Shamook’s deepfake version of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian.
Shamook via YouTube
The season 2 finale of The Mandalorian saw the titular lone bounty hunter complete his mission by delivering Grogu (formerly known as Baby Yoda) to the open arms of a Jedi. But not just any Jedi. A young Luke Skywalker showed up to the excitement, then disappointment of fans who raised eyebrows at his VFX-heavy look.
Enter the YouTuber known as Shamook, whose The Mandalorian deepfake, published in December, has earned nearly 2 million views for improving the VFX used to de-age Mark Hamill. It was so good Shamook then earned a new gig with Lucasfilm and its visual effects division Industrial Light and Magic.
“As some of you may already know, I joined ILM/Lucasfilms a few months ago and haven’t had the time to work on any new YouTube content,” Shamook wrote in the comment section of a recent video. “Now I’ve settled into my job, uploads should start increasing again. They’ll still be slow, but hopefully not months apart.”
Shamook said in the comments that his job title is, “Senior Facial Capture Artist.”
Lucasfilm confirmed the new hire (via IndieWire).
“[Industrial Light and Magic is] always on the lookout for talented artists and have in fact hired the artist that goes by the online persona ‘Shamook,'” a Lucasfilm representative said in a statement.
“Over the past several years ILM has been investing in both machine learning and A.I. as a means to produce compelling visual effects work and it’s been terrific to see momentum building in this space as the technology advances.”
This is Shamook’s impressive deepfake (he fixed The Irishman too).
Deepfake videos use artificial intelligence to make it appear that a person is doing or saying something they never did, as with these Tom Cruise deepfakes. In less disturbing territory, deepfakes that improve visual effects in movies appear to be a great addition to your movie-making CV.