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Sunday 18 September 2022

Standing Alone, All on his Todd!

In my latest book, Beasts of the World: Hairy Humanoids, I had wanted to investigate the footage of the alleged Bigfoot', that appear in the Todd Standing documentary - Discovering Bigfoot.



My own (poor) attempt at faking some Bigfoot evidence! 
Photo By Andy McGrath

The claim is that Todd has faked his footage either with CGI, animatronic puppets or make up and prosthetics. His claims and the remarkable footage he has produced have divided opinions in the Bigfoot community for many years, culminating with the release of his long awaited documentary. The argument sadly, is no closer to being resolved.


Shortly after the release of Discovering Bigfoot, I posted a summary of the film, stating that I believed that the film vindicated the reputation of Todd and that unless those who doubted his voracity could prove how the creatures depicted within had been faked, then they should accept the footage as genuine.

As you might imagine, the feedback I received regarding this challenge was less than pleasant, but within that considerable trolling, there were some, who pointed out quite correctly that lack of available evidence does not in itself recuse the defendant from standing trial at some point in the future.

Having heard a rumour that Todd Standing's sister was a make-up artist (it is not in fact his sister, but his wife and rumour has it, she's a beautician and not an FX makeup artist.) I thought it prudent to consult someone in the special effects industry, to evaluate the footage and especially to give an opinion on whether or not the creatures depicted in Standing's film, could possibly be created using modern CGI and make up techniques.

Michal Finegold is a Senior CG Technical Director with experience in feature films, television shows and commercials. With an extensive background in both computer programming and traditional art, she has worked on films like - The Hobbit, Noah, Captain America, Happy Feet Two and many others.

Michal examined the footage of all 3 purported Bigfoot close ups, in Todd's documentary (Teddy Squatch, Blinky and The Devil Face.)

Here is her report:

"In my opinion, based on viewing the scenes and based on my experience as a professional visual effects artist, these scenes of Bigfoot could easily be faked by people with professional CG and compositing skills, as well people skilled in creating practical effects - makeup, masks, puppets etc.

'Blinky', looks a lot like a person with makeup and various practical effects. The shot we see of him in the film at 1:01:08 onwards, might seem difficult to manipulate digitally because of the foreground leaves. But what I think is that if any additional comp work was necessary - perhaps to hide any parts of skin not covered well enough by makeup and fur pieces - that could easily be done if the blurry foreground leaves weren't actually there in the original shot. If I were working on this, I'd shoot the man in the makeup without any leaves obscuring him, and then after I do any touch-ups on the computer, I'd composite some leaves on top and blur them like mad, to give the impression that this is shot through leaves, and to make it look like something harder to mess with digitally.

The second one, 'Teddy', with lighter fur and black eyes, first and foremost looks like it could be just a mask or a puppet of some sort. It wouldn't have to be animatronic, there's so little movement. Somebody could just be holding it off camera.

Note, that we don't see eye movement, and in particular, blinking. Wouldn't these creatures blink more? We don't see the face changing expression either - the mouth, the cheeks? Facial animation, and especially blinking and eye movement, are very difficult to do well, and their absence doesn't make sense biologically, but does make a lot of sense if these are fake.

This looks like it could easily be a combination of somebody with makeup and practical effects, and some computer graphics work compositing in those dark eyeballs and perhaps the areas where the fur comes very close to the eyes. Or honestly, it could even just be a very well made puppet.

The last one, the Devil-face, really looks like it could just be a person with black make-up on his skin. I see absolutely no reason to see otherwise.

Also overall, with all of these, they don't move much, and neither does the camera. This makes it particularly easy to composite all sorts of things - images of various animals - as long as they are similarly lit. When the camera doesn't change angles, and the character doesn't, then even pieces of still images can be used and tracked onto the scene. Even if we did see it with more movement and from many different directions, it would still be possible to fake it, but harder. It would require very high quality, full CG modelling and animation, and photo real rendering, in addition to compositing.

The fact that the footage is so short, low resolution and low frame rate, also makes it easier to fake. It means the amount of work is a lot less than if there were, say, several minutes of this at high resolution. That would mean more work to perfect many frames, and more work on each of those frames. Any little digital touch ups are way easier if you only have to do them on a few frames, and even easier when those frames are low resolution and details get lost.

I think an expert compositor would be the most important factor in achieving this footage - because even simple CG work can be made to fit in a scene like this by a good compositor. (Compositor is somebody who works in 2d, using 2d footage and images and putting them together or combining computer generated 3D stuff with 2d footage)

It wouldn’t be too costly, because these are such short clips, and angles that don't change much. The fact that they are short make it easier and less expensive. The fact that they are without a lot of movement or change in angle means you can actually get away with little 3D computer generated work and just have a compositor do everything - or even NO 3D computer generated work and have it all be faked in 2D with footage and makeup or props. (i.e. - you can take a frame from footage of a non-moving Bigfoot mask that somebody is holding, and you can manipulate it even just in 2D to make it seem like it’s moving a tad or even blinking! If you’re an expert compositor and the angles don’t change, that is!)

The compositor services are not cheap, but it can just be one person, not a whole team and just one license for compositing software . And if you do 3D computer generated elements, again it’s just one person and one software license and not a lot of render time since it’s not that many frames and it’s low res, so somebody can do it on their home computer, they don’t need a big expensive render farm like we use at work for big projects.

I would definitely say the images are of a high quality. They look good, the creatures blend into their surroundings nicely, although they would be more impressive if they showed more angles and facial movement, but if they are fake - it’s a smart choice not to show much movement because then it’s easier to make it feel real! Part of good vfx work is sometimes making those smart choices so you can get what you need on a budget

Finally and again, the fact that they barely move, means they could just be some puppet heads someone worked hard on to make look realistic - many people have these skills and do these things every day for films and other projects

So there we have it, Todd's work could be faked (with some effort and expertise I might add!) But does this mean that they are fake? There is so much about Todd Standing's actions that do not make sense to me.

If this is a hoax, then it is one 10 years in the making, (hardly a financial get rich quick scheme!) That has drawn in professionals like, Jeff Meldrum and the now deceased, John Bindernagel. Two seasoned scientists that would not be easily fooled!

Not to mention, of course, that Todd is a skilled and seasoned outdoorsmen, who even took on and impressed, Survivorman presenter, Les Stroud, with his knowledge and skill in the Canadian wilderness.

There has recently been some talk around the campfire, of anonymous actors who have signed non-disclosure agreements with Todd, and are claiming to have been involved in his hoax. But, until names are given and copies of these 'alleged' agreements are brought in to the public realm, I would suggest that these accusations are no more provable at present than any other accusation about Todd Standing, his ethics or his evidence.

For my part, I have always been of the opinion that some of the footage is genuine and some is fake. A strange line to take, I'm sure you'll agree, but it's where I'm currently comfortable to stand. My door always being open, of course, to a greater reveal of any confirming or condemning evidence!

Whether or not you believe in the authenticity of Todd Standing's work, it must be admitted that what he has created, or captured, is of an extraordinary nature and worthy of a little personal investigation.

I would highly recommend watching Discovering Bigfoot, to anyone who is interested in this phenomenon, as an enjoyable and informative bit of telly!

Written by Andrew McGrath

Excerpt for my book - Beasts of the World (Vol.1) Hairy Humanoids

For my: Books; Merch; Podcasts; Conferences & Expeditions, check out - https://linktr.ee/beastsof






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