VFX Artists DEBUNK Internet UFO Videos 

Remember, if you're bad at identifying flying objects anything can be an UFO

Hey Corridor Crew, an astrophysicist here. The second clip of the moon actually is normal and the line is turbulence from the atmosphere. When different layers of air current shift due to temperature gradient it can cause such an optical effect. Atmospheric turbulence is the biggest obstacle to ground based telescopes and is the purpose for creating adaptive optics in modern astronomy.

It continues to amaze me that even though we have excellent 4K cameras in affordable cell phones these days, complete with image stabilization and other processing tools, every UFO video ever released looks like it was filmed through wax paper while the videographer was having a seizure.

The ones at the end show pretty telltale signs of being balloons and whipping around in a wind stream while tied together. That explains the weird orbits they have as they are ripped apart, then you see the tension and they get whipped back into another orbit. Balloon related UFOs are actually well known to be more common in Mexico because for whatever reason, more people tend to just release large amounts of balloons into the air for parties, etc. So someone releases a huge bundle of balloons, they fly up into the sky, get hit by a cross-current of strong air and it rips them apart and then some credulous person with a camera starts recording them thinking they're a UFO.

I saw what I thought was a dead-solid UFO in Japan in 2010. I noticed four or five black triangles hovering motionlessly on the other side of the city, maybe 100-200m up in the air. I sped across town trying to get as much footage as possible and the closer I got the more UFO-like it became. One triangle split into two equally sized triangles, like cells dividing. Sometimes they would move independently at different speeds, sometimes they would mimic each others movements and do this... slow, choreographed dance. When we finally got there... it was kites. It was a dude who just happened to be flying like five gigantic, black, triangular kites - all connected on the same string - because I guess he just really liked kites. Adding to the confusion was the fact that because they were so simple in shape and color, I couldn't accurately tell their size and distance until I was close enough to see details. They were big, yes, but still 10x smaller than what I was expecting, and closer to my initial location. The point of that story is... even if you see something you're 100% convinced is extra-terrestrials, the odds are just so enourmously stacked in favor of it being a dude with a weird hobby, some unusual piece of garbage in the wind or... anything else you'd never think up on your own - rather than aliens.

I’d love to see an “Icarus” VFX challenge on making a fake cryptid footage video. So each person needs to make a mock video showing a cryptid (Big Foot, Nessie etc) supposedly captured on camera. The “Icarus” factor is they need to fly close to the sun. The winner is the person who shows the most of the creature in their video without it being deemed by the team to be blatantly fake-looking

That "birthing orbs" one looks to me like a bundle of balloons that hit some turbulence, came apart, and starting getting blown around.

I loved the satelite skit that you guys did because that is 100% real for some people. I had a neighbor who was staring up into the clear sky and said very casually, "oh hey, a UFO"....this was kind of a nice neighborhood. My rent was $900/month for the cheapest single room apartment. Me, being a skeptical/open-minded person, stared at the UFO for about 5 seconds and said "I think that's a satellite". She says "no, look how it disappears and reappears". I say "mmmm, I see what you mean, that's interesting.....but I think what you're seeing is that there are thin clouds in the sky and they are blocking the faint satellite light. Look at how it goes in a straight line across the the entire horizon, if it viered a tiny left or right, or if it stopped or reversed, I would agree." When anyone is married to an idea, you have to meet them in the middle, you have to hear them out, but that doesn't mean you have to be an idiot...

The final one around 12:44 to me looks like a kite. The large object on the right is the main body and the smaller parts appear to be attached to it and each other as part of the tail, which explains why they undulate together - they're being pulled around in a sort of spiral within 3D space behind the main body. There's a couple points (especially around 18:42) where, to me, it looks like there's a string / cable catching the light from the 'rear' of the main body, towards the direction of the smaller bodies which provides further evidence.

Back around 1978 or 79, my dad gave me an old polaroid instamatic - the kind that actually had the extendible lens - and a ton of old B&W polaroid film - the kind you actually had to peel the lining off of - and I took a golf ball, glued some chunks of an egg carton to it, and threw it as high as I could in the air, then I snapped as many pictures of it as I could as it fell. One of them was really good, had trees in the background, for scale, but it looked like it was way behind them and it was *just* blurry enough that you couldn't see it was a golf ball. I showed that thing around for ten years claiming it was a UFO, and most people believed it, and even the people who couldn't believe it couldn't explain what it was, not a one of 'em ever said, "It's jut a golffball with some styrofoam glued to it that you tossed in the air." Given how incredibly easy it was to fake stuff even back then, I've never really believed any of these things are real.

The worst case I remember was when Fact of Faked Paranormal files tried to pass off a spider in the center of its web suspended from a tree as the light of an on coming ghost train. It was so obviously a spider and none of their people could see it for what it was, allegedly. That was the first time I caught the show. It was also the last time.

