Inside the 'I, Tonya' movie magic that made Margot Robbie a figure skater

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Sunday, March 4, 2018
Inside the movie magic that made Margot Robbie a figure skater
Using the latest CGI technology, Jean-Marc Demmer and his team were able to seamlessly place Margot Robbie's face on the body of an actual figure skater.

In "I, Tonya," best actress nominee Margot Robbie transforms herself into controversial figure skater Tonya Harding, a role that required five months of on-ice training and a little bit of movie magic.

Using the latest CGI technology, Jean-Marc Demmer and his team at Eight VFX were able to seamlessly place Robbie's face on the body of an actual figure skater for more complicated stunts that required a skate double.

One of the more creative approaches for the stunts was a full CGI head replacement.

"We set up a small studio on location to scan Margot Robbie's face and give us the overall head model with textures and expressions," visual effects producer Juliet Tierney said, "and used the scan to build the final CG model with four different makeup looks."