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I have a question for all of you.
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What is your favorite movie?
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If I say the name of a movie,
clap really loudly if you like the movie,
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and don't clap if you
don't like the movie.
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First, I have Superman.
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Frankenweenie.
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Pirates of the Caribbean.
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Star Wars.
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Avengers: Age of Ultron.
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And finally, Harry Potter.
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One of the things that all
of these movies have in common
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is that they all have or include
special effects.
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Why am I interested in special effects?
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I've always wondered how movies were made.
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For example, In Star Wars Episode 4's
X Wing attack on the Death Star,
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how did they do that?
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And in Pirates of the Caribbean,
how did they do Davy Jones' face?
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I decided to find out for myself.
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What are special effects?
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They create everything imaginary
in movies or TV shows
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and its purpose is to make something
imaginary look real.
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And let me talk a bit about
the history of effects.
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George Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon,
made in the year 1902,
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was the first movie to use
miniature models.
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Here is a picture of the miniature model
of the moon from his movie.
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Modern movies still use this kind
of miniature technique today
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like in the movie Lord of the Rings.
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On the right, you can see a picture
of the Argonath from the movie.
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While it appears to be gigantic,
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you see on the left in real life
while it's only as big as a human.
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There are two types of special effects -
mechanical effects, or practical effects,
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and digital effects, or visual effects.
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Mechanical effects have been used
since the beginning of film,
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like George Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon
with the use of miniature models.
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They create wounds, blood splatter,
dirt, grime, real makeup, and even more.
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Digital effects use computers,
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like putting in the miniature Argonath
in the movie The Lord of the Rings.
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They create digital creatures,
animation, explosions, digital makeup,
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and even more than that.
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Here's a video of my sci-fi effects.
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I will explain to you how I did them
as the video's playing.
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I used the Efexio and FxGuru apps
to create this.
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For this one, I took a picture of
a space background
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and then I put the ships in.
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For the ships, I positioned the direction
and the rotation.
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This took me about 35 minutes.
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For this one, I wanted
a computer-generated background,
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so I did that.
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I changed the light direction
and rotation of the ships.
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This took me about 45 minutes.
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For this one, I took a picture
outside and then I put the monster in.
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The challenge here
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was that I had to position the light
direction of the effects monster
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to the real light direction of the sun.
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This took me about 45 minutes, as well.
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Here are some more sci-fi effects.
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This one's called Dragon in the Wild.
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I used the Creature FX app to create this.
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The dragon is a digital effect
and everything else is mechanical.
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The trees in the background
were moved using a stick
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and timing was essential
to make the scene more realistic.
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Here's my Star Wars effect
called The Lightsaber.
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I used the Saber Movie FX app
to create this.
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The challenge here was that I had to
position the individual lightsaber blade
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in every single frame in this little film.
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This took me about an hour and 15 minutes.
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What does this do? Hi-yah!
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Oh no. I sliced it.
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Here's my Blaster Effects.
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This one, just like the last one
with the lightsaber,
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I had to position the individual
blaster shot in every single frame.
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This took me about 15 minutes.
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The blaster shot was the only
digital effect here,
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and the coolest mechanical effect
is the box that's really on fire.
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I also added a Stormtrooper
Blaster shot sound.
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Here's my Star Trek effect
called The Enterprise.
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I used the Action Movie FX app
to create this.
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In case you were wondering
where I got the cloud background,
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I filmed this on the plane
to get the altitude effect.
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Here's my Action Movie FX
called The Crusher.
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The car and foot are both digital
and everything else is mechanical.
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Here's my digital makeup.
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I used the Corpse Cam app to do this.
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Starting on the left, we have a Wolfman,
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Frankenstein,
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Water Creature,
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and even and Ape.
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Now, let me talk a little bit
about effects and moods.
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Horror increases your heartbeat,
makes you feel more alive.
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Sci-fi does the same thing to me,
but I like sci-fi way more than horror.
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Comedies and laughter actually
destress you and help your immunes system.
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For my presentation,
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I made a comedy animation
that I'm not going to show you just yet.
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I'm going to show it to you at the end
like a little bonus.
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What can kids do when they have
their hands on special effects?
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Of course, they can have fun!
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But it's not just play.
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They can be practicing for future jobs.
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Jobs in the effects industry can include
animator,
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digital artist,
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creature modeler,
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digital compositor,
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and even a technical director.
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What about the future of special effects?
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I think actors will still remain
in the movie business
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because it would be kind of weird
if everything was effects,
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including the actors.
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By then, you will be able to make
three-dimensional movies
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in your own home.
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And there will be no mechanical effects
used whatsoever.
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Speaking of no mechanical effects,
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there is a car called the Blackbird
which can become any car possible.
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Sadly, you cannot see this cool trick
with the human eye
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as it only works if seen using
a special computer.
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Here's a picture of the Blackbird.
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As you can see, it is basically just
an exoskeleton of a car.
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It can actually change its length
and height
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to replicate any car possible.
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The little black thing that you can see
at the top of the car
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is actually a 360-degree view camera
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which it uses to see everything around it
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and create the reflection
on the car's metal.
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This is a picture of a normal Jaguar,
isn't it?
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Or maybe not.
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Let's enlarge this photo.
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Now, cut out the middle part.
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As you can see,
this is actually the Blackbird.
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Here is a picture of the Blackbird
becoming many cars at one time.
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As you can see, there's no need
for real cars in movies,
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TV shows,
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or advertisments anymore.
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Finally, this is the comedy animation
I promised you.
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It's called I farted.
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I farted.
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I farted, also.
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Thank you!