Shrek and Mike and Sulley: Real or real-like? Shrek courtesy of DreamWorks Pictures. Monsters, Inc. © Disney/Pixar. All rights reserved.

Unlike today’s virtual characters, the early counterparts in feature films created during the early 1990s had very limited screen time and limited performances. At most these early virtual characters had just a handful scenes of screen time and typically their performances were action-oriented, and silent to avoid lip-synching. Because of these limitations, experts argue that many of these creatures are more sophisticated visual effects than virtual characters, especially because most lack the emotional range that human characters can convey. But in spite of these limitations, some of these characters were nevertheless impressive at the time and some are still memorable. The main character in Terminator 2, the ‘91 landmark James Cameron film boasting computer animation by ILM, for example, was the first convincing simulation of natural human motion; it featured innovative three-dimensional morphing effects, and was rendered with global reflections, and even a few self-reflections in the scene when the virtual actor walks through the metal bars.

Steven Spielberg’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1993), also done by ILM, is another example of early virtual characters using inverse kinematics skeletons with attached skins, local deformations for simulated muscles and hyperrealistic rendering. Jurassic Park was also the first example of a computer-generated human stunt double (the man in the portable toilet that gets eaten by the T-Rex). Digital doubles can be considered minor virtual characters since they look and act in a realistic way, but their performances are limited. Digital human doubles have become a staple technique that can be seen in most action movies, including Titanic (1997), The Matrix (1999), Pearl Harbor (2001), xXx (2002) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). CG-stunt doubles are usually animated with motion capture, as was the case, for example, with the digital extras on the deck of the Titanic ship.

Recent Virtual Characters
The end of the 1990s and the early years of the 21st century exploded with movie productions that sought to incorporate CG-animated virtual creatures. Most of these can be catalogued in three groups: the virtual attackers (usually monsters), the virtual heroes (usually human) and cartoon characters in a live- action world.

Reign Of Fire featured flying dragons. © Spyglass Entertainment Group.

Virtual attackers from this period usually include beasts or monsters that oftentimes attack as a group. Consider, for example, the morphing female character in Species (1995); the wild animals in Jumanji (1995) and their large scale of rendered fur; the masses of intergalactic bugs in Starship Troopers (1997) and Pitch Black (2000); the evil robot in Sphere (1998); Godzilla (1998); the running corpses in The Mummy (1999); The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), with its artificially intelligent crowds of virtual characters; the flying dragons in Reign of Fire (2002); and the underworld monsters in Lara Croft: The Cradle of Life (2003).

Virtual computer-generated heroes from these years are usually intercut with the human live-action versions of the character; this practice requires a high degree of realistic rendering. In Dragonheart (1996), the computer-generated dragon was, for the first time ever, the co-star of the movie. Remember the dramatic sequences in Spawn (1997) that combined realistic rendering with exaggerated keyframe animation; Mighty Joe Young (1998), with both the hyperrealistic virtual version and the “rubber-suit” version; the main character in Stuart Little (1999), with its innovative combination of cartoon and realistic action; the twisted scientist in Hollow Man (2000); and the short sequences where the human character was virtual to perform acrobatics in Blade 2, Daredevil, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Spider-Man, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and X2: X-Men United (2003) follow a newer trend where both heroes and villains are virtual.