On the 3d scans I wonder why such a big film is using that process. Put simply, because theres a budget for it and it makes the process of creating digi doubles a bit easier. Not 'really' easy but a likeness is gained alot quicker. No scan is perfect at any cost. Theres always something wrong. How real you wish to make it is up to you. Well on a film, any film, you will want it as near as damn it, otherwise it will keep coming back for correcting or we'd all be sticking in generic characters and saying, 'yeah thats supposed to be Vin Diesel we just removed the hair....' Also the point of the scan data is to provide you with a best possible result, then the photo ref taken is used for textures and other additions to the process. The rest is down to the skills of the artist. As John has stated, time is a key factor in all of this. Sometimes the actor can only be used for like 5 mins so you may not get a scan at all and only be supplied with 4 to 5 images of that one person. I had exactly that with Abigail Breslin for Enders Game and all were out of focus too, so I had to dig up pics of her from google of about the same age to complete the job. Most studios will have a generic head to work from so the need to build from scratch everytime isnt required, though topo changes will be. No, the work isnt hard to do, its just very time consuming and labour intensive. People need to be aware of this, thats why I always say learn the fundamentals, do it from the ground up, then when a quick button solutionn is presented then you'll know what to do when it needs fixing. anyway another 10 pence of industry experience for you Jay