Star Wars: See How Tarkin Came to Life in Rogue One Special on Nightline
When fans went to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, many were surprised - some downright shocked, some maybe a bit put off - to see Grand Moff Tarkin up on their screen, looking like actor Peter Cushing - now deceased - hadn't aged a day since 1977. That was thanks to the visual effects wizardry of Industrial Light and Magic, actor Guy Henry, and the Cushing family estate.
Now the secrets of that effect will be revealed on a special episode of ABC's Nightline airing tonight, January 4, 2017. The process is broken down into three primary steps in the teaser video for the episode.
The video starts with original photography of Henry, acting in full costume with some special motion capture headgear on; that's so when they use his voice and cadence with the digital face of Cushing, they match up perfectly. From there, ILM digitally removed the head gear, as well as Henry's hair, creating a digital version of his face. From there it's the morphing into a digital Peter Cushing, who delivers the final performance on screen.
It's a revolutionary technology, and one that had fans split. Some thought it worked perfectly, or at least well enough that they hardly (if at all) noticed there was a digital actor on screen. Some were more sensitive to it and got pulled out of the film. Still, it at least demonstrates where things are going and ILM's technical prowess continues to improve. When visiting and touring the ILM facilities, they told Comicbook.com about more than one technology that didn't exist, "So we invented it," and quite nonchalantly.
http://comicbook.com/starwars/2017/01/04/star-wars-see-how-tarkin-came-to-life-in-rogue-one-special-on-ni/