Image Metrics May Revolutionize Facial Animation

iStorm writes, "I've been interested in computer animation for a long time and have recently started cracking down on my studies in an effort to eventually move myself from hobbyist to professional... then I find this article about Image Metrics, which can map an actor's emoting onto a generated face or onto the image of another actor, living or dead. How does a seasoned animator view this sort of push ahead in technology? If so much of the creative process is made so easy, where's the need for traditional animators spending exponentially larger amounts of time to create work of equal or lesser quality? How did animators view motion capture when it first appeared? Will there still be room for creativity if this tech comes to fruition?" The article doesn't say what kind of time or processing power Image Metrics's "high-fidelity, performance-driven facial animation" requires.

Comments

Neo-Luddism

[Drunkulus]

This technology will never take your job. It will take the job of the Chinese animator who takes your job. The money saved in each instance will go to the executives and stockholders of the company. Luckily, in America, you will still have some options to keep a roof over your head. These are welfare and prison. This is the system being used for the displaced auto manufacturing employees in Detroit.
Thomas Pynchon explains it all here:
http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essay s_luddite.html