Avatar has already broken even, proving that audiences apparently like James Cameron’s motion captured “giant smurfs”, as many pundits called the Na’vi after pre-screenings, and that motion-capture is a viable alternative to pure CG artistry.  This has a few industry people wondering if perhaps this is the first step towards replacing traditional actors alltogether?

With the arrival of Avatar we’ve seen a huge amount of publicity surrounding the revolutionary capture system developed by Cameron’s team, based on tiny cameras which pick up subtle facial movements. The film-maker is promising that more than 95% of his actors’ performances are ending up there on screen. The difference is that this time around, we may just have to start believing. There is a feral intensity, in particular, to Zoe Saldana’s alien heroine Neytiri which could not have come from anyone else but the actor. The creature she plays is all grace and fire: it may just be the first motion captured performance that will stand the test of time.

Of course, an actor will be needed so long as motion capture is involved, but not necessarily an A-list multi-million dollar actor.  Anyone willing to endure the time in the mocap suit would do.

Update: @m0rph brings up an excellent point that rather than putting Actors out of work, another possibility is putting Character Animators out of work.  Without needing anyone to rig & animate biped models, that’ll obsolete a large portion of the graphics community.

via Will Avatar put actors out of work? | Film | guardian.co.uk.

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