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[Monocle]

Next to real actors a CGI actor needs to be perfect or well hidden with clever lighting/framing. It's not that the CGI was bad, but Tarkis stood out and took you away from the movie. That's a really bad thing to happen in the middle of watching a movie.

I didn't mind it. His voice is awesome and I thought he looked good. Saw the movie in IMAX 3D. I'm going to see it again and watch carefully for weirdness, but on first viewing I was engaged by his confrontations with Krennic, and wasn't just thinking "look at that effect!"

 

[zoukka]

I didn't mind the effect. His voice is awesome and I thought he looked good. Saw the movie in IMAX 3D. I'm going to see it again and watch carefully for weirdness though.

Like I don't think it could've worked for me ever TBH, just the realization that one human in the scene isn't real takes me out. My brain just keeps asking "why".

Maybe even worse with Leia since just seeing her dress was enough. The face close-up was so goddamn unnecessary and felt purely a "showoff" of their tech.

 

[lamaroo]

Just got back from it, the more Tarkin appeared on screen, the more uncanny he became. Looked fine at first, but the eyes just don't translate well yet. I can't explain to how to make them look better, but I really do hope they figure it out.

I thought Leia looked good, but maybe that's because it was already spoiled for me on gaf, and the general consensus seemed to be that she looked terrible. Beat my expectations at least, and the very minimal screentime helped.

 

[cdyhybrid]

It obviously wasn't perfect, but it was a damn good shot at it. I'm not upset with how it ended up, and it was really cool to see despite the flaws.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Tarkin looked alright, but stilted. Leia was horrible. Avatar looked way better and that movie came out, what, 7 years ago? How they couldn't get the animation nor lighting right was a real head scratcher.

agreed.

 

[Frankenstrat]

It was cool to see, but I feel like most of the "other-ness" that came with seeing Tarkin and Leia back from the 70s came from being familiar with how Carrie Fisher looked recently and that Cushing was dead. Perhaps if I hadn't been thinking of that I might not have noticed, or I noticed something that brought me out of the film. Not sure which. Either way, it certainly did look remarkable on the big screen.

 

[Knightmarre]

Everyone I went with to see this movie didn't realize Tarkin was CG (they aren't Star Wars fans).

I thought he looked great, Leia less so but still good.

 

[bishopcruz]

It's so odd with Tarkin. I've mentioned this in other threads, but CGing younger actors rarely bothers me, and I also wasn't bothered by RDJ in Civil War. I've almost never been bothered by interactions between CG and real actors. But Tarkin just took me out of things whenever I saw him. It was the mouth movements expecially, but the performance itself was odd too. Leia bothered me too, but there was less of her, so of course it wasn't too bad. Hell, TRON didn't bother me, and this did, and I know in my mind that this is more advanced, and better, but it stuck out like a sore thumb.

 

[TedHub]

Tarkin looked super soft compared to the human actors next to him. The mouth movements killed both of them more than anything. That and it looked like they went a little too far to the right with the Monster Factory eye height slider on Leia...

 

[Shadybiz]

I thought they did a pretty bang up job, really, and I grew up with Star Wars. At a glance, I think it would be pretty easy to mistake them for the real thing.

 

[Bornstellar]

Tarkin seemed over animated and his skin looked wrong compared to the other actors in the scene. Didn't have much of a problem with Leia.

 

[Dead Man Typing]

Tarkin has a couple of iffy shots but overall it's much better than dancing around a major character who should be there and participating. My girlfriend had no idea he was CG, she thought his makeup was just "off" in a few shots. It seems to have been a very convincing effect and performance for most people.

I don't know why people keep calling Leia CG when she's not. She's a real actress with footage of Carrie Fisher from the original film digitally composited over her face. Leia was not a CG creation any more than Gold and Red Leader were.

I was hoping the article would clarify this. Tarkin was clearly CG and very impressive. A little weird at first but I quickly got used to it.

Leia didn't look like same technique and I thought it might have been classic footage composited with a CG face.

I've only seen the film once in 2d. Didn't notice the pilots were using classic footage. That's cool.

 

[wapplew]

I thought too much detail on the faces make it stand out.
Maybe the CGI team spend too much time created those detail and want to keep it on screen.

 

[TedHub]

I don't know why people keep calling Leia CG when she's not. She's a real actress with footage of Carrie Fisher from the original film digitally composited over her face. Leia was not a CG creation any more than Gold and Red Leader were.

In her first shot, when Leia is seen from behind (with her trademark hair buns), she is played by a flesh-and-blood actor, Ingvild Deila. Then, in the reverse angle, when Leia is seen from the front, her face, hair and costume are a digital re-creation of Ms. Fisher, based on footage from “A New Hope.” (The character’s extended hand is Ms. Deila’s.)

