Hark! I bring thee links!
First off, Heidi MacDonald of The Beat! explains why everything in The Polar Express looks so damn creepy.
Pascal's Diary gives an interesting graphic rendition of the blue-state/red state split.
And here's a place I absoultely have to have a drink at in NYC. (And MamaGoose, if you ever get into the city, this is right up your alley!)
Did you have a traumatic childhood? Was there a goat involved?
Rob
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I love the "Uncanny Valley" theory (your first link)--this is the first I've heard of it, but I must explore it sooner. It explains my fear of dolls, mimes, clowns, mannequins, and non-human primates--all of which I lump into a category I call The Almost People (someday I'll write a horror novel with that title--dibs!). Polar Express: [[shudder]]
Sorry, I meant, "I must explore it further," not "sooner." If I had a time machine, I wouldn't use it to study this or any other theory. I'd use it to collect very old comics and give them to my dear friend Rob.
For a price, of course.
That's almost sweet of you Jeri. Thanks.
And if you dibs "The Almost People," I dibs "The Shrewdness of Apes."
Rob S.
I had read something similar to the "Uncanny Valley" theory at some point. I also read an article about The Incredibles and they went into exactly why they - and other animators doing CGI (like Jimmy Neutron) - do not try and simulate humans very closely. Unless you can get it EXACTLY right - people are going to look at it and go "that's so fake" unless you do exaggerated animation (like The Incredibles). People actually LIKE exaggerated animation - even CGI - a lot better - because if they wanted to see a live action film that's what they'd go see.
Ah right - the article was in the context of video games and why people think videogame characters that are supposed to be realistic are so creepy as well. Basically - CGI animators - even in movies - do not have the processing power to simulate EVERY minute little bit of the human experience. This seemed to be especially true of the EYES - which of course as you know with actors - the eyes show off an immense amount of motion. The eyes are exceptionally difficult to peg apparently. The subtle movements of eyelids, muscles around the eyes....and the rest of the face - it's all too much for the PCs we currently use in CGI (let alone a little videogame console).
Ok I'm rambling...but you get the idea....
--*Rob
Re: Polar Express. I haven't seen the movie yet, but the trailers and the scenes I have seen look exactly like the book. Really, truly. The art in the book is exceptional. Many kids books have lousy art or lousy story or sometimes both, but this one is really good. It looks like the movie folks spent a great deal of time trying to get the animation in the spirit of the book; we will go see it (creepiness be damned!) to see if they got the story right too.
Post a Comment