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IN RESPONSE TO: PAUL DEBEVEC ANIMATES A PHOTO REAL DIGITAL FACE & ED ULBRICH'S HOW BENJAMIN BUTTON GOT HIS FACE

In terms of design and industry, these two talks, in the same vein, introduce a new way of computer animating. The revolutionary form of digitizing a photo-real face has been seen in films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and in this TED talk, Paul Debevec and Ed Ulbrich demonstrate how it was done.

Paul Debevec explains the process of capturing these images. The process begins in a setting called Light Stage 5, a netted, dome-like structure where the subject stands under 156 white LED bulbs. This setting photographs surfaces at all angles and allows different lighting patterns to be seen, getting every angle and texture of the face from every angle and line possible. The light stage photographs at about five frames per second and can get the coarse and fine textures of the skin through polarizing cameras. The different types of images gathered, based completely on the shine of one's skin, are unique to this camera. They allow for incredibly minute detail (including pores, wrinkles and hair,) as opposed to the pristine skin of characters in Pixar's Toy Story or even more recently, Up!

These photographs enable designers to create the most realistic, computer generated face seen on cameras in approximately 3 seconds at a time.

Ed Ulbrich takes things further and explains exactly how Light Stage 5 and other technologies were used in making The Curious Case of Benjamin Button a reality. Their task was significant, holding up an entire hour of a movie with a completely computer generated, photo-real character.

What does this mean for marketing and design?

Ed Ulbrich states it best when talking about Paul Ekman in the early 70's and his Facial Action Coding System. It creates infinite possibilities in terms of making a digital actor. The time required to photograph is minimal and once digital catalogs are formed, the possibilities of creation for this new, digital character are infinite.

When it comes to marketing and design, this solution could, in coming years, prove to be highly economic, controllable, and again, once digital catalogs are formed, efficient. Ulbrich states that after the digital capture of Brad Pitt's face, he had thousands of facial expressions, everything that Pitt's face was capable of doing that possibly even Pitt didn't know about, at his disposal. In a design context, this capability is groundbreaking.

Potentially gone are the days of fifty takes to get a talking head in a commercial to get a facial expression or tic of a character correct. Production costs could go down, studio rental time could be cut in half. For short advertisements that are placed in such venues like the Superbowl, if one were to have a catalog of digital faces and their expressions, like the pictures on iStockphoto, Corbis or other websites of that kind- pay for actors would be minimal to none. Costs overall would go down, from production to placing. Of course, given the innovative nature of the technology, it incurs a significant amount of at startup.

If this practice were to become convention and commonplace? Commercial actors could be entirely replaced, saving parent companies and production studios large amounts of money and time.