The Uncanny Valley

I had never heard of the uncanny valley until I read Tyler Cowen and Jason Kottke blog it today. The basic idea is that when you get quasi-human images -- cartoon people, talking animals, etc. -- they get more appealing to audiences as they become more human like. More appealing, that is, until they become too human while still not quite looking right, at which point they become repugnant.

So animators who know they can't perfectly replicate human appearance actually go out of their way to avoid getting too realistic.

Comments

You know, I thought the CGI Ron Paul in this commercial was somehow terrifying....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK4BzVsAgtY

Posted by MR Bill | May 18, 2008 5:21 PM

I think that Tracey Jordan solved this exact problem in his pornographic videogame on 30 Rock.

Posted by Katie | May 18, 2008 5:27 PM

uncanny valley=Heavy Rain

http://www.gamespot.com/video/933123/6151598/heavy-rain-working-title-official-movie-1

Posted by Rob | May 18, 2008 5:36 PM

A similar phenomenon is in computer game graphics, where a game like Crysis obviously has immensely more powerful visuals than a game from five years earlier-- and yet doesn't really seem that much more satisfying. The advances that make the game see more life-like actually serve to make the things that don't work that much more glaring.

Posted by Freddie | May 18, 2008 5:48 PM

30 Rock did a whole thing about that exact topic this season. Tracy decides to make a porn video game and Frank says it can't be done, precisely because of the uncanny valley.

Yet one more reason why it is the best show on tv, bar none. Take that HBO!

Posted by swarty | May 18, 2008 6:05 PM

A related convention in comic book art is that backgrounds are often rendered in more realistic detail than the 'acting' characters in the foreground-- comic artists know that readers identify more easily with characters that are less realistically rendered.

Posted by MattF | May 18, 2008 6:07 PM

Sorry, Katie, I missed you mention of 30 Rock.

Great episode, (actually the porn game thread runs through the last 3 of the season) and there is a neat Amadeus homage in that one as well.

Posted by swarty | May 18, 2008 6:10 PM

Here is a great artical on the concempt: http://www.gamespot.com/features/6153667/

The interesting thing is that as artists work on a character they become more familiar with it and have a harder time identifying the Uncannyness.

Posted by Craig McGillivary | May 18, 2008 6:17 PM

Here is a great artical on the concempt: http://www.gamespot.com/features/6153667/

The interesting thing is that as artists work on a character they become more familiar with it and have a harder time identifying the Uncannyness.

Posted by Craig McGillivary | May 18, 2008 6:17 PM

Here is a great artical on the topic:
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6153667/

Interestingly as artists become more familiar with a character that they are creating they have a hard time identifying the uncannyness.

Posted by Craig McGillivary | May 18, 2008 6:19 PM

It's sort of like how Republicans want their candidates to be vaguely humanoid, but not entirely human, either.

Posted by El Cid | May 18, 2008 6:24 PM

I wonder where the genes for this feeling come from. Why do humans have that strange 'uncanny valley'? Is it an evolutionary trait, and if so, why and how was it developed?

Posted by LnGrrrR | May 18, 2008 6:50 PM

Pixaloo (http://pixeloo.blogspot.com/2008/03/homer-simpson-untooned.html) provides great examples of just how disturbing cartoon/game characters can be if they're too realistic.

Pixaloo calls his technique "untooning" & the idea is not to make the character more realistic, but keeping the same proportions, use real-life features & textures.

While the Jessica Rabbit untooning still looks kinda hot (most of the human features came from a picture of Angelina Jolie), the Homer Simpson & Mario pieces will creep you out & probably give you nightmares.

Jessica Rabbit Untooning: http://pixeloo.blogspot.com/2008/03/homer-simpson-untooned.html

Posted by raff | May 18, 2008 6:53 PM

So animators who know they can't perfectly replicate human appearance actually go out of their way to avoid getting too realistic.

Or else they end up creating nightmare-inducing creepiness like Polar Express.

Is it an evolutionary trait, and if so, why and how was it developed?

It was selected for during the period when avoiding zombies was important to survival.

Posted by KCinDC | May 18, 2008 6:58 PM

While the Jessica Rabbit untooning still looks kinda hot (most of the human features came from a picture of Angelina Jolie), the Homer Simpson & Mario pieces will creep you out & probably give you nightmares.

Footnote for those who haven't seen it yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KnJF4ztjJQ&feature=related

Posted by James Gary | May 18, 2008 7:10 PM

LnGrrrR: I've heard it arises because something that looks too humanoid, but not quite human, is seen as a genetic threat, in a way that something completely not-human is not.

I've always thought the uncanny valley explains why clowns are so freaky, at least to me.

Posted by Lucy | May 18, 2008 7:32 PM

If you read interviews with the developers of Half Life 2, Gabe states that they got to a certain point with their character art and then consciously scaled back to the safer caricatured domain for this reason.

Posted by Will Fettes | May 18, 2008 7:40 PM

Peewee Herman.

Posted by John Emerson | May 18, 2008 7:48 PM

Or else they end up creating nightmare-inducing creepiness like Polar Express.

