August 24, 2020 – The first full-length animated movie with realistic-looking humans, “Tickle” opens tonight. It is an intriguing thriller about a woman who gets framed by her husband, but the most intriguing is to see if you can spot the difference between real actors and these created by computers.Computer animation has developed a lot since the first full-length movie “Toy Story” in 1995, and the first attempt of a full-length movie with humans “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” in 2001. The challenge and difficulties to create humans in animation lies mainly in the eye of the beholder, since we are so trained to see human behavior, movements, facial expressions etc.
Many people state that this is the future of the movie industry, since you don’t have to pay actors US$ 25 million to appear in a movie, you can just license his face as a trademark if you like and let the computers do the rest. However, there is still some time left before this type of movies will save money for the studios; the budget for “Tickle” was about US$ 190 million.
They have also taken the opportunity it gives to re-create actors that are no longer active. A lot of effort was made to give a supporting role to the like of James Dean, a successful movie star that was tragically killed in a car accident 65 years ago. However, all resemblance between the tall homosexual clerk with the high-pitched voice saying “I’ll be back” and the former action hero of the 1990s Arnold Schwarzenegger, is purely coincidental according to the director.
So, to the big question, can you see that the movie is only made by computers with no real actors? Well, go and see for yourself tonight!
Argument: Since the speed for processing information is constantly increasing and the cost decreasing, it will be possible to make more advanced animated movies. Software development is also a key to develop more realistic-looking humans. Movie studios that are not depending on established actors will be able to act more flexible.
Questions: If you can’t tell the difference between an animated and real footage, is there a risk that news can be fabricated, like a president giving a speech with a different meaning than the original? Will people be interested in movies that look like it has real actors, but are only computer generated? How will quantum computing affect the rendering of animated movies when it becomes available later on?
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