From "rejuvenation" to "resurrection", how does cg technology make the impossible possible?
Through the following four articles, Ben Xiang reviewed the application and development of cg technology in the film field: the first cg character in the history of film to the first full cg movie, from Spielberg to Jobs to explore how long the history of motion capture technology evolution: from Gollum to Shrek, how cg created Hollywood's most profitable movie "The Lord of the Rings", after the move capture technology is getting better and better, why cg characters have to reduce the fidelity of Jackson, Finch and Cameron, how to cleverly avoid the "Weird Valley" effect
From the first cg character "Flat Knight" with only five shots, to the three god-level directors who cleverly avoided the "Weird Valley", the creators who insisted on cg technology have tirelessly explored for two or three decades.
Although "Weird Valley" is still a forbidden area in front of the creators, in order to make the visual effect of the film more shocking and impactful, in order to bring different visual enjoyment to the audience, the warriors obsessed with cg technology will still find ways to cross the forbidden area, create miracles, make the impossible possible, and let cg do everything.
In 2016, the lola vfx special effects company that produced the face of the young Benjamin old man in "The Wonders of Benjamin Barton" truly realized the "rejuvenation" technique in "Captain America 3".
At the beginning of the film "American Team 3", Tony reshaped his farewell to his father in order to make up for the regrets of his youth. As a result, the young Tony Stark appears in the film.
Many viewers thought that the actor who played "Little Tony" was a young actor. Actually, non-also! The "Little Tony" in "American Team 3" is still played by Robert Downey Jr. himself.
Lola Vfx company is through the cg technology, the real realization of the "rejuvenation" technique. They transformed 50-year-old actor Robert Downey Jr. into what he looked like in his 20s, bringing the young Tony Stark to life in the film.
Released in March 2019, "Captain Marvel", lola vfx company "re-enacted the same trick", so that two familiar Marvel characters - S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury and super agent Phil Coulson, also achieved "rejuvenation" in the film. This is the first time that Marvel Studios has made two characters younger in the entire film, rather than in one clip.
Samuel Jackson, who plays Nick Fury, is 70 years old, and Clark Greg, who plays Phil Coulson, is also nearing the age of a man. The special effects team used CG technology to capture motion and expressions, and referred to the actors' youthful appearance, successfully enabling the two actors to achieve "age reduction".
It is reported that the appearance of the young version of the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. refers to the youthful appearance of Samuel Jackson in the action movie "Ace to Ace" in 1998. This article is the original release of "Elephant Watching Drama". What he sees elsewhere will be a theft. Please report it!
In order to achieve the "age reduction" of the actor, before shooting, the entire upper body of the actor, from the head to the neck to the chest, is coated with a green inverted mold, and the eyes, mouth and ears must be covered, leaving only two nostrils for breathing. For the sake of art, the actors have really suffered a lot.
With the advancement of cg technology, the characters in the film can change from young to old, or from old to young. For cross-age performances, there is no longer a need for external makeup (external makeup allows young actors to perform older roles, which is not a big problem. But letting an elderly actor play a younger role is embarrassingly disjointed with a sense of discord on the screen.)
Compared with the "rejuvenation" technique, the "resurrection of the dead" under the cg technology is more shocking and more magical.
2015's "Fast and Furious 7" is to let actor Paul Walker achieve "resurrection" through cg technology. Completing this challenge was Peter Jackson's Weta Digital.
Although the film's "head-changing technique" is not as complex as "The Wonders of Benjamin Button", the requirements for the realism of the characters are much higher.
Because The Wonders of Benjamin Button creates a character that doesn't exist in reality, Fast & Furious 7 is about "resurrecting" an established character.
Cody Walker as a "face replacement"
In order to create a miracle, Weta Digital first selected four stuntmen to shoot the action scenes. Then Let Paul's two brothers, Cody Walker and Caleb Walker, participate in the close-up shot.
By capturing the expressions of Paul's two brothers, Paul Walker's cg face was made. Finally, the head with Paul Walker's cg face will be replaced by the head of the action double.
In order to achieve seamless docking and matching output, the production team combined as many cg render channels as possible with the field shooting material.
Cody (left) contrasts with Paul (right).
Judging from the final film, the audience can hardly distinguish which shot is really Paul Walker and which shot is post-synthesized.
It is precisely because of the development and advancement of CG technology that the special effects team successfully realized the rebirth of actor Paul Walker through "head changing", and his every move during his life was almost perfectly reproduced.
Films that use facial expression capture technology as the backbone of "resurrection" and 2017's Star Wars Story: Rogue One. The film's "resurrection" of actor Peter Cushing is arguably the most complex and expensive CG character remodeling ever made.
The next major task of this special effects production is the big brother Industrial Light and Magic in the film special effects. Industrial Light and Magic adopted the same idea as Lola vfx's production of "The Wonders of Benjamin Button", and established a facial expression library by extracting facial features from the actor's past image data for making 3D models.
But in the film, Governor Tarkin's character is heavier, and most of them are facial close-ups. Therefore, the production requirements for the performance and 3D modeling of the stuntmen are higher and more detailed. To this end, the crew specially invited Guy Henry, a British actor who is very close to Peter Cushing, as a stand-in.
Guy Henry repeatedly observed Governor Tarkin's character performance, and finally completely imitated Peter Cushing's expression and performance style in front of the blue screen. When he puts on the motion capture system, his expressions and movements can be directly matched to the 3D models in the 3D production software.
At the end of Rogue One, the same screen resurrection technique was used to "resurrect" the young Princess Leia from the 1977 star wars version of forty years ago. This article is the original release of "Elephant Watching Drama". What he sees elsewhere will be a theft. Please report it!
From Paul Walker, to Governor Tarkin, to Princess Leia, the "resurrection" of these important role actors has brought countless fans and friends to tears.
For films like Fast and Furious and Star Wars, it could last years or even decades. During this period, the series of films accumulated countless iron fans. In the minds of iron fans, the psychological impact of the change of an important role in the film is very large.
At such a time, let the actor who has passed away "resurrect" and reappear on the screen, which is for many iron fans, the kind of spiritual shock and emotional comfort has far exceeded the need for plot promotion.
From "rejuvenation" to "resurrection", the development and improvement of cg technology has made many impossibilities possible. The visual effects of the film are becoming more and more shocking and more and more impactful. The "holy grail" of film special effects should belong to these warriors who tirelessly explore CG technology. This article is the original release of "Elephant Watching Drama". What he sees elsewhere will be a theft. Please report it! 【Elephant watching the play】Let's see the first and only *.* inside and outside the play!