[0:00] This is what movies look like without
[0:02] special effects, like the
[0:03] behind-the-scenes footage of The
[0:04] Avengers, Man of Steel, Pirates of the
[0:06] Caribbean, and so much more. Long before
[0:09] Johnny Depp's live-action courtroom
[0:11] drama, he and Orlando Bloom were busy
[0:13] fighting off zombie sharks on a sinking
[0:14] boat. The only problem is zombie sharks
[0:17] are a little hard to come by, so the
[0:18] Pirates of the Caribbean VFX team made
[0:20] do with a massive blue screen set.
[0:22] My dog stepped on a bee,
[0:24] a hydraulic powered boat, and plenty of
[0:26] imagination.
[0:32] Tom Holland starred in the video game
[0:34] remake Uncharted, whose opening scene is
[0:36] a high octane fall from a cargo plane
[0:38] without a parachute.
[0:40] You'd think Spider-Man would be okay
[0:42] doing his own aerial stunts, but they've
[0:44] brought in wires, a giant hydraulic arm,
[0:46] and a blue set to help producers pull
[0:48] off the deathdeying scenes. You don't
[0:50] even need to use real cars in movies
[0:51] anymore.
[0:54] [Music]
[0:56] This iconic scene from X-Men: Days of
[0:58] Future Past has Quicksilver rushing in
[1:00] to save his colleagues from an explosion
[1:02] at 2,000 m per second. To create this
[1:04] faster than sound sequence, filmmakers
[1:06] filmed Evan Peters running on a
[1:08] treadmill and blended it with a rotating
[1:10] shot that had been slowed down.
[1:12] Tasty.
[1:13] The result was this slow-mo masterpiece.
[1:15] Yeah boy.
[1:16] This scene in John Wick 3 just couldn't
[1:18] have been filmed on a real street.
[1:20] Instead, fake motorbikes, green carts, a
[1:22] complex winch system, and a whole bunch
[1:24] of dudes in green morph suits all helped
[1:26] Keanu Reeves fight off his attackers in
[1:28] slow motion.
[1:31] They even had a guy blowing wind on
[1:32] Keanu's hair to make it look like the
[1:34] bike was moving. Speaking of Spider-Man,
[1:36] ever wondered how they make your
[1:38] friendly neighborhood Spidey look so
[1:39] good? It's mostly blue screens
[1:42] [Music]
[1:46] and a whole lot of fighting that only
[1:48] really looks good from a certain angle.
[1:50] Despite all the help, some of Tom's
[1:52] acrobatics are actually quite
[1:53] impressive. This scene from Supergirl
[1:55] looks a little different without the
[1:57] post effects added in. I'm just going to
[1:58] go ahead and say it. Superheroes without
[2:00] their powers just look like mimes and
[2:02] fancy leotards.
[2:04] We're not going to win this today.
[2:08] When the cast returned to Jumanji, the
[2:10] majority of their jungle adventures were
[2:12] way too dangerous to film for real.
[2:14] Plus, where are you going to find a herd
[2:16] of angry ostriches at short notice?
[2:20] [Music]
[2:22] The film and effects crew utilized some
[2:24] inventive blue screen sets and high-end
[2:26] CGI to create a visual masterpiece.
[2:31] And now head for the rhombus. Come on,
[2:33] hurry up, rhombus. Rhombus. One of the
[2:36] biggest movies of all time, Avengers
[2:38] Endgame was an absolute masterpiece in
[2:41] terms of visual effects and
[2:42] computerenerated backdrops. Not only did
[2:44] teams have to render special abilities
[2:46] and costumes onto hundreds of
[2:48] superheroes, but all this with an
[2:49] apocalyptic wasteland as the backdrop. I
[2:52] have to say though, I thought Thanos
[2:53] would have been taller.
