"TRON: Legacy" Joseph Kosinski's directorial debut, with a focus on CG, design, and new technology Part 1 *Note! Contains spoilers.

Challenge to de-aging

There were major problems in making this story come true. The previous work was made in 1982, so 26 years had already passed by the time the project started. It was impossible for Jeff Bridges, who was 59 years old at the time, to play Kevin, who was 35 years old at the time of his disappearance. This is because while it is possible to make someone look older to some extent with special makeup, it is difficult to make someone look younger. Moreover, it is necessary to have a scene where Kevin and the crew co-star on the same screen.

Around that time, David Fincher's `` The Curious Case of Benjamin Button '' (2008) was released. This work depicts the life of a man who was born with an 80-year-old body and becomes younger as he ages. Brad Pitt's head, created using CG, is combined with a substitute body that matches his age. ing. Disney paid attention to the technology of Digital Domain, which created this perfect CG.

In fact, the digital domain had a long history before arriving here. The first is the video attraction ``Artists' Journey: Funk Blast'' (00) at Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture . The simulation ride video was projected on 70mm film on a 36 x 9m dome screen, and R&B great James Brown (66 years old at the time) appeared in a rejuvenated form and performed an intense dance routine. Digital Domain commissioned special make-up artist Todd Masters to create a statue of JB around the age of 30, which was then scanned into CG data. The facial movements are captured by JB himself as he sings, and are combined with the young dancer's body.

"Artists' Journey: Funk Blast"

The next step was the popcorn commercial `` Orville Redenbacher '' (2007), which Fincher directed. The project involved using CG to revive the company's founder, Redenbacher, who passed away in 1995, and the technical success of this project led Fincher to realize the project for `` Benjamin Button .''

Incidentally, in `` Benjamin Button ,'' Brad Pitt's face was painted with fluorescent dye, triangulated with 28 cameras surrounding a 150-degree area, and recorded with thousands of point cloud data using Mova Countour's reality capture technology. However, with this system, the actor is seated in a chair and only the facial capture is performed on a separate day from the filming of the performance. Director Kosinski disliked this and decided to film Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009). ) will introduce a helmet cam, which was developed by the Actor.By attaching four small infrared cameras directly to the actor's head, it is possible to capture subtle facial expressions, including eye movements, at the same time as filming the performance. It was something.

Mova CountourReality Capture

However, unlike in `` Benjamin Button ,'' which depicts a fictional old man, Bridges' face, which is familiar to audiences, had to appear in a much larger format for a longer period of time. If it goes wrong, it could be nicknamed the ``uncanny valley.'' Therefore, 150,000 to 200,000 to 200,000 hairs are planted on the head, the same as humans, and the structure and movement of the eyes are based on anatomy, the wrinkles and elasticity of the skin, and the reflectance and translucency of the skin that accurately reproduces any lighting environment. , even the details inside the mouth were expressed with unprecedented precision. As a result, there were times when a single cut could take up 1 terabyte of space. In particular, the scene at the beginning of the movie where he is talking to 7-year-old Sam was so natural that many people probably didn't realize it was CG. Digital Domain used studios in Los Angeles and Vancouver, and 422 staff members worked together to complete 1,500 shots (the number of frames was doubled since it was a 3D work). As a result, TRON: Legacy pioneered de-aging techniques to rejuvenate actors.

"TRON: Legacy" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

Similar methods are being used by other companies as well. For example, in ` `The Terminator: Genisys '' (15), MPC reconstructed Arnold Schwarzenegger's face from a life mask made in 1984, and combined it with reality capture data to reconstruct the face from the time of the first movie. Revived his appearance. In Blade Runner 2049 (17), DNEG used CG to recreate Sean Young's face in 1982 based on his current skeletal data. For `` The Irishman '' (2019), ILM performed markerless facial captures of Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and others using triangulation using the main camera and two infrared cameras. In " Gemini Man " (2019), WETA Digital recreated a clone of Will Smith 30 years younger using CG and expressed it in 4K 3D video at 120 fps.

Meanwhile, Digital Domain applies this technology and embarks on a project to revive the deceased. For example, a virtual recreation of Tupac (Tupac Shakur), the American rapper who was murdered in 1996, was performed on stage at the Coachella Festival (2012) with Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and Pepper's Ghost Technology ( They co-starred in a hologram (not a hologram). Similar efforts have begun around the world, and several production companies have sprung up specializing in this business.

In the movie `` Fast and Furious: Sky Mission '' (15), WETA Digital virtually revived Paul Walker, who passed away without filming his scenes. Paul's two younger brothers (Cody and Caleb) served as his substitutes, and since their skin was similar to Paul's, they were measured using the Light Stage at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, and their skin reflectance was measured. We succeeded in reproducing it with high precision using microstructure data.

Also, in ` `Rogue One: A Star Wars Story '' (16), it was necessary to cast Peter Cushing, who passed away in 1994, in the role of Moff Tarkin, so Stuart Freeborn was cast in `` Top Secret '' (1984). ), ILM created a CG model from the life mask, which was then synthesized onto Guy Henry's body. Rogue One also stars 19-year-old Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, but ILM replaced Ingvild Deira's face with CG (not very well done). Young Fisher also appears in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), but here her daughter Billie Lourd stands in for her, with her face replaced by a CG Princess Leia.

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