Fake videos on YouTube? No way! (pictures)
You have to believe it to see it! When it comes to videos that look too impossibly amazing, they probably are.
'Golden Eagle Snatches Kid'
An image-forgery detection authority has concluded that a dramatic video of an eagle trying to carry off a child, titled "Golden Eagle Snatches Kid" isn't real, but instead is partially computer generated.
The video, which spread quickly around the Internet, frightening park-going new parents everywhere, was the work of four 3D-animation students Normand Archambault, Loic Mireault, and Felix Marquis-Poulin, pupils at Centre NAD (National Animation and Design Center) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The tools of digital design have great control over our perception of reality. We want things to be real, and digital design techniques are capable of making the unreal look perfectly real. The emotional awe we experience suspends belief of what is likely the truth behind the scenes. We have seen it and therefore believe it.
Take a look at a few of these viral videos that seemed so real but were in fact well choreographed performances of digital design.
Pig rescues baby goat
According to The New York Times, the video of a pig helping a baby goat that had become stuck in the pond at a petting zoo was anything but a spontaneous moment of adorable.
The video, which spread rapidly among baby-animal lovers on Facebook and Twitter, was created for a Comedy Central series, "Nathan for You," and required the help of 20 crew members, animal trainers, scuba divers, and humane officers, and even a plastic track to guide the pig to the goat.
Meteorite strikes a pickup truck in the desert!
You guessed it, this one is an ad for Toyota's tough trucks.
Lebron James Powerade ad
The crowd "oohs" and "aahs" as James sinks a series of incredible shots. The reporter even calls to his cameraman, "Are you getting this?" But it's a setup -- the video is staged.
Ball girl makes an incredible catch
But this all-too-unbelievable ad is for another sports energy drink. Ad agency Element 79 created the ad for Gatorade, which aired it during Major League Baseball's 2008 All-Star Game.
The video has since gone viral, with thousands of people pointing out the impossibility of such a catch in the comments on YouTube, but many appearing to have been fooled by the digital fakery.
Evan Longoria's barehanded catch
Bruce Lee plays nunchaku Ping-Pong
And as with any great fake viral video, the online comments were filled with thousands of people debating whether the footage was real or the magic of digital production.
Orca attack
The ad was a part of a television campaign for La Sirena, a chain of stores in the Dominican Republic.
Bungee jump with crocodile
Does it seem too perfect, or too gruesome to be true? It is. This video that went viral was an ad for Foster's beer. The tagline? "New Foster's hit tap. Don't lose your head," promoting a new pouring system that promised to give the beer's drinkers a consistent head on their pint.
Bruno Kammerl jumps
But don't try this one at home. You may have wanted to believe this was an incredible athletic feat, but you're wrong, it's another digital editing trick. The video went viral, but it was simply an advertisement for Microsoft Germany.
Super chameleon color changer
This video clip was produced by the Cutwater agency as an ad for Ray-Ban sunglasses, pitching their Wayfarer line, which come in many dazzling colors.
You've been tricked again, and this viral video was once again the source of many a debate online. Chameleons take much longer to change their color in adaptation to their surroundings, and most species are capable of just a few color variations.
The spread of these videos can be attributed to two sometimes dangerous facts of life online: We want to believe, and we want to share.
It takes us seconds to register an emotional response -- a "Wow!" -- from something that at first glance seems so amazing, so incredible, before we really digest the information. Couple that with the ease of sharing and spreading information -- a simple "Like" or a retweet -- and before we've even really thought about the facts, we've pushed the information out to the world.