http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley

My point has to do with the Uncanny Valley curve.  The UV hypothesis states that
as something becomes more lifelike, it first becomes more and more enjoyable/
empathetic and then falls off a cliff.  Something that's 3/4 realistic is just
plain creepy-- as the Richard Burton examples attest to. Then as one continues
to improve the realism, it climbs out of the valley and becomes more enjoyable.

Pixar has an "uncanny" knack for making things at the top of the first peak. I'd
much rather watch a Pixar movie than an *attempt* at a
exhaustively-photorealistic image which has fallen down one slope or the other.

I say in CG, the highest accomplishment in entertainment, in human richness,
comes in trying to find the first peak. It's an even greater "Everest" because
it requires something more than raw power.  I've seen youtube thumbnails of
people trying to make titillating images, probaly with DAZ products.  I say
it's at the very bottom of the Uncanny Valley--blecch.

Once an IRTC winner commented that he hadn't sold a single copy of his work at
zazzle.  My thought at the time is that it was that the image a great technical
achievement, but kinda "uncanny valley" in its enjoyability.

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