Hyper-Realistic Characters and the Existence of the
Uncanny Valley in Animation Films by Fethi Kaba (2013)

This article defines and gives a history of the Uncanny Valley paradox, where the more realistic developers and animators try to make a human character, uncanniliy it is perceived as becoming more stylised. This paradox is explained through the use of several images from film and TV (notably Tintin and Polar Express) where this phenomenon is very evident. Simply looking at the (so called) hyper-realistic CGI human actors and their supposed perfection, it is, pardoxically, the imperfections (and of course all human faces are imperfect) that we see and perceive these people as cold, soulless, unemotional representations of real people. The article goes on to say that some believe that the box office failure of many films employing hyper-realistic CGI actors can be attributed to the Uncanny Valley phenomenon. However, my research shows that whilst this may be true of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, it is certainly not true of Polar Express and Tintin, both of which did very well at the box office.

This text will be very useful to me in my essay, as it explains the effect that I am focusing on very well. It gives many relevant examples of how Uncanny Valley can be avoided, which is the main subject of my essay.

The Uncanny Valley Effect by Stephanie Lay (2015)

Stephanie suggests and provides evidence for the fact that differences in the uncanny valley (UVP) eeriness may result from incongruities between emotional expressions in human versus near human likenesses. She states that, “Near-human faces were found to be subject to the effects of inversion, and inversion was found to heighten perceptions of eeriness.” (Lay, 2015) She goes on to give examples of experiments where happy faces were created with fearful or angry eyes causing the inversion effect to be heightened.

The author talks about Mori’s concept of ‘Shinwa-Kan’, best translated as ‘familiarity, also including notions of affinity, empathy, comfort and likableness, Experimentation shows that “there is no intrinsic link between something being unfamiliar and eeriness, as in most cases, novelty (unfamiliarity) is not unsettling in its own right. However, it is easier to see how something which is uncomfortable or unlikeable (negative Shinwa-Kan) could be unsettling.” This is the concept of lack of affinity or empathy with incongruities between emotional expressions.

This paper is extremely useful as it goes into some depth about the UVP, how it arises, recent studies into this paradox, and its link to human emotional responses.

Understanding Realism in Computer Games through Phenomenology by
Gek Siong Low (2001)

Gek puts forward the theory that “Gamers consistently ignore many obviously unrealistic aspects of a computer game”, (This is called ‘Suspension of Disbelief’.) For example, he talks about how in-games, “you can crash a car in a racing game and still continue the race, when in real life the impact would have totally wrecked the car, let alone seriously injuring the driver.” (Low, 2001) He gives plenty of examples of realistic images of environments and the inanimate objects that fill them. Citing an experiment conducted in 1963 by Held and Hein, he shows that perception and action are essential to realism in games.

Whilst this is an interesting article, it is of only limited use for my intended subject. Despite concentrating on games games some of the conclusions can also apply to movies.

Editorial: The Uncanny Valley Hypothesis and beyond by Marcus Cheetham (2017)

Although this is a very well researched article, it only goes into surface level detail and explanation. It cites many different articles, (even to the point of referencing himself!) and expects you to follow the link and read them in order to understand the complexities and jargon that the author uses throughout.

The article is about anthropomorphicising the “design of characters and objects (e.g., robots, prostheses)” (Cheetham , 2017) and that this might have a counterproductive effect, as it introduces Uncanny Valley and that this in itself has introduced a whole new area of research.

Taking all this into account, whilst the article could have useful points about uncanny valley, the fact that the real information is hidden behind so many other articles, means that it is easier to read through one of the articles cited by the author and take the informataion directly from them.

Realism, imagination, and narrative video games by M.A. Shapiro, Jorge Peña, Jeffrey T Hancock (2006)

The authors of this article talk about how life experiences can affect people’s perception of realism. For example, someone who has been in prison “can draw on his experience to make detailed comparisons to his reality.” (Shapiro et al., 2006) when watching a prison drama. For somebody who has not been in prison the opposite is true. They may see it as realistic when, in fact, it is not based on the experience of the ex-prisoner. They go on to talk about how people can imagine how an experience should be based on sensory information (the look, sound, etc) and imaginative elements, for example, asking the question, ‘If this were to happen, would it be like this based on my experience of similar events.’

This article is extremely well researched and written, with many useful statistics, quotes and links, but is not useful for my article as it is based on perceived reality in stories, rather than the visual images which make up the story.

References

Cheetham , M. (2017) ‘Editorial: The Uncanny Valley Hypothesis and beyond’, PubMed Central [Preprint]. Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5651083/.

Kaba, F. (2012) Hyper-Realistic Characters and the Existence of the Uncanny Valley in Animation Films. dissertation.

Lay, S. (2015) The uncanny valley effect, The Uncanny Valley Effect. thesis. Open University.

Low, G.S. (2001) Understanding Realism in Computer Games through Phenomenology. dissertation.

Shapiro, M.A., Peña, J. and Hancock, J.T. (2006) Realism, imagination, and narrative video games, researchgate. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283939915_Realism_imagination_and_narrative_video_games.