The Evolution of CGI Speed

you guys now that the Flash on CW has ended its nine-year run and The Flash movie starring Batman featuring Batman and special guest star Batman Batman Batman is finally sliding into theaters there's never been a better time to look back at speed powers in television and movies over the years of course you have the flash two quicksilvers Sonic Dash a train Makari and so much more that we'll get into today in this video Let's Take a closer look at how each character was shown to have super speed and with all this in mind I hope you can enjoy the new Flash movie with a greater appreciation of the speed effects so on your mark get set and let's go it all started with roadrunner and Speedy Gonzalez it was easier back then since whatever the artist drew up could be used exactly as is on the final frame like Roadrunner leaving behind a smoke cloud of himself or Speedy running under Sylvester's junk decades later even movies like justice league would borrow the same ideas with the Flash and Quicksilver in animation they tried smearing their colors having imprints catch up or leaving behind a trail of copies and who could ever forget when flash traveled all over the world just to punch Lex Luthor seems a bit excessive but now let's jump into 2004's The Incredibles specifically this scene through frantic and fast-paced music to the sound effects of Dash's Tiny Little Footsteps Pixar was able to bring this crazy Chase sequence to life okay this little kid is using his powers for the first time what kind of stuff he's going to do he's gonna trip he's gonna run through a thing of bugs and fall and cough one up you know he's gonna do things that a kid would do in in that extraordinary situation after drawing the background putting in a camera move and adding Dash's Run Cycle the team could then start finishing the look later on dash lands on one of the henchmen's velocipots and learns that his speed makes him impossible to hit I always love that he closes his eyes right before punching this guy it shows you that he's still a kid and while he is fast he's not Invincible then as bad guys flank Dash from both sides he sees he has no ground left to run on [Music] running on water has always been a thing with speedsters what better way is there to show just how fast they can really go but they all end up just doing it with no acknowledgment of how cool it would actually be but what's the first thing Dash does when he finds out he can do it he gives the most maniacal laugh like a kid finding out he got away with something the way everything came together and gave Dash such incredible character development makes this my favorite Speedster moment in all of Cinema and from one Speedster to the next we get to Sonic from his humble beginnings as a 2d video game character Sonic didn't really get to show off his power until his 2020 movie debut after a misguided first design that made it more creepy and human-like than anyone wanted uh Sonic what are you doing with those the design team went back to basics and followed the original look and for a film that got its fair share of hate rightfully so it did show speed powers in new and interesting ways MPC the main visual effects company who usually have their hands full working on giant monster and superhero movies scaled back to bring this computer-generated creature into the real world but making him exist in the environment is only one part of the process they then had to figure out what his running would look like but from the pre-visualization stage where the director figures out Framing and timing we see they tried a few methods like a simple stretched out shape or a Blobby cycle of feet or stringy blue noodles all of this research paved the way for the eventual look in the movie foreign and the highlight of the entire film is this part where Sonic super speeds through this bar fight on set that day the actors and Extras had to pose incredibly still you've seen the mannequin challenge right same thing then all they had to do was add in a CG Sonic some hot dogs and nachos I make it sound so easy but some VFX artists probably couldn't see their kid for a month working on this scene looking at this you can't deny the effects team did a great job at showing speed and the very next year we got Space Jam 2. oh yeah you didn't know there was a Space Jam 2. now I'm just playing it wasn't that bad the original movie back in 1996 had Michael Jordan acting on a green screen covered basketball court with hand-drawn characters dropped in in post-production almost 25 years later the sequel would use the same method filming on green screen but this time mixing it all with computer generated ones giving us a new character coronos a name that comes from ancient Greek mythology he's meant to be a personification of time and while he's not technically a Speedster he can't control it he activates a device on his arm and everything around him slows to a crawl even Road Runner himself oh wow I like the watch whining sound effect going on here a nice touch to a pretty fun character in a pretty fun movie I swear it's fun and like Chronos let's turn back time to the first Superman movie where teenage Clark Kent outruns a train the team tried everything like isolating him and layering him over different footage filming a normal run and frame cutting to change the speed even trying artificial motion blurring but nothing quite worked So eventually they just hung the actor up from a moving crane with wires on either side of his body this allowed them to follow along in a car to get the footage and this way they could control his speed exactly how they wanted and when you compare the final result with footage of professional runners it actually doesn't work at all I mean for 1978 this probably blew everyone's minds but by today's standards it just looks a little weird but huge props to the team for innovating so early on before visual effects were that advanced fast forward to 1994 and things started to get a little more interesting before Jim Carrey was blackmailed to be in Sonic he starred in The