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3D scanning

How 3D Scanning Helped Create Elizabeth for a BioShock Infinite Commercial

Anna Moleva was scanned with an Artec Eva for an official BioShock Infinite commercial. The scan supported the ad’s digital Elizabeth, but the evidence does not show it created the game’s original character model.

By VGSources Team 3 min read
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3D scanning helped create the promotional digital version of Elizabeth seen in an official BioShock Infinite commercial—not, on the evidence available, the original in-game character. Irrational Games scanned Russian cosplayer Anna Moleva with an Artec Eva, capturing her face and multiple expressions for use in the advertisement. That distinction matters: the scan supplied a real person’s likeness and facial data, but it did not by itself create a finished, animated game character.

Why a real person was scanned for Elizabeth

Elizabeth is central to BioShock Infinite, and her expressiveness helped the character feel human in promotional imagery. For an official television commercial and related marketing, the production used Anna Moleva, a Russian cosplayer whose appearance closely resembled Elizabeth’s. Moleva’s likeness was used for the commercial’s digital representation of the fictional character; that does not make her the character’s voice actor, original in-game face model, or conceptual source. GamesBeat’s 2013 account describes the scan in the context of the advertisement.

What the Artec Eva captured

Artec says the team used its handheld, color-capable Eva scanner to capture Moleva’s facial surface and several emotional expressions. The company reported that scanning and processing took approximately one hour. That figure covers the scan and its processing as described by the manufacturer, not the full commercial’s production time. Artec’s production account identifies the device, subject, expressions, approximate duration, and commercial use.

A 3D scan is more than a photograph: it records a surface as spatial data, with color information depending on the scanner and capture. Scanning multiple expressions gives artists three-dimensional reference for how the face changes, rather than only a neutral head shape. It does not automatically produce a facial-animation system or preserve the performer’s voice, timing, eye performance, or body movement.

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From captured data to a digital performance

The documented stages are facial scanning, expression capture, data processing, and use of the resulting data in the commercial. The sources do not detail the project’s subsequent asset pipeline. In a typical character workflow, artists may need to clean and adapt scan geometry, prepare textures, build or adjust a rig, and animate the face before it can be rendered and composited into a finished advertisement. Those are general production steps, not confirmed specifics of this Elizabeth commercial.

This is why scanning is best understood as a capture method rather than a photorealism button. It can provide facial proportions, surface detail, and expression-specific reference quickly, but the final result still depends on artistic decisions and downstream work. A scan of one person also does not supply Elizabeth’s full character, costume, hair, body, or animation.

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Was Anna Moleva’s scan used in the game?

The cited accounts place the scan in an official television commercial and marketing campaign. They do not establish that Moleva’s scan was used to build the original playable Elizabeth model in BioShock Infinite. It is therefore more accurate to say that scanning helped create the commercial’s digital Elizabeth than to say the game’s Elizabeth was made from Moleva’s scan.

That distinction separates several things often collapsed into the phrase “Elizabeth’s face”: the fictional character’s design, the game’s in-engine model and animation, any voice or performance work, and the likeness used in promotional CGI. The available reporting connects Moleva’s scan to the last of these, not demonstrably to the game asset pipeline.

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Why the technique drew attention in 2013

3D scanning was not new; GamesBeat noted that the technology had existed for decades. What was changing was access. An Artec representative told GamesBeat that scanners costing around $150,000 several years earlier had become much more affordable, describing an approximate 90% reduction. That is the representative’s historical estimate, not a verified industry-wide price trend.

The Elizabeth commercial illustrates how scanning was becoming practical for character and marketing work: a real performer’s face and expressions could be captured for digital use without treating scanning as a replacement for modeling or animation. Artec’s current Eva product page lists up to 0.1 mm accuracy, 0.2 mm 3D resolution, 16 frames per second, and 1.3-megapixel texture resolution. These are current product-page specifications, not established specifications for the hardware or software used in the 2013 shoot.

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What the scan does—and does not—tell us

  • It does tell us: Anna Moleva was scanned with an Artec Eva for an official commercial; multiple expressions were captured, and Artec reported about an hour for scanning and processing.
  • It does not tell us: that the scan generated the game’s original Elizabeth model, that Moleva supplied voice or motion capture, or how the commercial’s downstream cleanup, rigging, animation, and rendering were performed.
  • It does not mean: the scan alone produced a finished character. It provided useful facial and expression data that artists could turn into a digital advertising asset.

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