--- Why Realistic Virtual Characters? ---

[3Dguy]

Are Digital Characters with Expressions that Have Sincerity, Intensity, and Subtlety Possible?... and Why Should You Care?

Realistic Digitally Created Movie (also confusingly called 3D or CG) appeared on the scene a few years back with the release of Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within but since then, have been ignored like the proverbial 800-pound gorilla in the room. Digital Movies are a momentous development in the art of cinema that is practically going unnoticed. Yes, there is a buzz amongst the people who work in the field, but the general public is pretty much unaware of their existence and totally confused about the nature of the medium.

This is much more than a technical curiosity; it is the birth of a totally new medium.
It's not animation.
It's not conventional cinema.
It's not just slick special effects or weird monsters.
It is a whole new ball game!!!

My take on this
Coming from conventional movies, I have spent the last few years exploring the fantastic possibilities of this new mode of expression. I found the experience to be nothing less than total freedom. The progress in motion pictures, through its century of existence, was about one thing: controlling what the spectator sees and hears, and using that control to better communicate what the authors want to express. From Griffith, Gance, and Eisenstein, through Welles and Kurosawa, to Spielberg, Lucas, Scott, Jackson, and Cameron, artists and technicians have contributed advances to the control of film's various aspects: staging, camera work, editing, makeup and costume, sets, special effects, and sound. These were giant steps in the right direction, but now, there is a new kid on the block: Realistic Digitally Created Movies.

With Digital Movies, you control absolutely everything... and can do absolutely anything. You actually reconstruct reality from your own imagination.

For a director, this is terrifying, and unbelievably exciting. Only a few brave souls have tried their hands at this so far. For their courage, Sakaguchi and Zemekis deserve our unmitigated admiration, and so do their producers.

But more directors and producers need to get into the game. More films need to be made and more commercial successes achieved for the public to really take notice of this new medium.

We've only started to exploit the infinite possibilities of Digital Movies.
Yes, it has brought the dinosaurs back to life.
Yes, it has created dream worlds and weird creatures.
Yes, it has realized slick and impossible special effects.

But we are only scratching the surface.
We need great scripts. It goes without saying!
We need original design and concepts.
But more importantly, we need better, more complex, more subtle, and more compelling virtual characters. When we learn to create real human beings, the medium will explode.


My goal in making a demo
I created a short demo (prototype) called Kyra, aiming to prove that indeed digital characters with expressions that have sincerity, intensity, and subtlety are possible. The aim, for my first crack at this digital world, was to create a realistic character with emotions. I tried not to cheat and elected to create a young woman (because young women are more difficult than males or older people: less wrinkles to hide the faults), to design her as normal girl (no heavy makeup or incredibly long legs), to put her in an everyday situation (again, more difficult than fantasy situations because we have more references), to shoot her in close-up and fully lit (no cheating in the dark), and to write a script that makes her go through a gamut of emotions in a short amount of time (not just a walk-on but a real performance) . This was not gratuitous bravado. I was trying to see how far we could go in creating a believable human being.

What I learned
Making this short demo has afforded me the opportunity to go through the complete process of a major production (special effects excluded). Indeed, it is a very demanding medium. I took many wrong turns, some due to my fledgling knowledge of the medium, and some forced on me by limited resources. But I learned an awful lot. I had the chance to study the current working methods (the very efficient and some that could still be improved). I learned the importance of a well thought out pipeline (the order in which thing should be done) and defined in my mind what tools each artist and technician needs to do the best possible job: clear directives, appropriate visual documentation, efficient software, and enough computing power.

And I now also know how important good groundwork is; little things like validating your main characters thoroughly before putting them into production.

The technology debate
If there is one thing that is evident to me, it is that quality will not come from better technology alone. What technology can give us are better tools. Mainly we need more immediate feedback in modeling, texturing, lighting, and animating... and, one day, hopefully, a better, simpler, less obtrusive, more precise mocap.

But the best technology in the world will not create more realistic human beings, more sincere emotions, more expressive movements, or more drama and intensity. Only skilled technicians and talented artists will do that.

Modeling and texture
If we forget scanning movie stars, and accept the premise that it is more creative to design your own characters, there will be many advantages. The most important of which is that you can choose the way your character looks. In movies, appearances matter. How many actors with mediocre talent have made a career on their looks alone: from pretty girls to tough guys. It is a great asset in your arsenal to have your character looks fit the script's requirements and then have the opportunity to cast a talented actor for the part, regardless of his/her physical appearance.

The business of creating human faces is a fascinating one. Faces have a myriad of subtle and interesting variations. An infinite number of choices have to be made: variations in proportions, degrees of symmetry, expressive wrinkles, skin blemishes, etc. Creative choices and subtle departures from the boring Ken and Barbie look-alikes will give digital humans their personality, their drama, and their charm.

And now that Imax and other High Definition medium are coming on line, spectators will be more demanding and expect characters to look real rather than plastered, fuzzy, or heavily filtered.

Rigging (blendshapes, bones, clusters, etc.)
Before there is animation, there is rigging. It is the heart of expression, the way you infuse life, personality, and soul into a character. A character without a good rigging will be an actor without talent. A good rigging will create the all-important charm of your character, be it a beautiful girl, a rugged hero, or a despicable villain. You should devote all your attention, creativity, and care to make each muscle twitch reveal your character's personality.

Actors or animation?
Well, this one was clear to me from the start... If you are looking for hilarious caricatures, go for animation. But if you are aiming at realistic characters with depth, only talented, expressive, and creative actors will do the job. They will inject life and feelings into your characters in a way no animators will ever do.

What a talented actor brings to the performance is sincerity, timing, emphasis, modulations, natural hesitations, creativity, invention, and soul. To be able to internalize thoughts and emotions and let them express themselves naturally, all the while controlling their form, is a complex psychological tour de force that cannot be dissected or reproduced. It's all talent. And, by the way, in acting for mocap or facial expression in Digital Movies, being pretty or a hunk, or having rippling muscles is unfortunately totally useless, only talent works.

An other important factor is that, when a performance is applied to a character that has a different morphology than your actor, an interesting and complex "translation" has to be achieved. You must preserve the quality of the performance but adapt it to the character's personality. Interesting challenge, and no mean feat!

If I sound passionate about all this, it's because I am. I really believe that Realistic Digitally Created Movies will become a legitimate art form, and an important part of the entertainment industry.

This was my first stab at this. I believe it is a step in an interesting direction, and I would very much like to pursue this work. We are now looking for a backer/producer/investor that believes, like we do, in the extraordinary potential of "digital movies" to realize a commercial venture: short film, advertisement, or movie (have scripts, will travel). It should be a work that would afford un the opportunity to use fully this great new medium, tell a story that would connect with the spectator, and break the walls of indifference and incomprehension that surround digital movies.

Well, I guess it is time for me to put my money where my mouth is. Go to sentientpixels.com, take a few minutes, and have a look at Kyra... and let me know what you think.



Jean Lafleur
sentientpixels.com
jeanlafleur@videotron.ca
Canada 514-848-081