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Subscribe to RSSTo be 30 years younger is the wish of many an aging soul. For actor Jeff Bridges, movie magic makes the dream a reality in "Tron: Legacy," the sequel to the 1982 sci-fi blockbuster, in which the actor plays his younger self in a digital universe with his long-lost son.
The feat is the result of new technology that allowed filmmakers to record the actor's facial movements and superimpose them onto a digital model of Bridges' younger self.
"He's the first actor in cinematic history to play opposite a younger version of himself," the movie's visual-effects supervisor, Eric Barba, said in a Daily Mail profile of the 60-year-old actor.
In the original movie, Bridges played video game hacker Kevin Flynn, who got sucked into a computer and was forced into playing gladiatorial games. In the $300 million sequel, which opens Dec. 17, Flynn's son enters the "Tron" virtual universe -- where he encounters a youthful version of his dad captured in the digital body of Clu 2, one of his creations. The Daily Mail explains the tech behind Clu2:
"Bridges' face was scanned in three dimensions and a 3D model produced, marked with 52 points on the cheeks, eyes, forehead and mouth –- everything that moves when we express an emotion. This digital version of the actor's face was then 'de-aged,' based on footage of the young Bridges from 1984's 'Against All Odds.'"
Disney
Computer technology allows actor Jeff Bridges, shown here, to appear nearly 30 years younger than himself in the new movie Tron: Legacy, opening December 17.
While acting as Clu 2, Bridges had his own face marked with dots in the same 52 places and wore a tiny head-mounted camera that tracked their motion. The facial expressions of the real Bridges were then mapped onto the digital Bridges.
Ohio State University computer scientist Rick Parent predicted the ability of movie technology to turn back time on an actor in a 2002 msnbc.com interview -- which was sparked by Andy Serkis' virtual performance as Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" movies.
The new "Tron" movie, he told me, shows that the technological goal of replacing real actors with virtual actors has been reached ... "to a degree."
"With a movie like 'Tron,' the whole premise of that lends itself to computer graphics because it's inside a computer, and therefore the audience has some tolerance for not exactly a real person," he said. But there's a difference between that kind of movie and using a virtual or synthetic replacement "for an actor in a real live scene," he added.
That type of technology still requires advances in motion control, as well as the ability to portray realistic effects such as light reflecting off skin and hair. Faster computers and bigger studio budgets are bringing the technology closer and closer, Parent said, "but there's still a ways to go."
If digital technology continues on its current course, Bridges said the day may come when he could appear in movies without actually acting. "I could still make films," he told the Daily Mail. "I can say, 'I'll lease you my image.'"
Maybe. But Parent said Bridges would still need to do the motion capture work -– the recording of facial and body movements for mapping onto his synthetic likeness. For better or worse, the technology is nowhere near completely replacing real live actors.
"With removing the actor completely, now you've got a whole different problem of building those body motions, those facial motions, the speech -– which is a whole other problem. Building that essentially from scratch … that's a whole other level of complexity, and we are not there at all," Parent said.
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
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This anti-aging technology is impressive but it's not new. It's already been used to morph Justin Bieber into a giant sperm.
I tend to agree with ohmy and disagree with parent. Clearly if u can read you will Notice that it is only a matter of time before bieber is simulated on a machine and the real life singer can move in with his sugar daddy in brazil:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/artificial-intelligence/moneta-a-mind-made-from-memristors
evidence
http://m.mtv.com/newsroomdetail.rbml;jsessionid=LRMkKlZbpQY28gFaw9SmEQ**?id=http%3A%2F%2Fnewsroom.mtv.com%2F%3Fp%3D41010&cid=300
see unlike global warming advocates and deniers, I actually back my stuff with evidence.
global warming is not a hoax and it is not in fact happening. You must reason with me you see. I am very reasonable. see methane Is happening andthe earth is not actually warming. Humans have nothing to do with it yet at the same Time they do but carbon tax is stupid and gay eithe way (this is a scientific fact I might add, and gay a technical term for data merger). In fact, conservation would ver likely prove more effective in saving our natural habitats and grandchildren, and nanotechnology and efficiency or things like tea boon picket fence and his fans are probably better in achieving sustainable cuts in atmospheric brain farts than a carbon tax that would hurt the economy and create the predictable political upheaval of nullification hence achieving absolutely nothing in the first place...and last place.
Now if I'll excuse me I have to drink some tea with mrs frogsir and my favorite doll this morning. They often say mean things to me if I miss an appointment.
Using the word "gay" to indicate "stupid" is hateful. Otherwise, your post is quite funny.
