We Fixed John Wick's Gun FX

In last week's VFX Artist Reaction Video we talked about the muzzle flashes in John Wick and how they are not an accurate representation of the actual muzzle flashes, they serve the purpose of the film, but I think we can improve them. I think we can do them. better. So that's one of the things we do here at Hall Fake Guns. Now this won't be as crazy a change as a Scorpio King instead of us seeing it as us taking an art of the craft that we've put years into. Refine Let's try to make them more accurate for real life muzzle flashes, it would be an improvement.

Would it go unnoticed? What matters in the world of action and what subtle things can make the difference you'll see? Some scenes from John Wick with the weapon effects completely redone by us and let us know if you think it's an improvement. It's time to get to work. Are you thinking a lot about John Wick, John Wick, man, me too? I love awesome choreography, those gun effects, but I don't think they look that good. Here is the first house. The most important thing is the burst of light and they are making the flash exposure feel dull.

I feel like they need to be turned off more. They are shooting in almost total darkness. Yeah. I mean, the gunplay is excellent. We make a lot of action videos here at the broker, especially with weapons. You've been making gun videos for a long time. We have hardened real weapons for several videos. We have made blank guns for several videos. We've done a lot of CG muzzle flashes because when you're on set, both real guns and blank guns tend not to be too practical, the question is whether blank guns are really dangerous. because you're still putting out a ton of force from the front of the gun.

We talk about this in our VFX Artist Always Reacts. That went up last week, but when you're that close you can't use a blank weapon because it can actually injure and kill the person in front of you with just that blast from the barrel. So, if we leave the hand-to-hand combat scenes, they are functionally using barrel plug blank pistols, very similar to a gas blowback airsoft pistol. We are adding the after effects of the shots. Thanks to our experience doing it. We really know what it should look like. So let's break it down friend by frame for a second here.

We have a mouth flash and we add some fake lighting to the scene, you know. They are enlightening the people around them, but the false enlightenment is only here. and this guy's side doesn't get any light, the background here doesn't really get any light. There's no John Wick-like shadow in the background and in the second frame there's just a strange flash of a half-transparent mouth. That's not what happens in real life when you film firearms. You shouldn't have a big puff of fire with another smaller, half transparent puff of fire, like the guns inhale the muzzle flash, this is like one of the most common.

The errors of muzzle flashes are that they stick to the weapon as if the weapons were moving here but the air, the expanding gases that are the muzzle flashes, are there in front and are not related to the weapon. They would stay where they were initially. I mean, we don't know if he's not firing a fully automatic pistol. Just with two shots. There's also no smoke coming out of these guns and it's one of the things that really sells the power of the gun that it shows you those expanding gases, those forces that are injecting that little piece of metal out of the gun because in real life, if you shoot a gun , in a third of a second, just smoke for the muzzle flash will expel you approximately six feet the smoke from a muzzle flash is what gives a weapon its power by not having the smoke in these scenes with John Wick, they are missing a big portrait of what could really make these flashes hit hard, it's actually what bothers me when I watch.

This scene is sound design to be honest, if you listen to it you hear the zips and smacks of your lips. That actually sounds closer to what an airsoft gun sounds like, yes, than a real gun. So that's literally just the sound of the mechanical elements because Then when you're listening to the scene, you can hear what's happening. No shots. I'm going to go back a few frames. Let's make sure we know what Gunny is using and that it looks like an HK something with an awesome extended compensator. Okay, so it's not a suppressor. It shouldn't be working.

I want to feel the effect of The sound of these weapons fills every corner of the room. Let's do a quick demonstration. So pay attention, not the initial hit because that lasts for a friend, pay attention to the tail this time. Everyone just shuts up and it explodes. You will hear it. Tail is much shorter, but has that eNOS boom. So it's hard to describe what Frick is doing. It's like imagining a marshmallow exploding really loudly. Yes. Alright, let's see how we can make John Wick even better. Let's see if we can fix the molar flashes and try something in the sound design.

To really make these weapons feel powerful, what I'm going to do is start with a couple of cutscenes where we delete the second muzzle flash that's there for a second frame and put our Mosel flash elements in there. I'm going to try to adjust the lighting. I'm going to add smoke. I'm going to add counterbloom. What are you going to do? No, but it's going to be sick. What I'm thinking is I'm actually going to snag some of these firecrackers. Recording them, that will make everything have much more impact. It's going to really transform the scene, the weapons sound different too. how it looks different.

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Your first purchase is your leg, okay? That's what I'm working on. Wait guys. Well. Jake is being weird today, honey. Yeah, so what they're using is like a closed 80's drum reverb because they have a normal gun sound effect where it goes. They are cutting the shorts that go. They are not using interior samples, they are using as a gun. As for the range sound effects, it's up to Michael to fix that. So I'm going to do a little quick audio pass here to make it a little better. Two things: one. Get a custom Foley blowout using some firecrackers and then I'm going to dig in as well. my sound packs touch it up a little bit Here don't be alarmed Let's do that again, but I hope I don't need the pop as much I Need everything The thing is that when it explodes everyone needs to be totally silent or else it's unusable No, thanks Now I takes me to my happy place completely honest like this The smell of sulfur is like this how you fight with rockets 4th of July all kinds of shenanigans Well, Sam is ruining that I'm sitting here working on the effects of this shot.

