Fact-Check: CGI Video of Tornado Shared as Cyclone Biparjoy At Gujarat Coast

The animated video was created using Adobe After Effects and Cinema 4D.

A video showing a tornado emerging from the dark, cloudy sky and forming over a sea surface is going viral on social media to claim that this shows cyclone Biparjoy hitting the Gujarat's coast.

About Cyclone Biparjoy: According to the Indian Coast Guard, the landfall is expected to take place between 18:00 to 20:00 hours with powerful winds, storm surges, and lashing rains over a stretch of the coast between Mandvi in Gujarat and Karachi in Pakistan.

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is the video real?: No, this video shows the formation of tornado through Computer-generated imagery (CGI) animation.

How did we find out the original video?: We divided the viral video into multiple keyframes and conducted a reverse image search on some of them on Google.

• On doing this, we came across the same video posted by 'orphicframer' on Instagram.

• This video was shared on 7 June 2019 and the caption mentioned hashtags about the video being made on CGI animation.

• The caption read, "#cgi #vfx #visualeffects #digitalart #photoshop".

• We also found the same user's YouTube channel which carried a longer version of the same video, and this was shared on 22 December 2018.

• The video's title read, "Tornado in Jersey, Channel Islands (CGI simulation)(TikTok)."

• In the description of this YouTube video, the user mentioned that this video was created using Adobe After Effects and Cinema 4D (with TurbulenceFD plugin).

We also reached out to the creator: The user running the channel 'orphicframer' confirmed to us that he added the tornado in the original video through CGI in 2018.

• He also stated that the video of the beach was recorded in the same year at Jersey, Channel Islands which is a group of British dependency islands in the English Channel.

• This channel has shared several similar videos of the simulation and can be seen here and here.

Conclusion: A video of a tornado created by CGI animation is going viral on social media as a real video showing cyclone biparjoy in Gujarat.

(Note: The story has been updated to add a quote from the artist.)

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