ertex 2018 was an event that
covered many areas, from
workshops and seminars
to being the place to visit if
you wanted some guidance
on taking the next step in your career.
However, a theme emerged during the day
that has sparked some discussion, including
during our panel towards the end of the day,
and that was digital humans.
Many of the projects that we see, either
as part of the visual effects community or
simply as consumers watching TV or film,
are filled with characters, fantastical or
otherwise, and many of these are digitally
produced. If you are thinking about an orc
or a humanoid of some type, the discussion
tends to fall to how engaging that character
was, how well it was put together and
whether the performance was a believable
or entertaining one. If you start to introduce
human characters a whole new world of
ethics, rights and more comes into play.
That’s just for starters, because of course,
there is the issue of dealing with the likeness
of acting talent that may have not been able
to be on location, either through scheduling,
or due to the actor having passed away.
This latter scenario was one that the
panel, lead by Chris Nichols of Chaos Group
Labs, delved into in some depth, with
various differences of opinion which moved
things on to more questions.
One thing was agreed on and that is
the effect of the uncanny valley, which we
as artists can now climb out of, creating
believable renditions of humans without
the creep factor that is instilled in us from
birth when someone doesn’t look ‘right’.
Interestingly many of the panellists agreed
that Benjamin Button was and still is one of
the best examples of digital humans and that
the reason for this is quite simple, especially
when taken in context with another example
like Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy.
That is about reference. We all know,
through having seen his earlier work, what
a young Jeff Bridges looks like, down to the
way skin sits atop muscle and bone, but none
of us know how Brad Pitt would look or
behave as an old man.
Another example of this is Paul Walker,
who for much of Fast & Furious 7 is
portrayed by himself but for some is a digital
double, created using performances by his
brothers, mixed with his physical attributes.
This was believable because the references
were effective enough to allow the viewers
to engage with the story.
This moves the whole debate into the
area of ethics. Who owns the images and is
that the same as owning the performance?Rob Redman, co-host of Vertex, shares his thoughts on the emerging theme of the day
VerTex 2018: THe fuTure
Of dIGITAL HuMANs
Or the rights to the likeness? some actors
have specified in their will that their estate
owns the rights to their likeness, which
should prevent it from being created without
consent, but more issues arise. If an actor
is contracted for a project but passes away
before completion, does the contract allow
for their likeness to be used, and if so
for how long, and does that cover post-
production marketing and Pr? Can it be
used for interviews on a press tour?
This is treading water over unknown
depths and will most likely be decided
upon by lawyers rather than artists, but it’s
interesting to keep in mind. does the ability
to use art in this way justify the results?
Before you answer that imagine somebody
hacking a database of scanned celebrities
and using them with performance capture
and/or machine learning to spread a
message from an ostensibly trusted source.
Vertex is a celebration of our art however
and, although these thoughts are relevant
and indeed important to us, we should revel
in the incredible achievements we have
made and that, as artists, we can push even
further, telling moving stories or building
fantastic realms. The logistics and politics
of art are always there, but we have always
come together as a creative force and that is
the very essence of what drives Vertex.V
eveNt Spotlight
industry
Vertex 2018: The future of digital humansVertex 2019
Keep an eye on http://www.vertexconf.com
to stay up to date with announcements
for the next event, and join the mailing
list to have the latest news sent
straight to your inbox.