[Press] Legendary actor Yusaku Matsuda will be revived in Digital Human form!
Toei Zukun Laboratory has been making continuous progress in planning, producing, researching and development of Digital Human.
As part of the innovative visual expressions of digital human technology, Toei Zukun Laboratory is virtually recreating deceased public figures to honor their achievements.
This time, they are digitizing renowned actor Yusaku Matsuda by using a combination of AI-based technologies to create his facial shape and voice, in addition to using the conventional reconstruction methods utilized by digital artists.
© Toei Zukun Laboratory
Under the mission “Design the Future”, Toei Zukun Laboratory provides various services for planning, producing, researching and development in digital human projects.
The specialized team for Digital Human was originally launched in 2017.
From 2019 to 2022, the team has focused their time and efforts specifically on research and development.
By combining Toei Zukun Laboratory’s extensive knowledge in AI-based reconstruction with Lightstage into many years of experience and know-how on producing creative content, they are pursuing the creation of new art that is one step ahead of the times.
■AI-based reconstruction
AI-based image reconstruction aims to enable machine learning applications to automatically generate an individual face model from facial samples of various individuals in high-quality 3DCG data acquired by Lightstage. For this project, new technologies were adopted for analyzing and estimating facial expressions and skin textures. In addition to the reconstruction of facial imaging, Yusaku Matsuda’s voice will also be restored by using available technology from ORENDA, a gaming development company specializing in speech synthesis and voice conversion for 3DCG production. They will be taking part in the creative direction of bringing Matsua’s voice back to life. By using the AI voice conversion technology developed by TARVO, they will aim to restore the voice of Yusaku Matsuda in all its natural glory.
■Creation of demonstration movie
In order to make this project a first step toward technological innovation of the video industry, Toei Zukun Laboratory is creating a demonstration video which will feature each aspect of technology used in digitizing Yusaku Matsuda. Miyuki Matsuda, who is handling creative rights on Yusaku Matsuda, is supervising this project. Zukun Laboratory plans to spread the possibility of digital human technology in creative content.
*Person of contact for this project:
Kazuhiko Mino（kaz_mino@toei.co.jp）
■Toei Zukun Laboratory
Official website: https://zukun-lab.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ToeiZukunLab
■ORENDA (AI voice restoration, AI voice direction)
Official website: https://orenda.co.jp/
■TARVO（provision of technology for AI voice conversion model Suara）
Official website: https://tarvo.co.jp/
■Office Saku
Official website: http://www.office-saku.com/
Yusaku Matsuda official Twitter: https://twitter.com/yusaku70
Yusaku Matsuda official Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yusaku_70_official/