After much anticipation, esteemed technology and gaming journalist Clive Thompson finally offers his nominations for the Uncanny Valley Expo, New World Notes' talent search for avatars at their most human. As a Wired columnist and regular contributor to New York Times' Sunday magazine, Clive's one of the sharpest observers of tech culture out there, so who better to select the best from an Expo inspired by him, in the first place? (Also helps that he's no stranger to Second Life.) For a walk through Clive's staggeringly wide-ranging mind, read his column and visit his blog.
Next week, I'll launch a reader poll to select the top Expo entry. Meantime, for Clive's choices of the four which cross the Valley most convincingly, read on.
Clive Thompson:
I really liked all these entries! And they faced a hell of a task. Climbing out of the Uncanny Valley isn't easy when the combined force of the entire multibillion-dollar video-game industry is shoving itself into the muck as deep as it can.
I have one big bias, which may be obvious as you read the comments in my picks. My bias is simple: Until game graphics and animations become sufficiently human-like, there's only one sure way to avoid the Valley-- and that's to back out of it. Don't try to push your avatar towards greater and greater photorealism. It'll just look more and more like a zombie, as your viewers' eyes are drawn to the teensy imperfections. Instead, approach your avatar with the broad brush of a good Pixar or old-school Disney one. Big, vibrant, slightly cartoony features do a much better job of conveying true human emotion than higher resolution.
Pictures:
Willow Zander, "If I didn't laugh I'd cry"
I love this expression! It's got that terrific edge of cartoony exaggeration -- particularly in that almost geometrically half-oval mouth -- that, as per the traditional paradoxes of unrealism/realism, makes it seem more lifelike.
Cronocloud Creeggan, "Coquetteish"
Bonus points for using the veil to obscure the face! You could argue that it's cheating, but I'd disagree. One good way to avoid falling into the Valley is to sidestep the hellacious difficulty of rendering an ultrarealistic face. Ever wonder why the characters in Red Vs. Blue are so emotive? Because they're wearing helmets, which focuses the viewers attention onto their body language and voices.
Ida Keen, "I am pretty sure her dog just died"
Terrific use of the eyebrows and slumped-over body language to convey emotion! True, her hair is pretty rigid and helmet-like-- a classic problem with SL avatars, and one of the things that dooms most of them to the Uncanny Valley-- but the mix of curls and the straight forefront sorta pulls it off.
Animations:
Xellessanova Zenith, "When is a Smile Not a Smile?"
Doing a "fake", forced smile is a great way to appear human, because it's such a peculiarly human gesture! Plus, the irregular eye-batting movement is nice. Interestingly, one of the reasons this animation may have worked for me is that it was fairly low-rez and thus rather gauzy. A higher-rez version might have looked worse.
Wow, I'm very surprised to be a finalist. And in such august company. Congrats to Willow, Ida and Xellessanova.
Posted by: CronoCloud Creeggan | Monday, November 27, 2006 at 01:32 AM
Congratulations to all the finalists!
Posted by: Shoshana Epsilon | Tuesday, November 28, 2006 at 09:48 AM
Wow! It's an honor just to be nominated! Even if I am just now catching up on current events... Congratulations to all of the finalists!
Posted by: Ida Keen | Tuesday, December 12, 2006 at 03:51 PM