How to avoid uncanny valley?
neocarbunkle
Posts: 6
So I use Daz to make characters for d&d online. Usually they are as battle tokens but I tried to make some animated portraits. I made the one below and my group all thought it looked great. I posted it to reddit and got nothing but comments that it looked creepy and disgusting. I know they are talking about uncanny valley, but I don't know why exactly.
The animation is just three different keyframes with the last one being a copy of the first.
Would it be better if there was more natural movement? I didn't adjust the eyes at all, is that a big deal? I don't know if I could do anything to make it look more realistic.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFhYaKXpaFO/?igshid=1h6qst3mzjpez
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Comments
it's Reddit
post a gif of yourself doing those expressions and you will get even worse comments
Human faces are the hardest thing to make realistic, because our brains are hardwired to seek out and recognize faces. So we can very quickly notice things like the skin not stretching the same way real skin does, or the overly smooth and robotic motion, as tells that it isn't real. It's not bad, it's just that the bar to clear for human faces is so much higher than everything else.
Let's start by saying that to me that looks great! I think perhaps an area of opportunity would be to try to keep the eyes looking at/focusing on the camera to avoid the character getting a "dead gaze".
It is creepy and uncanny valley, sorry. You asked for opinion and you got it. It's not a mean opinion, just a truthful one. It's good technically though it's not realistic enough in all phases of the model.
Maybe change the expressions? If you have the Edie 8 Pro Bundle there is an expression pack where she pulls back the corner of her closed mouth sort of like one does in exasperation before sighing. Have him do that and then immediately wink afterwards while not moving the head as much.
Or keep as is, yellow the teeth up significantly & the eye whites blood shot and yellowed slightly, speed up the animation a bit and maybe then it's better, less uncanny.
Turn on bloom to blur and obscure to reduce the mismatch between realism levels within your set.
It'll still going to be uncanny valley but better. It's good as is though.
I think all you need is some good references. Humans (err, humanoids) do not move like smoothly interpolated splines. One of the most important things to learn is an artist's ability to observe things. But then, of course, you will quickly discover that Daz Studio's tools to fix animations are awkward, to be generous.
But you're pretty close... the character itself is cool and the motion can certainly be fixed.
It's fine. No uncanny valley. The only thing that's "off" about it is the shiny lipstick on a male face.
Also as others have said the animation is too smooth. If you're using realistic characters the only option for animation is motion capture. If you were to post a still image I doubt they would have had the same reaction.
Change the lighting so it doesn't fall evenly on the face. Add background (even if it's blurred), but again not the same thing on the left as on the right. Eyebrow raise is good, but maybe a fibermesh eybrow. Anything to throw a slight asymmetry to the render.
Edit: I have no idea how to spell: asymmetry .
I agree its a bit uncanny - I'd say its the combo of a relatively realistic looking fgure with very smooth, somewhat robotic movement
If you're just looking to avoid uncanny valley you could also go the other way - make the characters more stylized. then you won't have the juxtaposition of the realistic with the unrealistic that is the cause of uncanniness
Don't think of uncanny valley as an insult! Its not saying "this looks bad" its "this looks close to real but somethings still off and its twigging me" and its a really hard valley to cross - hollywood still has difficulty getting realistic humans in motion with millions of dollars
I dont think we've reached it with Daz Studio, not by a long shot.
THIS is the uncanny valley
https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/
i think the missing ingredient is eye movement.
it's still pretty good, i think theyre joking.
What is creepy about that image? I would say that that is the far side of the Uncanny Valley.
Edit: OK, if you hit F5 a few times, you can come across a stinker...
Have to say lots of great expressions:)
The eyes aren't blinking.
Yup, looks way to real to look real ;-)
Lines and skin creases we are expecting to appear with the movements are missing. The cheeks are barely moving with the creepy smile. He looks like Renee Zellweger completely botoxed up.
Also the deformation timing is too smooth to look realistic.
Looks very natural to me except for the partial hair braid that disappears into her forehead. I've known a few folk that look quite a bit like her in fact.
You're going to want some subtle asymmetry; if you don't have that then it will never look quite real.
the one Gordig shared is still technically a photo, an AI generated one from composites with the this person does not exist algorithm so certainly not uncanny valley
Just make them plain or ugly and you won't get the uncanny argument. If you make them look like Hedy Lamarr you'll get accused of uncanny characters.
Well, Hedley Lamarr isn't exactly pretty now, is he?
Mel Brooks loved Hedy...not Hedley :) in Blazing Saddles... He dreamed of marrying her
missed your comment, my thoughts too.
Yeah, I just couldn't resist a clip from the only movie to almost put me in hospital through laughing so hard. On Hedy ... I enjoyed her biopic, Bombshell. Definitely worth watching.
It is intriguing what they found to be true about Hedy. Makes all the naysayers look very wrong and that they are cranks.
That was why I posted it. The face is, as others have stated, for all intents and purposes a "real" photo of a human, and looks completely convincing. The forehead, on the other hand, shows the limits of the AI parsing, and ruins the illusion if you notice it.