Tuesday 27 July 2021

ILM hires Deepfake expert



When Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) cameoed in The Mandalorian second season finale last Christmas, most Star Wars fans (myself included) were overwhelmingly surprised and delighted to see the beloved Jedi Knight at the peak of his audacious powers.

However, the de-ageing technology, utilised by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), was divisive. And independent VFX wizards quickly got to work on subjectively improving the visuals (following in the hallowed footsteps of Star Wars creator George Lucas' endless tinkering on the original trilogy).

One stood out from the rest. YouTube Deepfake star, Shamook.



His work was so impressive, it caught the attention of the fine folks at Lucasfilm who have subsequently hired him. IndieWire confirms in this quote:

“Over the past several years ILM has been investing in both machine learning and A.I. as a means to produce compelling visual effects work and it’s been terrific to see momentum building in this space as the technology advances.”

This is a mission statement suggesting there'll be more classic characters appearing in Star Wars spin-offs both on the big screen and Disney+.

“As some of you may already know, I joined ILM/Lucasfilm a few months ago and haven’t had the time to work on any new YouTube content,” Shamook wrote in a comment this month. “Now I’ve settled into my job, uploads should start increasing again. They’ll still be slow, but hopefully not months apart. Enjoy!”

Are you a fan of Deepfake technology or more concerned with the possible ethical implications therein? Let me know in the comments below.

3 comments:

  1. as much as this stuff is very impressive (and I LOVED seeing LS pop up in the final episode of S2) I do worry that this technology will get over-used; and we'll loose the craft of a human actor delivering performances that make the stories so enthralling

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    Replies
    1. Absolutely! Deepfake brings benefits and added creative complications.

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  2. I think these deep fakes are making the public aware how far the technology has come. It can serve good (entertainment, crossing the uncanny valley) but might also do to movie acting what digital technology has done to the pop music genre. When we had bands like Steely Dan and Toto, and Chicago and Earth Wind and Fire, we had real musicians making master pieces, and now we get .. ehrm .. you know ...

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