Talented 26 Y/O Kelantanese VFX creator got IRL Ryan Reynolds to star in his CGI short

With over 800K followers on Instagram and 500K subscribers on YouTube, Mohamad Sofian, better known by his username Sofyank96, has undoubtedly established himself as a talented content creator.

He rakes in millions of views with his videos, which are jam-packed with visual effects (VFX) and computer-generated imagery (CGI). To be specific, he has garnered 59,218,098 views on YouTube alone.

Most recently, he invited actor Ryan Reynolds to act opposite him in one such video, and the quality was next-level.  

Pairing up with Ryan

The recent collaboration with Ryan Reynolds is actually not Sofian’s first rodeo with a global star. The Malaysian content creator has also collaborated with John Cena and Will Smith before.

In a vlog, Sofian allowed viewers to watch behind-the-scenes footage of the Ryan Reynolds video. The vlog showed how the scenes with Reynolds were filmed over Zoom and that the project is part of the promotions for Reynold’s latest movie, The Adam Project.

After recording Ryan’s scenes over Zoom, the Malaysian filmed his own parts with a green screen. The final video is the product of over one month of editing from Sofian. Frankly, the clarity of the produced video is quite a wonder, considering how Reynolds’ parts were literally taken from Zoom.

He revealed in an Instagram reel that there was actually only 16 seconds of footage with Ryan, so he used CGI to elongate those scenes.

In fact, Sofian posted on Facebook that around 80% of the whole video relied on CGI, which was why editing it took so long. However, the end result was worth it.

The video features the futuristic spaceship from The Adam Project, which Sofian unveils by activating a necklace, just like in the movie.

A hoverboard flies down from the spaceship to Sofian, who steps onto it. You can see the board dip slightly due to his weight, which makes the video all the more realistic. We watch as the board lifts Sofian up into the spaceship, where Ryan Reynolds awaits.

Although Reynold and Sofian were filming in different locations, Sofian was able to use his editing magic to make it look like they were in the same space.

The movie star tells Sofian to join his mission of going back in time. Sofian immediately agrees, pressing an eject button which sends him away in a pod.

Then, Reynolds turns to the camera and tells the viewers to join as well by watching The Adam Project on Netflix. If I hadn’t already streamed the movie when it came out, this video would’ve piqued my interest to do so.

Sofyank96’s journey

Sofian’s jaw-dropping collaboration with Reynolds is the product of the years of work he has put into content creation.

The 26-year-old has been making videos since he was 14, as shared in a 2020 video where he remade his younger self’s VFX. He’s also part of a team called Naifos Production, and you’ll often see Sofian crediting Mark Deen as his right-hand man in projects.

According to an article by Sinar Harian, Sofian is from Wakaf Bharu, a town in Kelantan. He takes inspiration from his idol, content creator Zach King, who rose to fame by creating VFX videos on Vine.

In that 2019 Sinar Harian article, Sofian talked about how he hopes to reach an international level with his content. Given his recent content featuring global names, he seems to already be meeting his goals.

Featured Image Credit: Sofyank96 and Ryan Reynolds