VFX Artists React to CGi Magic (ft. Zach King)

You know, when I first saw this I thought: how did I... no...? It's really about doing it a hundred times and you're going to get one of them right. OMG, and it's a loop. Thanks to LG TV for sponsoring this video. Stay until the end to find out more. Hello, welcome back to another episode of VFX Artists Reaction. Today, we are joined by the one and only Zach King. What's happening? Zach and his team are known for doing a unique style of visual

magic

and visual tricks. It's very difficult to understand how Zach does it. I'm excited for this episode because I really want to see if you guys can explain how the

magic

is done.

Well, should we intervene? Let's do it. Alright Woah Trippy Ya, just send me that email, I'm just going to chime in- Oh ah ya Are you kidding me? Those crazy tunes Oh wow. It says wet paint... Oh, and it's a loop. Oh my goodness, and it's a loop! Wow that's cool. We wanted to reward those who watch it a third time. Oh, sorry sir, it's difficult, you should register or something. Oh, complicated, wow, man, it was going to be like that extra 10% you put at the end. but you took another 10%. So where do you think the point of the loop is in this?

I have a crazy idea. Mmmmm? Actually, it's not a loop. Until the end, because you actually built a set that has like three identical hallways... I love that answer. We talked about that...really? We were going to do that at some point because you could have made it a square... yeah... and gone over it again and again... but no, it's... So it's not that, oh no... one point sensitive so the point of the loop would be, would be when Luke cleans you. So that shrug at the painting is the beginning and him erasing you is when you go back to the beginning.

If you have it. This is so good. Oh, I know this one. I've seen this one too. Look at that commitment over time. We came up with this idea like the night before the eclipse. That... is very well done. Did they wait there all night or did they return later? We came back, I think we filmed that. I like 4:00 p.m. Or 5:00 p.m. And then he came back at 8 or 9. So for this shot, there's actually no sun there, right? The sun comes from a different angle. Well, if you look at the Sun fountain, it's on the right.

But it works because you are to the left of the Sun in the frame. This one is really simple. It's a straight jump cut, but there are things you have to think about, like hey if we come back later at night. How will you know the place? So we're literally like ta

king

sticks and drawing, you know, in the sand. I take my shoes from your camera screen, you just have to make sure your hands are in the exact same place. Yes, it's just guesses. It's really about doing it a hundred times and you'll get one of them, right?

So I'm obviously not the first person to come up with jump cuts and some of my favorite material to reference is Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Well, these guys were doing jump cuts when it was actually very difficult to do it the way they would have done it. to go through, you know, the frames and find the right one and they didn't like playing with it. It was like once they cut it it was more or less like pushing it three frames to the right Yeah, but there's like oh come on I'll get my glue So if someone wanted to execute a perfect cut, what advice would you give them?

It's really a matter of practice, but have a little bit of your body hold the camera, go to a position and stay still, have one person make the switch. Let's say it's changing your shirt and then you throw trash. Is it that basic? You freeze, go change your shirt. Comes back. Get into the position, but it's getting back into that position. Like we had slightly over-the-top techniques where people would come in and hold every major joint in my body. You know, if your chest moves like that, there's a big visual difference. Especially your head too. you need to be in the same place So it's literally like it's a little awkward, but people come up and you feel like they're hugging you And you like to move out of the position, actually go to the bathroom, change really quickly, come back Move in and then they line you up again.

Wow, it's basic but it's also excessive and complex. Well, this one legit when I first saw it I thought: How do I want to guess how I did this so you actually have to guess, I don't know. Well, I guess there's no ladder, it's just projection mapping and it's very well done. projection mapping. Projection mapping requires that you have a 3D track of your scene, as well as a basic 3D reconstruction in this scene. You have a very basic plane on another plane. So your projection ends up being really simple Yeah, right, when the camera pulls back and then locks into place, right here someone flies on a ladder and you just casually place it and stand on it and then right there , the stairs disappear.

Someone is ready. to remove the ladder from the screen at the moment. You are out of the interesting theory. So this is what I'll tell you about this one. This one has a special place in my heart. So I won't tell you how it was done because I also want people to guess in the comments of this one. Oh yeah, this one has a lot of different theories about how it went. fact But I will say that there was real paint on the set. Well, the parts of these videos that are really funny to me is how everything gets put there so quickly.

