ABSTRACT
Synthetic actors, Synthespians, might not only absorb our physical identity and movements but even will command artificial intelligence someday that would make their appearance in an interactive scenario much more interesting and unpredictable. In interactive environments that are by now more successful than the story-wise analog, linear product of the movie industry one better works with digital actors, as they most easily transfer from one medium to another. Avatar (2009) was the peak of performance capture. A picture like Avatar wouldn't have been possible at the time when it was actually written. They had to push the technology over a year and a half until they reached the point where Avatar, inspired by the shelved Merian C. Cooper/Willis O'Brien/MGM project War Eagles (1939) of which Cameron as former stop-motion buff sure was aware. In conjunction with Weta Digital in New Zealand, Avatar also pioneered facial expression capture, which would spare the actors the discomfort to spend hours in makeup chairs.
