Digital 3D Images

The remake of “King Kong”:
Center Stage for the Breuckmann faceSCAN III

The Breuckmann faceSCAN III system was used to digitise the actors’ faces in order to incorporate them into the virtual movie world of the blockbuster remake “King Kong”.

Customer

Weta Digital was founded in 1993 by a group of young New Zealand filmmakers, including Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor and Jamie Selkirk. It is now a world-leading and award-winning company for visual effects based in Wellington (NZ), providing a full range of digital production services for feature films and high end commercials, from concept design to cutting-edge 3D animation.

Project Definition

The latest remake of the film classic ‘King Kong’ (link to Weta Digital) is particularly captivating by its visual effects. The producers not only created the gigantic gorilla as computer-generated character, but also developed a complete digital film environment, including the movement of the ocean and waves, urban and nature landscapes as well as crowd animation.

Breuckmann was chosen to support the project in the context of digitising the faces of the actors so that they can be merged into the digitally modelled and animated film world. This approach of replacing the real actors using their ‘virtual doubles’ allows to create spectacular effects which otherwise are too dangerous or impossible to achieve by aid of the blue screen technique.

Challenges and Operating Conditions

Objective and challenge was to create the 3D images of the actors’ faces as realistic and authentic as possible in order to integrate them smoothly into the overall perfectly simulated virtual landscape and its protagonist King Kong created by Weta Digital.

Measuring System

A Breuckmann faceSCAN III-col system has been selected for the demanding task. The target specific customisation, such as adding two high-resolution colour cameras, was derived from proven high-end technical applications. The system’s fast scanning time of less than one second for even high-resolution 3D images makes it perfectly suited to capture real life mimics by the actors, such as e.g. screaming, expressing fear or relieve at an extremely high degree of authenticity.

Technical Specification

Sensor (each):

Projection unit: Miniature Projection Technique (MPT) unit
Light source: 100 W halogen
Imaging: High-resolution digital camera (1.4 MPix)
Operating distance: 1 m
Capturing time: 0.8 sec / scan
Size of measuring field: 600 x 460 mm
Depth of measuring field: 400 mm
Point spacing: 0.43 mm
Accuracy: ± 200 µm

Result

The Breuckmann 3D scanning technique was mostly used in film sequences involving any kind of interaction between King Kong and the actors. A famous and widely remembered scene is the close-up of King Kong holding Ann Darrow (brilliantly played by actress Naomi Watts) in his gigantic fist and moving her in front of his equally gigantic face.

Thanks to the exceptional fast scanning speed and the high-resolution data quality of the Breuckmann system, facial expressions such as screaming, fear, joy or relieve could be digitally reproduced at a remarkably lifelike level. The difference between the real actor’s face and that of the digital double is hardly noticeable, thus making the overall virtual setup of the scene remarkably authentic and realistic to the viewer’s eye.

To underline this notably positive result, we are proud to quote Matt Aitken, Supervisor of the Modelling Team of the production: “The scans we have done are proving to be incredible valuable to our digital double work on King Kong”.