Disney has developed FRAN, an artificial intelligence capable of rejuvenating or aging actors in just a few clicks. A real revolution in the world of cinema, which will save precious time in post-production
Gone are the days when you had to resort to a ton of make-up to rejuvenate or age an actor according to the needs of the scenario! Digital special effects to change the age of actors or actresses who took over a few years ago are increasingly used in films and TV series – even if there are sometimes a few minor hiccups. Disney is particularly known in the field of digital rejuvenation thanks to IIndustrial Light & Magic (ILM), its subsidiary dedicated to cinema special effects – which previously belonged to George Lucas. Just see the brief appearance of Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorianor that of Princess Leia in RogueOne. The results are truly stunning! The problem is that these manipulations generally require a large number of hours of work for short sequences, whether to retouch images – to remove wrinkles for example – or to create a new 3D face from scratch. But this delicate work, both digital and manual, could soon be significantly lightened.
Indeed, to enrich its catalog – and increase its income – Disney intends to extend the universes of its flagship sagas – franchises or licenses, in the jargon –, which will logically multiply the chronological round trips. This is why the company looked into the question of artificial aging and rejuvenation in order to obtain a result that is both more realistic and less time-consuming – especially since artists are generally overloaded with work. And the solution came, once again, from artificial intelligence (AI).
FRAN: a modification of the age directly during the shooting
Usually, the aging or rejuvenation of a person’s face – the reaging, among specialists – is carried out in post-production, through digital editing of the image, by the use of computer-generated images (CGI) or by retouching. At Disney, special effects staff often use a process of 3D scanning and modeling or frame-by-frame 2D digital editing of the actor’s face. Extremely long and tedious work… But the company’s new systembaptized FRAN (Facial Re-aging Network), automates the process and makes it possible to make the necessary changes as soon as the shot is taken.
To create FRAN, Disney researchers created a huge database of thousands of faces, aged between 18 and 85, randomly generated – so they are synthetic faces. Then, using machine learning, the neural network was trained to rejuvenate or age the various digital images to understand how a person’s appearance changes with age. He can then apply these aging principles to a real moving actor, frame by frame – generating each frame of video takes less than five seconds. To put it more simply, it “predicts” what the face looks like at that age. A way to transform him without betraying his expressions or personality – so far the use of neural networks and machine learning to age a person has already been tested but, if the results are convincing enough on still images , they have never been very convincing on videos.
FRAN: a ready-to-use revolution in the world of cinema
The researchers explain that FRAN does not require a precise face alignment phase to function and does not generate artifacts – kinds of lines or blocks of pixels that pollute the display – during aging or rejuvenation, unlike to other technologies. AI can easily add or remove facial wrinkles, change cheek size, remove facial hair, and more. And when the head moves and is not directly in front of the camera, the modifications remain, including when the lighting is not optimal. Then all the artists have to do is correct the details in post-production. It should be noted, however, that FRAN, as revolutionary as the AI is, has its limits. In particular, it cannot act on the graying of the scalp to age an actor. She also cannot age a very young person, that is, turn a child into an octogenarian. In this case, it will be necessary to take two different actors.
Still, FRAN is a real revolution in the world of cinema. Disney has already announced that the AI is out-of-the-box and has been designed to be easily manipulated by artists – including those without huge budgets – who can change the starting age and the starting age. render arrives. There is no doubt that the firm with the big ears will use its new tool in its next films and series: it did not deprive itself of it for the fifth episode of the saga. IndianaJones, scheduled for June 28, 2023, in which Harrison Ford – now 80! – will play for the last time the famous adventurer-archaeologist… younger!