Digital Plastic Surgery
Jun 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Michael Goldman
Before
After
From a visual effects standpoint, X-Men: The Last Stand may be the most complex X-Men film yet. In fact, visual effects supervisor John Bruno says the film's effects (about 850 shots at press time) include, among other things, destroying Alcatraz, moving the Golden Gate Bridge, creating a post-apocalyptic landscape modeled after Bruno's experiences while developing imagery for Terminator 2, maneuvering a sophisticated flying vehicle called the X-Jet, and manipulating gravity.
But, he suggests, the most fundamentally important visual effect in the movie from an industry point of view involves the opening flashback the so-called rejuvenation sequence, in which characters played by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan are de-aged by more than 20 years. Director Brett Ratner dismissed the notion of using younger actors to stand in for the men during the flashback, which takes place in the 1980s, when both men were in their 40s.
Filmmakers took the challenge to Lola Visual Effects, an offshoot of another vendor on the project Hydraulx, Santa Monica, Calif. (Other vendors were: Cinesite, Framestore CFC, and The Moving Picture Company, all in London; Weta Digital, New Zealand; CIS Hollywood and Kleiser-Walczak, New York; and Soho VFX, Toronto.) Lola specializes in performing digital facial enhancements essentially digital plastic surgery usually done on individual shots for vanity reasons. In this case, however, the company was asked to make faces subtly younger for a specific story point in a lengthy sequence.
It's an important scene, because if it did not work, the story would not work, Bruno says. We had to make both men look 20 years younger because it explains a key plot point. It starts with a long Technocrane shot that booms up to Patrick Stewart's character, and then to Ian McKellan, and then the crane moves to a close two-shot of both of them before they enter a house. It's an extended scene, about three minutes the first time the audience sees them and that [opening shot] lasts about 50 seconds. I think this approach could really impact how filmmakers handle flashback scenes involving older actors in the future.
Greg Strause, Lola's co-founder, calls the technique digital skin grafting, and says the key to its success involves a scientific analysis of each man's face before painstakingly performing extensive compositing tweaks to various regions of the face in Autodesk Inferno work conducted by Inferno artist Edson Williams. Strause adds that Lola largely stayed away from CG changes to the face.
It's not so much about inventing new tools we mainly did the whole thing in Inferno, Strause says. It involves expert compositing mostly. We first conduct an extensive aging study on both actors, consulting with plastic surgeons, and examining photos and film clips of both men from about 20 to 25 years ago. The plastic surgeon helps us devise a plan for what areas of the face specifically a surgeon would address when trying to make them look younger. Then, we R&D how to use compositing software on each part of the face, to rearrange the structure of fatty tissues and musculature, changing and controlling tension of the upper skin layers. By controlling all that, we rebuild faces into younger versions.Strause says that Lola did not impose any restrictions on plate photography, blocking, or makeup. In fact, no tracking markers were used. He says each actor's face had unique challenges. Stewart and his character, for instance, are both bald and, therefore, hair could not be used to indicate a difference in age. He is also fit and looks much the way he looked when he starred on Star Trek in the 1980s film clips that were referenced extensively. McKellan, on the other hand, has hair, but also larger jowls and wrinkles on his face, so the process of making him look more youthful was subtly different.
And we had to do it all without impacting light from the original plates, staying true to the original photography, Strause says.