Digital Domain ages David Beckham for malaria campaign
Digital Domain recently revealed how they've aged David Beckham's face, adding decades to him for the new short Malaria must die so millions of people can live, produced by RSA Films Amsterdam. Using a combination of traditional VFX techniques and its proprietary “Charlatan” face swapping technology, Digital Domain was able to take Beckham into the deep future without a 3D scan.
In short, an older Beckham is giving a speech the day malaria is over, sending a message of hope from years onwards. As he speaks, the years pass, leaving today's Beckham to make this final plea: A malaria-free future is possible in our lives, but only if we keep fighting.
To accomplish this transformation, Digital Domain received performance clips from both Beckham and an old replacement delivering the speech. These reference materials were then fed into Charlatan, a technology that uses machine learning and video footage to produce realistic digidoubles. Since Charlatan is non-invasive, the system could be fully trained through main photography, allowing Beckham to film his scenes without intense data acquisition.
To give the performers a good start, Charlatan has cleverly combined performances from current Beckham and an old replacement to automatically project what an older Beckham would look like while delivering the same speech. Through this process, key age characteristics such as skin movement and specific wrinkles have been woven into similarity while retaining all of Beckham's unique attributes. This cut down on months of time sculpting the process and helped the team have a natural-looking nose, laugh lines and other hard-to-animate features that were almost done before traditional techniques came into play.
“As an artist, what you are really looking for is control. Details matter when it comes to faces, especially when your subject is known around the world, ”said Dan Bartolucci, visual effects supervisor at Digital Domain. “It became clear that combining the attributes of an older face would give our team the nuances they needed. To facilitate this, we turned to Digital Domain's in-house research and development team, Digital Humans Group, which has a long history of creating tools that push the boundaries of facial realism. They have succeeded once again by inventing a process that is the perfect blend of technology and artistry. "
With a high resolution base to work with, the artists began to apply a human touch to the face, defining key parts of the aging process with the help of traditional techniques, such as matte painting and compositing. Because the signs of aging are highly subjective, artists needed full control over their hair, skin and beard to create a believable transformation. Unlike most methods, however, the team didn't have to create a single piece of 3D geometry to do it, helping them build a final asset in less than eight weeks.
“We all knew this was an ambitious project. Identifying the inimitable details for David Beckham's older look was crucial, ”said Ross Plummer, CEO of Ridley Scott Creative Group. “What Digital Domain has created is first class and captivating. We needed that "wow" factor to overcome the noise. "
This film is the next phase in the Malaria Must Die campaign, which is working to promote global awareness around the iconic mission to end the world's oldest and deadliest disease. The campaign has already received worldwide attention and has reached over two billion people with previous Beckham campaigns, using video synthesis technology to speak nine languages and a glass box surrounded by thousands of mosquitoes.
Beckham, a founding member of the Malaria No More UK Leadership Council, said: “I have worked with Malaria No More UK for over a decade and their campaigns always use great innovation and creativity to draw attention to the problem of this disease. It was really interesting to work with the teams at Digital Domain and Ridley Scott Creative Group, using technology in a meaningful way to highlight and raise awareness for such an important cause. "
The global coalition campaign calls for everyone to share the film far and wide on social media in an effort to persuade leaders to remain committed to providing a safer, malaria-free world.
“In visual effects, we often succeed in creating stunning and memorable images, but we rarely succeed in applying our craft to such a noteworthy cause,” said John Fragomeni, VFX global president of Digital Domain. "We feel honored to have been able to contribute to this project and to help advance a story that needs to be told."
"This year's message needed to get through more than ever, as we face the prospect of losing so much hard-earned progress in the fight against malaria," said Kate Wills, Global Communications and Partnerships, Malaria No More UK. “The Malaria Must Die campaign has a tradition of blending world-leading technology with iconic storytelling. By bringing together the creative talent of Ridley Scott Creative Group and Digital Domain, we hope to help save millions of lives and convey a message of hope, reminding the world of what we can achieve when we come together to fight disease. "
Learn more about the campaign at www.malarianomore.org.uk
Go to the source of the article on www.animationmagazine.net
