How Talking Animals Are Created For Movies | Movies Insider

We talked to the pioneering visual effects studio Weta Digital about why realistic talking animals are so difficult to create for movies and TV, and how Weta has tackled this challenge.
Speaking to Weta VFX supervisor Eric Saindon and animation supervisor Mike Cozens, we learn about the various challenges of making digital animals speak on screen. Find out what it took to create naturalistic characters who converse with humans in organic ways - including, most recently, the fox in A24's "The Green Knight."
For more from Weta Digital:
/ wetadigitalvfx
/ weta_digital
www.wetafx.co.nz/
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How Talking Animals Are Created For Movies | Movies Insider

[@itsxerxes6754]

i love seeing actors in mocap suits giving everything to their performance knowing it wont be entirely captured. true professionalism

[@srkbtw]

It's kinda sad that how much love we show to actors while these artists are doing lot of brilliant works. Stunt doubles, risking their lives. When considering action movies, most of the scenes are fighting/stunt scenes and stunt doubles are doing it, while the character hero/heroine taking rest and getting paid more and more. Also if you consider the superhero movies there are lot of script writing, story writing, Character design, environment design and many, but do we know who did all the works? No. We know who's the actor of the movie, but we don't know who wrote the script and who designed all these designs/animations, etc... We're praising, recognising and giving so much love for every single actor/actress like Rock, Vin D, Robert D Jr, Chris Evans, Scarlett J and many... but we're not praising or recognising these kinda brilliant artists. Rick stunts, this man, and many talented artists are becoming unknown to people.

[@Sssseytha]

Visual effects studios are not respected and underpayed, you should watch/read what happend to R&H studios, the company behind the CGI of "Life of PI"😥

[@srkbtw]

@@Sssseytha sure mate. That's y I've posted a big comment in regard of every artists out there.

[@itsmecaldo]

@@Sssseytha Veryyyy underpaid. Especially when it comes onto "crunch" time. They get exhausted just for them to continue the cycle over again

[@ultramasterultra5724]

stunt doubles won't die stunt doubles are for doing thing the actors can't they are not doing something dangerous

[@LoungingAroundd]

@@ultramasterultra5724 Stunt doubles risk their lives, doing dangerous stuff that could be life threatening. Maybe not kill them, but could severely injure them when the stunt is done wrong. That’s the sad thing about stunt doubles, they don’t receive enough attention for these stunts.

[@Awakenbeing]

The geniuses at Weta Digital has always wowed me. Since the Lord of the Rings I ahve been following their progress ebing a movie buff myself I always applaud their endeavors to outshine their previous work. Jungle Book really break all records.

[@aamankhan7823]

And we never even appreciate these gems... Behind the screen. No one reads the credit anyways :/ we never know about them

[@Bishnoistaan]

You should watch VFX artist reacts series on Corridor crew channel,If you haven't watched.

[@yellowflower2067]

Andy Serkis is awesome. I’m not gonna lie. He is great at just about everything he does. 😄

[@Thoran666]

I don't like the foxes movement. The body going with the words makes him look like a weird stop motion animation. Every mouth position change requires handling the figure and moves it a bit. The rest is top notch.

[@admorris11]

Hahahaha…the horse in the beginning looked better than the fox

[@KillerTacos54]

I love these videos on the channel so much! Hope you guys keep doing it

[@SillyOwastyrus]

Caesar: NO! >:( The low voice still scares me till this day 1:09

[@caseyalan5398]

I’m much more impressed with the horse or puppet than the CGI

[@mylesthomasandfriends838]

Do you think there will ever be any adaptation movie 101 Dalmatians and Clifford the big red dog like that?

[@TabaquiJackal906]

Very interesting stuff. Talking animals will never look really *real* - or sound really real, because you can't take a dog's mouth and have perfect, un-slurred language coming out of it - but it's amazing all the work, ingenuity, and research that goes into these animals. I would like to see a real-looking cgi bird, though - those never seem to hit the mark.

[@andrewchapman2024]

This is very informational and good stuff.

[@fireaza]

It's no coincidence that live-action films with talking animal characters were a lot rarer and more "cartoony" in the pre-digital days compared to today. And it's not because film studios were too stingy and waited until CGI became more common. It's because if you want to have a talking animal character look realistic and give an emotive performance, the stiff movements, a complete inability of the mouth to form proper phoneme shapes and the dead-eyed 1000 yard stare of a practical puppet character, is a huge barrier to clear.

