After listening to the Bombcast this week, Ryans remark about the CG in Avatar got me thinking about my own feelings about that stuff. After thinking about it a bit, I could see how something like Avatar could just feel so polished and expensive that it feels artificial, it's all static, because it cost so much there could be no room for error with so much at stake.
But I have to say, I loved Avatar just because it had such good special effects. I'm in second year in University now, taking computer science, and it's really changed how I view almost all technology. I see some new game or computer or algorithm, and I think "Man that looks awsome" and I wonder how they did it. It really gives me more respect for the people that spent so long making these CG movies and game designers and the like.
So this brings me to my question; has anyone seen CG or graphics in general that left them in awe, or just totally shocked them. This could be for a movie or a game.
For me, it would actually be Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. I was about 11 at the time it came out, and I remember clearly seeing comercials for it on TV, and it was the first time I ever saw CG like that, and I was amazed. I actually thought it was real life for a few seconds.
"For me, I always get that Uncanny Valley thing, and the CG makes me really, really uncomfortable. This also makes me dreading my hype for the upcoming Heavy Rain. "
Alot of people talk about that, how it's so close to being real, but there's just "something" missing that really weirds people out. The easy out for this could just be that they don't have a 'soul' or whatnot, or maybe the dead-eye stare alot of CG characters have, thought I think the latter definatly has more merit that the former. Funny that it never happend to me. I saw the CG characters in the FF movie, and I was just totally in awe (I'm 11 at the time mind you), didn't feel weird or any of that business.
About Heavy Rain, maybe it might not be as bad because you actually control the character, so it feels less like an 'it', because you are imparting your own "something" into it when you control that character.
I hope you don't get the Uncanny Valley feeling for that game cuz I'm sure it would ruin an otherwise unique gaming experience.
I agree that it can feel lifeless. You have real actors talking to nothing on a green screen in Star Wars and it shows. Puppets look better and inspire more naturalistic performances out of actors. People who think 'its a revolutionary step that everyone will eventually have to take' just get a hardon from good rendering tech. It will never be practical, so it will never be essential. I've always been way more impressed by good animatronic puppets.
I know you mention realism in your title, but you post seems to evolve the question some what more, so just realism ones such as the mentioned heavy rain, or are we talking just in general CG that's had us in awe?
I've personally never experienced the uncanny valley effect, and I'm a rather big graphics whore. Kind of odd actually.
I was really impressed with Advent Children and I still wish they would remake FFVII with Advent Children graphics. Not sure that the PS3 would be able to pull it off (in fact I'm sure that it can't), but next gen maybe.
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