Check out these Brad Pitt images:
Synthetic Brad Pitt
Image by jurvetson
For the first hour of the Benjamin Button movie, Brad Pitt does not appear in the flesh. His aged face is entirely a computer animation.
Here, Ed Ulbrich of Digital Domain is showing how Brad’s facial gestures trigger the animation of the old Brad head.
The video of Ed’s talk just went online, and is full of visual examples of the process of creating a digital human.
“We also had to create an articulating tongue that allowed him to enunciate his words… We had one person devoted to the tongue for 9 months.
He was very popular.”
Below, I’ll post the face maquette that was scanned in for old Brad.
After the talk, when asked if the studio could now have Brad say or do anything, Ed insisted that it required the real Brad to guide the facial gesticulations for them to look authentic, but I’m betting that’s what they had to say to put the actor at ease… and I bet they have not tested the system with a good Brad Pitt impersonator driving the animation… If we see Brad starring in 30 movies next year, then we’ll know.
Brad Pitt @ Benjamin Button
Image by SpreePiX – Berlin
Hollywoodstar Brad Pitt hat am Montag, den 19.01.2008 in Berlin die Europapremiere seines neuen Films besucht. Hunderte Fans jubelten dem Schauspieler zu, als er am Abend vor dem Kino am Potsdamer Platz in Begleitung seiner Lebensgefährtin Angelina Jolie auf dem roten Teppich Autogramme gab.
© 2009 by SpreePix Media-
IMG_8282- Brad Pitt
jurvetson
ideastoday
I suspect you’re right. Had Brad been run over by a cement truck halfway through production, we’d have seen just how good the technology is.
ArtsySF © ~ Marjie
Very interesting!
Doug_Dirac_Delta
Interesting stuff… to the right of the uncanny valley?
We also had to create an articulating tongue that allowed him to annunciate his words…
Sorry, but I believe the proper word is enunciate.
jurvetson
tongue-crash! Rebooted mouth.