The "Wave on the MOON!" video angers me. Because for a pressure wave so energetic that it can be seen from Earth to be moving across the surface of the moon so incredibly fast, easily thousands of miles per hour, there should be a wave of absolute devastation behind it. The surface of the moon would seem to be "wiped clean" behind it as the surface is utterly devastated and reformed. It would be an impact sufficient to crack the moon like a porcelain dish. This is an example of when the fiction doesn't even engage with the far more interesting ideas that the reality of the situation would require to happen, a failure of imagination!

The guy in the last video is Jaime Maussan, a well-known ‘ufologist’ in Mexico who used to have a TV program just to present these types of videos. Most of those videos would rarely look to be CGI, much more likely to be either practical props or just camera effects. This one looks very much a practical thing, to me they look like a bunch of balloons caught in a high wind.

You guys should do a challenge where you guys fake ufo footage and try to fool everyone else. I think that would be an awesome video!!! Edit. Wow I’ve never gotten so many likes! Thank you! Hopefully they see the comment!

I cracked up laughing at 15:50 because as a veteran Ufologist I'm very familiar with this shifty character. It was great to see you make "dot joining" moment. Sadly the world is full of guys like this who are muddying the waters.

These guys know their shit, I love how they're just laughing when there's ufo nuts completely taken in by it

I want Corridor to create a UFO hoax video and secretly release it, then later reveal it was them who created it.

Kind of disappointed that nobody freaked out about Wren having caught an alien on camera himself

Dang you guys for real break it down. I appreciate this video very much! ❤️

Aliens that have traveled billions of light years across the universe to earth, are able to avoid detection from every single sophisticated science in the world, yet are easily recorded by backyard amateurs and Space Force interests on a consistent basis. BTW- Big Foot remains the Hide and Seek Champion of the World!!

"Do people just film the moon for long stretches of time?" I felt that remark.

I think Sam missed a vital point in his guess at the end. If those were flawless CGI, as Niko had said, there is no way the artist would have let that crossfade through.

I really appreciate how when they get stumped by something, they show the deliberation, and the process of conversation in detail. It makes them feel very credible and honest, which I never doubted in the first place, but it rules out that they cut it down to make them "Look good".

It would be fun if you guys could debunk footage of famous cryptids (loch ness monster, bigfoot, etc.) both old and new!

Were I a man with a more devious mind, I would use these debunking videos to make the perfectly undetectable paranormal/UFO hoax video because the breakdowns you guys give for why the videos look fake (i.e. the types of camera blur and why they happen) are so detailed, informative and educated that you're giving hoaxers the tips they need to make their hoaxes look more realistic.

The way Niko explains how a blur works and being serious about it while doing all those hand gestures. I couldn't hold the laughter 😂😂😂

The funny thing is that a normal "UFO" is probably really, really ineffective. Like, unless you want to show up in style, use something practical - maybe a large tube-y thing, something like Pillar Of Autumn or In Amber Clad. Something that can be used effectively. Also a stereotype UFO is really easy to debunk just because of it´s popularity

I just love these guys.. PLS keeeeep debunking all that ....... :)

Ok I have an idea, we need you guys have another competition in the office on who can make the most realistic looking ufo footage.

This has reminded me of a problem with pretty much all the ghost effects I’ve ever seen. They’re always translucent 2D comps, but if a real thing was slightly transparent then you wouldn’t just see the stuff behind them, you’d see their insides and the backs of their heads, like a deep sea fish

I learned more about vfx in these videos than I did in my DD class

Yall be good at what you do. Thanks guys.

Love this series! You guys should do the same kind of debunks on ghost videos too.

Sam is my spirit animal. 99% skeptic but willing to entertain your idea in order to prove that it's stupid.

That was great. And Sam is becoming too super funny :)

Would love more of these, please.

WAIT.. when did the “UFO birthing” video come out? 2009… looks like a bunch of little balloons flying around right?? When did Pixar’s “UP” release? 2009. Mystery Solved.

"Do people just go out there and film the moon for long stretches of time?" Well, yeah. Amateur astronomers record all manner of footage, since that's kinda how we know what happens in space in the first place. There's a A LOT we don't know about celestial phenomenon and a lot we do. We record to sky to catch either one of those.

I find these debunking explanations to be really interesting. I and most others look at these videos and intuitively notice that *something* is off… but we can’t articulate what that something is. We just know it is wrong, somehow. Youz are actually telling us what it is that is wrong that we are seeing. Example: uniform blur vs. a natural blur.

While I'm not a UFOlogist, back in 1980, in Greece, my friend and I watched very much the same activity pictured in the blue sky imaging in the last clip, but at night. We watched a big light spawn a bunch of smaller lights, that then acted independently. I know Unidentified Flying Objects are just unidentified, but it was amazingly similar. It could have simply been a meteor breaking up in the upper atmosphere, but the subsequent behavior was really weird. In any case, great video!