It's really about timing. And again, this is one of the videos that we have to do 75 times just to get it done. Wow, how many take away your garden! Zack, leave a comment below with your guests. Tell us how you think it was done. Was that what you considered yourself to be? A magician a magician a good raid on the weekends. No, and I grew up doing magic. I loved magic. I've been known to do it too. The reason I don't like being called a wizard is because I feel like it offends real wizards. Yeah, because I haven't put in the effort to earn that title and they've literally been practicing, you know, sleight of hand or any stage tricks for years, out of respect for that.

I'm not, but I can see why people visually call it magic. I think I did it. It's me and part of the art team sitting around all night. You know, acrylic paint on my clothes. It's a YouTube thumbnail. The genius and a job like this is that, again, the digital effects are very simple, I mean. You're basically ta

king

a freeze frame from right there. Yeah, and you just follow it to the frame, right? You know, going back in the video and then also at the end and that's it, like the digital effect, yeah, you know, it's actually said that we're cutting holes in the floors and placing the picture frames.

I know it's worth it. If you do, it pretty much always looks better, like a lot of people can just show a green screen. But it has little to do with that. I love the parallax reveal because as the camera moves at the beginning. as if the background is moving at the same pace as you, but the moment you start moving, the background moves slower. Yeah, I call that extra like 15 percent extra 10 percent. In the end we will ask ourselves: Is there something that is an additional ten percent that we can do here? Maybe the camera movement is ok or where in the story you need a little extra pacing?

Yes. There are also little details that are fun. As if a museum still had the electrical circuits. I don't like that we print, they're like prints, you know, like cutting out just a piece of paper. Oh, that's very clever. Whoa, okay. Could you look at that five o'clock thing? Wow, it really flies. Well, we have a lot of work to do. I need this done by the end of the day. Taking that extra step. . I think that's really what makes you stand out. What's your guess for this one? So I think you have a hole in the wall.

You've got post-it notes taped to the wall there and there's some kind of dog flap door. But someone else's hand is coming in for the same thing with your entire desk there. We have another one. guy in the office who works on his computer and it turns out that he has the exact same hand as me. So, but you'll notice that I think he doesn't have a ring, that's the one thing he picked up on the most. It's really a matter of Him and I just knew it without him looking at the moment and so with that same holding of hands working.

He also had the performance that should appeal to the role. He had this big stack of papers. Papers that he was throwing down the hole that most of the time they were getting into. stuck How many shots could you take them to, maybe like 35 or 40? I don't work on this one, but it was really just practicing the manual bit and once we got that moment I had no idea that you guys worked so hard to get so many takes and just nail it, but in a way, it's all so perfect. at the end of these short clips That makes sense.

So, the guy who filled his coffee, look still. We have little Easter eggs in all of our videos. There's like a backstory when there are extras. There was a Starbucks video we did. It was a fake Starbucks Coffee app. We could get the coffee out of the phone and he's driving and tries to return it because he wants a different coffee, but he spills it. So this is yours, this is probably the third part. There is a part where he goes to the office in traffic. Someday you will be able to take all the videos of him, put them in order and watch the little mini movie of him.

I love it. So I know we're not exactly

react

ing to Hollywood movies these days. But there are plenty of other fantastic visual wizards out there. So if there's anyone else who would like us to appear on the show or

react

to his work, please leave a comment below. It's a great inspiration that helps guide us on what we should do in our future episodes. Well, that was simple. It was super simple. It's one thing to be able to fall through the shelf like that, it's not very difficult to do, but the fact that the guy walks in literally half a second after you disappear.

Yeah, by merging those two things, I guess the bottom of the drawers just gets cut off. You're falling through it But then you'd have to paint yourself and it's one thing to paint yourself. But when there are people behind you running out the door You have to rebuild them and they light up in his shadow. And that's where he goes crazy. So you rebuilt that entire area underneath? Yes, we had to do it and I almost don't think you would have paid for it because you have to add the flashlight, the shadows, the foot. So we're the guys we catch them on the same plane that you drop it on. through the drawer That's the question.

That's the long day in question. I'm going to hazard a guess that they are actually two different takes. Oh wait, prints caught it because I feel like you can feel that red wedge at the top of your hair a little bit. What broken edge? You may have gotten me into that one. So the difficult thing about this one is that it actually repeats itself. If you're perfect at doing that, you basically start here, wake up, grab the chair, pull, go back to sleep. The camera comes in and then everyone says: pause. That's the loop point right there.

