Everybody was wondering how the team behind the last sequel of Fast and Furious, will deal with the unfinished scenes of Paul Walker, after his sudden death in November 2013. If they have chosen a new actor to replace him, I bet that all of the fans across the world would have boycotted the movie as that would have been a huge mistake. There was no doubt that each one of us wanted to see Paul on the screen, so the CGI technology sounded like the perfect solution for this problem. A digital Paul Walker had to be made.
The company that stands behind the “digital” Paul Walker in Furious 7, is the same one that has created the popular Gollum in “Lord Of The Rings”. Bryan O`Connor`s journey was finished with the help of Walker`s brothers Caleb and Coby combined with CGI. After a detailed and complicated scanning, analyzing, and choosing carefully camera angles, the team has successfully created a digital replica of Paul Walker`s face. And the final result was an astonishing 350 shots of digital Paul Walker!
However, the VFX team came upon a lot of difficulties when shooting. Because of no Paul Walker, proper motion capture was not able to be done. Because of that, the VFX team had to look for old photos and film of the actor so they can try to align it with the new motion capture technology. This may be the reason why the last scene of Furious 7 looked a bit unauthentic. It was implemented from the first film.
The difference between the real and the digital Paul Walker can be easily spotted, as the latter is shinier and brighter. Anyway, the final outcome was spectacular! The VFX team did an awesome job of blending the CGI in this movie! and we must thank the Furious 7 team for bringing Paul back to life in the movie. He will always be in our hearts!!!
Finally, read the 15 Furious 7 facts you probably never knew, bu following this link!
