‘An Octopus Walking On The Beach … 🐙’
Claim
Reporting
On March 15 2022, the account @UberFacts shared purported video of an “octopus walking on the beach” on Twitter, but with certain odd details. For example, the octopus appeared to have nine tentacles.
A search quickly indicated that the “octopus walking” clip was not new in March 2022. It was published to YouTube on August 4 2020, and the verified account @ScienceChannel tweeted it one day later.
In that tweet, @ScienceChannel observed the purported sea creature was in fact a “novempus,” not an octopus:
Technically it’s a #novempus”, not an octopus 🐙 and it appreciates a good sunset. 🌅
🎥 + caption by @ghost3dee#SharkWeek #Science #OctaneRender pic.twitter.com/m5z2ykM6YB
— Science Channel (@ScienceChannel) August 5, 2020
As we have mentioned in previous fact checks, @UberFacts doesn’t always verify information before spreading it via their verified Twitter account. Further, the tweet included no information about the provenance or content of the purported footage of an “octopus walking on a beach.”
On December 29 2020, TimesOfIndia.com published the video with a description suggesting it was indeed footage of an “octopus walking on a beach”:
Viral video: Octopus spotted crawling on the beach
A video of octopus crawling on the sea beach has gone viral on social media. The netizens have reacted to the video.
Missing from that variation were details such as when and where the footage was purportedly captured, or by whom. However, fakery-spotter account @HoaxEye responded to the @UberFacts tweet with some actual facts:
That’s not a octopus, but a computer generated “novempus” called Octie Churro. See: https://t.co/Ur1N1EuNuu #RespectArtists https://t.co/rceEpxAjdS
— HoaxEye (@hoaxeye) March 15, 2022
In January 2021, HoaxEye provided contextual information missing from content like the @UberFacts tweet and TimesOfIndia.com video:
The video is a computer generated (CG) animation by “ghost3dee” on Instagram. Caption by artist …
In the post, HoaxEye embedded an August 1 2020 Instagram post by user @ghost3dee, the apparent original version of the clip. A caption and an extensive usage of hashtags for the post indicated that it was indeed a convincing work of digital art — but content originally shared to Instagram can be difficult to locate using Google or reverse image search:
Octie Churro taking a stroll on the beach in his new, revamped body and dynamics model. Technically it’s a “novempus”, not an octopus 🐙and he appreciates a good sunset 🌅
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#houdinifx #sidefx #autodesk #particlesim #granularsim #granules #particleanimation #particles #particlesystem #dailyrender #cgrender #fxtd #cgparticles #animation #motionprocess #cgcreature #creatureanimation #octopus #novempus #novempuschurro #octanerender #octane #octanerenderer #ghost3dee #cgi_idea #xuxoe #thegraphicspr0ject #motionbrainy #creativemobs #breakdown3d
On March 15 2022, @UberFacts tweeted purported video of an “octopus walking on a beach.” Iterations of the video emerged in August 2020, after it was removed from its original context as art on Instagram. @HoaxEye explained the clip’s origin in January 2021, but accounts like @UberFacts continued sharing it without disclosing that it was computer generated and not real footage.
