{"id":536820,"date":"2026-06-15T20:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/536820\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T20:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:47:13","slug":"how-ted-vfx-team-transformed-seth-macfarlane-into-bill-clinton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/536820\/","title":{"rendered":"How ‘Ted’ VFX Team Transformed Seth MacFarlane into Bill Clinton"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen Seth MacFarlane<\/a> was brainstorming ideas for the second season of \u201cTed,\u201d Bill Clinton came to mind. MacFarlane explains, \u201cThe show takes place in the \u201990s, and we\u2019re always looking for things that are quintessentially emblematic of that decade. Of course, one of those things is Bill Clinton.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Peacock series follows the ongoing adventures of the pot-smoking, foul-mouthed teddy bear Ted. In one episode, MacFarlane stages a masterful spoof of the former president, who appears in Episode 5, \u201cThe Sword and the Stoned.\u201d In the scene, Clinton visits Matty Bennett (Scott Grimes), who works at the local Dunkin\u2019 Donuts. When Matty criticizes Clinton for how badly he\u2019s running the country, Clinton retaliates by throwing coffee at him.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a hilarious moment, and MacFarlane nailed the voice. <\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, when it came to the visual effects, the production team ran into one roadblock after another. MacFarlane knew the audience wasn\u2019t expecting an exact resemblance but still wanted to get as close as possible. Speaking with Variety, MacFarlane said, \u201cWe wanted to see if there was a way to make Clinton look exactly like Bill Clinton, and not like somebody playing Bill Clinton.\u201d Prosthetics didn\u2019t work, and \u201cCGI ended up looking terrifying and distracting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCo-VFX Supervisor Hoyt Yeatman explains that the first thing production did was hire an archivist who went to the Bill Clinton Library. He says, \u201cShe went to the Bill Clinton Presidential Library and acquired portraits and video footage of Clinton from that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUnfortunately, the video footage from the era wasn\u2019t high-resolution enough to serve as a reliable visual reference. Without a scan of Clinton\u2019s head, the team hired a forensic sculptor who used ZBrush software to create \u201ca perfect rendition of Bill Clinton\u2019s head and face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDeep Voodoo, an L.A.-based company that specializes in face technology, was brought in to refine the scene. Yeatman explains, \u201cIt takes the performance underneath it on a frame-by-frame basis, and it accurately reproduces that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was AI that ultimately helped them overcome the challenge. But Yeatman stresses it wasn\u2019t AI slop and that the process did not rely on generative AI. Everything was anchored by MacFarlane\u2019s performance. Yeatman says, \u201cWe have a director who\u2019s giving a specific performance. We shot it with a camera, we lensed it, and we lit it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMacFarlane adds, \u201cIt\u2019s a really good example of AI being used as a tool, where you still have a team of artists who are creating this thing, but the tool they\u2019re using is just the right tool for the right job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile creating the Clinton scene was challenging, MacFarlane points out that animating Ted is even more difficult. \u201cThey take my movements as I\u2019m performing the scene, and then go in with an animator\u2019s hand to fine-tune, adjust, and build on that, turning it into something that\u2019s the best of all worlds.\u201d He explains, \u201cThe fact that you forget the bear is CGI is a blessing and a curse because you buy Ted as a real person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the effects the team had to create were scenes where Ted rides around in red-and-yellow toddler coupe, wears baby clothes, and even dresses in \u201cDungeons and Dragons\u201d cosplay. MacFarlane notes, \u201cAnytime Ted wears clothes or a new outfit that has to be designed, it\u2019s more costly than you would think to have Ted change. So, we do have to be selective about how many times we go to that well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe goes on to praise the animation team behind the bear: \u201cThe subtlety with which they animate the bear is something everyone should take a look at next time they\u2019re watching the show. It\u2019s really something extraordinary. It speaks to how talented and thoughtful these artists are. It\u2019s a very selfless style of animation. It\u2019s not showy at all, but it\u2019s very authentic and very real..\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Seth MacFarlane was brainstorming ideas for the second season of \u201cTed,\u201d Bill Clinton came to mind. MacFarlane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,19,17,170761,128],"class_list":["post-536820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-seth-macfarlane","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}