The Uncanny Valley

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Between Cartoon Mountain and Photorealism Mountain lies the deep, dark, mysterious "Uncanny Valley".

How does one describe this inexplicably ominous place? Are you among the poor, tortured souls who are lost within...?

(I know people are probably gonna post freaky pictures and I'll be afraid to look back at this topic, but I'm starting it anyway! \o/)

[DiegoPalacios]

I think it has to do with the design feeling unnatural in the context given.

For example, anime eyes look cute in anime characters,

but in real people...

[joannekwan]

Mm, I don't really feel it like other people do. Realistic robots for example, I don't think they're freaky in a normal setting, I just think 'oh honey, you tried so hard.' They're pretty amusing though.

My beef with them is that they're still a long ways from being convincing people. They're like wax sculptures from exhibits of yore or 3D sculptures of video game renderings (and have the same range of expression lol). Why design them to look human when they're not perfect yet? Just design a cool looking robot! Give 'em a Daft Punk head, that'd be neat.

I also don't mind those highly rendered mo-capped films, like Polar Express or Beowulf. Actually I was really impressed with Beowulf. At the time I saw it I had multiple moments where I couldn't tell if it was animated or shot in real life. I was like 'damn! animation's come a long way! '

[DiegoPalacios]

Why design them to look human when they're not perfect yet?

i guess those are practice runs and part of the proccess of making realistic human looking robots in the long term. Making a beautifull human sculpture is already hard. Imagine making them move, gesticulate and talk like a human.

But i completely agree they either look disturbing or funny in a dank meme kind of way.

Just design a cool looking robot! Give 'em a Daft Punk head, that'd be neat.

i completely support this suggestion. I am always in for cool robots.

[dawgofdawgness]

Lol

[joannekwan]

i guess those are practice runs and part of the proccess of making realistic human looking robots in the long term.

Keep them in the basement until they are ready LOL

[DiegoPalacios]

@dawgofdawgness

What did i just see........

Keep them in the basement until they are ready LOL

lol, a reasonable request.......but that makes basements 500% creepier, specially at night.

[amortelito]

There was a style of 2D animation that was popular among the studies that were trying to make movies similar to Disney's. I don't remember the name of the technique but everything had movement. They tried so had to make things realistic that the animation looks so forced and grotesque. If the character turned their head the hair move, the skin, even the eyelashes.
The style was "realistic" and they copied real life footage and exaggerated the gesture when drawing.

Ok sound worst when I describe it but they looked like very creepy humans because of the movements.

[qwerty]

This isn't exactly the uncanny valley but I feel like it might be somehow related - I think 2-D illustrations and animations look more appealing in general than 3-D renderings. It's not that 3-D things are creepy, they just look "sterile" a lot of the time.

[TAMAnnoying]

Haaaaa well I'm a bad person to ask this question to because while I don't get weirded out by the usual uncanny valley looks, I also cant stand looking at things like CGI, i dont know what it is but my eyes just can't unsee it. I loved Thor ragnarok but every time hela did ANYTHING actiony I'd mentally document that her CGI stunt double doing flippies and stabbing other CGI creatures.

[punkarsenic]

im curious to see this, do you know any examples?

[mrtoontastic]

The uncanniest of valleys

[mrtoontastic]

Funny enough, some of my favorite movies were animated like that. XD I often found that fascinating.

[MuffinMusing]

So the Alita comment says it all for me, but I want to throw in wax figures. There's something about seeing celebrities next to their wax selves that's just soooooo unsettling.

[Luminosophy]

Common one for me is because anime eyes take up such a huge space on the head, the nose is often pushed down really far. So sometimes you get anime style being adapted to realism without being conscious of this, all the facial proportions end up being out of whack.

I think another factor that contributes a lot is shading. When something's depicted realistically I think the brain is judging it a lot more heavily to recognize it as a face. So if it some details are off to the point where shading is missing a lot of structural notes, or some crevices are left too light, things start looking really weird. I guess it's just when elements of both are being forced together rather than harmonized.

[Luminosophy]

Was it rotoscoping?

Rotoscoping

[amortelito]

That must be the way the did it! ! In a documentary, they called it movie "full body animation" or something like that (can't remember exactly) . They explained that they reinforced face gestures making other parts move as well. If the character blinked the hair will move too. Looking at the article it mentions some movies that I love! Like Heavy Metal, makes so much since they were tracing real-life bodies in movement. Thanks for finding it!

@mrtoontastic I hated this type of movies as a child, but now I think it is very interesting!! Especially when animation was dominated by flash cartoons that moved like paper dolls. It is great that the animators took the time to make them look human.

@punkarsenic I can't remember the name or the plot of the movie I just have in mind some of the creepy movement in scenes XD I was a young child when I saw it. But there are some famous movies that have that style but way less exaggerated. Heavy Metal is a good one, also the movie Anastasia. That one doesn't look creepy but you can still see how everything moves!

[storytimebiondi]

Yup. It's like a bug-eyed Arya Stark. KInda freaks me out. But, maybe that's the point...

[ar-ninetysix]

I remember this one instance of a manga being adapted into an anime, Aku no Hana (or Flowers of Evil for those that prefer English titles). The main technique being used in it was rotoscope, and this resulted in a more realistic looking anime, different from the usual stuff we'd expect. However, the audience for the anime seemed to be pretty split with it's reception due to people either loving how the studio took a bold approach with its visuals, or hating it because it was so vastly different from how the artstyle was in the manga. I personally haven't watched it, but the visuals just make me feel so uneasy lol it makes me think that reading the manga might be a better option for me, should I ever wanna dive into that story~

Here's a trailer for it, I could only find one for the German dub for some reason, but yeah

[OttoGruenwald]

I'm trying to use the uncanny valley in my own comic. Stardust began life as a giant ball of energy from outside the universe, and so when he tries to adapt the human form he ends up being more than a little off the mark.

The uncanny valleyness of the character is implied here, but wait till you see how he forms himself in the comic!