The Tipping Point of Human CGI?
In Australia there is a Computer Graphics Artist named Chris Jones. He’s only recently come to my attention. But he is obviously a force to be reckoned with.
Humans are hard to nail. Our eyes register things, and our brain senses human realism that is truly difficult to duplicate. Think back through some of the previous attempts and how we just don’t take them seriously.
We actually love things that take on human characteristics. Consider Disney and you will realize that we love to anthropomorphize everything. But there is this one little problem called the Uncanny Valley that seems to separate us from true human CG success. Give Pluto the dog human characteristics? Fantastic! Super cute. Tea pot? The more the better. But when the animation becomes to literal, or attempts too much life-likeness, the opposite can happen. People talk about something strange happening around the eyes. A fear begins to wiggle in, a weirdness. Its just not right. And as we continue along the spectrum of reality the harder to watch it gets.
Well, Chris Jones seems to have come out the other side of this fear and come out completely unscathed. Take a look at a couple of his videos and consider, oh I don’t know, Polar Express while you are watching.
I am sure that we will see more from Chris Jones and his photorealistic human CGI in the future. But in the meantime, be sure to watch Chris’ short, The Passenger.