Um...?

 

[eot]

The most jarring thing about Tarkin was the voice. It was way off the mark.

 

[SpaceWolf]

The most jarring thing about Tarkin was the voice. It was way off the mark.

Yeah, I don't know why they didn't go with the guy who does his voice in Rebels. It's much closer to sounding like Peter Cushing compared to the final voice they ended up utilizing, it didn't really sound anything like him.

 

[Pankratous]

I thought both of them were real actors so I guess it worked on me.

 

[WadiumArcadium]

Yeah, I don't know why they didn't go with the guy who does his voice in Rebels. It's much closer to sounding like Peter Cushing compared to the final voice they ended up utilizing, it didn't really sound anything like him.

Stephen Stanton voiced Admiral Raddus funnily enough.

 

[Perfect Cha0s]

I thought Tarkin looked really good - it was only the animation around his mouth that was a little noticeable. Leia on the other hand looked a little too doll-like.

 

[Futureman]

Is there a Leia screen cap?

I wonder if they'll do any CGI Leia Episode VIII?

 

[Ein Bear]

Tarkin looked weirdly tall to me, he seemed to be rendered as though he was 7 feet tall or something. Looked very odd.

I also think it's in quite poor taste to mimick a deceased actor to such an extent. They would have been better off re-casting.

 

[BewareTheBatsie]

Leia was perfectly fine to me. It was obvious Tarkin was CG but it wasn't to the point it distracted me every time it was on screen. I was more impressed by it then put off.

 

[Poor GRIMES]

I thought both characters were great on Rogue One, and fiancee and me were left wondering how long until actors aren't "needed", just their likeness.

If this tech goes advanced enough, my children could be watching Captain America 14 with the same likeness as Chris Evans.

Sounds incredibly unethical and financially irresponsible unless movie studios are okay for compensating that actor's likeness, paying for the animators to render their likeness, and hiring a CG body template to CG that likeness onto. That's a lot of wasted money just to retain someone's looks when you could just recast with another capable actor.

 

[SpaceWolf]

Is there a Leia screen cap?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX7STMYEgmY

 

[Kettch]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX7STMYEgmY

Hm, maybe it's the low quality, but I think it actually looks pretty good up until that last moment where she lifts her chin up like a robot.

 

[KooopaKid]

Both were a bit weird but Tarkin was easier to be fooled because he was interacting with other humans and in darker lighting conditions.
Leia on the other hand, didn't work at all for me. I think it's the lips movements, they kept "ondulating" after she stopped talking. Weird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-w-bxQ51gg

 

[Sectorseven]

Was Tarkin's voice just an impressionist, or did they do some digital tweaking to it? I'd have to watch the movie again, but it sounded close to me.

 

[Ripenen]

So does Cushing's estate get paid for his likeness being used in this way?

 

[SpaceWolf]

Was Tarkin's voice just an impressionist, or did they do some digital tweaking to it? I'd have to watch the movie again, but it sounded close to me.

The voice was done by the same stand-in who delivered the physical performance, Guy Henry, who was doing an imitation of Peter Cushing's voice.

 

[Aureon]

I had no idea Tarkin was CG. I thought that was a similar looking actor and god-tier makeup.
Welp.

Leia wasn't convincing, though

 

[Kralamoonard]

I had no idea Tarkin was CG. I thought that was a similar looking actor and god-tier makeup.
Welp.

Leia wasn't convincing, though

Same. Though I thought it was the same for Leia. I didn't know both were CGI until I saw some complaints on GAF.

 

[Alebrije]

Both looked extrange, Tarkin like if he came from The Order.

You can tell both were CGI from miles.

 

[SpaceWolf]

I think the fact that so many people in this thread didn't even twig onto the fact that they were looking at CGI characters with Tarkin and Leia speaks to just how much the animators managed to achieve their goal. Incredibly impressive.

 

[DOWN]

Super interesting how different everyone's eye for this is. I personally thought Leia was fantastic and Tarkin was off, but neither took me out of the story.

 

[Raptor]

Tarkin was fine IMO, Leia however the way her mouth moved seemed wrong and gave it away rigth away that was CGI.

Still not as bad as to ruin the movie at all.

 

[Ripenen]

I think the fact that so many people in this thread didn't even twig onto the fact that they were looking at CGI characters with Tarkin and Leia speaks to just how much the animators managed to achieve their goal. Incredibly impressive.

For the first few seconds I was questioning it with Tarkin. I thought he looked off and then my slow brain realized yeah there's no way he's still alive. After that it was very distracting for the rest of the scenes. The fact that Director Krennic was a bit over-acted only highlighted the weirdness.

