Computer animation makes virtual actors a reality
Viewers squint, stare, inch closer to the screen and focus diligently on a main character of the latest motion picture. They know everything from her agile movements to her glistening locks are computer animated, but something is telling them the person on the big screen is real.
Computer animators involved in films such as Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within (released this summer, Paramount) and other technicians hope “something” will continue to nag at movie-goers as they buy into the latest cinematic rage: synthespians, or virtual actors, created using technology called photo-realistic animation, according to Deseret News.
Aki Ross – the latest computer animated actor and virtual star of Final Fantasy – was created through the use of computer scripting, text-to-speech software and other animation tools such as “motion capture.”
This is accomplished by placing small markers on an actor or actress, recording him or her with multiple cameras that only recognize movement of the markers. The movements are converted to a 3-D computer skeleton, according to www.cnn.com. Flesh and clothing are created around the skeleton and tedious computer processes add facial expressions, eye movements and lighting to produce a very genuine-looking but generated actor.
“The eyes are one of the single biggest things that make people alive,” said Andy Mones, animation director for Final Fantasy. “We’re moving the eyes around to make the character seem like it’s thinking and feeling for itself. Like there’s a soul.”
This animation process of giving computer images a “soul” was first introduced to mainstream media when director George Lucas created character Jar-Jar Binks in the Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace. Tomb Raider star, Lara Croft, was also a pioneering effort in photo-realistic animation with the video game (released in 1996) by Eidos Interactive Limited. The “synthespian” family is growing through the media from television to the Internet.
The British animation company Attitude Studios launched their first animated character, Eve Solal, in December. She is currently only seen on her Web site www.evesolal.com, but Attitude Studios is working on other Internet appearances, TV spots and film cameos. Creators have also been contacted about music videos, video games and other interactive media, according to www.cnn.com.
Eve Solal is known for her emotional and physical reactions to verbal communication and her realistic movements. She is given a biography: She was born May 3, 1978, is a waitress in a Paris bar and is an aspiring actress/entertainer with friends, a cell phone and her own apartment.
Ananova, a computer generated news anchor created by British company PA New Media, was released, April, 2000. At www.ananova.com, viewers can read up-to-date, personalized news or have it reported to them by Ananova. This character was created using sketches, wire frames and digital imaging – a slightly different method from the process used to create Eve Solal and Aki Ross. Her voice inflections and emotional reaction to different news styles have gone through several overhauls to make her as personal and appealing as possible, according to www.ananova.com. From her green hair to her accentuated lips and eyes, Ananova is catching attention from online viewers everywhere.
“People either love it or hate it – and we’ve had plenty of e-mails from people of both camps,” according to the site. Ananova is currently only reporting British news, but will soon expand to deliver personalized news from around the world.
According to the Web site, technology is being developed that will allow Ananova to visually deliver news to your cell phone or specialized players.
“We could see offering people the ability to get their news from someone else. The idea that you can personalize your own newscasters is attractive,” said Mark Hird, director of PA New Media.
Digital actors are carving out a niche of their own in the entertainment world, but they are also making real actors nervous with the possibility of “acting” in non-animated films.
“I am very troubled by it. But it’s coming down. It’s going to happen. And I’m not sure what actors can do about it,” said Tom Hanksin the Deseret News.
Hanks does not want to see roles that are carefully chosen and practiced for, given to computer animation.
“Film-making is always going to be a collaborative art. But we are getting to the point where the director will have even greater control over the look and feel of the film,” said director Ron Howard in the same article.
Professor Colin Johnson, head of the Utah State University theater arts department, feels computer animation has been in the movie industry in various guises such as Forest Gump and Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, but because film is so commercial-driven and “the appetite for entertainment is voracious … [computer animation] is becoming such a lucrative, driving force in the industry.”
Johnson said the use of digital actors is attractive right now because it is a novelty, but will not pose a threat to real actors unless it becomes more cost-effective.
Even if it will not put real actors out of a job, in his opinion, Johnson said he is still nervous about over-use of this medium because “it will result in a generation of people who do not enjoy film as a real art form.”