| Digital characters are a driving force in the entertainment industry today. Every animated film and video game production spends a large percentage of its resources and time on advancing the quality of the digital characters inhabiting the world that they are creating. We have entered an era when digital characters have reached a level of sophistication that has prompted some critics to question if a digital actor can win an Academy Award for acting. As artificial intelligence and behavioral animation become more integrated with hand-animated entities, we will see a dramatic increase in the realism and interactivity of these characters. Practitioners of the subject will also require a deeper understanding of the underlying conceptual foundation as the complexity of the technology increases. The field of character technology has matured into a topic that spans the realms of anatomy, animation, computer science, performance, and behavioral psychology. The contemporary uses of digital characters are varied and range from purely entertainment to biomedical, industrial simulation, and beyond. This book is an overview of the history, theory, and methods for creating digital characters. Many books cover the step-by-step creation of digital characters using a particular piece of software. This book forgoes existing software and deals with the concepts from a software-agnostic point of view.
Recently, characters such as Gollum from “The Lord of the Rings” series (2001–2004) and Davy Jones from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series (2006–2007) have both been discussed with regard to earning awards for achievement in acting. Almost more compelling, a recent panel entitled “The Biology of King Kong,” part of the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, included a discussion on how “King Kong” (2005) was incredibly true to life and believable as a real gorilla. Panel member, Roger Fouts, Co-Director of the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute, discussed how pleased he was that the rise in technology and artistry has allowed for digital doubles and replacements for roles that were usually reserved for trained animals. While most critics are waiting for a believable human replacement, there is no better compliment for the team that created this digital character and no better indicator for the potential of character technology. |