Holy Shit! Niko's explanation on why blur happens is exactly why people need correction glasses for short/long sight. blew my mind

After getting ideas from others on here, this is my theory: It is initially a large bundle of balloons, about 30, all tied together simply floating up, then the bundle intercepts a strong air current. Once this happens, most of the balloons break off (either because they weren't actually tied together or because the wind was strong enough to break their strings/rip the balloons off the string) then the camera follows the core group of balloons, which includes one of those big metallic party balloons, making it extra bright and extra big, and the remaining five dots are simply still tied together as the air current carries them off.

12:26 "i'm going to give this one a maybe" high praise from the crew!

I JUST noticed their chairs, and I love them! It is two seperate chairs that you can push together to make a couch. Brilliant! I want them!

The "maybe" one reminds me of skydiving teams who have lights on them. There's a great video of somebody seeing them at night and freaking out and repeatedly yelling "ALIENS! ALIENS! THEY'RE MOVING INTO FORMATION!" It was very funny

Y’all should do a challenge where you have to create your most convincing UFO sighting shots

The "bug" video I remember seeing a few years ago. But I thought the video started a few seconds earlier where you could see the object coming down the valley and actually go behind some trees before making a turn and passing the drone. I'm not saying it's real but I would like to see the guys analyze that part of the video. When the video came out, that was the part that seemed harder to fake. Or at least that is what I heard. I honestly don't know either way

Hi, I’m an astrophotographer and I spotted something that looked basically exactly the same as the last “ufo” sitting you guys debunked whilst photographing the night sky, I took a long exposure image of it but it’s very short, still is visible, I can give more information if you need it and I could try sending the picture as well, also, great vid, really enjoyed seeing how you debunked it all

That looks a lot like tiny spiders hatching out of an egg. I have seen the same pattern of movement before where the mom spider holds the egg under her belly and hundreds of tiny spiders spew out of the egg and make a big mess. Plus the fact that this is happening on a web could explain why they look like flying objects. Webs between 2 distant objects usually appear in a straight line. And the part where the the small objects are going around the big one could be the tiny spiders weaving their own webs and trying to navigate the environment.

Sam's reactions are always the best parts of these videos. He's just not having any of this nonsense. Lol

Where can I find e-mail address or something to submit videos to debunk for the next episode?

It’s fantastic how you guys couldn’t debunk the Birthing Orbs. Whether Jaime Maussan is in fake cahoots or not, he does bring forward A LOT of footage, and we get some brain stumpers like this one. I do hope i find out in my lifetime. It’s really great living in this technological era and demystifying many things. Like knowing the magician’s secrets 🥰

This might be my new favorite type of video you all do. Love the instantaneous fake spotting, need more! More rectangle glasses please!

I'm just here admiring the world-building Sam does by *always* having his hair out for the UFO videos.

The drone pilot of the "drone v bug" footage released the RAW files for this exact type of scrutiny. You might want to have a closer look at it by zooming in to the hillside. The same object can be seen sweeping out of the hill valley and turning right, towards the drone. That being said; one of the 5 observables in UAP/UFOs is that the objects can somehow move through air and water without friction. Electro-gravitic propulsion?? Another piece of footage for you to look at - type in Concorde with Orb. Filmed in the 1970''s or early 80''s from another Concorde flying along side. An orb just like the ones filmed in Mexico and the WW2 reports of Foo Fighters.

The first "birthing orbs" shot from below looks a like a high power hobby rocket separating at apogee, with some streamers tied onto a long cord, and a parachute. The motion matches very well. Since there are no visual cues to indicate alignment, the view could have been rotated to create the appearance that it was floating, rather than falling slowly toward the camera from very high up. If that was real footage, the view from above could just be a negative superimposed on some clouds.

The main thing I want to say about that last one with the orbs, the original video almost looks like whatever it is is caught in a current and the smaller orbs around it aren't pulling it, they're being dragged along. It almost reminds me of like a bag getting caught in the wind, but something is tied to it. I'm definitely not saying aliens, but it looks like something caught in a current and that's all I can say from how it looks

I love how Sam gets so into these videos, his theories and glasses I love it😂

This is my favourite series on the internet

Vuelvo una y otra vez a ver ese gran final de descubrimiento... y por el pelo de Nico!

I genuinely feel excitement seeing you guys continuously level up and get more and more views. Out of any of the RU-vidrs I've watched for the last decade or so you guys are the ones that deserve Every bit of attention you get! Keep it up corridor crew!!!

1:52 Me during my first time

11:20 TBH, I think these are also just balloons. The way they're moving makes it seem like they're attached via some kind of string to eachother and getting blown around by wind and shit.

More UFO content please! Haha, I dig what you guys do.

