VFX Artists React to Bad & Great CGi 116

You guys should have a "practical vs CGI" challenge among yourselves and test each other to see who could tell the difference between them

They ended up not using any of the animatronic shots in Shin Godzilla, just as a reference for the CG. The fact that you guys mistook some of those shots as being the practical puppet is probably a big compliment for the work they did! Godzilla was all CG in that movie!

The director of Shin Godzilla is Hideaki Anno, he's known as the guy behind Neon Genesis Evangelion. He is such a master at protraying the gravity of a terrible situation on film. There is such a pressure felt with the Angel Attacks in NGA and from these few clips here of Shin Godzilla I think it still comes across beautifully, even outside of the context of the full movie. Godzilla as he looks down and slowly rips his jaw open is so unsettling and a slow build up to an incredibly devistating blast that is so completely well made by the CGI and sFx crews.

The Godzilla destruction scene is stuck with me as one of the most horrifying scenes of destruction and inescapable doom. The feel is really something that can't be explained properly and not everyone feels it. The terror of a giant monster wrecking doom and and the unsettling behaviour too. Really glad that Niko felt that scene.

The wild thing about the giant Godzilla marionette is that they didn't end up using any of it in the final film. But it was used as reference for the VFX house. Shin Godzilla is an amazing movie. Considering the budget differences between Shin Godzilla and Godzilla vs Kong, it has no business looking as good as it does. The sense of scale and weight is so much more effective than the American movie.

The "Shin" in Shin Godzilla has multiple meanings, as showned in the Japanese version poster. It came from the three Japanese words that has identical pronunciation:真(True), 新(New), 神(God). Which I think stands for the film's legitimacy in the Godzilla franchise, and Godzilla's position in the story(embodiment of god, can't be conquered but only to coexiste). And the reason that there are both CG version and model version of Godzilla, aside from filming angle, is because the director of this movie: Anno Hideaki, is a HUGE fan of Tokusatsu, movie that has actors actually dressed up in monster/hero suits to perform, the Ultraman being a iconic exemple.(Which Anno famously love, he even got to write the story of Shin Ultraman(2022).

I am Japanese. The title "shin" has two meanings in Japanese: truth and new. When Japanese people watch this movie on TV, they enjoy it by shouting things like ``Godzilla destroyed my company!!!'' and ``Now I'm off work starting tomorrow!'' on social media.

Shin Godzilla was a masterclass in giant monster cinema. It went back to the roots of what made Godzilla the horrifying metaphor he started as. I loved every second of that movie and it’s a damn shame the sequel was scrapped

Yes! My dad was a digital effects artist on this Mars Attacks! One of his first big projects at ILM!

OG Japanese Godzilla throwing an air kick while sliding on its tail is the best Godzilla

FINALLY! IT'S HAPPENING BOYS! WE GOT SHIN GODZILLA'S ATOMIC BREATH SCENE IN VFX ARTISTS REACT! WE MADE IT! Edit: Dude, Niko just gets it. You can tell from him responding to the camp-allegations from Wren, he must be a closeted G-Fan.

"it's trully Godzilla" this line is so great, because without knowing, he answered their last question of what Shin Godzilla means (true, God, or new Godzilla).

Shin Godzilla was directed by Hideaki Anno, creator of the Evangelion franchise, so a lot of stuff from it is basically a live action version of what he was doing in animation back in the 90s. Evangelion is definitely worthy of an Animators React episode.

You guys could do an entire episode on just Godzilla. The original was revolutionary and the series has persisted for several decades. You could easily see the progression of VFX over the years, just by analyzing the Godzilla franchise.

Sam's look of pain during the Wishmaster reaction is priceless.

I'd love to see your reactions to Anaconda (1997). Janky GIANT CGi snake, interacting with real life actors. It's a treat. 🐍

With the new Doctor Who specials coming out in November, it would be great to see you do a video on how the VFX have evolved over time

Fun fact about Wishmaster: the security guard is played by Kane Hodder, who’s best known for playing Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th movies.

Japanese FX artists have perfected a style of CG where the kaiju look like they are physical objects that were filmed, basically men in suits. But then the kaiju do things that could never be done by a suited performer. To me, the kaiju look super real...especially in the recent Shin Ultraman. It's hard to explain. The new American Godzilla looks great, but I'm never fooled enough to wonder if he's an actual physical object.

Haha, what a great surprise! It so cool just seeing my own video here - Thanks so much for the kind words, this is really motivating!