As Ed Ulbrich addressed the crowd at TED2009, Twitter came alive with statements of amazement and admiration. He was explaining the role of technology in recent blockbuster “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Let’s roll the latest tweets:

TED Live: Ed Ulbrich says his team of artists & technologists made a breakthrough in digital animation with Benjamin Button. True that. — brainpicker

For the first hour of Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt was 100% digital from the neck up. — cherot

For the Curious Case of Benjamin Button the producers rejected state of the art and turned to a “technology stew” for inspiration #TED -cool — jordanayan

TED they smeared phosphorus on the “current” young Brad and filmed him making various facial expressions. Then, they aged the head. — laureltouby

ed ulrich at ted: ‘we ended up with a 3d database of everything that brad pitt’s face is capable of doing.’ (crowd laughs) — jenny8lee

Great #TED talk on the tech behind Benjamin Button: “We created a [digital] puppet that Brad Pitt could operate with his face.” — timoreilly

The making of ‘Benjamin Button’ is so much more complex than I ever imagined! Lots of respect for Ed Ulbrich-creating the digital human #TED — sweetriot

The verdict is in — TED2009 is impressed.