One of the most significant changes we’re seeing in Hollywood today is the increasing use of digital rejuvenation technology, which allows actors to play their characters at a younger age.
The characters we see on screen usually follow the laws of space and time. For example, when a director wants to show a scene from the childhood of the main character, he chooses a child actor who looks like an adult version of the character. But if an adult character needs to look like he was in his youth, the “de-aging” technology comes into effect.
Harrison Ford tried the rejuvenation technology on himself in the movie “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate”, but he is not the only Hollywood actor who received a digital makeover – Tom Hanks and Robin Wright will play younger in Robert Zemeckis’ new film “Here”.
Previously, only make-up artists were responsible for rejuvenating or aging actors, and the graininess of the film helped to hide make-up mistakes and the viewer could not distinguish fine details of the face. However, today’s high-definition video requires a modern make-up, and filmmakers are opting for digital.
Since the days of makeup and wigs, the actor’s rejuvenation process has come a long way. This is noticeable in the scene with Kurt Russell in the second part of “Guardians of the Galaxy” – the updated look of the actor was so convincing that the audience did not even realize that it was computer graphics. However, the “young” Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s film “The Irishman” on the contrary distracted the audience too much.
When we see rejuvenated actors in movies, it is the result of intensive CGI animation and visual effects. Actors are filmed with tiny marks on their faces that help editors create a 3D version of the head and synchronize it with the actor’s head movements. The tags are then superimposed on the original image and give the actor a younger look.
De-aging technology is still quite expensive and can be used by wealthy Hollywood studios. It costs approximately $1,000,000 to create a digital model of a character’s head, and each frame of animation can cost between $30,000 and $100,000 depending on the complexity.
Source: Techspot
