Wow!
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080820/BLOG01/80820016/&imw=Y
New facial animation techniques make fake look real
BY MIKE WENDLAND • FREE PRESS TECHNOLOGY COLUMNIST • August 20, 2008
You need to look at the video accompanying this post. It's an animation using a new 3D technology that renders an image so real you will think you're looking at a real person. If I was one of those highly paid TV anchorpeople or a commercial actor, I would be very worried.
Remember, the "Emily" you see in this demo is not real.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLiX5d3rC6o"]YouTube - Meet "Emily" - Image Metrics Tech Demo[/ame]http://a.tribalfusion.com/h.click/a...5EZb0ord6tf/http://www.classmates.com?s=74174
The demo comes from a company called Image Metrics, a Hollywood outfit that has done animation and special effects for some of the Harry Potter films and popular video games like Grand Theft Auto.
The possibilities of this new animation technique are amazing. For starters, animated characters could replace TV commercial pitchpeople. They'll do it in one take, with no lunch breaks, makeup people or makeup needs.
These amped up animations will certainly be dropped more and more into video games, making them so lifelike you'll swear you're watching a movie instead of an animated game. Same with TV shows. It will be hard to know which character is real, which is an animation.
I remember a decade or so reading a mystery novel about a high-priced, high-maintenance TV anchor who the network killed off, replacing him with an animated character so real that no one knew it wasn't a human.
Yikes.
Technically, that seems now to be at least possible. Look what Image Metrics says about television and commercial use of their techniques: "Image Metrics continues to work with both television and commercial customers to ensure that their creative visions are translated perfectly into compelling facial animation performances. Cost-effective and efficient, the Image Metrics performance-driven animation process is designed to ensure that only the highest quality content is produced, even when turn-around times are short."
How real does this look? "The proprietary process captures greater facial detail, including eye and lip movements, as well as subtle textures, wrinkles and movements ...The easy capture and approval process enables directors to maintain more artistic control from capture to final animation."
The company also sees this taking hold in content development for Web sites, with talking, blinking, smiling Emily-like avatars so lifelike we'll swear they are real breathing actors and anchors.
And in movies, real actors and actresses can have animations of themselves used instead of body doubles or stunt men and women. Think of the ultimate possibilities. Long dead actors could, technically, be resurrected via animation. Elvis and Clark Gable could star together in a new film.
Then there's the world of politics. Think of the implications there.
The Image Metrics Web site at http://www.image-metrics.com has lots more examples.
It's truly a Brave New World.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080820/BLOG01/80820016/&imw=Y
New facial animation techniques make fake look real
BY MIKE WENDLAND • FREE PRESS TECHNOLOGY COLUMNIST • August 20, 2008
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You need to look at the video accompanying this post. It's an animation using a new 3D technology that renders an image so real you will think you're looking at a real person. If I was one of those highly paid TV anchorpeople or a commercial actor, I would be very worried.
Remember, the "Emily" you see in this demo is not real.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLiX5d3rC6o"]YouTube - Meet "Emily" - Image Metrics Tech Demo[/ame]http://a.tribalfusion.com/h.click/a...5EZb0ord6tf/http://www.classmates.com?s=74174
The demo comes from a company called Image Metrics, a Hollywood outfit that has done animation and special effects for some of the Harry Potter films and popular video games like Grand Theft Auto.
The possibilities of this new animation technique are amazing. For starters, animated characters could replace TV commercial pitchpeople. They'll do it in one take, with no lunch breaks, makeup people or makeup needs.
These amped up animations will certainly be dropped more and more into video games, making them so lifelike you'll swear you're watching a movie instead of an animated game. Same with TV shows. It will be hard to know which character is real, which is an animation.
I remember a decade or so reading a mystery novel about a high-priced, high-maintenance TV anchor who the network killed off, replacing him with an animated character so real that no one knew it wasn't a human.
Yikes.
Technically, that seems now to be at least possible. Look what Image Metrics says about television and commercial use of their techniques: "Image Metrics continues to work with both television and commercial customers to ensure that their creative visions are translated perfectly into compelling facial animation performances. Cost-effective and efficient, the Image Metrics performance-driven animation process is designed to ensure that only the highest quality content is produced, even when turn-around times are short."
How real does this look? "The proprietary process captures greater facial detail, including eye and lip movements, as well as subtle textures, wrinkles and movements ...The easy capture and approval process enables directors to maintain more artistic control from capture to final animation."
The company also sees this taking hold in content development for Web sites, with talking, blinking, smiling Emily-like avatars so lifelike we'll swear they are real breathing actors and anchors.
And in movies, real actors and actresses can have animations of themselves used instead of body doubles or stunt men and women. Think of the ultimate possibilities. Long dead actors could, technically, be resurrected via animation. Elvis and Clark Gable could star together in a new film.
Then there's the world of politics. Think of the implications there.
The Image Metrics Web site at http://www.image-metrics.com has lots more examples.
It's truly a Brave New World.