YouTubers, and visual effects experts, Corridor Crew, released a video yesterday detailing all the recent CGI and AI techniques that can be used to insert digital actors into movies and TV shows.



As most of you know, the Hollywood writer and actor unions are currently on strike and one of the main issues is AI. While the WGA is demanding a complete ban on AI-generated scripts, the actors union isn't so restrictive. Here's what they are demanding (taken from the SAG-AFTRA official Status of Negotiation document)

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Establish a
comprehensive set of provisions to protect
human-created work and require informed
consent and fair compensation when a "digital
replica" is made of a performer, or when their
voice, likeness, or performance will be
substantially changed using AI.

Far from a ban, the actor's union is mainly asking for a system to compensate actors when replaced by a digital version of themselves. So it appears that they are fully expecting digital replacement to continue at a more rapid pace. I don't think most outside of Hollywood A-listers really understand the outcome of creating a clear set of rules for using digital actors as replacements. This would allow a studio to purchase the digital rights to ANY actor that has ever performed in a movie or TV show, even if that actor is long dead. This is a huge win for the studios as they wouldn't have to pay as much for digital version as the real thing and it's a win for A-list actors as they can continue to perform long after their bodies have made it impossible to keep up the schedule. OTOH, this is terrible news for unknown actors who now have to compete for jobs with every actor that ever lived.

There are several "dream project" that can now be attempted, such as making a new James Bond movie with 1960s' Sean Connery or getting comic accurate superheroes that actually look like their comic counterparts.

[EDIT] One thing that is clear is that using the digital image of an actor doesn't necessarily require AI, as you can use body doubles and motion capture. So saying actors will be replaced by AI isn't what is happening although it might be closer as AI tools improve.

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or when their voice, likeness, or performance will be substantially changed using AI.

So, what's stoping the actors from claiming ANY AI/digitaly generated voice/character is really them?

Did anyone see the movie "Looker"?

Down with AI !!!

Quote from: hedgehobbit on August 21, 2023, 07:12:44 PM
OTOH, this is terrible news for unknown actors who now have to compete for jobs with every actor that ever lived.

So acting is now dead forever is because Hollywood replaced it with AI. I can't imagine how much that will improve human creativity and art... not.

Fuck Hollywood. Let it die. Kill it if you have to. Traitors to humanity should be rewarded as traitors deserve. Viva la Butlerian Jihad!

Quote from: GeekyBugle on August 21, 2023, 08:55:49 PMSo, what's stoping the actors from claiming ANY AI/digitaly generated voice/character is really them?

An army of lawyers.

I do think that using the digital images of real actors is just the first step. People will be willing to accept some jankyness to see Bela Lugosi return as Dracula. Once the bugs get worked out, the studios will move to using generated digital actors that they own 100% and can use without payment. There are huge advantages to owning a character like that and there are many that already exist: Yoda, Thanos, R2-D2, Alita, M3gan, the blue people from Avatar etc. Just look at the upcoming Deadpool 3 where the average age of a superhero actors is around 47 years old. If they had created a digital Wolverine in the first place, they'd be able to use him forever.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on August 26, 2023, 03:43:19 PMSo acting is now dead forever is because Hollywood replaced it with AI. I can't imagine how much that will improve human creativity and art... not.

There still will be actors, only the acting that is done will be used to animate a digital character. Exactly like how video game have been done for over 20 years. So there will be a handful of actors performing all the movies, regardless of which characters are in the movies. At least, that is, until AI improves sufficiently.

QuoteFuck Hollywood. Let it die. Kill it if you have to. Traitors to humanity should be rewarded as traitors deserve. Viva la Butlerian Jihad!

If you hate Hollywood, you should be 100% behind the advancements in AI as it will eventually allow individuals to be able to ask the AI to create any movie or TV show they can image. Star Wars with you as Luke, a new season of the Brady Bunch, and exact adaption of your favorite novel are all things that will eventually be possible.

News flash. Movies and TV have been doing this via other means for many many years. Just not on such a grotesque scale.

Quote from: hedgehobbit on August 26, 2023, 03:52:16 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on August 26, 2023, 03:43:19 PMSo acting is now dead forever is because Hollywood replaced it with AI. I can't imagine how much that will improve human creativity and art... not.

There still will be actors, only the acting that is done will be used to animate a digital character. Exactly like how video game have been done for over 20 years. So there will be a handful of actors performing all the movies, regardless of which characters are in the movies. At least, that is, until AI improves sufficiently.

QuoteFuck Hollywood. Let it die. Kill it if you have to. Traitors to humanity should be rewarded as traitors deserve. Viva la Butlerian Jihad!