Been waiting on more of this these are the best

I can't wait for them to react to Unexplained Goblin Sightings.

I like how the bug one at the 5 minute mark had a little backstory like it was Aunt June's Southern Cornbread recipe.

Interestingly, some of those clips are of 'ball lightning'. A rare nature occurence of when, during certain and specific conditions, creates a ball of lightning that looks like an UFO. It's been debunked on something I've seen recently and thought how interesting it is to actually irl. Also, the ball can sometimes be seen from coming from the ground or lightning seen coming from the ground, as opposed from the sky. I think the main condition is for the ground tectonic plates to have friction, and it have certain air and weather conditions.

You guys should do a challenge of the best warp (jumping into hyperspace) animation!! Would be awesome!

I absolutely love these debunking videos. It never comes across as pompous or condescending. Just really funny dudes.

The clip with the bug has had lots of analysis vids made on it and at certain points it dips behind hills way off in the distance. So that puts the bug idea to rest.

Ya'll should do more of these

the "moon wave" thing COULD be some simple atmospheric thing. It's supposed to be super slow mo, and it's super zoomed in, so even a very slight and uneven warbly distortion from heat could look straight and clean like that. So even if it's not faked, it's still not necessarily some spooky shit.

I feel like the crew is accidentally giving us the secret sauce for making a perfect fake UFO video

When I was younger I thought I saw an alien above KFC so I told my friend the aliens where getting a fly through

Once, a couple months ago, I was in a pool, and when I looked up, I saw this white dot that moved across the sky. I was confused and thought that that was a UFO. A couple days later, in the same pool, I saw it again. Months later i figured out that they were these special Elon Musk Satelites.

I keep thinking of that story Neil Degrasse Tyson once told during one of his lectures. A cop was panicing, and radioing his coleagues that he was chasing a UFO zigzagging across the sky. Turns out he was looking at Venus, and driving on a zigzagged road.

3:37 Assuming for a moment this is a natural phenomenon, I might have an answer: when we look at the stars, they twinkle. That's not due to anything the stars are doing, but because our atmosphere is a roiling mass of air that changes thickness all the time, so it distorts incoming light just enough that a star's precise location and brightness may seem to vary. You see the same phenomenon if you're zooming in on something far away, like on the horizon. So let's say that there are natural "waves" in the atmosphere, which doesn't sound totally far fetched. What can we look at beyond the atmosphere? The sun is too damn bright for our disgusting human eyeballs, stars and planets are too small for us to be able to discern a wave. The moon is the only phenomenon left where we *could* notice a wave happening.

You guys should take a look at the new Medellin, Colombia UFO. There’s multiple angles from different people, and one is very high quality! 😊

@5:50 **someone who never goes outside** 🐝🦋🦗: Are we aliens to you?!

you can't stop this series until you find a genuine UFO

UFO debunks episodes are my favourite ❤️ We need these more.

That’s the best most definitive footage that we have of aliens

I'm pretty sure the orbs are a specifically made 'weirdness' kite. They floated up a bag of some sort with smaller tethers connected to it via string, and had some additional stuff that could be released upon hitting a particularly strong wind stream.

So fun to watch pros actually debunk these videos

A little dissapointed that you didn't look closer at the "bug" footage (5:55). But hey, its your show, and its entertaining to watch you guys go through the clips :-)

Love your Carpenter Brut shirt! As I’m wearing my Dance with the Dead shirt! We are ahead of the rest bro!

I'd like to see what you think about the latest Pentagon videos, including the "Mosul Orb".

2:35 I see you wren 😂😂😂

I absolutely love that you’re using you’re expertise to teach critical thinking and skepticism in a way that is so cool and relatable.

Just curious where can you find those glasses Sam is wearing? Love the video

Great stuff, can you guys do the Patterson and Gimlin film next?

You guys are so good at explaining!!! With the first shot i was like: HOW DO THEY SEE it THAT QUICK?! Half a min later: oh wow i can see clearly what they mean!

Debunking Series is a must. Love it

Just started watching your site. Love the aluminum hats. You should sell them for support.

At 1:44 I thought "Wow! They even made a 3d diagram to explain this! They must have had help from some VFX artist" And then my brain started working again and I was like "Wow. I am dumb"

I still really want you to do an episode of this that looks at flat earther debunks of nasa footage. I think there would be a TON of interesting stuff to talk about the difference between VfX glitches and compressed video artifacts, of which they can’t seem to make a distinction, but also how that all compares to renders of space in movies

That anticipation after Sam's dramatic reading of the video intro, only to be dissapointed by footage of a bug flying across the screen😂😂

Yep 😁😁 nice hand gesture , now I totally understand.

Oh man. I so hoped to have the answer to those floaty, orb, light-like things. I mean, like parachuters colliding & un-colliding? 🤷‍♀️ But because I didn't get the answer, I'm glad your funny 😆🤙🏼