Benjamin Button was 100% digital, how long until all actors are?

Interesting TED talk (embedded below) explaining the innovation that went into making Benjamin Button’s face entirely digital. Essentially the tech works like this:

1. Brad Pitt’s face and facial movements are scanned in 3D into a computer, which then creates a library of every possible facial expression for Brad.
2. A makeup artist’s models of Brad’s face at every age are scanned in 3D and the computers extend the library to include every possible facial expression for Brad, at every possible age.
3. Brad’s face is recorded acting the film.
4. The computer renders the library of Brad at various ages and facial expressions over Brad’s live action recording.

Amazing stuff, and it raises a really interesting question: how long until step #3 is no longer needed?

If CGI animators can already create accurate facial mannerisms on purely digital characters, it’s only a matter of time before those same animators can create indistinguishably human virtual actors. And of course virtual actors, unlike their human counterparts, have no physical limitations, can be summoned to act and shoot a scene anytime/anywhere, and don’t require multi-million dollar paydays.

We’re several years away from nailing the visual side of this technology (let alone the vocal), but it’s easy to see how the profound benefits of this transition (lower cost, more flexibility) will quickly force a transition to it. Like digital vs. film, as the technology matures, many will reject it, but in the end the better solution will always win.

In the bigger picture, it’s interesting to note that this is another example of technology and innovation leveling the playing field. In a world where fame is completely a product of artistic/intellectual creation, not physical genetics, there will be vastly more people supplying the product, and far more meritocracy for how dollars are allocated amongst them.