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The Prospects of Virtual Counterparts

Recently I have received an interesting inquiry about the prospects of substitution of professional actors and actresses with their virtual counterparts and computer-generated models in movies. Also, it will help to water down the pure economic and other non-entertaining themes.

The psychological aspect of the matter suggests that virtual counterparts and computer-generated models will not substitute the professional actors and actresses completely. They may complement them in order to create a kind of virtual surrogates. It is said “the virtual surrogates may be used to create an image of “perfect actor” or “perfect actress”, among others options”. The idea of “perfect counterpart” stems from the intrinsic characteristic of humans which is expressed as the conscious or unconscious admiration for the physical perfection.

For example, the ancient Greeks imprint their admiration for the physical perfection in their sculptures. We are born with the intrinsic desire for perfection. While we learn the world by means of our five basic senses, i.e. while we are babies and before learning to think, we are inclined to sense the natural perfection of other humans. Later on we learn to identify them as “beautiful” or “ugly”. Our sense of perfection evolves with our thinking and finally we come up with the expression of physical perfection. Our children’s understanding of perfection gradually evolves into the mature sex appeal (now we are talking only about humans, not about diamonds).

So, what does it mean in our case? It means that we are inclined consciously or unconsciously to admire the perfection and beauty in life and on the stage. We strive to idolize it in the form of sex symbols – the symbolization. Our eyes and ears are inclined to contemplate and perceive beautiful bodies and voices, by the very nature. Movie stars strive for developing their “perfect image” and music starts strive for developing their “magical voice” or “magical music”. We are kids in hearts for ages, despite the physical age, and we are always inclined to observe the perfection and beauty through our basic senses.

Both the “perfect actress” and the “perfect actor” mean the physical perfection. But due to other factors it is not wise to talk about the complete perfection (moreover, it can lead to psychological and physical disorders). It is better to talk about the moderate perfection. Simply speaking, it is a physical perfection which you can reach naturally i.e. it is a natural bar that limits your physical capabilities, let alone artificial stimulators e.g. which are used by bodybuilders. Anyway, the virtual counterparts can be used to image such a moderate physical perfection but not the over-perfection.

But applicability of the virtual counterparts is limited by the nature of humans as well. The limit is set up by our irrational or emotional behavior. Whatever you say about the development of technologies, the pure computer-generated models will never be able to behave emotionally – thanks to the intrinsic emotional origins of humans. The emotional nature of humans is unpredictable and even if it is put into a logical framework it will look too assumed. Simply speaking, we will lose the courage and emotional coloring of the world. It is boring.

If logic orders the world, then emotions color the world. I think, the capability to portray emotions is one of the key capabilities that professional actor or actress develops. As I said, emotions make us live, make us take to heart, make us experience sudden happenings and the screenplay as a whole. Emotions are the pure prerogative of humans. We can capture them, but it is hard if possible to develop them programmatically with computer models. The virtual counterparts can help to bring in the moderate perfection, to enhance the emotional component by means of special effects or to substitute in certain cases, but I do not think the idea of complete substitution is a good one – we can end up with another realm of the animated cartoons.

With regard to the material and technological areas, here everything is pretty simple. The material area is always about the money and time, different risks thus. Not a secret that creation of special effects and rendering of computer-generated scenes are both capital and time intensive. The technological advancements and human-machine interfaces facilitate the development of virtual counterparts and simplify the rendering of computer-generated scenes, but technologies should always be the supplemental toolsets. Ultimately, movie technologies, and the virtual surrogates in particular, are a kind of make-up: they can be used to create the moderate perfection and to enhance the emotional coloring. But it is improper to talk about the complete substitution at all.