Young CGI Jeff Bridges As CLU in Tron Legacy 3D

 Part 2 of this discussion can be found at CLU and Young Jeff Bridges CGI in Tron Legacy: Another Look

- Updated: March 23rd, 2010

I’ve since read else where that a 3d scan of a current Jeff Bridges was done in Canada and that they were using this as a base to make the younger CLU.  Also, if you look at MTV’s director’s commentary on the Tron trailer, you’ll see him mention that the Young Jeff Bridges they were referencing was around the time of his movie “Against All Odds”.  So the CGI CLU will look a little older than Jeff Bridges did in the original Tron. -

Ok, one of the most hyped up 3d movie releases coming this year is the new Tron Legacy.  If you have seen the trailer, then you will know that there appears to be a Young CGI Jeff Bridges in the movie.  I don’t remember much about the original Tron movie, but this new one looks cool.  Some industry blogs are actually predicting that it will have better and more impressive 3d than James Cameron’s Avatar.  This is not to be unexpected, because they have had many years to fine tune the tech and work pipelines that go in to making a 3d movie.  Avatar is basically when they invented it all.  So, if Tron is a better 3d movie, we can still thank Mr. Cameron for that.

Now getting back on to the topic at hand, in the original teaser trailer that appeared for Tron Legacy, Jeff Bridges as CLU did appear, but from what I read this was an effects test/trailer.  I am actually going to break down what techniques I think were used for the CGI Jeff Bridges in both of these trailers, because to me they appear to be very different versions of CLU.  Take a look at both the pics below.  They are screen grabs of the CGI Jeff Bridges in the first and second trailer for the film.

CGI Jeff Bridges

Left: Tron Legacy Trailer 2 / Right: Tron Legacy Trailer 1

The newer effect, which is on the left, appears in Trailer 2. This looks like it was a life cast of Jeff Bridges face from around the time of the original Tron that was laser scanned into a 3d digital model.  If you notice the animation in the trailer, it is very fined tuned with little nuances.  The eye muscle area is done extremely well.  I am guessing that they used the Avatar and Curious Case Of Benjamin Button facial animation techniques to achieve this realistic human head.  This is the standard now for digital humans, we’ll be seeing alot more of them in the future as they are closing the gap between real people and CGI looking people.  While this is my theory on how this was achieved, I don’t think they used the same airbrushing techniques they used at the end of Benjamin Button to show the younger looking Brad Pitt.  If it is, then they did a damn good job with it.

The older effect, on the right is clearly a CGI model.  It looks like a current Jeff Bridges was cyber scanned by a 3d scanner then edited in a program like Zbrush to quickly remove the wrinkles and any signs of aging they could.  The reason why I think this is, is because the overall face appears to be more puffy looking as opposed to a young lean person.  You’ll also notice that the picture of Jeff Bridges on the right has a slightly larger nose, as we age, our noses grow.  To me this is a sign that they quickly used a model of a current Jeff Bridges that was altered to “look younger”.  The version from this trailer was just an effects test, so the idea of them using older techniques to get a greenlight from a studio isn’t so far fetched.

This is just my theory on how each of these effects were achieved.  The movie looks cool and will probably push 3d to its limits and we get a CGI Jeff Bridges as well as an Oscar winning Jeff Bridges.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 20th, 2010 at 11:37 pm and is filed under 3d Special Effects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 Responses to “Young CGI Jeff Bridges As CLU in Tron Legacy 3D”

Mario Ortiz April 11th, 2010 at 12:27 am

Hey! let me tell you that I’m also have put special attention for what it seems to be an impressive achievement on rejuvenating an actor with digital effects.

It take some time to me to figure out who was that familiar face that appear in the second trailer. I’m glad you did this interesting analysis of the two trailers.

Totally agree that the first trailer has a less advance work on the face of Jeff Bridges (the nose looks too big!).

I’m reading a lot stuff about “Tron Legacy”. . . Michael Sheen, one of the actors in the movie, said in an interview that director Joseph Kosinski doesn’t like anymore that people continue seeing the first trailer because it was only a test to have the greenlight from Disney . . . and is too far away from what they have achieved.

