Man vs. Baby director addresses AI rumors and details how the infant scenes were created

It wouldn't be the Holiday season without Trevor Bingley stuck with an unusual companion. Netflix's Man vs. Baby, the sequel to its 2022 British comedy series Man vs. Bee starring Rowan Atkinson, is finally streaming. The four-part series marks the return of Atkinson's Trevor Bingley, the school caretaker who finds himself in yet another Holiday predicament when he finds an abandoned baby and is forced to babysit him.

In an age where AI-driven visuals are becoming increasingly sophisticated, it’s no surprise that viewers of Man vs. Baby found themselves questioning what was real and what was digitally crafted. Rumors began circulating online that the production had relied heavily on artificial intelligence to create the baby moments, sparking debates about authenticity, ethics and the future of filmmaking.

Finally, Man vs. Baby director David Kerr has stepped in to put an end to all the rumours and reveal the truth about Atkinson's co-lead in the show. Kerr revealed that the titular baby on-screen was a mix of real-life twins and computer-generated imagery (CGI). Since filming with infants comes with its own set of problems, especially since babies can only be on set for a maximum of 45 minutes at a time (and two hours total per day), the crew had to rely on CGI and AI tools like machine learning.

This is how Man vs. Baby team brought the titular baby to life.

Man vs. Baby director opens up about AI-enhanced and twin babies

Rowan Atkinson's Trevor Bingley is back again! This time, with another unusual companion, a six-month-old baby, who was left at the school nativity over the holidays. The recently released four-part Man vs. Baby follows Trevor as he spends yet another Holiday with an unusual companion and tries to reunite the titular baby with his parents.

Since Atkinson's co-lead in the Netflix series is a six-month-old baby, fans are naturally intrigued about him. Given the frequent use of AI and tools in Hollywood, fans are questioning the baby's authenticity, especially as he is an equal companion to Atkinson in the show. However, in a recent interview with Little Black Book, director David Kerr breaks down the behind-the-scenes secrets and how the crew brought Atkinson's co-lead to life on the screen.

If you are wondering whether the titular baby featured in Man vs. Baby is real, the answer is partly yes. The show actually cast two twin babies as the 'hero babies'. Casting twin babies for a role is a longtime Hollywood trick as it lets productions switch between the two, ensuring there’s always a calm and camera-ready little star on set. However, Kerr also revealed how they cast another pair of twin babies, older than the 'hero babies', who could crawl:

"We cast a pair of identical twins as the hero babies. We cast an additional pair of identical twins as back-ups. The backup babies were a couple of months older, so more capable of crawling. But they were about the same size as the hero babies. So we could shoot with them and do face replacement in post.''

While this part was essentially easy, Kerr did a detailed discussion with his visual effects supervisor to capture different expressions of the hero babies and place them on the older babies in post. Kerr added:

''We wanted to have a full CGI baby that looked totally indistinguishable from the hero baby, but would have exactly the action or expression any specific scene demanded. So we started with a performance capture session. Essentially pointing five cameras at each of our hero babies for a couple of hours in the hope of capturing a full gamut of expressions, waking, sleeping…"

While David Kerr and his VFX supervisor, Rob Duncan of Framestore, managed to get many shots from the hero babies in Man vs. Baby, they used machine learning on that footage to build expressions and actions that the babies hadn't delivered. Additionally, it was a slow process as a six-month-old does not respond well to being directed and works according to his whim. Kerr added:

"Framestore then applied machine learning to the resulting footage, essentially creating a library of expressions and actions, with the potential to adapt what we’d captured into further options for expressions and actions that the babies hadn’t actually delivered. In post, we drew on our databank of baby expressions to build the performances. Despite the brilliance of Framestore’s VFX team and animators, it wasn’t a case of getting instant, effortless results. It was a slow process.''

While many fans are questioning the authenticity of the titular baby in Man vs. Baby, Kerr's comments suggest that the production relied on real-life babies and their backups. While the crew relied on AI tools like machine learning and other VFX techniques, they also kept the process as authentic as possible. However, as with Man vs. Bee, where the titular co-lead was an animal, Man vs. Baby also featured an unlikely protagonist, making the filming process more challenging than usual.

Now that David Kerr has addressed the rumours about the baby in Man vs. Baby and revealed that the team did use CGI and AI tools to capture specific expressions and movements of Atkinson's co-lead, fans might get all the answers they were looking for.

Man vs. Baby is streaming on Netflix.

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