It is known that the Uncanny Valley is the uncomfortable feeling which viewers experience when looking at something which is meant to be human-like but is actually not. In other words, is the reaction about something that is supposed to be human-like, or represent humans, but it is definitely non-human. This can be associated with images, animations, or characters that viewers can find creepy and weird.

 

This thesis was first theorized by Mashiro Mori, a Japanese roboticist. Fun fact is that the denomination “roboticist” in Czech Republic means slaver (as robot means slave/servitude). M.Mori speculated about a dip in emotional response to a human-like robot, as when a robot is weirdly similar to a human in a way that it would elicit discomfort in people instead of a good response. 

Key points that make something be “uncanny” by Mashiro Mori:

• when the line between non-human and human is crossed. Example: Bicentennial Man (1990), and Inspector Gadget (1990).

• robots with similar human’s feelings or behaviour help the character appear uncanny. Example: Power Rangers the movie (1995) and Power Rangers Turbo (1997)

• robot’s behaviour and appearance, as in Star Kid (1997).

 

The Uncanny phenomenon was studied by many other philosophers like Jentsch and Freud. Jentsch stated ``the experience of the uncanny, as the viewer cannot decide whether the object is real or unreal or animate or inanimate’’.  ``The subject of the Uncanny is a province of this kind” said Freud, who claimed that at some point in their life, everyone had to experience the uncanny valley, even just with a doll. At that time, the Uncanny phenomenon was unclear for him but, on the other hand, way far in the future, the 3D artist Alan Warburton (2017) brought his ideas about the uncanny disappearance, believing the human being had already beaten the Uncanny Valley phenomenon.

 

CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), used by 3D artists, was born around 50 years ago but it was refined just between 1990 and 2017.During this period the technological advancement made it possible to create dinosaurs, alien invasions, war’s machines, like the T-800, followed by spiderman, etc. The question is: what has made all this possible? Easy. The people behind computers, the artists. The software invented, and the following updates, make possible to create those characters and are the perfect toolkit for the production and development of natural motion and photoreal imaginary. In addition, the mo-cap technology improves and refines the job for the CGI team to create and overcome the Uncanny Valley.

 

 

How to catch the Uncanny Valley in movies and viewers’ affinity

 

  How to detect the “Uncanny valley” image/ character:

• when it is not totally real, as the character has something that is not completely right, that makes you feel “uncanny”.

• the facial features are not in the places they should be. For example, we can notice this mainly in cartoons, like in the last cartoon movie “The Adventures of Tintin” by Spielberg, where, even using the most advanced technique, the viewers were not really happy with the result, feeling uncomfortable with the main character Tintin as he is represented with a foetal face.

• a glossy look on the face and skin. It can be appreciated most in the eyes. An example can be found again in the above-mentioned Spielberg's movie, where the virtual actor, Tintin, looks like a doll.

• a particularly blocky face, body or weird moves, which do not follow human’s movements.

 

A character or image may look “uncanny” but, if there is a theory that supports and explains the reason why it looks like that, our uncanny perception may change, as in “Total Recall” (1990) with the leader of the Mars resistance, Kuato. 

 

 

How the uncanny valley is related to CGI and special effects

 

To start off, people are built to make sense of their surroundings. That is why when they see something resembling a human face, it freaks them out. The uncanny valley can be seen in CGI characters that look too creepy, or more simply wrongly made. This happens because in the process of creating a CGI with the purpose of making it look realistic, either more life-like or human-like, something goes wrong. In fact, CGI images or character’s creators do not always reach this goal as the audience, able to differentiate a human-being from CGI’s character, would not like a too realistically weird non-human character.

 

 

Since the beginning of CGI and special effects, the uncanny phenomenon has been walking with them. Technology will never stop trying to push realism to its limit until, at some point, we will not notice any difference. CGI is particularly related to the “uncanny valley” concept, and for this reason it is something that artists, directors and producers need to pay more attention to. Furthermore, directors, when filming a movie full of special effects and CGIs characters, should know that the viewers will be walking on a thin line that, if crossed, may give them the feeling of the uncanny, bringing them to a strange place where things look almost real but not quite.

