Polar Opposites

Ed Hooks:
THE POLAR EXPRESS has reignited the debate about whether motion-captured photoreal humans can ever transplant actual live actors on screen. Tom Hanks portrayed live characters through the magic of body mo-cap and facial performance-capture. The results are impressive, and the film set a new standard for this technology. However, the characters are still a few yards short of the goal, and the problem lies in their eyes: you can mo-cap bodies and facial expression, but you can't mo-cap eyes, so the characters projected a 'videogame quality'. The eyes just aren't right - you couldn't stop noticing them in the movie.

Part of the theatrical transaction for stage and live-action film is that an audience member willingly suspends their disbelief in the non-reality of what is before them, in order to experience empathy with the characters. Photoreal animation creates a dilemma, because it aspires to mimic reality. As soon as a mo-capped human appears, the audience expectation is that the entire character will be realistic; if any part isn't believable, it ruins the illusion. Game players cut videogame animators a lot of slack when it comes to mo-capped humans and strange eyes; feature film animators don't enjoy that luxury.

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