Hank E: You're wrong. Using the word "gay" to mean homosexual is what is hateful. Gay's meaning was stolen and then perverted. It originally meant happy and jovial, etc. Now it refers to one man putting his peepee into another man's bum. And that is what is stupid.
s-2730132, while you were talking about how awesome you are, you failed basic grammar on a grand scale, you provided an interesting article that you elevated to the status of prediction of the future of technology, and you provided a link that does not work at all. Just using MTV as a source should cost you some credibility (and maturity) points.
Oh yes I almost forgot. We need to build a giant dome made of Light yet reflective material over Siberia to cool it to absolute zero. You see my theory is that the.......aliens...are heating the planet. They want to get rid of us by heating the planet, making us believe we cause this on ourselves, so hat then we engage in carbon taxes that ruin our economy and eventually lead to our extinction. Ladi Ladi da they then cool it back down all the whole going at the speed of light, and 5 minutes for the MDMA s 2 centuries for us and voilà, they have a brand new planet to come to without all the annoyance of the special effects and lightning bolts in war of the worlds.
How do I think they are heating the planet? They are magicall causing the uppe atmosphere to collapse with telekinetic powers and this heats the planet..but it own enough us see it's just a catalyst..the real heating agent is in the permafrost you see..methane.
Now it doesn't matte even if you think like most misguided Americans, that global warming is caused by co2 and humans, what you must know is that we can reverse this evil alien orcapiralist plot to destroy the world. By cooling places like siberia to absolute zero, well not absolute zero thy is perhaps impractical but colder you know, we can actually make up for the warming by releasing less average methane yearly! Voilà, now if you beleive global warming is cause by co2 u will be happy to know that no carbon tax is needed because the equivalent of natural methane will be replaced by our co2. Hence by getting rid of methane release we can allow ourselves co2 and no tax is required! The. It will take about 20 years to reach energy nirvana with cold fusion solar battery mumbojumbo ubujubu nanotechnology and we are in a good place.
But Obvcourse for those most astute among you, you wil realize that really by denying methane release in average amounts you are really denying the aliens and reptilians their telekinetic powers and will ceaze their obnoxious attempts to warm out planet. But I wouldnt expect you to know such privileged knowledge, after all, only the few can really see and accept the truth. just look at Ahmadinejad he is still in denial that Allah gave him a big middle finger with Wikipeaks..Allah doesn't like him so he is going to go cry in a corner while Israel says 'see world I told you the Arab states thought like we do" all the while playing two different chess games and the Saudi prince getting annoyed and sighing at israel "ohhhhj when is my gay lover can a stop being such an annoying little bitch" ..which the. Proceeds into a hot steamy session between Netanyahu and abdullah camel fcker. btw this article is really dumb, "virtual actor" ?man this is not 1995...you guys shouldnt be surprised the trillionth movie with over hyped cgi comes out. Arnt those usually the bad movies?
Oh damn...Meredith is looking at me rather meanly right now
Gay anime and ghost in the shell.
Lap dogs: berlusconi to Putin. Blonde nurse to quaddaffi.
Gulp. whose the bitch now planet. Yea that's right, pray Santa clause doesn't crash his sleigh into oil tankers with privAte jets, as well as entangling itself quantum mechanically to other jets to smash themselves into power plants all the while an engineered virus by a biotech nerd in Asia is released into he general or some deranged islamicpatchtech signatory to control a bed that stings the president with a deadly poison with miniaturized nanotechnology. Let us not even mention renting jet blue and smuggling bombs on the planes could cost under a million with degenerate Saudi help while a nucleard detonation in yellowstone and in Siberia would heat the planet or that north kora should get Negro. Bombed. by the south and that civilization is is very fragile and anything..Even a f solar storm can it go pew pew pew...with progressives yey we are f morons but now we can seize powe and conservatives are like noo you are not ....noo
FArt
Oh damn Meredith just stood up with a knife right now. oh damn Meredith dont rub me so.
And the media is all like noooo we are losing control of our narrative yay we didn't have in the first place and now eventually due to something like google tv content based television may thrive and advertising may negate pointless crap....noo....Wwitv....noooooooo.....
Noooooooooooooo.
farts hears the echoes off the walls....
I just got stabbed by m right now.
Bad m, bad. Bad m. oh man I'm feeling faint headed. maybe I should take some alka seltzer sounds cool. It has a catchy name..I am..oh man I'm sleepy . What's that red liquid? Oh man who cares I'm tired. I'm going to bed.
Mark zuckerberg thins he is doing evil and getting away with something and so is David gregory..but they are not.
Noooooooooooo
George zoros Glenn beck.
Nooooo
HahahHaha. What a wonderfully stupid joke. Tell be more. Make my day space cowboy.
Alan, is there any chance of going back to mediated comments? (points to s-2730132 above)
Perhaps mitchell perhaps, but there seems to be one very important provblem mitchell,, given I am Alan though in disguise, I may be disinclined to censor my own drunk comments under an altering alias.
