Is It Brad or Is It Fake?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123980973974821393.html

Breakthroughs in computer-generated characters open up all sorts of artistic possibilities. Just don't tell that to the actors.

This was a pretty neat article to come across in today's WSJ. The article discusses the progression of improvements made to computer generated characters for movies. Most recently, the most notable success of this is Brad Pitt in Benjamin Button. For most of the movie there is a computer generated version of the elderly Brad, not Brad himself. The article goes on to discuss some of the difficulties cg characters have come to face like the believability of these characters.

The eyes and mouth seem to be an area of difficulty as it is hard to exact the way skin moves in these areas, the lighting in the background being accurate for these characters, etc. This is just another example the incredible process technology has made in today's world. There is even mention of the possibility among perfecting this talent in diminishing the need for actual actors. I think that is a pretty crazy concept. Today, they mention that they use actors as a base for their computer generated characters to capture the accuracy, but what about in five or ten years?? Technology has really grown and this is definitely fascinating and good, but aren't there downsides to all of this?

Technologies progress, I feel, has really been threatening to some of the jobs in the world. You have factories developing special machines to do the work that took 20 people to complete. Or in grocery stores you see, increasingly, self-checkout counters. Now there is this future possibility of cg characters getting rid of the need for actual actors and actresses. I mean I guess what I said sounds a little extreme, but it is definitly not so farfetched that it isn't something we should think about. How much can computers and growing technology take over? Are they really a huge threat to some people's jobs. Sure they can be more efficient and cost-effective, but is that really worth putting people at risk of not really being needed?? I don't know..I obviously grew this into something a little larger than it is, but I think it is an interesting thing to think about and discuess and I am curious how other people feel about it.

In an earlier blog that I posted towards the beginning of this assignment, there was a YouTube video that I thought was really interesting and pertained to this very topic. It is interesting, but also a little scary to really think about. I will post the link again in case you did not see it the first time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8