The Direction of Synthetic Actors in the Film Rendez-Vous a Montreal

This article describes how the synthetic actors Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart were directed in the film Rendez-vous a Montreal, using the Human Factory software. Innovative points are emphasized. The recreation of famous persons and reconstitution of their personalities, as well as the corresponding animation, are considered from an artistic point of view. Technical points discussed are personalized expressions, abstract muscle action (AMA) procedures, expression key-frame interpolation, multitrack mixing and synchronization, automatic body mapping using joint-dependent local deformation (JLD) operators, and semi-automatic object grasping. Task-level problems are also explained. Finally, how a fifth-generation animation system might evolve is discussed.