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ILM’s Pablo Helman on The Irishman‘s visual effects

By Karen Moltenbrey

When a film stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino, well, expectations are high. These are no ordinary actors, and Martin Scorsese is no ordinary director. These are movie legends. And their latest project, Netflix’s The Irishman, is no ordinary film. It features cutting-edge de-aging technology from visual effects studio Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and earned the film’s VFX supervisor, Pablo Helman, an Oscar nomination.

The Irishman, adapted from the book “I Heard You Paint Houses,” tells the story of an elderly Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran (De Niro), whose life is nearing the end, as he looks back on his earlier years as a truck driver-turned-mob hitman for Russell Bufalino (Pesci) and family. While reminiscing, he recalls the role he played in the disappearance of his longtime friend, Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), former president of the Teamsters, who famously disappeared in 1975 at the age of 62, and whose body has never been found.

The film contains 1,750 visual effects shots, most of which involve the de-aging of the three actors. In the film, the actors are depicted at various stages of their lives — mostly younger than their present age. Pacino is the least aged of the three actors, since he enters the story about a third of the way through — from the 1940s to his disappearance three decades later. He was 78 at the time of filming, and he plays Hoffa at various ages, from age 44 to 62. De Niro, who was 76 at the time of filming, plays Sheeran at certain points from age 20 to 80. Pesci plays Bufalino between age 53 and 83.

For the significantly older Sheeran, during his introspection, makeup was used. However, making the younger versions of all three actors was much more difficult. Indeed, current technology makes it possible to create believable younger digital doubles. But, it typically requires actors to perform alone on a soundstage wearing facial markers and helmet cameras, or requires artists to enhance or create performances with CG animation. That simply would not do for this film. Neither the actors nor Scorsese wanted the tech to interfere with the acting process in any way. Recreating their performances was also off the table.

“They wanted a technology that was non-intrusive and one that would be completely separate from the performances. They didn’t want markers on their faces, they did not want to wear helmet cams and they did not want to wear the gray [markered] pajamas that we normally use,” says VFX supervisor Helman. “They also wanted to be on set with theatrical lighting, and there wasn’t going to be any kind of re-shoots of performances outside the set.”

In a nutshell, ILM needed a markerless approach that occurred on-set during filming. To this end, ILM spent two years developing Flux, a new camera system and software, whereby a three-camera rig would extract performance data from lighting and textures captured on set and translate that to 3D computer-generated versions of the actors’ younger selves.

The camera rig was developed in collaboration with The Irishman’s DP, Rodrigo Prieto, and camera maker ARRI. It included two high-resolution (3.8K) Alexa Mini witness cameras that were modified with infrared rings; the two cameras were attached to and synched up with the primary sensor camera (the director’s Red Helium 8K camera). The infrared light from the two cameras was necessary to help neutralize any shadows on the actors’ faces, since Flux does not handle shadows well, yet remained “unseen” by the production camera.

Flux, meanwhile, used that camera information and translated that into deformable geometry mesh. “Flux takes that information from the three cameras and compares it to the lighting on set, deforms the geometry and changes the geometry and the shape of the actors on a frame-by-frame basis,” says Helman.

In fact, ILM continued to develop the software as it was working on the film. “It’s kind of like running the Grand Prix while you’re building the Ferrari,” Helman adds. “Then, you get better and better, and faster and faster, and your software gets better, and you are solving problems and learning from the software. Yes, it took a long time to do, but we knew we had time to do it and make it work.”

Pablo Helman (right) on The Irishman set.

At the beginning of the project, prior to the filming, the actors were digitally scanned performing a range of facial movements using ILM’s Medusa system, as well as on a light stage, which captured texture info under different lighting conditions. All that data was then used to create a 3D contemporary digital double of each of the actors. The models were sculpted in Autodesk’s Maya and with proprietary tools running on ILM’s Zeno platform.

ILM applied the 3D models to the exact performance data of each actor captured on set with the special camera rig, so the physical performances were now digital. No keyframe animation was used. However, the characters were still contemporary to the actors’ ages.

As Helman explains, after the performance, the footage was returned to ILM, where an intense matchmove was done of the actors’ bodies and heads. “The first thing that got matchmoved was the three cameras that were documenting what the actor was doing in the performance, and then we matchmoved the lighting instruments that were lighting the actor because Flux needs that lighting information in order to work,” he says.

Helman likens Flux to a black box full of little drawers where various aspects are inserted, like the layout, the matchimation, the lighting information and so forth, and it combines all that information to come up with the geometry for the digital double.

The actual de-aging occurs in modeling using a combination of libraries that were created for each actor and connected to and referenced by Flux. Later, modelers created the age variations, starting with the youngest version of each person. Variants were then generated gradually using a slider to move through life’s timeline. This process was labor-intensive as artists had to also erase the effects of time, such as wrinkles and age spots.

Insofar as The Irishman is not an action movie, creating motion for decades-younger versions of the characters was not an issue. However, a motion analyst was on set to work with the actors as they played the younger versions of their characters. Also, some visual effects work helped thin out the younger characters.

Helman points out that Scorsese stressed that he did not want to see a younger version of the actors playing roles from the past; he wanted to see younger versions of these particular characters. “He did not want to rewind the clock and see Robert De Niro as Jimmy Conway in 1990’s Goodfellas. He wanted to see De Niro as a 30-year-younger Frank Sheeran,” he explains.

When asked which actor posed the most difficulty to de-age, Helman explains that once you crack the code of capturing the performance and then retargeting the performance to a younger variation of the character, there’s little difference. Nevertheless, De Niro had the most screen time and the widest age range.

Performance capture began about 15 years ago, and Helman sees this achievement as a natural evolution of the technology. “Eventually those [facial] markers had to go away because for actors, that’s a very interesting way to work, if you really think about it. They have to try to ignore the markers and not be distracted by all the other intrusive stuff going on,” Helman says. “That time is now gone. If you let the actors do what they do, the performances will be so much better and the shots will look so much better because there is eye contact and context with another actor.”

While this technology is a quantum leap forward, there are still improvements to be made. The camera rig needs to get smaller and the software faster — and ILM is working on both aspects, Helman says. Nevertheless, the accomplishment made here is impressive and groundbreaking — the first markerless system that captures performance on set with theatrical lighting, thanks to more than 500 artists working around the world to make this happen. As a result, it opens up the door for more storytelling and acting options — not only for de-aging, but for other types of characters too.

Commenting on his Oscar nomination, Helman said, “It was an incredible, surreal experience to work with Scorsese and the actors, De Niro, Pacino and Pesci, on this movie. We are so grateful for the trust and support we got from the producers and from Netflix, and the talent and dedication of our team. We’re honored to be recognized by our colleagues with this nomination.”


Karen Moltenbrey is a veteran writer, covering visual effects and post production.


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