The Blue In Their Eyes — The Tech Behind Dune 2’s Iconic Blue Eyes
Seeing someone with blue eyes is quite fascinating because they’re so rare — like winning a genetic lottery.
But apparently, that’s not the case on the planet Arrakis in the fictional world of Dune, where all the locals, known as Fremen, have this eye color.
Not only do the blue eyes look cool on screen, but the tech behind them is quite awesome too.
Most would guess that the blue color in the eyes was done in post-production by tracking their eyes. But since the Director, Dennis Villeneuve, didn’t want the blue to pop out and wanted it to appear subtle and natural, not distracting viewers while watching the film, the VFX team had to resort to an innovative solution. And the result was definitely impressive, as those who watched the film would know how natural the blue in their eyes looked.
With the rise of AI and Machine Learning, it’s no surprise that this technology has began to get adopted in filmmaking in the last few years — and Dune 2 is a prominent example of that change happening.
The technique that the Dune 2 VFX team used was Machine Learning. What they did was use the bank of hundreds of blue eye shots they had created while making Dune 1 to create an algorithm using machine learning.
The algorithm then recognized a character’s eyes in any shot and gave them a blue tint. The result was pretty natural and required minimal work compared to the other method of tracking. This must’ve saved the team hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of labor.
But what fascinates me is the creative use of innovative tech like Machine Learning in filmmaking, which is still in its early days, and the plethora of possibilities it’ll open up for the future generation of filmmakers and creators.
As this technology becomes cheaper and adopted by the masses, even independent filmmakers with shoestring budgets might be able to create the most realistic and high-quality visuals. It’ll give independent creators more power and control to bring their creative ideas to life.