Mask whose super speed was shown by a signature tornado effect being such an over-the-top and animated actor already the team didn't have to work too hard turning him into a real-life cartoon character for this scene when he first puts on the mask [Music] the crew had to plan out the exact path he would travel so they could know which props to knock over when and which direction to blow these newspapers then the visual effects artists would create these tornado blob shapes looking at Old animation reference like the Tasmanian devil who makes a fun little Cameo on this pillow in the center of the shot later on for the bank robbery sequence they shot all the actions separately to control the timing of all the effects I like the touch of their hair blowing around but if you're gonna do that why not blow around all this shattered glass too okay maybe I'm asking for too much damn I love this movie and on to another favorite of mine before the Multiverse concept was overused in every movie and TV show Jet Li martial arts master uh okay I respect that starred as a universe hopping villain killing every other version of himself until he becomes the one and one of his powers is super speed [Music] of course like any movie that came out after the Matrix we go into bullet time no but really bullet time was everywhere but the scene that comes next is something that blew my mind when I first saw it and still lives in my head to this day it's not just me right this scene is so badass the team wanted to use as much wire work as they could get away with even trying this method where they film someone getting hit in slow motion on a green screen stage then compositing another actor matching the hit points that was interesting but it really didn't work that well because it was so cumbersome to actually photograph four actors and then having jet go around and hit these invisible points using CG just allowed for so many more possibilities a look behind the scenes shows Jet Li punching dangling tennis balls ending with a green turkey leg that he throws into the air one guy they have one guy that said no you missed it I missed it the ball only this big CG cops are placed into the scene Shadows are recreated and smoke bullets and Sparks are added in as a lever of visual effects when I look back at this movie from over 20 years ago I'm still amazed at how well they pulled this off and I'm so glad the rock quit this movie to make The Mummy Returns we all know how that went now let's see what the world looks like to someone with super fast reflexes and the first Spider-Man Man movie has a great example of this [Applause] after rehearsing the choreography nailing down the timing of everything looking behind the scenes gives me an idea how their shot was done everyone behind Peter was probably shot separately since none of these students are anywhere to be found in the white angles and the fact that I'm seeing Flash's arm casting a perfect Shadow on Toby's neck tells me that the two of them were probably shot against a green screen at another time but just reaching out his arm super slow while Toby reacts at normal speed it's so simple yet so effective in the same year as Spider-Man another movie came out called Chronicles of Riddick and the main villain Lord Marshall had a very distinct look as he fights Vin Diesel's character a ghost-like ribbon effect Trails after his every movement nine years later 47 Ronin continued the look with flowing golden robes trailing behind the tangu monks looking like paint Strokes suspended in midair and if we look at Heroes back in 2008 we get this scene where Hiro Nakamura stops time and follows a Speedster named Daphne Millbrook remember this part in Justice League they got the idea from here ah I miss Heroes they should reboot it oh they did huh man of Steel's feora showed speed in a whole new way and lover hates Zack Snyder's version of Superman you can't deny he put a ton of work into the film and had a pretty strong vision for the sequence the stunt previs showed how everything would come together even from this you can already see how visceral the action would end up being 2022's Black Adam did pretty much the same thing going for that one-two punch which makes sense because they're both aliens and gods out to kill everyone on the flip side 2019's Shazam made super speed more kid-friendly [Music] but towards the end when everyone got Shazam Powers things became a little inconsistent here Darla blows away all this hay as she comes out of super speed but then here she has no effect on anyone around her and her own hair doesn't even move and this part where she saves Santa from a demon monster okay what the hell was that the background extras barely react there could have been some snow kick up from the ground the Christmas tree on the right should have been blowing like crazy and Santa's pose just pops I know this is a quick shot and all but they could have tried a little harder and now it's time to talk about the iconic Quicksilver kitchen scene we shot super high speed with a stereo phantom camera so I was shooting with real sprinklers everybody's getting soaking wet and then we slow that down even further with the post slowdowns and then once it got to the point where it stopped we'd take over with visual effects Evan Peters filmed all the close-ups on another stage and after being hosed down like a wet dog did some simple running on a treadmill as a gigantic industrial grade wind cannon blew at his face we're blowing massive amounts of air to get it that rippled look it's like skydiving you know it's like you get that is fun then they put the kitchen behind him in some cases taking the entire upper half of his body and rotating the footage then putting in CG legs shattering CG tiles and once all that was figured out the VFX Studio behind it Rising Sun Pictures combined so many elements to make this shot not only believable but fun to watch adding in all the extra water drops vegetables Cutlery more pots and pans guns and bullets even figuring out how the bullets would break through the water drops or how everyone's