Sunday, October 15, 2006
Cyberface: New Technology That Captures the Soul
New York Times: "THERE’S nothing particularly remarkable about the near-empty offices of Image Metrics in downtown Santa Monica, loft-style cubicles with a dartboard at the end of the hallway. A few polite British executives tiptoe about, quietly demonstrating the company’s new technology."
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8 comments:
"We can have one human being drive another human character"
On the one hand, this could create exposure for more actors; on the other hand, there is something inherently disturbing that this company could just simply recreate someone else.
-serrano
I think it´s quite stupid, and pretentious, to say that a machine can recreate the emotions of a person (or even his/her soul).
Maybe a computer is able to repeat the gestures or the expressions, but an emotion is much more than smiling. You can smile or laugh and be crying in the inside...
I really hope no machine will ever be able to capture the human soul.
Laura Prieto García
While I feel that this technology is definetely not ready for the market ( the faces still aren't quite right) I think that if the cost of render time drops it will open up the world of acting to good actors who might not have the looks of hollywood stars. It will also create a demand for good voice actors. I think that our theatrically trained actors would be great for this type of work, and it would certainly beat waiting tables.
-Branigan
If I were an actor I wouldn't want a computer to easily mirror my soul.
While this amazing technology, I think it has also taken a step too far.
-Julianna Slaten
As for "capturing the soul", they are really only mimicking. And the faces are only as good as the 3d-mesh...it is never "real".
I think we're also going see lots of actors/celebs coming out with legal documents saying "no, actually, you may not steal my soul"...
It is an interesting new technology, but i hope that it is not used to replace actors. In many ways, there was news that when the reality shows came out a lot of actors were upset about the loss of time slots for them. The article mentioned that The Notebook could have James Garner playign himself as a young man, but that seems to take away from some of the vitality that a different actor brings. Becuase as we age, we can oftne become totally different people.
-Harriet
I think that this shows two things. One - that the caliber of product that Hollywood is putting out is not up to the expectations of viewers, and two - that we are willing to sacrifice humanity for machines. The first part of the article discussed how we can recreate John Wayne or Marilyn Monroe. It seems to me that this is because there must be something lacking in the current output of hollywood to make people WANT to recreate those stars. But I think that the further problem is that if we rely on technology instead of molding better human abilities, and better, more creative human-based products, we are simply stifling the possibilities of humanity. Humans have been entertaining each other for tens of thousands of years. Are we so boring we no longer want to look at each other?
I find it rather amusing that someone would put the time and effort into developing such a software. At what point do you say, "why not just hire actors and film them--like a MOVIE!" While it is true that it saves the programmers and computer animation artists, it means that you have to pay the actors to perform anyways.
At the same time, I understand that an animated image presents a more universal face, that can speak to a much broader audience.
Sometimes, it seems like a rather large waste of time and money.
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