How the ‘Here’ movie used AI to make Tom Hanks and Robin Wright look younger

Whether it is part of storytelling or the visual effects, the movie industry has always been at forefront of technological innovation. With the advent of artificial intelligence, a few filmmakers have decided to use the technology to generate transformation techniques.

Take for instance, the film Kalki 2898 AD, which showcased a younger Amitabh Bachchan in certain flashback scenes. Harrison Ford was de-aged in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Now, the movie Here has used AI to show younger versions of its protagonists Tom Hanks and Robin Wright.

De-aging actors using AI

Here is a movie adapted from a 2014 graphic novel of the same name. It is primarily set in a New Jersey living room across multiple time periods. Hence, the movie required to showcase a timespan of 60 years.

In movies like A Man Called Otto, Tom Hanks’ eldest son Colin Hanks portrayed a younger self of his father’s character, Otto. This time around, rather than casting different actors to portray younger versions of the actors, the production used AI to modify Hanks’ and Wright’s appearance throughout the movie. This made it one of Hollywood’s first full-length feature film built around AI-powered visual effects.

How does De-aging technology work

The de-aging technology for Here is done by Metaphysic, a visual effects company that creates real-time face swapping and aging effects. During filming, the crew utilised two monitors simultaneously; one displaying the actors’ actual appearances and the other was showcasing them at whatever age the scene required.

In order to achieve the right look, Metaphysic developed the facial modification system by training custom machine-learning models on frames of Hanks’ and Wright’s previous films.

This dataset included facial movements, skin textures, and appearances under varied lighting conditions and camera angles. The results generated instant face transformations while traditional CGI usually requires months of manual post-production work.

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Previously applying aging effects was a result of frame-by-frame manipulation. But this new approach generates instant transformations by analysing facial landmarks and mapping them to trained age variations.

Here reunites the Academy Winning actors and technicians of Forrest Gump. Director Robert Zemeckis, screenplay writer Eric Roth and actor Tom Hanks won the Academy Award for the film in 1995. Here will be released on November 8 in theatres.