After being impressed by the computer graphics in Avatar this weekend, I thought that this would be a great time to bring up the concept of the uncanny valley in 3D character animation and discuss some examples from recent films.
Photo by Listen Missy! on Flickr
The term actually refers to a phenomenon experienced with robots designed to look human, in which a person’s emotional response to robot design is increasingly positive as the design becomes more human-like, but only to a point. Designs that are very close to human but fall short tend to have an eerie quality, and these are considered to be in the uncanny valley. Both in robots and animation, the response can be different depending on whether the robot or character is in motion.
Let’s start at the safe end. There are many great examples from Pixar where humans are rendered in a cartoon style, perhaps most notably The Incredibles and Up. The artists at Pixar also excel at portraying human emotion and storytelling via non-human forms.
The Incredibles, Pixar Animation Studios, 2004
To come a few steps closer I’ll take a side step into the video game arena, where we have fine examples of anime-style characters rendered in 3D from Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series. There are many fan sites that have screenshots from the full motion video sequences in these games. Being familiar with anime, these characters don’t seem as strange to me as they might to someone else, but I think that the use of this style does place them in an intermediate zone that isn’t quite at the valley, but perhaps approaches it.
When the Final Fantasy brand hit the big screen with The Spirits Within, Square Pictures had done a fantastic job with the digital models, particularly for Aki, the main character. At the time, though, we still hadn’t perfected the look of skin, and to do that well also requires significantly more computation. I also think this was about the time when we were just starting to develop face tracking algorithms to capture the facial motions of actors, so the lip syncing also was not as good as it is today. These close-but-not-quite qualities are what give viewers an eerie feeling.
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Square Pictures, 2001
I’ve heard some people say that Beowulf didn’t look right either, but I thought it was amazing. I hadn’t seen this movie until it came out for rent and hadn’t read about it much, so as I was watching I didn’t realize that it was an entirely CG film until a minute or so after the camera was focused on the characters in the first scene. After that point the fact that it was entirely digital never distracted me from the story. This makes me wonder if the effect is reduced if you’ve seen enough CG films.
No matter how many CG films you’ve seen, though, I think that the work done by Weta Digital on Gollum in The Lord of the Rings surpasses the valley. State of the art face tracking, motion capture, and rendering algorithms combined in the hands of that team to integrate a highly compelling digital character with a real environment. Although… I guess Gollum is supposed to be eerie, so maybe he’s not a great example.
Gollum, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Weta Digital, 2001-2003
Avatar showcases what the state of the art can do today. From what little I’ve read so far, the motion capture system used here afforded James Cameron a real-time virtual rendering of the scene, allowing him to adjust the camera and order new takes as if they were working on a real set. There were also improvements to face tracking and rendering algorithms that might make you wonder if you’re watching real actors in makeup. It’s really amazing how far this craft has come.
Avatar, Lightstorm Entertainment, 2009
What do you think? Have you seen other movies that have (or even exploit) that eerie quality, or are great examples of avoiding or surpassing the valley?
Filed under: Film, Technology
October 13th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Not that I’m twisted or anything but I wonder if the uncanny valley repulsion effect still works if you can see the avatar *naked*.
Yes Aki looks freakish and it would be somewhat uncomfortable sitting across a booth in some restaurant with her but I wonder if the same effect would be had if she was pole-dancing instead…
Someone has to do an experiment!
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