Lucasfilm hires YouTuber who deepfaked ‘The Mandalorian’

If you have not seen The Mandalorian Season 2 by now, there are spoilers forward, but additionally, watch it!

Deepfakes are each fascinating and extremely problematic, however nonetheless, one notably good one landed its creator a slam dunk of a job.

Lucasfilm has employed the YouTube creator who created a deepfake of one of many largest moments in The Mandalorian Season 2, by which the studio dropped a bit of finances de-ageing Mark Hamill to seem as Luke Skywalker within the last episode.

Following this shock look (and Grogu rescue) from the Jedi grasp within the finale, YouTube creator Shamook created a deepfake of Skywalker utilizing the identical scenes. It was extremely convincing, actually, arguably surpassed the CGI rolled out within the precise episode, though the audio is simply barely off. And now, after making YouTube movies since 2018, the UK-based creator is working for Industrial Gentle and Magic, the visible results division of Lucasfilm.

This is the clip launched in December 2020, which has earned 2.1 million views up to now:

Lucasfilm confirmed to Indiewire it had employed Shamook, with a consultant telling the writer it was “at all times looking out” for artists to recruit: “Over the previous a number of years ILM has been investing in each machine studying and A.I. as a method to supply compelling visible results work and it’s been terrific to see momentum constructing on this house because the know-how advances.”

Additionally noticed by the writer, Shamook had commented on considered one of their different deepfake YouTube movies weeks in the past, speaking about being employed by ILM. The job title? Senior facial seize artist, they stated. “As a few of you might already know, I joined ILM/Lucasfilms a number of months in the past and have not had the time to work on any new YouTube content material,” they wrote. “Now I’ve settled into my job, uploads ought to begin growing once more. They’re going to nonetheless be sluggish, however hopefully not months aside.”

So, whereas creating deepfakes is undeniably dicey territory, it is apparently good things for a visible movie results resume.