Still not out of the uncanny valley.

Tron: Legacy did a pretty good job. It wasn't perfect, but pretty good and not distracting from the story IMO. In this case the digital character was 20 years younger than the real actor so using a stunt man and replaceing the face with the real actor wouldn't work. I think that's what Hollywood really wants, the ability to make another Elvis movie as if Elvis was still here.

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I remember some of the digital face replacements done in the Matrix sequels being a bit iffy. Same tech but it seems to be getting much more capable of seamlessly combining with live action.

I think this tech is going to be best utilized in video games in the next few years. Although, personally I don't wish to design a game character to look like myself. It is more fun to be able to play as a different character IMO. I played Mass Effect as a female. Why not? If think part of it was because I wanted to see how the game would possibly differ with a female protagonist since all of the marketing was focused on the default male Shepard character. I can look at my own ugly mug in the mirror anytime, so why put it into my video games?

Gillvane said:
Tron: Legacy did a pretty good job. It wasn't perfect, but pretty good and not distracting from the story IMO. In this case the digital character was 20 years younger than the real actor so using a stunt man and replaceing the face with the real actor wouldn't work. I think that's what Hollywood really wants, the ability to make another Elvis movie as if Elvis was still here.

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Elvis versus Predator?

As for Tron: Legacy, I thought that Clu looking slightly off and with a bit of the residue of the uncanny valley effect actually worked for the story in the sense that he was like a digital clone of the uploaded persona of Jeff Bridges' character from the original film. So maybe he was not as pure of a form as the original Bridges. It works in the story since Clu is all about the supremacy of the Grid.
 
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Nektonic said:
I played Mass Effect as a female. Why not? If think part of it was because I wanted to see how the game would possibly differ with a female protagonist since all of the marketing was focused on the default male Shepard character.
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Ha, I did exactly the same thing for exactly the same reason. Maybe I'm not so strange, or maybe we're both barking. :)

Nektonic said:
As for Tron: Legacy, I thought that Clu looking slightly off and with a bit of the residue of the uncanny valley effect actually worked for the story in the sense that he was like a digital clone of the uploaded persona of Jeff Bridges' character from the original film. So maybe he was not as pure of a form as the original Bridges. It works in the story since Clu is all about the supremacy of the Grid.
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Agree.
 
Egg Born Son said:
Ha, I did exactly the same thing for exactly the same reason. Maybe I'm not so strange, or maybe we're both barking. :)
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I think part of it is that a lot of games, especially shooters, are filled with male protagonists. It has changed a bit now in the last couple years, but back when the first Mass Effect came out it seemed a bit more novel to get to play as a female (by choice too, not merely by default).
 
Still not there yet (I've worked on and off in CGI since 1988 - so have seen a lot of this next palteau stuff, which then looks dated as the next level of realism is reached)... basically, 'reality' is a moving target :)

Better to avoid the uncanny valley and go for a more stylized look... but that's not always suitable for a project.

The clip shown reminds me of the new Ad here in the UK for Galaxy (featuring a CG Audrey Hepburn head)... in trying to make it work, they've made the head blink too many times. Probably to distract attention from the eye area - but it does the opposite for me, all I see are the blinks that look fake. Still, it's another nice step forwards.

Nvidia demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5d1ZOYU4gpo#! - skip to about 8:44 - very impressive (and this is realtime on their new GPU's mega hardware).
 
Gillvane said:
Tron: Legacy did a pretty good job. It wasn't perfect, but pretty good and not distracting from the story IMO. In this case the digital character was 20 years younger than the real actor so using a stunt man and replaceing the face with the real actor wouldn't work. I think that's what Hollywood really wants, the ability to make another Elvis movie as if Elvis was still here.

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I disagree completely. I think the digital face in Tron: Legacy look terrible and I found it extremely distracting from the film. I still enjoyed the film overall, but the weirdness of the digital face really threw me off. CGI has a long way to go before I am on board. As it is now, it almost always takes me out of the film.

I prefer my movies to look like a photographic record of an event, not a video game.
 
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