There is another information that I found and it tells that this younger version of Jeff Bridges, called “Clu 2″, is in fact a copy do it by his character Kevin Flynn around 1988, before his disappearance.

By the way I found very shitty the result of the airbrush tecnique applied on Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett’s faces to look like they were in their twenties. It was very distracting.

Claudio Miranda, the cinematographer of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is also on “Tron Legacy”.

Well, I really hope this future movie to be good and I really hope you could write another analysis about it.

Greetings from Chile!

Mario Ortiz April 11th, 2010 at 5:58 pm

Why do you delete my comment?

Mario Ortiz April 11th, 2010 at 5:59 pm

My mistake . . . I didn’t see my first post, sorry.

Tim E. April 12th, 2010 at 9:49 am

It is most definitely an improvement over the teaser trailer version. I can´t wait to see how far they will take this technique. Very excited about this.

admin April 13th, 2010 at 4:47 pm

Thanks for the comments guys!

Mario,

I do agree that some of Benjamin Button’s work was only ok in some spots. It mostly had to do with the effects being used for the first time(aside from X-men 3). Maybe they can refine it more. I kind of see it as a quick, easy and cheap fix to make an actor young without rebuilding their entire face in 3d.

Tim,

Cool blog, love it. Can’t wait to see more 3d stuff, I hope they take this technique to the level of seamlessness, I don’t think it’s quite there yet, but it most certainly is improving rapidly.

3d Animation Classes: College or DVDs? May 6th, 2010 at 2:26 pm

[...] human head.  I’ll be trying to recreate the effects used in Bejamin Button and the upcoming Tron Legacy 3d movie, but utilizing my own methods for doing so.  The programs that I plan to use will be 3dsmax, [...]

New Tron Trailer With A Young CGI Head Of Jeff Bridges As CLU July 22nd, 2010 at 7:03 pm

[...] features a montage of scenes with the character of CLU.  In case you didn’t know already, a young CGI version of Jeff Bridges will be one of the possible villains in the movie.  I did a post a few months back and I broke [...]

Matt July 22nd, 2010 at 10:17 pm

I understand the technical points about the nose and such. However, to me it’s a matter of the first trailer having a guy that I can vaguely agree looks like Jeff Bridges whereas with the teaser trailer it’s very clearly a younger Jeff Bridges. The newer trailer Bridges has some kind of quirky jaw issue that almost makes his face look different. This isn’t a problem for the teaser Bridges because of the helmet. To drive home my point further, please find ANY 80′s picture of Bridges that resembles the trailer Bridges more then the teaser Bridges (big nose or not).

Alex Andersson July 26th, 2010 at 10:37 am

I totally disagree with the ‘larger nose’ theory, simply because the characters in the original TR2N trailer are both wearing helmets that magnify their faces in the center… much like a convex lens would. If you watch the 1080p HD version of the clip, you can clearly see the optical effect of the helmet lens when either of the characters turn their heads to the side. You see the center of their faces bulge out slightly when viewed from the front and appear more proportionate when viewed side on.

The early intention of the TR2N trailer creators was to portray Clu 2.0 and his oponent as holograms. The holographic effect can be seen quite clearly in the HD clip. Look carefully at the skin texture and you can see vertical scanlines, much like a CRT television screen, which is supposed to convey a sense of unreality about the scene. When the movie went to production, the idea of holographic programs was dropped and the only remaining evidence of this will be seen in the 12 inch TRON: Legacy talking action figures, which will actually have a tiny LED projector inside the head to project a holographic-like face onto the dolls head.

nova August 4th, 2010 at 9:56 pm

the latest Legacy trailer shows indeed stunning CGI Bridges..

but it seems to really F$%K up when He TALKS..the mouth movement is distracting.

CLEAN IT UP PXAR!!!

Michael Murdock October 23rd, 2010 at 9:29 pm

Yo NOVA! TRON is being done by DISNEY, NOT PIXAR. They’re two separate companies. So get a CLU. LOL, and I used to work for PIXAR. We’d never do anything that incorrect.

Maus December 16th, 2010 at 5:45 pm

In reply to mr Murdock:
Pixar has barely created anything close to photo-realism. And nothing as aesteticly pleasing as Tron either. They’re good within their own narrow field of computer animation, but that’s about it.

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