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From: gregjohn
Subject: Mars needs to get the heck out of the Uncanny Valley
Date: 5 Apr 2011 07:10:01
Message: <web.4d9af7b4d78362ba34d207310@news.povray.org>
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663530/did-the-uncanny-valley-kill-disneys-cgi-company

Interesting article claims that the Uncanny Valley (UV) is what is killing the
new movie, and rightly shut down a whole division of Disney.  The UV is probably
something my work is guilty of but it epitomizes what I don't like about some
others' CG, and influences my view of encouraging "realism" in povray. I think
it's even possible to have UV landscapes or indoor scenes.

I also think that the new "Rango" movie is also guilty of some UV, and a whole
lot of "lets through a few $1E7 around for hyper-realism."  I'm actually
surprised how much good press it's getting. But I predict it won't have the
staying power in the heart of other CG movies with less realism.


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From: Invisible
Subject: Re: Mars needs to get the heck out of the Uncanny Valley
Date: 5 Apr 2011 08:09:58
Message: <4d9b0696@news.povray.org>
You know, people said Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was "creepy" 
because the characters were "too real". Apparently I am the only human 
on Earth who didn't think so... For that matter, I've yet to see a big 
budget production that suffered from CGI that was "too real". Maybe I'm 
just weird.


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From: Mike Raiford
Subject: Re: Mars needs to get the heck out of the Uncanny Valley
Date: 5 Apr 2011 09:41:09
Message: <4d9b1bf5$1@news.povray.org>
Invisible wrote:
> You know, people said Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was "creepy" 
> because the characters were "too real". Apparently I am the only human 
> on Earth who didn't think so... For that matter, I've yet to see a big 
> budget production that suffered from CGI that was "too real". Maybe I'm 
> just weird.

Yyyeah... That film was actually unwatchable for me. It wasn't that they 
were too real, but not real enough... when you get close, it starts to 
resemble animated mannequins, and quite repulsive. To the point where 
the whole movie looked stupid and poorly done, though it was probably 
good I only watched a few minutes.

The Polar Express was also similarly difficult to watch, and was a movie 
aimed at kids!

-- 
~Mike


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From: Invisible
Subject: Re: Mars needs to get the heck out of the Uncanny Valley
Date: 5 Apr 2011 10:01:00
Message: <4d9b209c$1@news.povray.org>
On 05/04/2011 02:41 PM, Mike Raiford wrote:
> Invisible wrote:
>> You know, people said Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was "creepy"
>> because the characters were "too real". Apparently I am the only human
>> on Earth who didn't think so... For that matter, I've yet to see a big
>> budget production that suffered from CGI that was "too real". Maybe
>> I'm just weird.
>
> Yyyeah... That film was actually unwatchable for me. It wasn't that they
> were too real, but not real enough... when you get close, it starts to
> resemble animated mannequins, and quite repulsive. To the point where
> the whole movie looked stupid and poorly done, though it was probably
> good I only watched a few minutes.
>
> The Polar Express was also similarly difficult to watch, and was a movie
> aimed at kids!

Polar Express was lame. (Then again, it /is/ aimed at kids...) Final 
Fantasy I watched all the way through at the cinema, and quite enjoyed. 
Sure, you can tell it's not real. But I didn't find it "creepy" in any way.


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From: nemesis
Subject: Re: Mars needs to get the heck out of the Uncanny Valley
Date: 5 Apr 2011 12:51:16
Message: <4d9b4884@news.povray.org>
Invisible escreveu:
> On 05/04/2011 02:41 PM, Mike Raiford wrote:
>> Invisible wrote:
>>> You know, people said Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was "creepy"
>>> because the characters were "too real". Apparently I am the only human
>>> on Earth who didn't think so... For that matter, I've yet to see a big
>>> budget production that suffered from CGI that was "too real". Maybe
>>> I'm just weird.
>>
>> Yyyeah... That film was actually unwatchable for me. It wasn't that they
>> were too real, but not real enough... when you get close, it starts to
>> resemble animated mannequins, and quite repulsive. To the point where
>> the whole movie looked stupid and poorly done, though it was probably
>> good I only watched a few minutes.
>>
>> The Polar Express was also similarly difficult to watch, and was a movie
>> aimed at kids!
> 
> Polar Express was lame. (Then again, it /is/ aimed at kids...) Final 
> Fantasy I watched all the way through at the cinema, and quite enjoyed.

FF had great unmatched models and CGI for the time.  But had quite poor 
plot.  I'm also assuming you haven't played any FF game ever.  They 

movie.  I don't think most people got it.

I think the UV works worse for CGI movies who go for a complete motion 
capture approach.  Polar Express had an eerie Tom Hanks mannequin and 
Beowulf had eerie (but better) mannequins of Angelina Jolie and Anthony 
Hopkins.  Not to tell character models in games these days already look 
almost as good as those.

