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Oct 13

Click opera – The uncanny valley by imomus(link)

I recently read the article on the blog by imomus, Click Opera. There is an interesting article on the “uncanny valley” theory of robotics, and how it relates to CGI* animated humans.

‘This principle states that as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response of a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathetic, until a point is reached at which the response suddenly becomes strongly repulsive. Thenceforth, as the appearance and motion are made to be indistinguishable to that of a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-human empathy levels.’

Personally, I am more fond of the PIXAR school of CGI humans, which will be showcased in the upcoming movie: the Incredibles. For The Incredibles examples, check out my Pixar post bellow. Two examples of creepy humans in CGI Animation are Final Fantasy: the movie and the upcoming Polar Express. I think they look real, but they don’t feel real.

The article is fascinating and the comments after are worth the read. Check it out at: http://www.livejournal.com/users/imomus/53978.html



*CGI=Computer Graphics Imaging. Most people connect this with 3D graphics, but can apply to any other work that is mostly created on a computer including: flash animation, motion graphics, and video games.