movement would push them around and as Quicksilver moves around he leaves this sort of wake of like a Rain Tunnel behind him so there's a lot of careful animation and sort of fluid simulations that we had to do everything was put together to make this scene even busier than it already was and what ends up on screen is true movie Magic it's really too bad they just needed him right out of the story when he could have been so useful for the rest of the movie but when you're so fast you can literally change the direction of bullets there's really not much conflict left but for X-Men apocalypse they cranked everything up to 11. Quicksilver saves everyone from an explosion that happens in a split set they started out with concept art and storyboards mapping out the key moments then they moved on to a lot of previs to figure out exactly how the action would take place shooting with Phantom cameras again meant that something happening in the blink of an eye could now last anywhere up to 15 seconds really giving the audience the time to take in all the destruction having Quicksilver run up this makeshift railing as a substitute for this exploding floor or carrying out this stump with a gray ball on top as a stand-in for the CG dog really sold this whole sequence meanwhile in 2015 Marvel introduced their own version of quicksilver with a very different look even from the concept art their approach was to focus on the visuals of a speed Trail after filming Aaron Taylor Johnson on set getting as much running as they could in camera they would then build his Trail in layers even distorting the background behind it they'd also scatter some rocks and have him kick up some dirt the end result was pretty fun to watch thank you foreign ation in 2021's one division kept pretty much the same idea having the actors first go through their motion then adding in the wispy white and blue Trails later in post with Fox and Marvel it's pretty amazing we get such different interpretations of the same character it makes superhero movies way more fun don't you think and speaking of Marvel 2021 brought us eternals damn can you believe they try to introduce 10 new characters in that movie I bet some of them didn't even know what was going on half the time it's my first time talking to a Celestial I don't know the movie introduced a new Speedster named Makari who had probably the most interesting power of the whole group to develop the look the actress practiced her running on a huge treadmill suspended on a harness it gave her a much more smooth and controlled look when compared to whatever this was one detail I noticed was how the markings on her suit would always Echo outward before she ran off or faded back in whenever she settled into normal speed just a nice bit of flair that gives this Speedster her own unique look [Music] foreign s were used further on location to control her settling in to key poses but it didn't always work so for most of the action sequences the main visual effects Studio WETA relied heavily on visual effects to sell the idea of her rescuing people in a chaotic battle they also worked on this sequence where Makari runs all over the world to do something sorry I was asleep by that point but it did look pretty nice [Music] filmed an exotic sandy beaches for the Final Act the team had that extra challenge of putting in Stand effects being kicked up with her digital double by the way her rushing back and forth to rescue the others it's a gimmick that's seen a lot with other speedsters [Music] by now let's move on to the last Speedster who would ever rescue anyone first if you're not watching the boys on Amazon Prime you're missing out debuting in 2019 it showed you a twisted world where superheroes actually exist and the sick reality of what that would look like one of the most dangerous characters is a Speedster called a train who uses his power to maintain his Fame and celebrity status you go [Music] his introduction in the first episode was so gruesome what if a super speed character ran right into someone well they'd probably rip right through them like tissue paper it gets even more messed up when later in the episode a train says this race so fast [Laughter] you'd never be able to rest knowing that he could find you anywhere and threaten you just by running up to you for the first time ever we got an evil Speedster that wasn't afraid to kill somebody only to pretend to be a nice guy on the outside well if you don't count reverse flash so finally we've arrived at our last Speedster the flash from his first appearance dating back to 1940 The Flash has shown up in various forms on screen a cartoon Series in 1967 a live action Series in 1990 another run in 1997 been Arc and Smallville in 2004 DC Universe Online in 2011 the CW debut in 2014 a post-credits scene in Batman v Superman in 2016 a cameo in Suicide Squad a few months later another cameo in Lego Batman in 2017 another video game with Injustice 2 Joss whedon's Justice League in the same year Zack Snyder's Justice League in 2021 and now finally his own own movie the original TV show had the usual effects motion Trails Green Screen Actor against a sped up background creating a tornado in a living room and while some of the effects looked pretty goofy like his legs on his treadmill or how he's flinging around like a door stopper it gave audiences back in the 90s a fun New hero watch fast forward to 2004 and we get a young version of The Flash in Smallville for a show that already had young Clark Kent moving at superhuman speed it was interesting to watch another Speedster move even faster than him what really impresses me is some of the editing tricks after flash saves his dad Clark finds out where he's hiding and goes through all his stuff your stuff you stole all this yeah prove it a body double wearing the same bathrobe leaves frame on the left as the actor is revealed coming out from behind Clark's right or this shot where Clark's pretending to still be talking to him off camera while he's already behind him but it's the combination of practical and CGI in Smallville that