"The uncanny is a Freudian concept of an instance where something can be both familiar yet alien at the same time, resulting in a feeling of its being uncomfortably strange."* Put it simple: something is created to resemble something human, it looks like something human, but there's something off and you can't put your finger on it where exactly it feels wrong. This creates a paradoxical nature where you are simultaneously attracted and repulsed by the thing you're looking at.
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| The uncanny valley in animation? |
The uncanny valley, in animation or in real life, is achieved when they wanted to create something that looks as human as possible, but in fact it looks horribly eery. In real life this is usually achieved with new robots. Robots used to look as inhumane as possible, like machines, up to one point where they decided to create humanoids: robots that have proportions similar to a human body. These robots were created for research of prosthetics, companionship and personal assistance. Even more humanlike robots were then created who have a "skin" that resembles the human skin and face. While they might be produced for the same functions of companionship or assistance, I feel I would rather get help from a more robot looking creature than a human looking creature that isn't quite there yet.
How does animation fit in the uncanny valley?
One of the first names that comes to mind when asking people about animation films where they thought the characters looked eerily weird is the Polar Express. The film experimented with characters that looked as human as possible and the movements recorded through very detailed motion capture suits to create as movements in the film that were as human as possible. While the film has pretty stunning visuals (when it doesn't concern the characters), a lot of critics were horrified by the dead-looking, mannequin-like characters which kind of resembled zombies. I must honestly say I agree. The faces are stiff, the eyes look dead, which is a shame since the bodily movements are gorgeous.
Another film that gives me a bit of creeps is the Adventures of Tintin. I've never fully seen the feature, but I've watched the intro and some trailers and I'm a bit freaked out. In the beginning I was awestruck with how human it looked, that I couldn't even tell it was animated, but it was all too perfect that I started to dislike the looks. It feels like they used a human body with correct proportions and glued a head on top that is still too character looking to pull it off completely.
To what point is motion capture creepy and when is it good? It is known that motion capture is used in many films and instances, like Gollum and Davy Jones in films, but also in games like Assassin's Creed and Watchdogs. Both Gollum and Davy Jones are inhumane characters with humanlike roots, but are so far distorted from the look which we view as "human", it doesn't look weird and repulsive to us, so why does the combination of human-looking characters in gameplay and motion capture work at least more than it does in before mentioned feature films? I'm note quite sure.
Other instances of 3D animated characters which give me real bad vibes are the "Cubo girl" and Sweety (used to catch online predators.) Cubo girl is a webbrowser that lets the visitor of the webpage interact with this image of a girl. When moving the cursor, the girl follows it with her eyes while slightly turning her head. Because of the way her mouth is shaped, the colour of her eyes and the distortion to the sides of her face as she moves it around, it feels really weird looking at it.
Sweety is a computer generated young girl (created by Dutch people, get yo pride on!), used to catch online predators. They would create animations with commands for the girl which could be used as replies to the men in the chatroom with her. The combination of the human like complexion, the webcam placed at an angle where her face isn't completely visible and the quality of the webcam, it doesn't look like something is off. In fact, it looks awfully lot like a young girl sitting there. However, when I first saw the promotional video, I initially thought I was looking at footage of a real girl, but then it struck me and something was off. That was also the moment in the video in where she reveals she isn't real. I must say it's a gorgeous piece of animation, and there is so much effort put in all the detail, but honestly: there's something about her that puts me off a bit and I can't say why.
I guess that's why it's the uncanny valley, right?
*Wikipedia, the uncanny http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny, forward source http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/uncanny.html
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