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If you thought that you looked real when staring at yourself in a mirror, think again. Compared to the photo-realistic computer animation of Emily, you’re a closer to a plastic doll than real flesh and bone. Using new modeling technology that enables the most minute details of a facial expression to be captured, Image Metrics have created the first ever animation to overcome the longtime obstacle known as “uncanny valley”. This is the perception that animation looks less realistic as it attempts to approach realism.
“Ninety per cent of the work is convincing people that the eyes are real,” Mike Starkenburg, chief operating officer of Image Metrics, said.
A lot of precision and detail goes into calculating the most precise way that a human should look and I must say, Emily looks more real than those Beijing fireworks, or even the highly-detailed, corporeal robot. I can’t wait to see this kind of computer animation in movies and video games.� We’ve finally reached that point where we can’t differentiate between real life and computer graphics. This makes Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within look like Manos: The Hands of Fate.