[2:59] [Music]
[3:01] Rather than trying to teach Jason Mimoa
[3:03] how to breathe underwater, the team
[3:05] behind Aquaman used some pretty
[3:06] inventive visual effects to bring the DC
[3:09] superhero comic to life. Lighting,
[3:11] wires, and motion capture were all
[3:13] employed to take this above ground set
[3:15] straight to Atlantis.
[3:16] Superman's Man of Steel makes every kid
[3:19] want to fly. But the secret to this
[3:20] superhero's flight ability all comes
[3:22] down to wires, pulleys, and a team of
[3:24] people pulling the strings. He's not
[3:26] really faster than a speeding bullet. It
[3:28] just looks like it when you speed up the
[3:29] tape. The powers might be fake, but the
[3:31] man of steel's abs are 100% real.
[3:34] [Music]
[3:39] You're probably not shocked to find out
[3:40] that the dinosaurs in Jurassic World
[3:42] aren't real. That's right. They're
[3:44] almost completely CGI. Wait, almost.
[3:51] We hate to ruin the mystery behind these
[3:53] fierce velociraptors, but they're
[3:55] actually just guys in gray leotards and
[3:57] raptor helmets. For the most part, Chris
[3:59] Pratt just has to pretend there's a
[4:00] vicious predator standing in front of
[4:02] him.
[4:03] Easy.
[4:04] What about the T-Rex?
[4:08] Nope. Completely computerenerated. In
[4:10] this scene from World War Z, Brad Pitt's
[4:12] character throws a live grenade inside
[4:14] an airplane to save himself from a
[4:16] frenzied zombie herd. Rather than
[4:18] sacrifice 100 extras at 30,000 ft, the
[4:21] special effects team used a prop plane,
[4:23] wind cannons, wires, and a giant green
[4:25] screen set to create the epic scene.
[4:34] In the liveaction reboot of the Disney
[4:36] classic Aladdin, it was always going to
[4:38] be a challenge to bring all the magical
[4:39] elements to life. From flying the magic
[4:41] carpet to running through the cave of
[4:43] wonders, producers used blue screens,
[4:45] hidden supports,
[4:49] and specially designed motion capture
[4:51] suits for Will Smith's Genie.
[4:55] Oh, that's hot. If you wanted me to
[4:56] describe the plot of Alice in
[4:58] Wonderland, I'd probably say it's two
[5:00] parts fever dream mixed with three parts
[5:01] of whatever the caterpillars got. True
[5:03] to the surreal nature of the novel, the
[5:05] 2010 remake relied on whimsical CGI,
[5:08] green suits, and stilts to create
[5:10] characters of all sizes and
[5:11] perspectives.
[5:14] [Music]
[5:21] The logistics of building a massive wall
[5:23] are way beyond most film companies. It's
[5:25] even beyond most presidents. That's the
[5:27] reason why producers working on
[5:29] Mazerunner used incredibly realistic CGI
[5:32] to render these massive maze walls.
[5:33] There's only small constructions used
[5:35] for reference. The rest is a complete
[5:37] fabrication.
[5:42] In Disney's Beauty and the Beast remake,
[5:44] the fearsome prince turned monster is a
[5:46] terribly intimidating creature. In
[5:48] reality, it's just a guy in a motion
[5:50] capture suit. I'm not sure if that's
[5:52] padding he's got there or if the guy
[5:53] only does leg day, but those are some
[5:55] beastly quads. This river rapid scene in
[5:58] The Hobbit had so much going on all at
[6:00] once. There's a raging river, orcs
[6:02] firing arrows and swinging swords, as
[6:04] well as making sure all the dwarves stay
[6:05] in their barrels. Swap out weapons for
[6:07] green pool noodles. Add in some
[6:09] welltimed splashes of water and you've
[6:11] got yourself an authentic indoor river
[6:13] rapid adventure
[6:19] behind the silky smooth animation of the
[6:21] Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
[6:26] Who knew there were actually four ninjas
[6:28] underneath it all wearing motion capture
[6:30] suits and fake shell backpacks made out
[6:31] of foam? Cowabunga.