So here's the raw scene. Okay, focus on a mouth flash here. This this guy fires all the flashes right here. Don't just move close to the end of the weapon. Once they draw the gun. That's where it comes from. It's like blowing smoke, you know, you can move your mouth, the smoke stays where you blew it, not to mention it's fading and looks weird in the second frame and the muzzle flashes. It only exists for one frame. So the first thing you have to do is delete the second cannon flash here. We got that, so the next thing I did was add one of our muzzle flash elements that we shot in the desert with a real gun, so here's a couple of interesting things to point out.

You can see a really bright spot where it comes out. from the gun You can see sparks, the sparks continue for a couple of frames, that element brings a lot of light. I'm taking this mouth flash and then placing it on top of the other mouth flash for the first frame, its base mouth flash is not. t So bad, but it's missing some of these details and that's what I'm bringing back with mine. It doesn't stick to the gun arbitrarily either, that looks really strange. So the next thing, the most important thing in my opinion, is that the smoke gives the weapons their power on the day we were filming the sync.

We needed some smoke for our flashes, so we got an air compressor and some flour, we took the flour out of an air compressor and then increased the footage to get more acceleration at the beginning and to have it come out of the gun first. The gun works very good to show the power of a boom. The smoke should be about twice the length of the muzzle flash. Based on all my studies on real shooting and then it should move at a pretty good speed. Alright, now we have our flash and our smoking there. The last thing I need to do is add some fake lighting.

So there's already some false lighting in the scene, but it feels a little dark like this. The wall behind the guy should be lit. The wall under the key on your arm should be. illuminated. I'm going to light them up myself and when all is said and done, you'll get something like this. You can see the smoke, you can see the sparks, they look pretty good and very strong. Amazing Babur guy, some mouth flashes here for you. Happy a little flare. Yeah, this is like one of my biggest pet peeves. I'm happy. I can show you how I would do it.

I am simply a passionate person who loves Terminator action movies. I watch this every night when I go to sleep Watch Brian frenzies video t2 muscle spray Brian frenzy played the law and vghs I'm completely serious. If anyone from the John Wick production team sees this video and would like us to do flashes for your movie I would love to do that. It would be great. Send us an email. Then I'm starting to cut the original audio track and do some creative fades, at which point the gun fires the sound onto the original audio disc. So this is basically what's happening in the original audio track, that initial peak.

I'll take them out and replace them with my own blunt elements. These queues here. This is the gun and for reference only. That's where I'm a little more forceful, a little more pop. Ready to show some of the effects here, they could be effects, sir. . I'm really nervous about the sound design. We are more professional flashes than professional sound designers. So be nice to me. Well, I haven't actually seen any of this. These are these are new eyeballs. Watching your muzzle flashes listen to this Let's go over the original Jonathan's original ride That's pretty deep, wait, that's actually Keanu Here's our version, these are the improved ones Sitting at home.

That looks much better. Everything looks very good. I'm going to be completely honest. I didn't really notice a difference. I noticed the smoke. The smoke made them feel a little less like Friendless Copilot Video Tutorial Andrew. I noticed the pretty sparks coming out of the gun; they look very good andI show you a little before and after. Here's the original John Wick Bing. Here's the same shot that looks much better. See, that's what happens with moving flashes. It's very hard to tell the difference, but when you stop and look at the flash, it's very clear. The sparkles look so good trying out some faux shadows under the wall.

It really makes it look like it's real lighting that's there. These are better flashes. What flashes did you use? What collection did you use? These are the desert cannon flashes you filmed in the desert with Adrian in the past. Just saying it was worth talking about weak weapons. In fact, I decided to go in the opposite direction, so it's just you guys, fasten your seat belts, grab your pants because we're about to have some serious energy. Let's do it We don't An improvement Mortar round No joke. No, I feel like once they make the tents, the John Wick movie will actually look like Breaking the Last Bullet is like Michelangelo inside the wall.

I wish he would shoot through the wall. I was like, I was like I blew up a whole wall. Okay, well, let us know what you think, is this an improvement over the original John Wick? Do you feel like our flashes are better or do you feel like Peter's flashes were the best flashes anyone could do and that's what the next John Wick movie should have in it. Also, leave a comment if there are other scenes you would like us to take. Check out other movies. Whatever it is, leave a comment below and don't forget to subscribe.

Just in case we do. For some reason, when everyone flashes their snout, it's this shape. It's this one or the dreaded one, I like it. Did you know? I am saying? As if it were more, it's more this one. It is the most common. They do it like this. I'm not, no, I'm not done. What happens with this shape in most old people?