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Movies Graphics Technology

Digital Face-Swapping Getting Cheaper 62

Posted by Soulskill from the video-evidence-soon-to-be-inadmissible dept.
Zothecula writes "If you've seen the film The Social Network, then you might have wondered about the identical Winklevoss twins — were a real-life pair of twins cast for the roles, or was it a bit of Hollywood magic? Well, it was magic. Although two different actors' bodies were used, their faces both belonged to actor Armie Hammer. After the movie was shot, the body double's face was digitally replaced with Armie's. While such computer-enabled face-swapping trickery has so far been available only to feature film-makers with deep pockets, that could be about to change, thanks to research being conducted at Harvard University (PDF)."
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Digital Face-Swapping Getting Cheaper More

Digital Face-Swapping Getting Cheaper

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  • Excellent (Score:5, Funny)

    by masternerdguy ( 2468142 ) on Monday December 05, 2011 @04:36PM (#38272148)
    I invoke rule 34

  • Well, this is a game changer! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It changes everything! Is that enough hyperbole yet? Why, we'll colonize the universe in no time now!

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday December 05, 2011 @04:40PM (#38272220)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I'm waiting for inexpensive applications for home PCs where you can easily change your appearance, sort of like digital plastic surgery...

      Um, "digital plastic surgery"? That would be called "Photoshop". Just ask any supermodel.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Yeah, but that takes a human artist to manipulate the image. Imagine taking a face, entering a set of modifications, and then having the software do it for you.

          Yeah, now that would be cool. Be one hell of an anti-drug ad to show people their simulated face of meth.

        • This is going to totally change online dating... Not in a good way.

  • Just makes me think of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxbQ_ea-AlI [youtube.com]

  • Well, I can see where this is headed. Once augmented reality becomes commonplace, and everyone is wearing glasses / contacts / implants that enhance and augment vision with information and metadata, people will be able to pay a (probably hefty) sum to the providers, and have their perceived appearance digitally enhanced. Removing wrinkles, coloring hair, shaving off a few pounds, etc.

    • That is what I call the negative future, where we become self absorbed and rot planet side and die off without ever leaving the solar system.

    • Well, I can see where this is headed.

      >headed

      Har har, I see what you did there.

    • Well, I can see where this is headed. Once augmented reality becomes commonplace, and everyone is wearing glasses / contacts / implants that enhance and augment vision with information and metadata, people will be able to pay a (probably hefty) sum to the providers, and have their perceived appearance digitally enhanced. Removing wrinkles, coloring hair, shaving off a few pounds, etc.

      Er, you can see where this is "headed"? How about where we are today?

      Oddly enough, you just described a haunting similarity to many online role-playing games, which players are already paying a "hefty sum to the providers" in order to play their "digitally enhanced" versions of themselves online each month.

      And if they're not online pretending, they're watching reality shows, which is yet another shining example of augmented reality...

  • 1942's "Pride of the Yankees" did it better (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05, 2011 @05:15PM (#38272742)

    That's not nearly as creative as 1942's classic "Pride of the Yankees." Gary Cooper, who played Lou Gehrig, was right handed. Gehrig, of course, was lefty. But to have Cooper bat from the left side as a righty would be clearly obvious because it would look unnatural. Instead, he batted righty with his uniform number 3 sewed backwards on his jersey. He then hit the ball and ran to third base instead of first. Then, the studio just flopped the film. Now that's CREATIVE! vs. today's digital magic.

  • I just watched the Doctor Who 2009 Christmas special called The End of Time [wikipedia.org] last night. There were probably at least 50 actors/actresses who all had their head replaced by that of The Master. Even Barack Obama (a semi-prominent character in this episode) had his head replaced by that of The Master.

    If only the BBC team had had this technology available, those characters could have actually turned their heads, instead of staring directly at the camera during these scenes. Oh well, it is this cheesieness th

  • Real Twins? (Score:4, Funny)

    by bobcat7677 ( 561727 ) on Monday December 05, 2011 @05:23PM (#38272878) Homepage
    Why not use real twins? Seems like it would be cheaper and easier to apply some SNL makeup magic to a set of real twins to make them look the part instead of doing a bunch of digital post processing.

    • Why? Because the number of twins that are (both) also professional actors and are the right age/build/look is a frighteningly small set. A decade ago they would have just used camera trickery and filmed everything twice to double the one actor. Now, shooting everything once and swapping the face saves them lots of money, if only because filming time is crazy expensive.

    • Now try to find hot twins who will have sex with each other....

  • "Hey guys, guess who made out with Angelina Jolie last night!"

  • I didn't. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    then you might have wondered about the identical Winklevoss twins

    I did not.

  • I'd like to take his face ........ off!

  • What *I* wanna know is how they managed to make Danny De-Vito and Arnold Schwarzenegger look so much alike in that movie "Twins" ??? The resemblance was so real it was spooky!

  • With this technique we could get all new episodes of Gilligan's Island and Hogan's Heroes. And we could put the original Darrin into all the Dick Sargent episodes of Bewitched. Imagine the possibilities!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hitmark ( 640295 )

      Was there not a commercial or two made a few years back that had John Wayne in them?

      I am still waiting for Hollywood to pull a agent Smith on all the actors of a movie, or even to archive their digital likeness for future use...

  • Black Swan is a good example... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Low budget ($13 million) movie that included over 300 VFX shots. Portman and Kunis had real ballerinas as body doubles to dance most of the difficult stuff. Their faces were digitally transferred via VFX processes.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n71sjmd-bM
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drS0XgRdlQc

  • This would have saved 11 year old Lindsay Lohan a lot of work. However current Lindsay Lohan would probably just use it to buy crack.
  • Anonymous is gonna LOVE this!

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