In a pavilion packed with the latest wonder tools in technology, a lifelike dolphin-which could come up to the edge of the its glass case, grin, splash about and blow bubbles at passersby-garnered its share of attention at the 27th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH) held last week in New Orleans (7/23-28). Created by Mountain View, Calif.-based Edge Innovations, the dolphin underscored how far the industry has come in substituting models and computer-generated imagery for the real thing.
But much talk centered on a higher plane of reality-creating "synthespians" or a credible digital simulation of a human being. While the industry is still several years away from fully reaching this CGI holy grail, the possibilities and implications were the buzz of the confab, which was attended by 26,000 professionals from 74 countries.
The closing panel discussion, entitled "James Brown: Putting a New Face on the Godfather of Soul," saw a team from Venice, Calif.-based effects/computer animation studio Digital Domain deliver an address to a packed auditorium on its experiences with Funk Blast, an 18-minute, 65mm film that’s showing at the Experience Music Project, a museum that opened June 30 in Seattle. For the project, the studio digitally recreated the face of the godfather of soul, James Brown, as he would have looked 30 years ago. The head was placed over that of a dancing body double, to re-create a performing phenomenon. (SHOOT, 6/30/00). Panelists included Digital Domain’s visual effects supervisor Andre Bustanoby, animation supervisor Mark David Brown, animation technical director Caleb Owens and CG supervisor Joshua Kolden. Joining them, among others, was Paul Debevec, executive producer of graphics research at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, Los Angeles, and moderator Jill Smolin, training director of bicoastal/international visual effects company Cinesite.
The discussion took on a greater weight in light of the actors’ strike against the advertising industry. But according to Kolden, the process is in its infancy. He estimated that it will be at least five years before the industry can fully and affordably re-create photo-realistic digital humans. Currently, re-creating an actual actor-rather than a generic human-requires the full cooperation of the performer who must endure painstaking hours of facial mapping and motion tracking and be on board for every stage of the approval process. "We captured James Brown using motion capture technology, examining the subtleties of movement and incorporated this with key framed traditional animation. He wasn’t really sure what we were doing until the end; at one stage he thought we were trying to clone him and during the motion capture session, he was sitting in a darkened room surrounded by infrared cameras. But he was amazingly patient," recalled Digital Domain’s Brown. "When it starts to happen on set in real time, it will become more integrated and become just another part of the set."
Brown continued, "The goal now is to make it faster, better and easier to do. In upcoming feature films, you will see interesting stuff. We are not interested in creating a human being for the sake of it; there needs to be a compelling reason for the artist to integrate it. In the future, you will start to see Robert DeNiro or another revered actor performing a character that looks nothing like them yet has the element of their art form in it … it will become another type of make-up."
While creating the human face is one of the biggest challenges, a project by Boston-based techology firm LifeF/X, "Young at Heart," part of SIGGRAPH’S Electronic Theatre, was also highlighted during the Digital Domain panel as breakthrough because it showed a convincingly realistic computer-generated human face in extreme close-up. The piece, which shows an old actress reminisce in her dressing room as she prepares for the stage, was created using LifeF/X’s facial modeling, animation, and performance-capture system, which simulates complex skin deformation, including fine wrinkling.
Carl Ludwig, VP/co-founder/ director of research and development at Harrison, N.Y.-based Blue Sky Studios, said he had not seen any quantum leaps at this year’s SIGGRAPH; it was more a continuation of the "revolutionary not evolutionary" trend noted last year. "What I do see is the constant improvement of computer technology, allowing things that up to now were not possible or economically feasible. That said, the show is tremendous, as it is every year, and is the benchmark in the enhancement in chip technology, which allows every single product to be faster, more effective and cheaper to bring to the marketplace, creating a trickle-down effect in allowing for cheaper, more accessible high quality content."
Commenting on advancements in simulating humans, Ludwig said that it was not about creating a human per se, but about pushing technology to its limits. "We are so used to looking at people’s facial expressions that if we can re-create a convincing human, then we can do anything."
SIGGRAPH continued to be a major recruitment center with many studios seeking staff and accepting artists’ reels at their booths. While Blue Sky had recently added 60 staff members in order to ramp up for an animated feature currently in production, the studio had held several key positions open until after SIGGRAPH. The feature, called Ice Age, is directed by Chris Wedge, who also helmed Bunny, the short film which was awarded Best of Show at last year’s SIGGRAPH and went on to win an Academy Award. While the studio tried to cherry pick the best talent from around the world, it was also experiencing frustrations with the restrictions to the visa process. "We are finding candidates, but the paper process means that they then take several months; we will try to lobby for more visas, probably through our parent company 20th Century Fox," added Blue Sky’s VP/CFO Brian Keane.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based PDI/ DreamWorks was on a "serious recruitment drive" during SIGGRAPH, according to company head, Aron Warner. The house planned to add up to 100 new staff for its features and commercials division. Interviews, for positions across the board, were being held daily and Warner said he hoped to wrap up many of the positions within a week of SIGGRAPH’s conclusion. But, while Warner noted there was a pretty good turnout of artists seeking jobs, it wasn’t the recruitment frenzy that occurred during last year’s SIGGRAPH, which by virtue of its Los Angeles venue drew some 80,000 people. Warner, who became head of PDI/DreamWorks earlier this year (SHOOT, 4/9/00), related that the studio would be doubling its commercials division, which was once the bread and butter of PDI, now celebrating its 20th anniversary at SIGGRAPH. "Over the past few months we have been seeking new opportunities in the commercials side of our business and have been having success with this. We’re back," said Warner.
