With all action, there is a reaction!

What makes an actor appealing? Is it their looks? Their personalities? At this stage, virtual actors are little more than puppets controlled by animators. They are often created to look like actors, who will give them personality. So we can not call them virtual actors; they are only digital skins!

We don't need to wait for technology to catch up to us. All of the tools we need for creating dynamic characters exist right now!

Imagine an application linked to a character, hosting the character's personality! Personalities result in a series of behavioral responses to actions.

With all action, there is a reaction!

You'll hear people say things like, "She has such a cute laugh." A joke triggers a cute laugh. Clicking on the options (actions), the user would initiate a motion, gesture, or emotion on the app. The process is not unlike the programming involved in a game.

So far, the creation of characters, animation, and programming have been kept separate. If we want virtual production to move further, we must make the techniques accessible to all. I spent my career on both ends of the spectrum, and if there is one thing I learned, technology will never replace a hundred years of accumulated knowledge.

The example of the actor behavior module can be applied to many other aspects of virtual production, such as set design and lighting. Virtual production was not born in a game engine and can't stay within those boundaries.

Content production has been forced to adapt to a foreign environment over the past few years. It is like a friend camping at your place while getting ready to move on. But you don't want him hanging around forever! A proverb says that the best way to lose a friend is to move in together.

Yet we can't deny the progress brought about by virtual production. If before, old production methods were replaced by new ones, virtual production is not a new tool but an evolution from what came before it. It is time to design a new set of tools for the none tech artists and visionaries who want to expand their horizons.