Cinematography technique · used in 8 films
Recording an actor's body movements and facial expressions and using that data to drive a fully digital character. The human performance survives inside a non-human form.
Examples
Peter Jackson · 2002
Andy Serkis performed Gollum on set with the cast, then was motion-captured separately. WETA's digital artists built the creature around his performance. Gollum became the first performance-captured character to be taken seriously as acting.
Where to see it: Gollum's argument between his 2 personalities. The camera holds on a single CGI face that delivers 2 complete performances.
Robert Zemeckis · 2004
Tom Hanks played several roles, recorded as movement and facial data that drove digital characters. The human performance survives in the animation. It was an early large-scale test of the technique.
Where to see it: The conductor and the Hobo: Hanks plays the train's conductor as well as the Hobo and other characters.
Peter Jackson · 2005
Andy Serkis performed Kong in a motion capture suit, wearing around 135 facial markers. He also studied gorillas at London Zoo and in Rwanda. What you see in Kong's face and body is a real performance, filtered through a giant digital ape.
Where to see it: Ann and Kong on Skull Island: Ann wins over the ape with her vaudeville routine, and Kong starts to protect her.
Robert Zemeckis · 2007
Every character is a digital figure driven by an actor's recorded movement and expression, including Ray Winstone as Beowulf and Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother. Winstone was in his early 50s while filming, yet his digital Beowulf looks far younger. You still read his acting in the face and the walk.
Where to see it: The cave meeting: Beowulf enters the cave alone and faces Grendel's mother, who appears as a gold-covered woman. She melts his sword and offers him a deal.
David Fincher · 2008
Digital Domain used a camera system called Contour to record facial movement from live performances. That data helped make the digital transformations of Brad Pitt's character, including the infant stage. His acting stays visible under the effects.
Where to see it: Benjamin's reverse aging. Benjamin moves from a wheelchair to crutches to walking as a child, and later he shrinks back into infancy.
Robert Zemeckis · 2009
Jim Carrey's movements and expressions drive Scrooge as a digital character in Victorian London. The same method turns Gary Oldman into Bob Cratchit, Marley and Tiny Tim. You get one cast moving through very different bodies.
Where to see it: Marley's visit: Scrooge's dead partner appears in chains and warns that three spirits will visit him over three nights.
Peter Jackson · 2013
Benedict Cumberbatch gave Smaug both his voice and his motion capture. The dragon's sneer and the way he turns his head carry a human performance inside a giant digital body. You feel you are being talked down to by something very old and very clever.
Where to see it: Smaug in Erebor: Bilbo enters the Lonely Mountain for the Arkenstone and accidentally wakes Smaug, who knows about the dwarves' plan.
Robert Zemeckis · 2018
Most of the cast play a real-world character and a doll version of that character, using motion capture and their own voices. You can see an actor's expression inside a plastic doll's face. That keeps the dolls emotional.
Where to see it: The doll world: The cast appear as both real-world characters and their doll versions, who protect Cap'n Hogie in Marwen.
Questions