Andy Serkis has had leading roles in mega-blockbusters that have earned over $2.5 billion worldwide. He’s the main character in a major movie opening this weekend, and this winter he’ll appear in a new 3D adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. And yet, odds are good that if you bumped into him on the street you’d have no idea he was a movie star. Because usually you never see his face. Serkis is one of the preeminent actors in the field of “performance capture.” That’s the process where an actor’s movements are recorded in three dimensions and used to create the animation of a fully digital character. Serkis broke new ground when he portrayed the computer-generated Gollum in the “Lord of the Rings” films, and he is taking the form to another level in the new film “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” More..