All wriggling when he's angry
- Jumping around to make a point
- Quick twitching during his death scene

[Neon_Henchman]

Damn, this is so thought-provoking, the idea that showing less skin can give the chance to add insane effects is not something we can easily realize. Sometimes, less is more, and it's not just for movies, the video games would learn from this too. Thank you for this amazing video, and I have yet to watch any of the Pirates films!

[danielzboy]

I've a professor teaching us 3D animation who had worked on the film. He heavily emphasised on the laborious nature of Davy Jones' CGI and, while he's proud of the final outcome, he wasn't fond of how difficult and time-consuming the task was. I don't think there are many studios that would be willing to go this far with CGI ever again.

[thatsrealroughbud...]

I am blown away that his clothes were CGI, I didn't even know. I legit thought that he had mapping on his face, has base layer rubber tentacles, wore full costume hat and all and that they restricted the CGI to his face adding tentacles over the rubber ones. Seeing him just walking around in a gray suit is mind blowing to me.

[Satellaview]

It always impresses me how the Pirates franchise perfectly balanced every element of the filming to make something that felt so real. It used CGI in a lot of places, but only when it really benefited the films, like to doing really hard or impossible stuff. That way, the artists could actually make the CGI look good, rather than having to do the jobs of the location scouters, set designers, and cinematographers at the same time.

Oh, and thank you for helping me get educated on this thing I love!

[tolkienfan]

I think you're absolutely right. The CGI is so well done, that instead of sticking out, it takes second place to the performance and story. The tech is amazing. The artistic talent is huge. But the subtle emotional performance is number one.

[blazingstorm]

From what I’m getting, Davy Jones is basically what CGI is supposed to be used, “Do the necessary impossible”

[Alex-ugwx]

I do find it absolutely astonishing how amazing his CGI was. Literally lifelike in every scene he’s in!

[tronam]

Because the VFX artists were given enough time to complete their work. It is an art after all, and quality can't be rushed.

[Whatsuppbuddies]

I think that there's gotta be like some sort of muppet effect when we see an outlandish character doing normal and predictable things that makes us easier to accept them as they are without thinking about the behind the scenes stuff used to make it appear so. Performers have often said that after a while of working on a muppet set that they'll just focus on the muppet instead of the person operating it. When you get a CGI character like Davy Jones who isn't performing massive feats of strength or cartwheeling through bullet fire it's easier for us to be like "oh he's just a weird looking dude"