Comments | jeff_duntemann: The Uncanny Valley

jeff_duntemann

The Uncanny Valley

Jul 11, 2006 16:23

Back in 2001, I saw previews of a movie called Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and my initial strong reaction was, Yukkh! That's creepy! The film attempted photorealistic human characters, and did about as well with the animation as one could do circa 2000, but many people commented that ( Read more... )

media, psychology, computing

Comments 5

billroper July 11 2006, 22:38:51 UTC

I get the impression (possibly inaccurate) that the faces of the bunraku puppets are immobile. If that's the case, then they become still objects from the POV of the watcher, I think.

jeff_duntemann July 12 2006, 02:58:49 UTC

Yes. Bunraku puppets use body language, not facial expression. They're puppet mimes.

artiephesus July 11 2006, 22:41:09 UTC

Out of curiosity, have you read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics? He talks about the topic of realism in comics in a completely different way, but it touches on this same concept, I think. In essence, he says that the further away from a detailed human a character looks, the more likely it is to have universal appeal. The more detailed and realistic the depiction, the less likely the reader is to identify.

I found it really nifty. :)

jeff_duntemann July 12 2006, 03:40:59 UTC

I read my brother in law's copy (billroper) back in the late 90s, or whenever it was that McCloud first published it.

He's dead on about that, though it's not precisely the issue at hand re: the uncanny valley. Once you begin to incorporate identifiable racial or ethnic characteristics in a comic, you're invoking cultural specifics that are tough to shake off.

I just stumbled on your LiveJournal presence--if you told me about it I apologize (old guy and all that) but until you commented on a posting I didn't know you were here.

obreerbo July 13 2006, 17:11:41 UTC

This is interesting to me, as it bears on something I've been spending a lot of time with recently, to wit, Second Life and its use of human-styled avatars. At this time, human avatars in SL would be on the left side of the Uncanny Valley, but some kind of get close to the edge. (My own, for instance, is styled to resemble me, and sometimes, when looking at it, I can feel a little freaked out...although it may just be a "This is so close to looking like me, it's freaky!" kind of reaction.) Of course, not all avatars are "human" either ( ... )