If you hate Hollywood, you should be 100% behind the advancements in AI as it will eventually allow individuals to be able to ask the AI to create any movie or TV show they can image. Star Wars with you as Luke, a new season of the Brady Bunch, and exact adaption of your favorite novel are all things that will eventually be possible.

Sounds like hell on earth. Make new shit. Stop recycling carrion.

We need a dinosaur-killing asteroid or nuclear war ASAP.

Quote from: hedgehobbit on August 21, 2023, 07:12:44 PM
YouTubers, and visual effects experts, Corridor Crew, released a video yesterday detailing all the recent CGI and AI techniques that can be used to insert digital actors into movies and TV shows.

Those are NOT "digital actors". They are REAL actors with digital make over. Not dissimilar to physical make overs. Just easier to do. There is no digital acting going on.  Talk about stupid, fake FUD.

Quote from: Scooter on August 27, 2023, 10:27:28 AMThose are NOT "digital actors". They are REAL actors with digital make over. Not dissimilar to physical make overs. Just easier to do. There is no digital acting going on.

At the end of the video, they showed a fully digital avatar acting according to an AI. AI acting is something that's been used in movies since Lord of the Rings, granted only in background roles.

But I agree that "digital actor" isn't a very clear term. SAG-AFTRA uses "digital replica" but this applies to any method used to make an actor appear who isn't on set, such as face swapping (aka deep fake). I think a better term is "digital character" which covers any fully CGI character regardless of how it is animated. Studios have animated digital characters with 3D animators sitting at a computer, motion capture artists, and AI, or even using multiple methods for the same character.

But the characters available today are well beyond anything possible with "physical make overs".

Quote from: hedgehobbit on August 27, 2023, 07:05:37 PM

Quote from: Scooter on August 27, 2023, 10:27:28 AMThose are NOT "digital actors". They are REAL actors with digital make over. Not dissimilar to physical make overs. Just easier to do. There is no digital acting going on.

At the end of the video, they showed a fully digital avatar acting according to an AI.

They've had that capability for YEARS (for those who don't track on this) and it is crap and unusable as actors for any but the terminally dim or very young.  Like I correctly stated, FUD

Remember Sony's plan wayyyyyyyyy back for a "digital Actress" when they put out the Final Fantasy movie and it bombed?

Quote from: Omega on August 28, 2023, 09:19:28 AM
Remember Sony's plan wayyyyyyyyy back for a "digital Actress" when they put out the Final Fantasy movie and it bombed?

Sony would have made money with her if OnlyFans was a thing back then. While I can understand, back in 2001, the idea of a digital actress appearing in multiple films, as the cost to create such an actress would have been significant, today it would make more sense to craft individual characters for specific movies. So if you make a digital Wolverine, for example, that model would only be used to play Wolverine. In the same way that the digital Thanos only appears as Thanos.

The only time it would make sense today to make a digital actor is if you are making a version of a real person that appeared as multiple characters, such as Han Solo and Indiana Jones.

Digital women then:


Digital women now:

I suggest to everyone interested to watch The Artifice Girl.

It is a movie about these topics, written, directed, edited and even acted by a first time director, Franklin Ritch. I won't spoil how this topic enters the movie, because the script it is built so that it is a surprise (whereas everyone who told me "Watch this!" also spoiled the surprise; try to avoid).

It is a movie shot with no budget, made of people talking in small rooms (it could become an excellent theatrical play) - and yet it explores these themes both in-depth and also looking at the possible futures beyond entertainment. It is more "Black Mirror" than the last season of Black Mirror, and a must-see IMHO.

I downloaded and read the new contract language on AI that was agreed upon by the WGA negotiators last week. From my reading, it appears that the AMPTP got everything they wanted on AI. The company can use Generative AI (GAI) to create drafts for movies or shows which the WGA writers will modify. The only protection for the writers is that modifying an GAI script won't be considered a "rewrite" and the writer will be considered to have written the finished product. Also, the contract says that companies can't force a writer to use GAI to create a script from scratch, so the generation of GAI scripts will need to be done by someone else (or a more flexible WGA member).

Also, if a writers holds the rights to a script, that script can't be used to feed the AI. But no such restriction applies to all the vast number of scripts whose copyrights are owned by the studio.

Finally, the restrictions of generative AI, such as they are, don't apply to CGI and VFX which is more of the point of this thread.


You can read it yourself if you are as insane as I am. The AI stuff is on page 68
https://www.wgacontract2023.org/wgacontract/files/memorandum-of-agreement-for-the-2023-wga-theatrical-and-television-basic-agreement.pdf