The Idea of an Essay, Volume 3

202 The Idea of an Essay: Volume 3 Virtual Actors Are Taking Hollywood by Storm Ryan Gordon Many of the actors moviegoers see in films are nothing more than digital deception. Virtual actors are replacing human actors. These virtual actors are, as described in AI Magazine’s article “Towards Virtual Humans,” “software artifacts that look like, act like, and interact with humans but exist in virtual environments” (Swartout et al. 1). Experts in the field also have other names for these constructs, such as “digital actor” or “virtual human” and they are used interchangeably (Smith Reality 1). Although some people believe that virtual actors detract from the realism in films, drive up the cost of movies and cause people to lose their jobs, the reality is that virtual actors increase realism, help reduce the cost of movies and even create new jobs for the industry. A good place to start on the topic of virtual actors is their extensive history in the film industry. The idea of virtual actors has been around ever since computers were able to help with movie production. The first attempt at making a digital human was in the 1986 film Young Sherlock Holmes. In this film, a digitally animated knight crashes through a glass window. Even though the knight’s part was small, it proved that digital actors could be integrated into movies (Bath Timeline 1). From that point on, digital actors have been a fascination of Hollywood directors. Virtual actors have evolved alongsidecomputers intheir roles inmovies.Asdigital actorswereused in notable films such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day and The Crow, the technology advanced even further. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the main antagonist of the film, a shape shifting terminator, was played by a human actor, but every time it transformed, a virtual actor filled in (Bath Timeline 1). This is the first time a virtual actor switched places with a real actor during a scene. During the filming of The Crow, Brandon Lee, the star of the film, died before his part was completed. In order to finish the film, the script was changed slightly and a virtual copy of the actor was used when necessary. This