The 90s are the golden age where the most famous blockbusters were made. Directors as Spielberg, George Lucas, James Cameron came with the amazing idea of new and different worlds, changing the cinema industry and the way of making movies. This thanks to special effects, also supported by CGIs, which were the pilar of the 90’s movies. Not to forget that most of the characters made with special effects were effectively real dolls or models.

Stant Winston, a fantastic and brilliant special effects artist, has been working in the biggest blockbuster in Hollywood movies, he took the impossible and made it possible, creating monsters that look real and alive. Furthermore, he has collaborated with the most talented directors creating characters like T- 800 and T-1000 in “Terminator 2” with James Cameron, “Aliens” with Ridley Scott and J. Cameron, the T-Rex, and many other dinosaurs, in “Jurassic Park”, with Spielberg.  To sum up, special effects, if in the right hands, are really efficient in most of the case, making objects looking alive at the point where actors are able to interact with them (e.g., dolls), making it easier for them and also making a big difference for the audience, as it can get emotionally attached to those characters.

 

 

Year after year the range of CGI frames required for the new productions kept rising, the special effects, in most of the movies like “Blade” (1998), were good enough for being in the 90s when the technology wasn’t that developed as it is today. Special effects found an easy use in Horror movies, as they fit perfectly the purpose of creating fear and also the “uncanny” feeling is sometimes used as a resource to help make certain characters look like antagonists or monsters.  

 

The following years were full of more innovative and complex ideas that found CGI a better fit rather than special effects, even if more expensive. 

 

Movies like “Titanic”, “Waterworld”, “Power Rangers”, “Independence Day”, were a really good investment. After “Titanic,” one of the most expensive movies in the last century, everything changed and the most famous directors were looking for this kind of blockbusters, turning everything into a technological competition, making every Visual effect/CGI Studio in the world, looking for a better technology to take the best shot to make the movie become the next blockbuster in the box office. Based on these facts, you can then imagine the charts of the cinema industry costs rising. Studios were making more money from Sci-Fi movies and consequently their budget, to spend on more advanced technology like mo-cap, 3D and stop-motion, kept increasing. 

 

The uncanny valley phenomenon was present alongside the cinema industry development, sharing and following every step made forward. One of the first examples of the “uncanny valley phenomenon” can be found in the release of “Final Fantasy” (2001), which was the first made mo-cap. Another virtual human-like character is the iconic “Hulk “(2003), directed by Ang Lee, who looked like a giant moving blob of modelling clay. 

 

If that was not enough, we also got horrifying Hulk Dogs and the computer-generated character played by Nick Noite, who is disturbing enough to look at, in real life. Another one is the Conductor, played by Tom Hanks, in “Polar Express” (2004) by Robert Zemeckis, described as a doll, a puppet-like who did not match the emotion required in his speech. Viewers saw him as unfriendly, the harbinger of the uncanny animation. 

 

Another example can be the fierce warrior in “Beowulf” (2007), created with the mo-cap technique, who misses some faces movements during an emotive scene, where he is supposed to feel fear but looks fearless. His character also misses the connection between eye expressions and mouth movements. The director Zemeckis used mo-cap to help actors feel better during the production, taking them out of the tyranny and the routine life of normal TV productions. The virtual actors (the characters) were defined as odd lifeless, disturbing digital avatars, because of the limitation of mo-cap at that time. The lack of facial mimicry in an animated human-like character may evoke the “uncanny” due to a perception that the character is unable to understand and empathize with others.

“The Adventures of Tintin”, by Spielberg (2011), was under too much attention for his character's abnormal facial expression, as the audience became frustrated at the evident lack of emotional expressivity from this character. So, the issues with the Tintin’s character in the movie, were if he was too human or not human at all, with his foetal face and glassy eyes became the Spielberg's Valley Doom.

 

In the graphic below, the evolution of CGI and special effects characters is represented. As is reflected in the graphic after humans, which is on the top, Young Tony Stark in “Iron Man 3“(2013), Grand Moff Tarkin from “Rogue One” Star Wars (2016), and the recreation of the old character in the first movie Rachel in “Blade Runner 2049” (2017).

 

Graphic 1: the evolution of the Uncanny Valley Through the years.

 

 

 

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