Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Digital Doug Project

Visual-effects company Digital Doman is working to create the long-dreamed-of virtual actor.



Called the "Digital Doug Project," it starts off by replicating the face and mannerisms of Doug Roble, Director of Software Engineering at Digital Domain.

The team begins by making extremely detailed scans of Mr. Roble, capturing the way the facial features wrinkle and pucker, and the way the blood flow changes with different expressions.

Digital Doug, courtesy Digital Domain
The method uses machine learning to process the data from an informal performance capture, made without all the special markers. The result is a virtual Doug that any actor could puppeteer.

It offers a hint of the powerful toolset that is emerging to assist movie makers and gave developers.



The ultimate output of this technology will be a whole cast of virtual actors, both human or non-human, which can be precisely controlled by any performing actor.

(Link to YouTube video)
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Meet Digital Doug: Digital Domain's Doug Roble On Motion Capture
The Near Future of Performance Capture
Unreal Engine podcast about Digital Doug
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2 comments:

  1. babangada rDecember 11, 2018 at 9:53 PM

    Hey jim
    Back in my acting days, back in the 1980's, I used to be on the National Board of what is now Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Tv and Radio Actors (aka SAG/AFTRA)..and i tried to warn them, then, that actors would be fully replaceable in the not very distant future...no one believed me. Ah well... such is progress and such impressive and interesting future it is. jada

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cat165December 12, 2018 at 2:16 PM

    Wait until AI generates entertainment for AI!
    Then perhaps we'll have an answer to the question,"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"!

    ReplyDelete

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