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That pipeline didn't require Pitt to be on the set with the other actors for those scenes, however. So how did they keep his performance "in contact" with his scene partners?

The link between the soundstage and the performance-capture stage was director David Fincher.

A stand-in actor performed the scenes with the other actors, giving thesps their eyeline and something to react to. Then, on the capture stage, Fincher worked closely with Pitt to make sure the performances meshed.

"Brad was able to watch a scene in its totality," says visual f/x supervisor Eric Barba. "He'd watch it a couple of times and say, 'OK, I've got it.' He was able to connect the dots and pretend he was in the scene with that other actor."

Five cameras recorded Pitt's face, and the star didn't have to wear any markers.

Fincher says: "By making the process so untechnical, by making it so he didn't have to wear markers and he didn't have to be in this giant volume, he could be in this place and we could do it. He could feel free to just play."

With five cameras recording his facial expressions, a camera could be designated to stand in for each of Pitt's scene partners. Camera 1 might be Queenie, camera 2 might be Tizzy and so on, "or we could say, 'OK, off in this direction, but very close to you,' so we could get the binocular convergence of his eyes," says Fincher. "It was kind of the most pure form of acting, because it was completely unrestrained.

In the end, says Fincher, "It's the thing that ultimately makes you like and/or love and/or empathize with Benjamin. It's not the degree to which his hair shaders are working or the degree to which his skin renders right. It's all about where his eyes are and where his smile is and what he's going through.

"It's not about whether he's believable, it's about whether he's investible. You want to invest in him. You look at him and go, 'There's my guy, that's my little guy.' "