(Re)Animating Stanislavsky: realizing aliveness in the virtual actor

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper describes my initial attempts to create a believable Virtual Actor: an autonomous computer graphic character depiction that can convincingly portray actions and emotions in-the-moment, in real-time response to given circumstances of a dramatic context. The focus here is on the journey so far; and on some of the discoveries and realizations that have emerged from research and creative processes which have been brought into play. Konstantin Stanislavsky soon emerges in this process as a critical point of reference and inspiration – not only because of his own lifelong quest for means and methods to create ‘life in art’, but also as a compelling subject upon which to base the virtual actor’s likeness. We are thus placed in a dialogue with Stanislavsky’s legacy, and I am able to extend his notion of life in art on the stage to a more generalized ‘beyond life’ concept of aliveness. This is useful as it applies to character portrayal both in theatre and in in mediated forms such as animation, film and autonomously driven real-time computer graphic imagery. Along the way we also encounter historic and contemporary approaches to emotion, animation practice, and Artificial Intelligence in the form of Machine Learning. Graphical Abstract