ComingSoon.net has posted a picture of Tom Hanks’ character in The Polar Express taken from the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly (go to ComingSoon.net for larger version). The magazine also explains how the film is being made.

[Writer/Director Robert] Zemeckis is employing motion-capture technology to place Hanks inside what he calls a “moving painting” version of Allsburg’s award-winning 1985 book. Hanks didn’t have to wear a conductor costume on the set – just a leotard festooned with infrared-beam receptors and some 165 freckle-like reflective dots glued to his face. “It’s not animation,” says Zemeckis of the results. “It’s got all the subtlety and warmth of a human performance.”