Polar Express was a prime example. Here's a brief article that shows some nice examples of had they dialed back the realism ever so slightly in the eyes and other minor facial characteristics the animation would have appeared much more life-like despite it not matching the capture animation exactly.

http://wardomatic.blogspot.com/2004/12/polar-express-virtual-train-wreck_18.html

Posted by tom.a | May 18, 2008 7:58 PM

I've heard that the evolutionary reason for the uncanny valley is to promote a revulsion from dead bodies.

Posted by John | May 18, 2008 8:13 PM

Yeah, clowns and Polar Express both creepy. You might have noticed the humans in the Toy Story movies were the real monsters. And the recent Beowolf was marginally better, I thought.
And it's a chilling thought, but racism is seems to be a tribal 'not similar enough to me' revulsion. Culturally enhanced, certainly.

Posted by MR Bill | May 18, 2008 8:18 PM

That's not the uncanny valley. That was the Republican Presidential primary.

Posted by roger | May 18, 2008 8:44 PM

While many people thing that Uncanny Valley exists as an evolutionary bias against allowing undesirable or damaged traits to propagate in a gene pool, the realist in me realizes that there is no way to discount the very important effect that vampires and the undead would have had in bringing about an evolutionary impulse such as this.

Posted by dannity | May 18, 2008 8:55 PM

"I wonder where the genes for this feeling come from. Why do humans have that strange 'uncanny valley'? Is it an evolutionary trait, and if so, why and how was it developed?"

I can't see there being a specific gene for this. From my perspective, humans rely on facial cues and signals way more than we think. When you get something that looks human, but can't produce the visual cues to suggest that it actually is one (ie, breathing, slight movements of the head and body, hand signals, movement of the muscles around the eyes to mention a few), the system we humans have for nonverbal communication breaks down.

This is why mannequins creep so many people out.

For my money, a game like Team Fortress 2 or the many Wii games are better than eye candy games like Crysis or Gears of War specifically because they don't try to make things as real as possible. Those games spook me, and their efforts just make the world seem all the less real.

Posted by Jeremy | May 18, 2008 9:11 PM

my uncanny valley must be more easily reachable than most, for from shrek on i have found these cgi movies unwatchably creepy

Posted by bigbadwolf | May 18, 2008 10:13 PM

This is why World of Warcraft is a much better looking game than Everquest II, despite the latter's edge in textures, shader model, and poly counts.

Interesting point, above, about different "uncanny valley" thresholds for different people. I don't find CGI cartoons all that weird - Gears of War, with the greatly exaggerated features, looked fine to me; Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was unsettling to watch.

Posted by Chet | May 19, 2008 12:48 AM

Interestingly, my understanding (as a digital artist) is that there isn't a lot of actual hard research to back up the Uncanny Valley phenomenon. It's mostly folk-intuition, which means it's really an open question as to whether it's precisely human imagery to which we respond, or whether it's the 'wrongness' of the imagery itself-- I think there are definitely times in photorealistic games where the attempt at realistic environments creates a sense of cognitive dissonance, where a more perfectly-realized but less strictly realistic environment would not.

Posted by Anthony Damiani | May 19, 2008 2:13 AM

For my money, a game like Team Fortress 2 or the many Wii games are better than eye candy games like Crysis or Gears of War specifically because they don't try to make things as real as possible.

Team Fortress 2 would just be disgusting if it were fully realistic, seeing that you're constantly getting either blown to bits or burned alive. In cartoon form, it's hilarious.

Posted by sunsin | May 19, 2008 2:57 AM

Uncanny Valley: The reason every rich bastard doesn't own a Real Doll.

Posted by soullite | May 19, 2008 6:44 AM

So animators who know they can't perfectly replicate human appearance actually go out of their way to avoid getting too realistic.

Could we please stop using the term "animator" for everybody involved in CG. Animators generally don't have anything to do with look development and nobody will have an uncanny valley experience solely because the animation is too realistic.

Posted by novakant | May 19, 2008 6:59 AM

I think the most interesting examples of the uncanny valley are in robotics. Look for videos of the Repliee Q1 robot or the CB2 robot (a humanoid baby). Creepy, especially the latter, a clumsy, gray-colored, oversized toddler.

Posted by RSA | May 19, 2008 8:41 AM

"For my money, a game like Team Fortress 2 or the many Wii games are better than eye candy games like Crysis or Gears of War specifically because they don't try to make things as real as possible.

Team Fortress 2 would just be disgusting if it were fully realistic, seeing that you're constantly getting either blown to bits or burned alive. In cartoon form, it's hilarious."

You have a good point there, sunsin.

Posted by Jeremy | May 19, 2008 9:49 AM

C'mon, Matt, why don't you embed the 30 Rock explanation several of us have mentioned?

Posted by Mary | May 19, 2008 12:59 PM

Uncanny Valley is why I always found Mitt Romney so creepy.

Posted by Ned | May 19, 2008 1:21 PM

I think the most interesting examples of the uncanny valley are in robotics. Look for videos of the Repliee Q1 robot or the CB2 robot (a humanoid baby). Creepy, especially the latter, a clumsy, gray-colored, oversized toddler.

Or even this creepy dog robot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3G-UE1HwGI

Posted by tps12 | May 19, 2008 2:40 PM

I find the only thing that hits MY Uncanny Valley are "fleshlights"....ew....

Posted by LnGrrrR | May 19, 2008 6:32 PM