How Do VFX Artists Make CG Animals?

A lot of people who are not in the 3D Industry think CGI works are easy, few clicks of buttons and stuff, computer does all the work and calculations and pictures get rendered easily. 3D artists got to be smart, have patience, know alot of physics and have good trained eyes on references. We really don't get appreciated enough. Salute to all the 3D Artists out there!

I'm a 3d artist, and I can't even believe the tech and artistry that goes into these assets. Bone, muscle, skin and hair all playing together...it's just insane how good we've gotten at this. Incredible talent and patience.

As a Game Developer and a 3D modeller myself, this video is absolutely well done. I hope people appreciate the hard work of every artist from this video.

Prehistoric Planet is probably my favourite use of photorealistic cgi creatures, mostly because they draw from the latest possible research and archival wildlife footage as a reference. They also treat the dinosaurs and other creatures as animals, not dragons that can’t breathe fire. The pterosaurs are a highlight, in particular how they move and interact with each other when grounded, since they are barely touched upon in most media.

I like that there's this new wave of small creators who make such quality content. Subbed.

Came from the District 9 video, super excited for this channel

Wow! I’m blown away by how detailed and fun your VFX breakdowns are. I’ve learned so much from your videos and I can’t wait to see more. Keep up the great work!

Imagine you're a 3D artist who put so much effort in making these CG animals, then critics says the movie you worked on have bad CGI.

This was so incredibly interesting and well written! Please continue to make videos! Don't let the Nerdstalgic thing get you down. There are a lot of people out here that see your work and respect it. Thanks! I subbed and I'm looking forward to seeing your next video in my subbox.

As a VFX artist far away from organic stuff, I can say whole heartedly that hands down characters, animals or human beings in CGI is the most complex thing to do maybe aside from FX. It takes the best CG artists with decades of experience months to create photoreal characters and all aspects of it and animate, if it's a human being then just 100x the complexity. For any character work, animation is IMO the most make or break thing and CG animation is basically stop motion animation but you're doing it inside a computer where you're basically moving, stretching, shortening the 3D model over a period of time. That's literally it, the more complex the character is, the more controllers you're gonna have to work with that was set by the rigger who has set up all the deformation and connections with other bones etc. Rigging is definitely one of the most technical yet under appreciated jobs in CG. Really appreciate you making these deep dives kinda videos about CG/VFX. YouTube is full of couch experts with no knowledge of CG/VFX making baseless claims about CG and how bad/unartistic it is etc,. Most average people on the internet have 0 clue about CG and how much time, technical and artistic skills it takes to create something of that caliber. Please keep making these cool videos to educate the general public about CG and how underappreciated it is truly.

As someone who loves the nitty gritty details of VFX I gotta say that your channel has all meat, no bones in that matter. I checked out your channel because of that district 9 vid, and I'm on a course to watch the rest of your vids, great work!

Thanks for making this video! As a character modeler myself (in AAA games, almost same pipeline) it's frustrating to see people not understanding how much work goes on behind the scenes of movies and games, and that they take it all for granted and when it doesn't look great they blame the artists themselves and not the "higher ups".

Yes definitely please do make more videos about each of these processes! This was so interesting!

I think the Revenant's bear scene will always stand out for me in terms of realistic CG animals, and I think what sells it is not only the stunning bear but the mix of practical effects with Leo being on wires as he's being attacked. Makes the scene so horrifying to watch because it looks so damn real.

this video was fantastic, i loved how you explained everything, it was super entertaining, your really underrated man, keep up the good work!

This was so well done I’m glad I found your channel!

I joined an animation course a year ago and learned a lot about software, techincheine, and technical things. I thought i know about the animation process, but after watching your video felt like zero. still, helps a lot to decide what to focus on. thank you

This was a really cool video! I am a 3d artist by hobby and i can model a lot of stuff but animals are something i cant touch. The amount of work that goes into it is INSANE!

Thanks so much for making this video. Hope a lot of non-artists see this and appreciate the process even more. :)

I'm a 3D modeller, and I love the respect you give to the job but honestly I think a lot of the magic for movies especially is in the compositing and post-production effects. I could model a very cool dog, but making it move and react, have a realistic walk, match a scenes lighting and camera details, have fur that reacts to things around it - that's all stuff which usually falls out of my 3D Artist workflow. Maybe some studios have the artist also do the animation and hair physics, but definitely none of the compositing into actual footage.