[@Krisztian08]

0:58 pog thanos

[@aturtle7173]

pogor

[@ronenth]

Pogger tanhnos

[@feeeyniac]

0:58 me when I failed math test

[@benjaminfenty8745]

3:38 Correction: Gigantopithecus

[@ActiumFilms]

0:45 that's CGI though.

[@rodneycooperjr3223]

I haven't watched the video yet, but I'm guessing the reason is because... talking animals aren't "realistic", so we have no reference for how it should look. Beyond that, animals don't have the same bone structure and musculature of human faces, so they would have no way to move their faces the way we do? 🤷🏾‍♂️

[@mitel640]

"human actors not only voiced but played the apes" Me: "Oh, I thaught they made the monkeys ride cgi horses... "

[@mylesthomasandfriends838]

Do you think there will ever be any adaptation movie 101 Dalmatians and Clifford the big red dog like that?

[@VivekYadav_9.0]

These people really deserve respect most of the time its the actors and directors who end up getting the most praise and love...and these people go unnoticed. It's a whole lot of science man. May Allah bless them and guide them that till the time Allah doesn't allow animals to speak they won't speak and humans can fulfill this desire via CGI only. NOTHING WITHOUT ALLAH

[@diekje8728]

Or when you read between the lines, Andy Serkis is a genius

[@BlenderStudy]

Thank you for the update, Insider..!! Another excellent video..!! There's also a technology being developed that will allow people to use 2D movie footage to animate their 3D characters.

[@mylesthomasandfriends838]

Do you think there will ever be any adaptation movie 101 Dalmatians and Clifford the big red dog like that?

[@wayjohn]

but the cat from hocus pocus was cg

[@Beyondcalorie]

Why is it so hard to make realistic talking animals in movies? um... maybe because talking animals aren't realistic

[@aqilahnaqiyyafalahi]

🤣🤣🤣 calm down.

[@ochenkrasivy86]

That's only on earth.

[@windsonma8209]

I think that’s why back then, they had Wishbone the Dog Talk Physically with just us the Audience in the show Wishbone back when I was a kid, but I guess they did the same with the Dog in the A Dogs Life Film (I think that’s the name of the film?)

[@kamrankazemi]

Amazing.... That was really cool.... 👌👌👌👌👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@thirasheela8334]

Which type of software using for make animals like the lion King and the jungle book etc.. and which software is using background in this pls comment

[@Sssseytha]

Maya, Houdini, Zbrush

[@iamdanielmonroe]

Not sure of the software used but I do know the visual effects company for The Jungle Book & The Lion King was MPC and not weta digital which is the company being discussed in this video.

[@NotaBeast]

For those who are wondering: When added all together, the Harry Potter books contain 1,084,171 words.

[@sofianebenmezouar3951]

Good morning, how are you doing ? There is a theme that is very rarely used in science fiction, apart from the flower books for algernon, or the evil genius of Graham masterton, can we increase human intelligence through chemistry? ?

[@amornthanee5799]

This is what i really want to see. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍💟💟💟💟thank you

[@marinaida2835]

Marina Ida

[@jacobt1045]

You should have Thanos t-posing as your thumbnail

[@advythoh]

Realistic talking animals are normal animals everywhere, they talk all the time. You mean why it's hard to make animals talk human languages.

[@strikerwoman]

The ones on Dr Doolittle were far better than the fox in a lot of ways. And the goldfish was horrendous, if it doesn’t come out 100% you don’t use it, it’s like an artist rule.

[@marguerite9282]

That's too crazy...

[@HigherQualityUploads]

The obsession with realism has gone too far. This is fiction. Let it look unreal.

[@atrociousraspberry1091]

I think that in this case, it's a bit less about realism and a bit more about immersion. If the movie is live action, then there's already a layer of realism that the audience will expect. If that live action movie has a talking animal, the animation of that animal will need to be consistent with the inherent "realism" of the live action scene. If the mouth movements are too exaggerated, it makes it less believable that the animal is in the "real" scene.

[@Beowulf_93]

In the 90s animals speaking looked better. Cause u see this are mostly true animals today u look and say "cgi" and then we end with thing s like "cats"

[@aracoixo3288]

They don't need to be human beings. They need to communicate. After all we all came from the same place.

[@LittleParade_]

This is unrelated but it looks kind of fun to run around in an ape suit

[@mr.karthikeya]

I think the last of the movie show in these guys names is not just enough... Audience should see what they have done for the movie to look like that 😉

[@roy87345]

Incredible

[@lebronshairline4768]

Awesome work

[@mylesthomasandfriends838]

Do you think there will ever be any adaptation movie 101 Dalmatians and Clifford the big red dog like that?

