Just pretty faces?(editor's note)(Editorial)

Digital actors get no respect from film directors and producers. In most cases, that's been for good reason. The so-called "synthespians" that have made it to the big screen have appeared stiff and unnatural looking when trying to walk, talk, and act. But resistance in Hollywood to the new generation of virtual humans is out of proportion to the quality of performances they are now capable of giving.

Fortunately, this may be about to change, thanks to an initiative by Scott Billups, a renowned synthetic character creator and CG filmmaker. His strategy for finding roles for digital actors has been to create the performers in the image of Hollywood's most appealing stars and, more important, to involve the film community in the process.

Indeed, he recently asked directors, producers, actors, cinematographers, and other influential film people to pick the best-looking features of the stars. He then combined the eyes, noses, lips, and some 20 other favorite features in perfect symmetry, according to a mathematical ratio linked to natural beauty, to build an "ideal" leading man and woman (see the latest versions of the couple below and in the feature "Beautiful People," pg. 28). "An enormous number of people have contributed to this project," notes Billups, who is putting the finishing touches on the digital duo for their debut in his own short film later this year. "Hollywood is vested in this."

How good is the final outcome likely to be? Referring to the man, who is the most complete, Billups contends that "physiologically, he is the perfect representation of the contemporary concept of handsome, applied to an ancient methodology for determining beauty. In other words, he's a ...