[6:35] We're still a few years away from the
[6:37] android servants used in the Kingsman
[6:39] Golden Circle, but the special effects
[6:40] team used an actress in a green morph
[6:42] suit to render a fairly convincing CGI
[6:45] droid. The robot standin even wore
[6:47] roller skates to give the movement some
[6:48] authenticity for the final shot.
[6:52] Please take your shirt off.
[6:53] A movie full of sentient apes is a VFX
[6:56] team's worst nightmare. Even though
[6:57] finding extras that act like monkeys
[6:59] sounds easy enough, adding the computer
[7:01] rendering to a dozen motion capture
[7:03] suits is an exhausting process. But the
[7:05] end result is all worth it. While
[7:06] watching Planet of the Apes, it's hard
[7:08] to tell it's just some guys in gray
[7:10] costumes monkeying around. The Matrix
[7:12] was one of the first movies to really
[7:14] use mindbending VFX and innovative
[7:16] cinema techniques in a way people hadn't
[7:18] seen before. They coined the bullet time
[7:20] shot to create this bullet dodging scene
[7:22] on the rooftop using green screens,
[7:24] multiple moving cameras, and wires to
[7:26] keep Neo from hitting the ground.
[7:31] When it comes to superheroes, there's
[7:33] one you'd definitely call overpowered.
[7:35] With almost every superpower in the book
[7:37] in her arsenal, making Captain Marvel
[7:39] come to life on the big screen was any
[7:41] VFX animator's dream.
[7:45] If climbing Mount Everest is one of
[7:47] life's hardest achievements, it makes
[7:48] sense that a film crew wouldn't be up at
[7:50] the peak of the world's highest
[7:51] mountain. Instead, teams built base
[7:53] camps under a giant green screen
[7:55] backdrop. Treacherous walks across icy
[7:57] caverns and climbs up rock peaks are all
[7:59] done in the comfort of an airconditioned
[8:01] set. America's favorite superhero,
[8:04] Captain America. He needed a little help
[8:06] pulling off the superhuman feats on
[8:08] display during Civil War. And help came
[8:10] courtesy of some cool practical and
[8:11] visual effects. When he's not
[8:13] manhandling helicopters,
[8:17] [Music]
[8:19] he's leaping two stories into an open
[8:22] window. When you're doing a liveaction
[8:24] remake of a story that is only one human
[8:26] character, your VFX team is going to
[8:28] have their work cut out for them. In
[8:29] Disney's 2016 Jungle Book remake, extras
[8:32] in blue morph suits take the place of
[8:34] monkeys, only to be edited in later.
[8:36] Beloo is just John Favro sitting in a
[8:38] pool. What? And Mowgli has to pretend
[8:40] those hand puppets are actually wild
[8:42] animals. Back in the old days of cinema,
[8:44] teams would have to wait until snowfall
[8:46] to shoot classic scenes like this one in
[8:48] Mulan. Now it's all done in
[8:50] post-prouction. Even the horse is fake.
[8:52] Likewise, any of the scenes involving
[8:54] any of the aerial acrobatics,
[8:59] it's all done at half speed with wires
[9:01] to help the actors jump and spin through
[9:03] the air. To perfectly map the behaviors,
[9:06] movement, and actions of a friendly dog
[9:08] in the Call of the Wild, the VFX team
[9:10] used an actor in a motion tracking suit
[9:12] instead of training an actual dog. Good
[9:14] boy.
[9:16] In Disney's Maleficent, Angelina Jolie's
[9:19] portrayal was equal parts amazing and
[9:21] terrifying. But creating her winged
[9:22] flight into battle and aerial acrobatics
[9:24] couldn't have been done without the help
[9:26] of a blue screen set, a complex system
[9:28] of rotating harnesses, and a team of
[9:30] blue suited technicians.
[9:33] My dog stepped on a bee.