Oh I love it. So flat tracking is when you track basically anything on a flat surface. You will see many movies on the tracking screens. This would be a normal flat track except for the fact of the cardboard walls. Yes So what would be a simple effect, something becomes complicated because the cardboard starts to distort and that flat track is no longer a plane. This is a manual art. Someone had to come in and then transform the image to follow this cardboard cutout. I also imagine that this cardboard cutout has the graphics as well. And you're kind of blending in between the two.

Dude, this is a long line. Have you been to Randy's Donuts? I had never seen him in so many movies, but I had never seen him in person. The line is long, I mean, that's what this concept is all about. We're going to show a show on film and the lines are long, so we added that to the concepts at the beginning. That's plastic, let's get a real one. Fun little Easter egg. It says Randy's and there it is. I'm going to guess it's a 3D model all along. Damn. I give up. I'm holding something that we had to, you know, put the donut in there.

I love the subtle touch of the roof of the building collapsing. Yeah, a bit like physics simulations there. So, another question for you. Again, really subtle, the people that are reacting in the audience are those green screen elements. You were the first person to notice that, so those two guys in the Clinton photo, that thing jumping up the wall. And you, really. Remember the scene from Inception that is rotating. We basically had a mini version of that to build the rotating room, you know. You have the room here and the camera and the key make the camera lock.

You have all these accessories to make sure it doesn't move etc. that you have the illusion You know, with the perspective of the room, not changing the way I really wanted to have people there was to take advantage of them. But we had a couple of problems, one of insurance and security, but we also liked his face in five seconds for a super red It's unpleasant that you're looking at and his cheeks often gain weight. So you film a giant plate of all your actors, them doing all the moves and reacting to you, and then a separate plate of you. the costume and you do all themovement around, everything is down.

I guess those curtains are moving in the scene. So those curtains are stuck together like you can't move them. They are completely hard. Okay, those little details. Yes, everything comes together. Eighty times Do you miss your passion for practical effects? I love it. It's like all my favorite movies. I love matte paints. They were doing, you know, you have a scene of Charlie Chaplin on skates like he just took this harrowing fall and it was really just up close. They had an image Literally printed, they were painted many times Close to the camera as a background plate and sights. like the perfect combination in Jurassic Park because they had the most close-ups of the dinosaur that was real as if it sold everything else.

I don't know if I'd love to appear on the Jurassic World set now because it's like you. Looking at people in suits like it doesn't have the same magic. Yes, and I think it affects the final product. Oh, definitely Zak. Thank you for indulging us as we try to guess and reveal the secrets you guys did. Okay, yes. Well, I feel like I didn't understand anything. I want to know your guesses, right, I also want to know other videos, what you think, how it was made now that you have some ideas. Yes, you guys have good guesses.

Oh, I'm proud. Well. Thank you. Alright, then go to Zak's channel. Please consider subscribing if you haven't already. Can't wait to see them in the next video. Hey guys, we're going to bring you the most amazing brand integration we've ever seen because Jake is I'm very busy right now. So that's on our shoulders. Alright, Clint, play me a song if it's not the professionals. We are going to talk about the new LG nano cell TV, which is a new TV. We arrive at the office. We play Smash Brothers every night, which, you know, that means no latency, vibrant colors, and a big enough image.

Well, all of us and we see our characters in real size. So LG. Nano Sale televisions have new technology. Nano technology, I guess nano cell technology. It's a multitude of things, from a very thin nano bezel to nano filters that give you more vibrant colors in the pixels. In short, before the price. This is some of the best television footage I have ever seen. I'm not telling you this because it's a marketing issue. In fact that's not even in this paper. I tell you this other personal experience. I see a lot of images. Hey, I'm a visual effects artist.

I appreciate beautiful pictures and this TV is really nice. I have an old Vizio in my house and I can literally see the LED like cross work behind it. I've been thinking about upgrading and no lie, I'll probably buy an LG nano. cell phone because I am very impressed with how good the images are and how good the price is. So if you're looking for a new TV, check it out. You will not be disappointed. It has our support. We love it here at the office. It's true. It's true. It's true. Just look and tell me if you notice anything strange.

I tell them to say something strange. They see him. Are we looking at the fire? It's hard to catch him. What's there a flicker? You can tell we're getting some frame duplications as you're free, my friend.