EXTREMELY LIFELIKE CHARACTERS are expected to make a huge hit in films and games as the latest technology hits a peak.

A new modelling technology is able to capture and recreate the minutest details of a facial expression, making it the first of its kind to break down the barrier that says animation looks less realistic as it reaches human likeness.

The first step of this process began as simply as researchers at a Californian company breaking down the facial movements of a colleague talking and giving each move a 'control system'.

Image Metrics, who created graphics for Grand Theft Auto, recreated the gestures captured in a model, this process then helped overcome the common problems with human animations.

Mike Starkenburg, chief operating officer of Image Metrics explained that, " Ninety per cent of the work is convincing people that the eyes are real."

"The subtlety of the timing of eye movements is a big one. People also have a natural asymmetry - for instance, in the muscles in the side of their face. Those types of imperfections aren't that significant but they are what makes people look real," he continued.

Previous methods for the same purpose such as placing dots on the face haven't been as successful, as Image Metrics process analyses the individual pixels meaning that subtle variations in facial movement can be tracked.

CGI has also progressed in recent years, by placing an actor inside a huge metallic orb which fires around 3,000 lights from many different angles and intensity.

The image captured by a camera can then be transported into another piece of film and the lighting effect chosen according to the ambient lighting in the scene – meaning the road ahead for multi-million pound actors could be a little darker than this process.

Raja Koduri, chief technlology officer in graphics at AMD, reckons that "the line between what was real and what was rendered would not be blurred completely until 2020."

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