"Paul Debevec Animates a Photo-real Digital Face"
While browsing on my class assignment page, I stumbled upon a video of a man named Paul Debevec who animated a photo-real digital face and I found it to be very intriguing. Paul demonstrates and explains how a computer generated face is created. After taking a series of photos all displaying faces in varies poses, a light stage is used. Here, polorizers gather the information of the reflection of the skin to show where the wrinkles, muscles, and other indentations are located. This information is sent to a company called Image Metrix. Image Metrix uses high resolution geometry to animate the images of the faces.
The product is a photo-real generated face that can be used for such things like video games and films. Paul Debevec says that this technology is important because it reveals how we humans communicate with each other through our facial expressions. Full body scans are digitally converted this way and are used in video games and films when multiple images of the same person in one picture or scene is necessary. This technology can eliminate the need for real-time actors in films and have a higher demand for media designers.
Will this form of technological advance soon replace more jobs of real life actors and actresses in the film industry? Several viewers chose to comment about the video on the site, and one user made an interesting argument. He claimed that since the human mind is so receptive and observative, the tiniest thing that can be wrong with a computer rendering will be noticeable to the human eye. He also quoted a report by "Uncanny Valley" a writing by Jamie York which says "For the animators of films and video games, creating a truly human looking and active character has long been the hold grail. But making characters close-to-real and yet not-real-enough leaves them in what's called the 'uncanny valley' where audiences find those characters unsettling, unnatural and zombie-like." This piece of information sparked a recent memory of mine about my mom who went to see the movie Avatar while it was out in the theatre. She enjoyed the movie however she said that it took her a while to adjust to the alien-like appearance of the Avatar characters because it looked so unnatural. that being one of the first movies of that sort that she has seen. I suppose we will have to stay tuned to see what this technology will eventually affect in the film industry.
Here is a link to this video:
A reference link to the "Uncanny Valley"
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