This 11-Second Video Of Jack Black's Face Will Blow Your Mind And Freak You Out
While new technology can be a major asset, it's natural for it to bring concerns. Big changes are coming to film and television due to AI, and that's not the only industry that tech is looking to disrupt. Another area of interest to the entertainment field is hyper-advanced 3D imaging, which could create more realistic images of people, and Şefki Ibrahim posted an 11-second video on X (formerly known as Twitter) that's bound to impress and perhaps even terrify.
I made a character course (link in bio) #3dcharacter #photorealism #animation #3dart #jackblack pic.twitter.com/NOOJQQMmkD
— Şefki Ibrahim (@sefkiibrahim) April 30, 2024
The video shows a close-up of actor Jack Black's face. It looks astonishingly real, especially when it provides a close-up of his eyes with the pupils contracting and eyelids moving subtly. One would be forgiven for assuming it's just a short video of Black himself, but Ibrahim links to a website in his bio about 3D character creation software that can make super-realistic images like this one.
Numerous comments praise the video, highlighting how it looks like a real person, which also raises some cause for concern. While there will likely be a ways to go before having such a realistic image speak and move naturally, it shows what direction technology is heading, and the world's going to have to figure out how to navigate people creating images of others doing whatever they want.
Will the Jack Black face video pave the way for more replicas?
Jack Black will next appear in "Borderlands" voicing Claptrap, a movie that's bound to blow everyone away in 2024. As such, it may have been odd to see people talking about Black this far in advance from the film premiere, but it's due to something the actor wasn't even involved in. This video involves years of hard work from Şefki Ibrahim, who has been talking about utilizing this technology to create photo-realistic images of humans for quite some time.
Back in 2019, he spoke with 80 Level about the challenges of getting digital people to look just right. "The hardest thing with digital humans is getting them to feel relatable," Ibrahim said. "There's a fine line: if something feels a little off, you dip into the uncanny valley, which can distract from your hard work. Usually, that 'thing' is the eyes." That article is accompanied by numerous images that look like PS4 video game characters and show how far he's come with the new Jack Black face video.
A major source of contention for the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike was the use of AI to replace performers. Ultimately, a deal was reached where studios will require consent from performers to replace them with any AI likeness, complete with compensation. Ibrahim's CGI creation shows how studios could replace actors in the future. After attaining consent, actors could be created digitally and put into a movie without the performer needing to lift a finger. It's not fully AI, as a real person used CGI to create the Jack Black image, but a merging of the technologies could lead to some interesting developments in the years to come.