Computer Generated Images (CGI) and digital special effects artists are pretty magical. You can create new worlds, go back into the past, bring back the dead or even create people. In a world where we have the magic of AVATAR, the majestic film POLAR EXPRESS, and Hologram Tupac, you can create people to be used in the world of film, games and even live performance. Virtual actors and CGI are taking the entertainment world by storm.
But will digital actors take the jobs of live actors? At least today, the answer is…it depends. Looking at what digital actors have been most successful, it seems like the circumstances are most favorable when the digital character isn’t fully human, but has human characteristics. Gollum from LORD OF THE RINGS, the apes from the recent PLANET OF THE APES, and the “Navi” from AVATAR are great examples. All of these characters were created by motion capture. This is good because it keeps the actors working, and gives the producers of films creative leeway to create larger than life characters. Andy Serkis has made a great living portraying both Gollum from LORD OF THE RINGS and one of the apes from PLANET OF THE APES. He is an actor whose performances are some of the most memorable in the past decade, but yet he is unrecognizable in public. His performances were captured and used as only a skeletal basis of what these characters will become.
The flip-side to this is that sometimes digital actors lose the human element and can be a little bit creepy. People watch films to escape and engulf themselves in another world. This is hard to do when the character looks inhuman, but there is just something off about them. The movements are too stiff, or the eyes look a little too vacant. No matter what it is, you can sense it and it makes audiences uncomfortable. Imagine if the loveable Sloth from the film, THE GOONIES was CGI. Would that make the character more or less loveable? There is something to be said about the essence of human that just has not been captured yet in CGI. It is no coincidence that thus far, the most successful and popular virtual characters are the ones who aren’t fully human.
Today the people who compete the most with digital actors are extras and people looking to break into the business. Look at a film like LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. They had hundreds and hundreds of extras. Now what is more cost efficient, gathering hundreds of extras on horseback and pay to create costumes for them all, or is it easier and more flexible to digitally create it in post? With fewer extras, it makes it harder for actors to be seen and get jobs. We have all seen clips where your favorite actor was in the background of some older film. As the shift moves to GCI characters, those opportunities to appear in the background will start to dry up.
Stunt performers are also one of the hardest hit when it comes to lost jobs to digital actors. Why put a person in harm’s way when you can just digitally create the stunt that you are attempting? With GCI and digital effects, you can create a more fantastic stunt and alter any pixel of it and the best part is, everyone is safe in doing so. The end result is a more fantastic, elaborate product because you can do so much more when you don’t have to be concerned about an actor’s safety.
Commercial actors are also competing with digital actors, but not in the same way. In commercial work, you want
star-power and people of influence using your product. So if you were selling a product, would you want the run-of-the-mill commercial where four college kids are drinking your soft drink while going to the beach? Or would you want a commercial where you have John Lennon or someone historic who is instantly recognizable using your product? Resurrecting the dead is another way that digital actors are competing real actors for jobs.
There are mediums where the job market is opening up for actors though. The gaming industry has had a huge amount of openings for actors over the past few years. The actors who do gaming have a unique skill set as the performance is usually captured with a green screen and hundreds of motion tracking dots stuck to you. You also don’t have the benefit of interacting with another performer as those jobs are usually shot with one actor all alone. New England is a hot bed of gaming companies, and they are all going to need actors at some point.
The tipping point of where digital actors will start to truly alter the job market is when it becomes more affordable to create someone than to hire someone. Why pay an actor an hourly rate when you can just create one virtually. Your virtual actor cannot get sick, you can change their features instantly, you avoid scheduling conflicts, they don’t get temperamental and they won’t pester the producer and director with script feedback.
A bulk of the “virtual” acting work is actually done via motion capture with real actors, so the reality is the work for real actors isn’t going away for the time being. The time to worry is when it becomes more affordable for you to make a virtual actor as opposed to paying someone. So for the time being, it looks like you may be sharing the screen with a virtual actor.
Steve McGrath is a Broadcast Sales Engineer for HB Communications. He has worked with NBC, ABC, CBS, NESN, NECN, Fox, ESPN, Pentagon, USDA, Powderhouse and many others. You can reach him at Steve.McGrath@HBCommunications.com.