Was YouTube Shooter Nasim Aghdan a CGI Creation?
First, the company showcased an attractive female fairy – scantily clad of course – created by an earlier technology. Her face looked almost real, but was still kind of creepy (personally it was the first time I noticed, apparently I was looking at other things). Next up, they showed a bald man’s head floating in space, and I suddenly saw the difference: The guy wasn’t anywhere near as interesting to watch! OK, he was more real looking if you got around the whole “floating head” thing. Finally, they showcased the tiger in the Life of Pi, which was almost indistinguishable from the real thing. The point: Soon, we’ll be able to render in virtual people and animals that are indistinguishable from real ones.
Obviously we can create very realistic things using render farms today. About 80 percent of the tiger scenes in Life of Pi were fake, and I’ll bet you can’t tell which ones (except by figuring out that in certain scenes, a real tiger would have made Pi cat food).
We’re now talking about rendering this amount of detail in real time, not several days, weeks, or months. That means a number of new applications for computer-generate characters – not just movies – are now just around the corner. Let’s take a look at what some of this tech could make possible.
It is easy to imagine that you could create a video persona that would never age, never need makeup, and never need to dress up. It would always look perfectly turned out and near flawless. I say “near flawless,” because if we were truly flawless, it wouldn’t look real. With this tech, you could feel comfortable doing a video call any time during the day or night and always look like you were dressed for work and in your office, even though you might be in your pajamas, hung over, or talking from your bed.
You can look like you’re laid up in the hospital when you’re actually in Las Vegas hanging out near the pool. But it doesn’t have to just be you making the changes. Don’t like the looks or sex of the person you are talking to? Swap them out for your favorite actor, favorite fantasy figure, or favorite animal, each looking believable and realistic.
You can look like you’re laid up in the hospital when you’re actually in Las Vegas hanging out near the pool. But it doesn’t have to just be you making the changes. Don’t like the looks or sex of the person you are talking to? Swap them out for your favorite actor, favorite fantasy figure, or favorite animal, each looking believable and realistic.
Just think what you could do to your boss’s image, or the image of your ex-spouse. I’m thinking we’ll all need to learn not to share what you’re seeing, and to avoid laughing at inappropriate times.
The future of CGI is here.