would eventually pave the way for 2014's to Flash on CW humblebrag but I almost got a selfie with Grant Gustin once don't be jealous in the same way high school me would tune into every episode of Smallville adult me would watch every episode of The Flash and it all started with breaking down how running actually works sometimes for full you know by shots still have me running but like green screen stuff I'm generally in a thick stance and like doing my legs really hard and I was working with this like Olympic track and field Sprint coach so I did have some Technical Training the show started we may never know exactly what someone running at 700 miles an hour looks like but I can at least buy it when Grant Gustin does it Xs on the other hand yeah I don't know about all of that and of course the final thing that sells these scenes is how the environment is affected like hair being blown around water splashing smoke whisping away trash being thrown into the air this tent flying back the more intense the reaction the more believable the shot no not like that a huge part of the show is the city which flash spends a lot of time running around and the visual effects company ended up creating an entirely CG one by planting every single pedestrian car and building they were able to have full control over where the camera could go and what the characters could do definitely a big improvement over the old method of driving around for hours just to get seconds of footage over the years the city kept improving until it could almost be mistaken for a real one this night shot in particular is really impressive well if you don't count how empty it looks like Spider-Man on the PS4 would it kill you guys to put a few cars down there and using this entirely CG city as a background they could then have the actors running against a green screen to be layered on top using a bunch of different methods this shot comes together pretty well it's a look that is slowly but surely evolved over the years from the very first episode right to the very last one but for some of the more impossible ideas they had to create entirely digital doubles rebuilding the flash from modeling texturing and lighting gave them full control of what he was able to do but Digi doubles only work when you use them right and here you can really feel when digital flash turns into live action or hear where he looks like Gumby or here in the very last shot of the first season that is a face only a mother could love and the fact that the digi doubles would always have their torsos completely locked in place would always give away the illusion but these are just small complaints without digidou doubles we would have never gotten flash saving this scientist through a collapsing building or thwarting Captain Cold's truck robbery running into the sky to punch a bomb or the fight with reverse flash in the very first episode and we did that all CG we scanned the set we texture mapped the set so we could control the camera move using Digi doubles also generated the lightning that came off of him without the lightning this show wouldn't be what it is today and when it's properly generated from their moving arms and legs we get shots like these sometimes enhancing certain story points and elevating the show to the next level in the last nine years there have been compelling story lines with complex characters sorry is complex the right word but the thing that will stand the test of time is the hard work of the actors the crew and the thousands of talented artists who created The Impossible you will be missed CW's Flash you will be missed so after what seemed like endless delays The Flash movie is finally out we can start to see what makes up his unique look tiny electrical crackles crawling throughout his suit big chunks of plasma looking lightning all over the frame Sparks and smoke everywhere Distortion ripples chroma shifts there's always a lot going on in any given shot another way the flash is brought to life is by having tons of lights on set going off in every direction or having the lightning reflect in his helmet and even showing up in his eyeballs you can see in Sonic how powerful the moment can get when he's actually being lit by his own lightning here we see how scanline VFX handle the time travel scene from taking the footage animating over Flash and then bringing the world back or this scene after some extensive previs and as we're being maneuvered around on a harness the visual effects came in it takes a lot of planning honestly I think it could be it could be tricky because there's a lot of elements to work through another sequence that took some time to get right was when Barry saves iris from a car crash the main action takes place at this intersection with the far background on either side being a green screen set extension as soon as the accident happens he goes into flash time color shift in the refraction so that you know you're kind of in this other world is it just me or does he look like a prancing Hobbit here aside from some fully CG shots like iris's car being destroyed or Barry's feet pushing up on the road they intercut with a separate Chute on a green screen stage where iris's hair is tied back in order to give her flowing CG hair later along with flowing CG clothes on top of her motion capture bodysuit the super speed powers of DCU flash have been pretty creative so far and I can't wait to see what mind-bending ways they expand on them in his Standalone movie so after breaking down the visual effects of the many speedsters over the years I hope you've gotten a better look at what it takes to bring them to life and that maybe you'll learn some things along the way did I miss anyone let me know I think I got them all anyway thank you for listening to me ramble hey subscribe if you enjoyed and I'll see you in the next video [Music] thank you

Channel: Y Reviews

Views: 2,251,186

Keywords: The Flash, theflash, CGI, dcu, CW, Quicksilver, Marvel, vfx, breakdown

Id: goYHkCS-Kwo

Length: 24min 36sec (1476 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 21 2023