Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1208556
www.postmagazine.com 34 POST JAN/FEB 2020 O n Se t If, as in the case of Samuel Jackson, the artists' task is an extreme age range, the crew usually has a dou- ble on set waiting in the wings while the hero actor performs. The double then mimics what the hero actor did as closely as possible to give Lola's artists reference for lighting and camera angles. Once the crew has the footage — the plate — and reference shots with the double, they track the work in 3D. They also take a 3D scan of the actors when possible. "We use the 3D scan for tracking," Claus says. "The high-resolution scan can be a tracking guide to make sure registration points are accurate. And, the compositors use it as a surface to project onto, track onto, and apply elements to manipulate. "It's relatively easy to age or de-age in one frame," Claus continues. "But as soon as the actor moves, we see all the changes that come with that. The skin flexes, a blink pulls some wrinkles away, a head turn obscures part of the face. It's very com- plex to get all those changes to stick in the right spot and not look like they're taped on. It needs to look like it's part of them, like it's their skin. But it's all 2D tricks." And, a lot of artistry. When asked if the artists automate this work somewhat by using scripts, Claus answers, "Oh, if only we could. That would be great!" The artists do, however, have some general guidelines for how to go about the work. "We don't have templates," Claus says. "That would be too rigid. But we do have general guide- lines for the sequencing of things — this first, then this, then that." Also, supervising artists generally choose hero shots in a sequence, dial in the look, and then assign artists to the sequences based on their strengths. "We want consistency amongst the artists," Claus says. "We try to keep them confined to similar shots. We don't want every shot they do to have the character at a different angle. They'd have to learn what to do all over again. If they have consistency in their shots, we get a higher quality in the end." A high-quality effect that, at its best, is invisible to the audience and that began with a nearly invisi- ble presence by the crew on set. No head cams. No volume. No witness cameras. "With our method, what you see 100 percent of the time is the actor who was on set," Claus says. "It's always them. Every nuance is there for the audience to see. We just manipulate their appear- ance as they perform. It's hard to re-create a person digitally, and it's even more difficult for that digital re-creation to maintain the tiny micro-expressions and subtle movement that an actor does on set to embody their character. The feedback they've receive from actors has been positive. "What we're doing is an intimate and delicate thing," Claus says. "We're affecting their appear- ance — and their livelihood, actually. We got glowing reviews from Sam Jackson. At one point, he tweeted about how excited he was about the film. He said, 'They've got this Lola thing now.' And, on Jimmy Kimmel, he said how much he liked the Lola process." He adds, "It was reassuring. We saved that clip." Barbara Robertson (BarbaraRR@comcast.net) is an award-winning writer and a contributing editor for Post's sister publication, CGW. Lola helped age Captain America, here and below. The studio uses a 3D scan for tracking. Lola uses Flame, Nuke and Houdini in its workflow.