CGI Research Paper - Creating an Emotional Response

Here we have a video about the new Havok/Euphoria Physics Engine to be used in the newest releases of video games. A question could be put forward, that if the physical environment and the reactions from the character have its own Artificial Intelligence and react to its environment, does this bring about a sense of realism?

Judge for yourself…

The Uncanny Valley & Video Games, An editorial at The Wire (http://www.thewire.com) claims the Nintendo Wii actually benefits from its technical inferiority. The Uncanny Valley is an issue we have discussed before: character models that are almost life like but lack a certain pizzazz that renders them creepy to humans

The E3 trailer for Heavy Rain

Brian Crecente, (kotaku.com) claims that no title will be capable of life like characters (that fall within the Uncanny Valley ), thus removing the possibility of protagonists that creep out the character and negating all possible emotional detachment. As far as we know, this is true however not all next-generation games will take full advantage of the technology, nor will they all try for life-like animation. Games like Metal Gear Solid 4 ( KONAMI, 2008) have amazing character animations without rendering its audience uneasy.

METAL GEAR SOLID 4 Theatrical Trailer 2008

Essentially, the decision is that of game design, not entirely of hardware. That is the biggest flaw of Brian Crecente's argument. It is up to the developers to realize when a character design is lifeless and creepy.

After reading this, one is lead to believe that we can overcome The Uncanny Valley and remove any uneasy feelings that come with low poly characters. This would be possible if we progress our technical abilities and create processors that can render High Dynic Range Imagery, using physics engines to simulate gravity and modeling our meshes with even more polygons. If so, then is this the way forward? I think Marshall McLuhan might disagree.

In his book The Mechanical Bride (1951) Marshall 's analyses bear on aesthetic considerations as well as on the implications behind the imagery and text. In his book The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962) McLuhan takes pains to reveal how communication technology (alphabetic writing, the printing press, and the electronic media) affects cognitive organization, which in turn has profound ramifications for social organization: “if a new technology extends one or more of our senses outside us into the social world, then new ratios among all of our senses will occur in that particular culture. It is comparable to what happens when a new note is added to a melody. And when the sense ratios alter in any culture then what had appeared lucid before, may suddenly become opaque, and what had been vague or opaque will become translucent.” Taking Marshall's thinking further, in another one of his publications Understanding Media (1964), “a light bulb does not have content in the way that a newspaper has articles or a television has programs, yet it is a medium that has a social effect; that is, a light bulb enables people to create spaces during nighttime that would otherwise be enveloped by darkness.” He describes the light bulb as a medium without any content. McLuhan states that “a light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence.” More controversially, he postulated that content had little effect on society; in other words, it did not matter whether television broadcasted children's shows or violent programs; the effect of television on society would be identical. He noted that all media have characteristics that engage the viewer in different ways; for instance, a passage in a book could be reread at will, but a movie had to be screened again in its entirety to study any individual part of it. McLuhan would also argue that low resolution images invite greater participation from the viewer, as they have to cognitively build upon the low-res image by imagining the images' completion (McLuhan was talking about early NTSC TV resolution). For example, if we were to look at how children play in a situation involving old versus modern toys, where less imagination is needed, the older “low resolution” toys engages the children more on a cognitive and emotional level whereas the modern and technological toys that are specially programmed and manufactured to do this are less successful.

While the sale of high-tech toys has been steadily increasing, Richard Benjamin, a Hobby Town USA franchise owner in Frederick , misses the good old days. Last week, he picked up a wooden train engine and pushed a button. A chugging sound played, followed by a high-pitched whistle. "It used to be you'd sit down with a box of blocks and play; now they have more and more electronic bells and whistles," Mr. Benjamin said. "Using your imagination is important in play -- I miss that in today's toys." He is concerned such toys don't let children exercise their brain and may contribute to short attention spans.

Article from: Frederick News-Post (Frederick, MD)

Article date: October 13, 2006

Now taking that same approach to animation, should we be looking at fewer polygons with a tighter narrative? And if so would that style of animation hold up with today's audience? Although it is fine to say that building cognitively is better and more interactive than sharp imagery with less imagination, there will still be a stronger mainstream market for the sharper visuals and with an ever increasingly lazy audience attending and supporting this style of animation. The decision will be up to the independent directors and animators who are willing to sacrifice the limelight and success that comes with creating commercially successful media but not that of imagination stimulation.

Continue to Chapter 1.5 - The Uncanny Valley & The Soul