Excited to see Disney’s Tron Legacy yet?
With the hi-tech movie’s release date less than a week away, you’d better be, especially with the Tron Hype Machine currently operating at maximum power. We here at Lalawag never shy away from the chance to throw fuel onto a fire, so today we wanted to draw your attention to a pretty nifty tool on Facebook that lets you put your face in a short trailer for Tron Legacy.
Now, we know that for you jaded tech veterans this may not sound very exciting, but trust us, this little Facebook App is actually kinda cool.
Take a look at this:
That was made using just my simple bio picture down at the bottom of this post. Pretty cool, huh? It actually looks quite natural in the video with the actor turning his head back forth. (SPOILER ALERT) Too bad Jeff Bridges ends up kicking my ass at the end.
How does this facemapping technology work?
Well, Disney was a bit secretive when we asked them about it, but they did tell us a couple of things. First, the technology scans a given picture to make sure it’s a face. Then, the face is dynamically mapped onto a 3D “mask,” which is then easily fit onto the original actor in the video trailer. With the type of 3D mask they’re using, they can then manipulate the face to have proper features like a nose and chin and also sync the dialogue so it looks like you’re acting out the scene. The process is similar to what they actually did for Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy, but on an entirely different scale, of course.
Does creating this kind of stuff excite you? Are you an awesome creative force? The agency behind this app is looking for a Senior Designer/Art Director to join their team so if you’ve got the chops, go check out the job description here and feel free to email shann AT digital-outlook.com. We’re happy to collect a finders fee (payable in squirrels or hugs) from you if it ends up working out.
While we’re talking about Tron, we’d be remiss as a Los Angeles-based site if we didn’t direct you to the very cool pop-up Tron shop in Culver City. It’s located at the Royal/T space on Washington. Make sure you stop by before it goes away forever on December 23rd. If you’re one of the first 300 people to bring in your Tron movie stub on opening day (December 17th), you’ll get a limited edition “Tron keepsake.”
