Awesome Deepfake

Heath Ledger’s performance as Joker in The Dark Knight is legendary. Thanks to deepfake technology, we can now see what his performance might have looked like had Heath not been wearing any makeup. GdaTyler VFX put together this video which used an AI trained on the actor’s uncovered face. It’s far from perfect, but it’s still fascinating to watch.

Robert Pattinson’s take on Batman was pretty great. But in our hearts, the One True Batman will always be Adam West, whose colorful version of Gotham’s hero gave us classics like “Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb.” Thanks to the VFX wizards at Corridor, 1960s Batman is back, deepfaked into Matt Reeves’ The Batman.

Remember the part of The Matrix where Neo took the red pill? What if he took the blue pill instead? Ctrl Shift Face and VFX artist Chris Ume make us wonder no longer, with the help of some deepfake tech. If the concept seems familiar, you might recall this mashup. VFX breakdown and comparison clip here.

Paul McCartney gets gracefully de-aged in the imaginative music video for the song Find My Way, a track which truly sounds like equal parts McCartney and Beck. We’re not sure Macca ever had those dance moves even when he was younger. Directed by Andrew Donoho, co-produced by digital avatar maker Hyperreal Digital.

Trekkies either love or hate the J.J. Abrams-produced “Kelvin Timeline” Star Trek movies. But maybe the haters would like them more if they starred the cast of The Original Series. Well, thanks to Futuring Machine, deepfake tech, and some clever editing, we no longer need to wonder what that might have been like.

When Solo: A Star Wars Story came out, we struggled a bit with someone other than Harrison Ford playing Han Solo. There was nothing wrong with Alden Ehrenreich’s performance, but we missed Harrison’s familiar smirk and gravelly voice. Now, thanks to deepfake expert Shamook, we at least have the proper visuals.

Superpop group Black Eyed Peas pays tribute to Bollywood with a fun music video that features footage from six awesomely over-the-top action flicks from India, then deepfaking themselves into the sequences. From the album Translation.

At one point, John Travolta was offered the part of Forrest Gump, but he turned it down to do Pulp Fiction instead. But with the help of Shamook and deepfake technology, we can now see how the Bob Zemeckis classic might have turned out had the original casting held. Now we want to see Tom Hanks as Vincent Vega.

We’ve seen what Full House might have looked like if it Nick Offerman had played all the characters on the show, now DrFakenstein has created a much more plausible deepfake video, in which the only character on Parks and Recreation is the gruff, but lovable Ron Swanson.

Actor Burt Reynolds famously turned down the role of James Bond after Sean Connery stopped playing the character. But thanks to the wonders of machine learning tech, we can now see what that might have looked like, courtesy of deepfake expert Shamook, who inserted the actor’s visage into scenes from Dr. No.

We’ve already seen how computer graphics tech can be used to replace Back to the Future’s DeLorean with a Cybertruck. Now watch as Spider-Man’s Tom Holland and Iron Man’s Robert Downey, Jr. are placed into the roles of Marty McFly and Doc Brown, courtesy of EZRyderX47 and some sophisticated deepfaking software.

Deepfake technology can certainly be used for evil. But it also can be used to amuse, by faceswapping people into unexpected and hilarious situations. Crookedpixel used the tech to put Mr. Bean into a sexy commercial for Dior J’adore Absolu perfume, and now our libido is highly confused. Original commercial here.

Jim Meskimen is one of the most talented impressionists out there. But while he can work wonders with his voice, he still can’t look like the celebs he impersonates. But with the help of AI tech, Sham00K was able to do just that, creepily transforming Jim’s face to match his vocals.

A husband and wife go to a high-tech “fantasy suite” to spice up their love life, but all is not how it appears in this Einat Tubi and David Gidali’s dark science fiction short that uses deepfake technology to power its potent social commentary.

Deepfakes can be used for harm, but they can also make us laugh our asses off. This clip from Dr. Fakenstein falls into the latter category, as he used the AI tech to swap the mustachioed face of Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) onto every character in the opening credits of Full House.

(PG-13: Language) Thanks to the wonders of digital video effects, deepfake channel Ctrl Shift Face managed to transplant the face of Jim Carrey onto the head of Jack Nicholson, making classic scenes from Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation The Shining just that much more terrifying. Be sure to watch Episode 2 and Episode 3.

While the title doesn’t make sense when you think about it, we are impressed by the face-swapping work that Ctrl Shift Face managed to do in grafting Heath Ledger’s looks from The Dark Knight onto his head from A Knight’s Tale, thus explaining how he really got his scars.