Week 5: Contextual Review

The first research assignment was completed and handed in today. I'm still feeling there's a lot of wiggle room for my ideas, but I am hugely interested in CG characters and motion capture. I have been studying the use of motion capture in films such as "Avatar" (2009) and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (2008) and how to create a sense of realism in completely CG characters. The concept of "The Uncanny Valley" proved to be a greatly important factor to consider.

Contextual Review:

Visual effects in story-telling: Problems creating believable CG characters and the Uncanny Valley

        The exploration of a story needs a character to travel through it. Just as a character is nothing without a story. This creates the idea that character and story are hugely linked. Without a character for the audience to empathise and connect with, to share human experiences with, the audience can have no emotional attachment to the story. The connection between the audience and the character is vital for the telling of the story. There are many other tools involved in the story-telling process, as Bryan Jones, a freelance digital compositor Explains:

“visual effects have reached the point where they can no longer be distinguished from photographed reality, regardless of how fantastic the filmmaker’s vision. Used wisely […] digital effects can be a powerful and invaluable part of the contemporary storytelling toolset.”
(Bryan Jones, 2008, P: 6)

Technological growth has undoubtedly opened up a new world of possibilities in regards to story-telling through film. With these possibilities however, comes more learning and more problems to over-come. Being a freelance compositor, Jones’ opinion is naturally in favour of visual effects as a tool in story-telling. Although he does use the term ‘used wisely’ suggesting that there is always a time and a place for visual effects. This brief display of Jones’ opinion was selected and used in a paper for a visual effects seminar, so naturally, any information from this would be one-sided and with little argument against its use. Additionally the paper has likely taken his words out of context and used them to portray their own message. However, visual effect artists, in regards to creating believably human CG characters in films, definitely have a few obstacles to face in the process. In many cases where film and games try to create close-to-life human CG characters, there is one trap that many fall into; and that is the “uncanny valley”. This concept, although originally referring to robotics, also applies to CG characters in films.

             It is said that as characters “appear more humanlike, our sense of their familiarity increases until we come to a valley…the ‘uncanny valley’.” (Karl F. MacDorman and Takashi Minato, 2005, p: 1). A character has to display human traits and emotions for the audience to be able to relate to them. MacDorman and Minato’s use of the terms ‘human-like’ and ‘familiarity’, express the idea that the closer the character gets to being human, the more the audience can empathise with them. However, they also clarify that, further down the line, there comes a point when the audience then disengage from the character.

          David. F Gallagher of the New York Times, mentions his opinion that the “[‘uncanny valley’] is the no man’s land where artificial humans look both realistic and unrealistic at the same time” (David Gallagher, 2007). Gallagher, being a journalist for the New York Times, is writing this article geared for the paper’s readers who may not be aware of this process. This first statement, although not particularly clear as it stands, is developed as he then goes on to discuss the ‘uncanny valley’ effect in ‘Beowulf’ (2007), explaining that “it’s impossible to watch ‘Beowulf’ without sensing that the ‘actors’ are being pushed around by invisible forces” (David Gallagher, 2007). Gallagher seems to propose that, although highly complex in technique and appearance, there is something unnatural about the performances. His mentioning of ‘invisible forces’ portrays the thought that perhaps the technology is in control of the performance as opposed to the actor/animator. He then goes on to say that he feels something is ‘missing’ (David Gallagher, 2007) from the characters, but admits he is unsure of what that is exactly. This could be interpreted to mean that the audience’s reaction is the result of something subconscious, something we as humans do or observe without realising. Gallagher’s opinion may appear to be somewhat unrehearsed in detail, but it definitely reflects the idea of a typical person’s view on the subject. His writing, also conveys an air or ignorance to specific information on the subject, he’s not trying to convey what is fact, but merely his generalised opinion. It can, in a sense, be seen to contradict Jones’ idealistic description of visual effects. Additionally, there are undeniably differences in regards to the tone of these two views. Jones’ words were coming from his experience in the field, and the reader can immediately identify the confidence in his knowledge. Gallagher on the other hand is writing from an outsider’s perspective on the visual effects in the film and there appears to be a lack of confidence in his view. He seems only to hint or suggest his ideas.

KEY WORDS:       Visual Effects, Uncanny Valley, CG Characters, Story-telling, realism

References

Beowulf, 2007. [Film] Directed by Robert Zemeckis USA: Warner Bros. Pictures

Gallagher, David F. 2007, Bits: The Business of Technology, New York Times [online] Available at: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/digital-actors-in-beowulf-are-just-uncanny/?_r=2 [accessed 07 October 2013]

Jones, Bryan, 2008, Digital Storytelling: The Narrative Power of Visual Effects, Seminar on the Creative Use of Technology In Film and Television, Norwegian Film Institute, Oslo, Norway.

Mori, Masahiro, 1970, The Uncanny Valley, Energy, 7(4), Translated by MacDorman, Karl F. Minato, Takashi, 2005, p: 33-35