Could Motion Capture Make Actors Obsolete?

No. Actors breath, have a brain and have way too many subtleties for computers to pick up. Even then, it would always be expensive to motion capture. You'd need to higher animators to clean it up and despite all this work you're probably heading into the uncanny valley. Its just cheaper to get actors.

Jess: With all the in-fighting over climbing star salaries etc. you never know. What if the animation were the cheaper option? plus this software would allow you to "re-animate" dead actors - shudder.

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Could this be the reason for Shatner and Nimoy's murky involvement in "Star Trek XI?" Maybe Abrams is using this technology to allow them play young Kirk and Spock themselves.

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The thing is, when you watch a real person, you can look at their eyes and see emotion, thoughts, feelings... even if they're not moving at all. Eyes can be completely still and yet show changing emotions. Motion-capture can't replicate that.

Having said that, I wouldn't mind seeing Johnny Depp and Buster Keaton working together. :)

Jess:What's crazy is that this software can re-create so much more than the kind of motion capture we are used to.

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Writers are already obsolete. Why shouldn't actors be?

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This is exactly the subject of "The Darfsteller," a short story by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

In this story, it's more animatronics than CG. But regardless of the medium, humans are humans, and you can't replace that.

-Pie

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I'm not too keen on John Wayne and Angelina Jolie, but a "Last Tango in Paris"-era Marlon Brando and Angelina? I'm getting chills thinking about it.

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Actors won't be obsolete. We'll still need someone to capture the motion of, someone to give voice to that character... everything that we traditionally put *around* the actor will change.

Instead of a lens-based film or digital camera, an array of motion, light and sound recording equipment will capture a scene in three dimensions and convert it into 3D data that can be manipulated like a video game would, with the ability to add and replace at will if the user chooses to.

Subsequently, some Actors will record thousands upon thousands of gestures, sounds and phrases which will be compiled into a 'library' with which to create and AI avatar od that actor that can be inserted into a specific character in a narrative. Don't like who plays Othello in the latest movie you downloaded? You can replace him with that avatar of Brad Pitt you got off iTunes for $19.99. Don't like that couch in the corner of the set? Replace it with Paris Hilton in an inflatable castle (she bounces to the soundtrack of the movie, which will also be replacable).

It's not that films will all be completely interactive, or that we will not be able to enjoy a fully passive viewing experience as we do no... it's just that there will be a lot of customisation involved if we want it, and for that things like motion capture will be necessary. Actors, celebrities, people who have that indefinable quality that can be recorded but not quite duplicated or, more importantly, created wholly by a computer working independently, will be necessary.... at least until it becomes cheaper for the computer to do so than for us to just hire some hot girl and point a camera at her.

The actor isn't a dying species, but in the short term, the movie extra certainly is (the all-digital crowd shot proves that).


Jess:good point but I'm just still horrified at the thought of Brad Pitt in Othello.

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I just hate that commercial for the GAP (I'm pretty sure) with Audrey Hepburn slinking around in her slim jeans.

She was demure, funny, delicate and I just can't imagine the real Audrey Hepburn dancing and "shaking her groove thing." (that dates me, doesn't it? :)

It's okay for a novelty, I guess, and I wouldn't want to downplay the accomplishment. I just think they should use their heads when they do this stuff.

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Two STARS from the Golden Age of Hollywood who NEVER made a movie together were the GRRRREAT
British Actors RONALD COLMAN and ROBERT DONAT.

I'd like to see a "virtual" movie with these two magnificent stars together, along with MODERN stars like
LIAM NEESON and, say, HELEN MIRREN. You know,
create something CLASSY!

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In response to Janie; that really is Audrey Hepburn dancing in those GAP ads. The background is changed, but the dance is from "Funny Face". The scene is a somewhat of a satire of the beatnik scene circa 1957. She was a trained ballet dancer, and I think she shakes her groove thing just fine. But I agree, I don't like commercializing dead stars in things like that. I'm sure it's things they themselves would never have done. It's just the relatives and heirs bleeding one last drop out of their images.

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Gasp, I just had a thought. John Travolta and Christopher Reeve did it and so have other modern actors. What did they do? They played homosexual roles. Oh no! That means that with this new technology John Wayne Could end up "Dead In the Backend of an Old Hudson!" >>>Wicked Grin

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I'm sorry, but let the dead stay dead. These people were great. Let us remember THAT. Remember those creepy commercials with John Wayne selling beer a few years ago? YUCK. Instead of 'digging up' dead actors, start training young ones. Most of the young actors out there now have little talent, and rely on special effects to make them stars..."coughtomcruise."

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Well the screen actors guild won't be happy, they'll be seeking dues from the deceased..Sounds sort of Frankenfarce to me..

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i thought the polar express was GREAT & i'm not even a kid.

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I never got to finish your blog...once I read that you credited Gertrude Stein with a Dorothy Parker's quote. "There's no there, there." was a statement she made after spending time in Hollywood writing for the studios. With the world at your disposal, at the very least get your sources correct. It destroys your credibility...kinda like being Bill O'Rielly....

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Well, ya know, this is not an entirely new concept -- when animated cartoons came along in the 20s or 30s, already real people were being replaced with technology. Whether or not ressurecting John Wayne from the dead is going to work or not depends upon the WRITING -- Anything will work if it's clever and entertaining. For example, in TV, I'll watch old Honeymooners reruns anytime in crackling black and white over a high definition color sitcom that puts on a phony laughtrack everytime someone opens a door. A modern film with the Three Stooges or W.C.Fields as the main character could work very well IF THE WRITERS STAY FAITHFUL TO THE GENIUS OF THE ORIGINAL CHARACTER. The creepy film of Fred Astaire dancing with a vacuum cleaner -- yes, he might have done that in an original film if there was a good story line that led up to that. And he would have added some clever twists to it. But the producers of that film clip were only assuming that Fred would sell himself out for a stupid commercial, and that wasn't Fred. So I guess my point is, technology doesn't make a lot of difference if the writing isn't there, and there seems to be a severe shortage of good writers.

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There will always be a place for living actors in undoctored films. However, if this technology is perfected, well, there will be an audience for this as well. As for Audrey Hepburn-in my book she is the greatest ever. I like the Gap ads just because Audrey is being introduced to a whole new generation.

Would love to see Audrey and Russell Crowe...or maybe Audrey and Denzel...even Audrey and Johnny Depp would be intriguing...but if Audrey ever stars in a "new film" I just hope they don't put her with Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise or Orlando Bloom.

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Let's bring back the great real actor's like Tyrone Power,William Holden.Cary Grant.Julia Roberts would work well with all of them.

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I've been using adobe and photo shop to do this for years Check it out

http://www.geocities.com/imokproductions/index.html

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Madonna and her children as a foil for W.C. Fields. He would skewer her as the classless whore she is in every area of her life while verbally cuffing the tykes upside their heads. Lets throw in Edgar Kennedy as her husband doing a slow burn as she pisses away his hard earned bucks on a loopy venture in ambergris.

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