[@lebronshairline4768]

@@mylesthomasandfriends838 not sure, but it'll be interesting

[@mylesthomasandfriends838]

@@lebronshairline4768 do you love live action talking animal movies?

[@lebronshairline4768]

@@mylesthomasandfriends838 yes

[@Dogtles]

Is it because animals can't speak English?

[@theprotagonist6057]

yes that wouldn't make a good video

[@JasonBrown-tx4lq]

Interesting

[@pitirimelea8686]

Awesome

[@mylesthomasandfriends838]

Do you think there will ever be any adaptation movie 101 Dalmatians and Clifford the big red dog like that?

[@anhinh2719]

It takes a man to be the best monke

[@wlsn77]

'realistic talking animals'

[@arpitwasnik]

0:47 is it not secret life of pets 2

[@austinhernandez2716]

Disney did a terrible job in the lion king remake

[@caesar7734]

3:34 He is a gigantopithecus.

[@maisey2363]

Incorrect, fish do have tongues …maybe not anatomically the same as ours but they have tongues

[@par3me]

Does anyone know of a consumer version of this software??

[@mylesthomasandfriends838]

Do you think there will ever be any adaptation movie 101 Dalmatians and Clifford the big red dog like that?

[@mihalymarkocserpak5437]

I think its hard beacuse animals dont do that irl

[@online2000.]

My man pogo!

[@QiotiCoyote]

ok but that fox is terrible

[@erminrohovic167]

Cool

[@rubenroy6843]

nice

[@maijiddamodibbo]

We're looking for a contact number or email of special effect contact for a bird character.

[@mylesthomasandfriends838]

Do you think there will ever be any adaptation movie 101 Dalmatians and Clifford the big red dog like that?

[@pratikkore7947]

The fox is NOT believable. Is this an ad?

[@LoudMime]

Still, The Lion King sucked

[@masonfinehair7189]

I don't know who needs to hear this, you've got to stop saving money. Invest some part of it, if you really want financial freedom.

[@masonfinehair7189]

Investing for today is priceless because tomorrow isn't promised, trading bit-coins, gold, silver and crypto secures a better tomorrow.

[@saffronbarker865]

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[@mingsj6275]

That's so true, investment really saves.

[@masonfinehair7189]

My manager and advisor, Mrs Maria Margaret Powers handles my trades on her platform so well that all i do is invest and she runs the trades herself and send back my profits of 20500 after the trading period

[@maryrichardson8252]

Wow! That's really amazing

[@doburu4835]

How is that fox realistic looking? It's the worst example.

[@goatpepperherbaltea7895]

You sound like you might be gay?

[@elvirataubai913]

Я одна зашла увидев пого

[@shaider1982]

I guess they skipped through all of this in the movie Cats

[@mylesthomasandfriends838]

Do you think there will ever be any adaptation movie 101 Dalmatians and Clifford the big red dog like that?

[@xtraterastrielrede5513]

~ If you can concentrate properly, your capable of a brain click that unlocks speech and compression. A permanent effectiveness of telepathy.

[@alexk9642]

maybe cause they're not shaped like humans 🤷‍♂️ no clue

[@rajmodi3107]

👍🏽

[@Reactionmemes541]

about me what , one of those I'm . Hard not it is

[@davidicousgregorian]

its hard because animals werent designed to excel beyond humanity if so we would be their slaves

[@afrarunduml1170]

Because... Animals do not talk?

[@deadahead8701]

Twins hahahaha

[@gsauce874]

That fox still wack

[@NotaBeast]

Fun fact: printer ink is more expensive than human blood

[@youcallitacid]

Because animals can't talk. You're welcome.

[@ArtiomRomanov]

And the horse is still more believable.

[@haridaspalleeri6765]

What...no

[@ajaxfrancis1586]

It still looks very bad and obviously fake. Maybe in 5 more years.

[@NotaBeast]

I love when the notification shows up *"someone liked your comment"* and *"you have a new subscriber"* It always makes my day 💖

[@Aleziss]

because animals don't talk...

[@ochenkrasivy86]

You're not listening

[@Aleziss]

@@ochenkrasivy86 yeah I'm listening... I hate movies with talking animals...

[@randomguypostanimeupdates6703]

This is not easy to do bruh a

[@yzdatabase4175]

they havent tackled sht

[@HonestlyFatima]

Hello beautiful person reading this, never lose hope in god

[@JiveDadson]

Vocal fry in a narrator is unacceptable cringe.

[@markt804]

How can you make a realistic talking animal? That makes no sense at all. It's hard to make anything that doesn't exist in reality look realistic really isn't it?

[@maemilev]

*The Green Knight is a really bad movie!*