VFX studio explains AI technology used to cosmetically alter Hollywood actors

A Canadian VFX company has revealed a post-production trend where technology is used to cosmetically alter and enhance actors’ skin and hairlines.

The tech studio, Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (a.k.a. MARZ), founded in 2019 as a small start-up, is based in Toronto and has since done VFX work on popular Netflix series, ‘Wednesday’, along with many big blockbuster productions such ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, and ‘The Thing’.

Protecting celebrity brand

MARZ partner and chief operating officer Matt Panousis says that the industry has been shifting these visual effects subtly over time for many years in order to keep a celebrity’s “brand” consistent, and minimize the natural effects of aging.

“What you discover as you go deeper is a lot of these celebrities are brands,” Panousis said. “Like a brand that needs to remain consistent - so does a celebrity’s face.”

The COO explained that the cosmetic side of visual effects is a significant part of their business, and includes fixing imperfections as well as de-aging actors using a software that took them three years to develop called Vanity AI. The software removes acne and blemishes, bags under the eyes, and wrinkles.

“There are storyline touch-ups and then there’s the purely cosmetic, so when we say 80 to 85 percent of all productions use visual effects, a big chunk of that is just the cosmetic stuff,” Panousis explained. “Think about it, why do people like Snapchat filters? Celebrities are people too.”

MARZ visual effects

According to Panousis, what sets Vanity AI apart is that the software can predict cosmetic fixes rather than a manual alteration for each frame, and therefore demand for the product has been high among Hollywood A-listers.

“Sometimes it’s contracted, which is typically for your major A-lister celebrities who are the extreme cases,” Panousis said.

“They’ll have it built into the contracts that say, unless there’s a certain budget associated with some sort of cosmetic enhancement, they won’t do the project.

Will Vanity AI be public?

MARX intends to expand the reach of Vanity AI in 2023 and make it available to both large and small production houses.

“Democratization means bringing down the barriers to entry and making the work accessible,” Panousis declared.

“Quality VFX is something that’s only ever been available to the biggest and best productions, but if we can price it properly for these different segments in a way that is digestible, we believe that the tool is absolutely going to be used in other segments of entertainment.”