Burp
I did supply a cool story....mind made of Memristors?
Meow...don't censor me ;(
Yes, I hope we're getting back on track. I do have the power of the garbage-can icon, so I'm able to delete these off-topic comments if need be. Don't want to do that unless the thread is getting out of control. For now, I think we're OK ... but s-2730132, you've been warned. ;-)
:)
Hey Alan, if you have the time, there is an excellent article about the upcoming revolutions in artificial intelligence here:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/artificial-intelligence/moneta-a-mind-made-from-memristors
The new York times covered a story on the types of robots being used by the military. This article seems far more interesting. Maybe readers would like it, I don't know, you be the judge
WAY COOL!!!!!!! I saw the original and loved it, I'll see this for sure and I don't go to very many movies. !! :)
Tron was one of my favorites at the end of my mind expanding era, and still today with the grandchildren. depending on the rating we'll be at the theater or buy it as soon as it comes out (where I can edit it). Good on you Jeff Bridges and company.
Tron expanded your mind? Make your grandkids see ghost in the shell. Good for them. I think this tron is going to just be a lot of animation. No philosophy. Also, buy your grand kids half life 2and portal. way better sci fi plots than war of the worlds or tron. Now that's just a suggestion,. You can do whatever you want in the end Obvcourse. actually tron wasnt bad. But I wouldn't count my chickens on this tron, seems too hyped.
When I saw the original Tron I was in high school and we snuck in the back door of the theater and we were actually in the middle of having a mind expanding experience (wink)... I plan on taking my 16 year old son the day it opens as he laughs about his Old Man seeing the original while "communing" with Dr. Timothy Leary... Ah, to be young again.....
I did supply a cool story...the mind made of Memristors?
meow.. don't censor me ;(
Boy, we've sure come a long way in graphics since Max Headroom, which in fact was not really computer-generated except for the stripey background. TRON was a ground breaker - a little thin on plot, but visually amazing for its time. Looking forward to seeing it.
I loved the original Tron movie and will be interested in seeing how realistic Tron 2 will be. The concept of digitizing an actor's face (and body), then using the computerized image only was the basis of a movie in 1981 called "Looker" starring Albert Finney, Susan Dey, James Coburn and Leigh Taylor-Young. "Looker" was a truly science fiction movie; however, that movie is one example of science fiction becoming science fact... it just took nearly 30 years to develop (and being fine-tuned). Don't laugh off the science behind the new Tron movie. In the years to come, we may look back to 2010 and say, "Tron 2 was science fiction, but look at our science developments now."
Why didnt they just use him without the technology? He already looks like a younger Bridges.
.
Looking forward to this movie.I'm wondering who is the villain? Maybe Bill Gates dressed as a Borg drone?
I think Tron IS the villian this time.
It looks like the villian is "Clu", the program that Jeff Bridges created at the beginning of the original 'Tron' in order to go after the MCP prior to getting sucked into the computer himself.
Soon, all actors will be digital. John Wayne and Leslie Neilsen will be in movies again. All the studios will need is a digitized face. Movie actors will be out of work or move to the broadway stages until holographics take that away from them.
someone still has to do voice overs for the digital characters so that's what actors will do.
for now.....
We also need a real actor to model the movements of the digital character. This may actually open up the acting scene to people who have 'a face made for radio'. Who cares what you look like if we can superimpose another physique and face over yours. Skill may actually become the deciding factor in hiring actors again! :gasp:
Well, for now, anyway.
Hey Alan, if you have the time, there is an excellent article about the upcoming revolutions in artificial intelligence here:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/artificial-intelligence/moneta-a-mind-made-from-memristors
The new York times covered a story on the types of robots being used by the military. This article seems far more interesting. Maybe readers would like it, I don't know, you be the judge.
Hdjhdjdhdhdhdhdhfhdhf
can we stay relavent to the topic? or do some of you just vent on news sites??? since your kids are jamming twitter?
Ok Alan, enough is enough, would you please delete the jokester above and ban him/her for the rest of the day.
Thanks
If Bridges would rather do 'virtual acting' maybe the producers of his films could save money and give him a virtual paycheck! ; )
Sebastian: You're out of your element. Ever seen "The Big Lebowski" ? Fabulous flick.
Uh Scimmininy? I was joking... ; )
Yes, I've seen Big Lebowski. It's funny.
No, I WAS JOKING.
Wasn't the big blue naked guy in "Watchmen" a virtual actor?
Many of you are wrong about still needing actors to do a voice over. Check out Hatsume Miku - completely synthetic singing just based on samples.
http://www.liquida.com/video/64cc4893/world-is-mine-live-in-hd-1080p-1920-x-1080/