Mandalorian deepfake video lands YouTuber top job at Lucasfilm!

Image source, Lucasfilm/Disney

Image caption, The YouTuber remade this scene from The Mandalorian featuring a very famous Jedi

A YouTuber who made his own 'deepfake' video of The Mandalorian has been given a job at Lucasfilm after people who work on the show were impressed with his visual effects wizardry.

Deepfakes are incredibly realistic videos of people that have been created using computer technology.

The YouTuber, known as Shamook, remade a famous scene from the end of The Mandalorian's second season. He did it so well, that many fans thought it was better than the original!

It turns out his skills were noticed by people at Lucasfilm - the makers of the Star Wars based show - who gave him a job in their VFX team.

Image source, Lucasfilm/Disney

Image caption, Spot the difference!

*Spoiler warning: Discussion of the end of The Mandalorian season two is ahead!*

The season two finale of The Mandalorian saw the bounty hunter complete his mission by delivering Baby Yoda to a Jedi.

But not just any Jedi - it was a young Luke Skywalker, the famous character from the original Star Wars films.

However, to fit in with the timeline of the show, Luke Skywalker had to be digitally de-aged - meaning made to look younger through visual effects.

This led to criticism from some fans who were disappointed with the VFX-heavy look.

So, Shamook decided to see if he could do it better!

Image source, Lucasfilm/Disney

Image caption, Visual effects were used to make Luke Skywalker look younger

He made his own version of the scene, releasing it in December last year after spending just four days working on it.

His video was a MASSIVE hit, with more than 2.7 million views with many people saying he had improved the VFX used to de-age Luke Skywalker.

It was so good, it earned Shamook a new job with Lucasfilm - which hired him to work in the visual effects division, Industrial Light and Magic.

"As some of you may already know, I joined ILM/Lucasfilm a few months ago and haven't had the time to work on any new YouTube content," Shamook wrote on his page.

Shamook said in the comments that his job title is, "Senior Facial Capture Artist."

Lucasfilm confirmed his role to the website IndieWire, saying: "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.

"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."

Would you fancy a job in visual effects? Did you think the Luke Skywalker scene was any good? What do you think of Shamook's version of young Luke? Let us know in the comments!