The video, uploaded Tuesday night, has already attracted more than 2 million views. The one-minute clip shows an eagle trying unsuccessfully to snatch a baby lying in the grass.
The video includes slow-motion replays of the incident, which made some critics skeptical when they looked at the incident closely.
Alex Hern of the New Statesman writes, “…frame-by-frame there are some things visible which are either very strange artefacts, or signs of a good CGI job.
For instance, when the bird swoops down, its shadow pops in one frame after it does. And for one frame, and one frame only, around three seconds in, its right wing becomes transparent.”
It’s not being reported Centre NAD’s 3D animation and digital design department is taking credit for making the special-effects video. Three Montreal students used 3D animation and integration to create the eagle and baby.
A blog post on the school’s site says the video was “made by Normand Archambault, Loïc Mireault and Félix Marquis-Poulin, students at Centre NAD, in the production simulation workshop class of the Bachelors degree in 3D Animation and Digital Design.”
The same school is responsible for other video hoaxes, such as this less popular vid showing a CGI penguin walking around Montreal.