Pixar and Disney will remain down the cartoon look, that is, cartoonish 
models with cartoony proportions filled with realistic materials and 
lights and *hand animated* for better performance than any one actor. 
Avatar came up with grown-up smurfed thundercats, but I'm wondering when 
one big company will come out with a movie employing character models 
like this one:

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=113952

-- 
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9


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From: andrel
Subject: Re: Mars needs to get the heck out of the Uncanny Valley
Date: 5 Apr 2011 18:42:02
Message: <4D9B9AB7.3010907@gmail.com>
On 5-4-2011 14:09, Invisible wrote:
> You know, people said Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was "creepy"
> because the characters were "too real". Apparently I am the only human
> on Earth who didn't think so... For that matter, I've yet to see a big
> budget production that suffered from CGI that was "too real". Maybe I'm
> just weird.

Do you have trouble judging from a face what emotion another person has?

-- 
Apparently you can afford your own dictator for less than 10 cents per 
citizen per day.


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From: Kevin Wampler
Subject: Re: Mars needs to get the heck out of the Uncanny Valley
Date: 5 Apr 2011 19:49:16
Message: <4d9baa7c@news.povray.org>
On 4/5/2011 3:41 PM, andrel wrote:
> On 5-4-2011 14:09, Invisible wrote:
>> You know, people said Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was "creepy"
>> because the characters were "too real". Apparently I am the only human
>> on Earth who didn't think so... For that matter, I've yet to see a big
>> budget production that suffered from CGI that was "too real". Maybe I'm
>> just weird.
>
> Do you have trouble judging from a face what emotion another person has?
>


Heh.  On a somewhat related tangent, this is a rather interesting online 
test of the ability to read facial expressions: 
http://glennrowe.net/BaronCohen/Faces/EyesTest.aspx  It's impressive how 
accurately most of them could be answered from what is at some level 
such a small amount of information.  I'd love to see a computer vision 
algorithm which attempts to answer questions of this form.


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From: Slime
Subject: Re: Mars needs to get the heck out of the Uncanny Valley
Date: 6 Apr 2011 01:28:40
Message: <4d9bfa08$1@news.povray.org>
> Interesting article claims that the Uncanny Valley (UV) is what is 
killing the new movie


I don't think they needed the Uncanny Valley to kill that movie. It 
looks so painful to watch. The jokes make me cringe, the characters are 
people I would never want to meet in real life, and the plot isn't 
compelling. I see little bits of potential in it, but if no one tells me 
it's a great movie, there's not enough there to drive me to see it.

  - Slime


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From: Invisible
Subject: Re: Mars needs to get the heck out of the Uncanny Valley
Date: 6 Apr 2011 03:54:05
Message: <4d9c1c1d@news.povray.org>
On 05/04/2011 11:41 PM, andrel wrote:
> On 5-4-2011 14:09, Invisible wrote:
>> You know, people said Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was "creepy"
>> because the characters were "too real". Apparently I am the only human
>> on Earth who didn't think so... For that matter, I've yet to see a big
>> budget production that suffered from CGI that was "too real". Maybe I'm
>> just weird.
>
> Do you have trouble judging from a face what emotion another person has?

Not really, no.


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From: Invisible
Subject: Re: Mars needs to get the heck out of the Uncanny Valley
Date: 6 Apr 2011 04:09:01
Message: <4d9c1f9d$1@news.povray.org>
>> Polar Express was lame. (Then again, it /is/ aimed at kids...) Final
>> Fantasy I watched all the way through at the cinema, and quite enjoyed.
>
> FF had great unmatched models and CGI for the time. But had quite poor
> plot. I'm also assuming you haven't played any FF game ever. They

> movie. I don't think most people got it.

Never played FF. But the guy next to me had. He seemed moderately impressed.

Sure, there's not much plot to it. And I never really did like films 
where absolutely everybody dies. But hey, I was just watching the 
eye-candy. ;-)

> I think the UV works worse for CGI movies who go for a complete motion
> capture approach. Polar Express had an eerie Tom Hanks mannequin and
> Beowulf had eerie (but better) mannequins of Angelina Jolie and Anthony
> Hopkins. Not to tell character models in games these days already look
> almost as good as those.

Polar Express was an unremarkable film in every respect. I don't know 
why it keeps coming up. That film had far worse problems then anything 
to do with the visual technology (which was also pretty unremarkable).

> Pixar and Disney will remain down the cartoon look, that is, cartoonish
> models with cartoony proportions filled with realistic materials and
> lights and *hand animated* for better performance than any one actor.

1. Pixar *is* Disney.

2. I see motion capture as the future. It gives you far more expression 
with far less work.

> Avatar came up with grown-up smurfed thundercats

Great visuals, a little light on story, and the pacing was really wonky. 
Still, I guess it's not like *I* could have done any better...

> http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=113952

Doesn't look especially great to me, but maybe I'm analysing it too much.


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