Could CGI one day replace models or actors.

[RJDiogenes]

CGI will never fully replace actors, because there will always be some unique talent out there that comes out of nowhere with something new to offer. However, I've thought for a long time that it will be very cool when we will someday be able to see a brand-new movie starring Humphrey Bogart or Fay Wray or other great talents of the past. Or, say, new episodes of the original Star Trek that are indistinguishable from the originals. Of course, a lot of the possibilities would be dependent on the writing talent available and the ability of the audience to want or accept such things. It would probably be a rather niche market, unless the novelty turns it into a fad.

 

[Sector 7]

Next step: AI/CGI porn. You know it will happen.

For the record, AI = SkyNet and we all know how badly that turned out.

 

[JarodRussell]

CGI will never fully replace actors, because there will always be some unique talent out there that comes out of nowhere with something new to offer. However, I've thought for a long time that it will be very cool when we will someday be able to see a brand-new movie starring Humphrey Bogart or Fay Wray or other great talents of the past. Or, say, new episodes of the original Star Trek that are indistinguishable from the originals. Of course, a lot of the possibilities would be dependent on the writing talent available and the ability of the audience to want or accept such things. It would probably be a rather niche market, unless the novelty turns it into a fad.

But it won't be the original talent of Humphrey Bogart, so why bother at all?

 

[mos6507]

But it won't be the original talent of Humphrey Bogart, so why bother at all?

Here was an attempt to resurrect Bruce Lee. I'd say, given the limitations of the TV commercial format, it was successful. It was also probably bloody expensive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPyoiOTdHio

Technology is going to increasingly blur the line between what's a real and a virtual actor.

 

[JarodRussell]

And that's also not the real Bruce Lee. Even if it was another martial artist with his face operated to look like Bruce Lee, it would still just be an imitation. So why bother?

 

[Gaith]

Technology is going to increasingly blur the line between what's a real and a virtual actor.

In the case of nonhuman characters (Gollum, the Na'vi, etc.), that blurring's already here. But making CG human characters will always be a gimmick, because if a face is famous enough to know the performance isn't real, the audience will be aware of that fact, and if the face isn't famous enough for that level of audience awareness, the juice won't be worth the squeeze in the first place.

 

[FPAlpha]

But it won't be the original talent of Humphrey Bogart, so why bother at all?

Here was an attempt to resurrect Bruce Lee. I'd say, given the limitations of the TV commercial format, it was successful. It was also probably bloody expensive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPyoiOTdHio

Technology is going to increasingly blur the line between what's a real and a virtual actor.

And this is also a good showcase why the technology is way off to be believable.

The clip itself shows this very well.. it has the real Bruce Lee in one of his interviews and he is real, his expression and the way his skin moves when he talks.

Then there's CGI Bruce.. the texture of his skin is not natural, the eyes appear "dead" and the overall expression of the face is very bland.

It's the problem with all modern CGI.. it is awesome in producing realistic fur with millions of individually rendered hair strands or when producing CGI vehicles but a live face and its unique, very subtle expressions that make it "alive" still elludes the SFX possibilities.

Once they are able to make a realistic face of someone people don't know is already dead and show it to someone and fool them into believing it's a real person then we are onto something. That's not possible today and may take a decade or two (or even more) to accomplish and i don't believe it's an issue with computing power.