 

[TheFuzz]

I can't even lurk in these threads anymore. The amount of "TARKIN LOOKED LIKE NES-LEVEL GRAPHICS" and other needless hyperbole ruins any meaningful discussion there is.

 

[Sectorseven]

Why was Tarkin CG, but not Mon Mothma?

 

[Deleted member 30609]

it only very very briefly touches on it in that article: why didn't they just recast the part? Does anyone have a link to a relevant interview or article?

The ethical issues are a much more interesting angle to me than the tech itself, I guess.

 

[Zombine]

I thought that they looked wonderful, and it honestly makes me hope that ILM will get the green light to update some of the CGI blunders from the Special Editions to help them blend in better with the original trilogy.

Or ya know, remove the nonsense...but if the nonsense has to remain, clean it up.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Why was Tarkin CG, but not Mon Mothma?

it only very very briefly touches on it in that article: why didn't they just recast the part? Does anyone have a link to a relevant interview or article?

Adherence to strict continuity. Probably the same reason they re-used footage of Red & Gold Leader.

Jedi's like, 3 or 4 years off, so that gives them some wiggle room to cast a woman who looks enough like Caroline Blakiston that you won't really notice/care she's not exactly the same actress from 1983.

But because the film ends literally minutes before Star Wars starts, they think "it'll break immersion if we have a completely different actor playing one part and then when you watch on home video, it's some totally new old guy in the next movie."

I mean, that's basically it. There's really no way around that. They decided to resurrect Peter Cushing, and de-age Carrie Fisher, for continuity's sake.

Which on the one hand, makes sense, but on the other, is a lot of work, a whole lot of it, with questionable returns, solely because you don't want the audience to take the two-and-a-half seconds to register that the fictional universe now has a new actor playing an old role.

(even though there's a new Mon Mothma right there, and we're about to get new Han Solo and Lando Calrissian next year, so...)

 

[MarkMclovin]

I like that he's in it, but it looked pretty obvious it was CG. I'd prefer he delivered a line or 2 with a real actors just showing the back of his head or something.

He looked older as CG.

 

[GreenMonkey]

I didn't notice Leia - it was a short scene - worked well for that.

Tarkin was very noticeable to me... don't see how people couldn't see it. My 11 yr old daughter didn't notice it, though.

I feel like they should have used a lot less Tarkin. Kept mostly to hologram time.

 

[subrock]

I definitely fell in the uncanny valley with Tarkin and Leia was a notch below. I wished they used more subtle side angle shots than showing full on square in the face ones. It was something about the skin texture and the corners of the mouth while talking that got me. Definitely thought it was better than Tron, and also hugely impressive, but my mind wouldn't accept them as real

 

[Adam_Vania]

the CGI re-creations just adds more evidence to my theory that Disney is going to remake the OT w the late 70's likenesses of all characters

 

[Gentleman Jack]

Two reasons Tarkin bugs me way more than leia. One of them is that I know Cushing is dead, so from frame one I'm looking to see if they've used a new actor or went the CG route, and the second my brain realizes it's a CG model I'm looking for those minute flaws that has it rolling back into the uncanny valley.

The second reason Tarkin bugs me is that you spend a lot more time looking at his face than Leia's. Even if I didn't know Cushing was dead I'd know something was really really off by the time it comes for Tarkin to tell Krennic he's effectively fired. The effect is over exposed. They could have avoided that.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

the CGI re-creations just adds more evidence to my theory that Disney is going to remake the OT w the late 70's likenesses of all characters

This is in no way financially viable right now. Unless they want ILM to work on nothing else for like a decade at least and spending all of that associated cost.

 

[The Lamonster]

Tarkin single handedly took the movie down a notch. It looked so jarring and bad. Reminded me of the prequel trilogy.

I don't even need to comment on Leia and the empty death stare grin she had.

this is how I feel.

 

[Adam_Vania]

This is in no way financially viable right now. Unless they want ILM to work on nothing else for like a decade at least and spending all of that associated cost.

ofc they wouldn't do this right now. they are already staggering two SW timelines w the spin offs and sequels. i think after episode IX is when they'll probably announce it. just not sure if it will be recast or not but if the tech is there then the nostalgia grab would be too strong not to CGI Luke, Leia, Han, et al again. then again maybe not, maybe they will recast it. they will have an actor who just got done portraying a young Han Solo, maybe they will just parlay that right into the remakes.

by 2050 there will be a Star Wars reboot of the entire OT, probably of the entire 9 films or however many there end of being.

 

[StarCreator]

I just saw the movie last night. I definitely became very, very distracted any time Tarkin was on screen because I kept focusing the way his facial animations had a linear quality to it - just something about the smoothness of his facial movements gave it away. Besides that, it was almost good enough that I might not have noticed on my first viewing.