Lifelike animation blurs the line between the real and the unreal

Jaiyant CavaleAug 19 2008

Emily

To make unreal seem real has been the driving force for many animators. Right from the time when the first animated movie was produced, it has been the dream to produce an image as life like as possible. Researchers at a Californian company have produced Emily; an animated character of an employee talking and later broke down the facial movements into smaller movements. Doing so, they created Emily, who can't be distinguished from real people and doesn't look 'animated' from any angle. The researchers created asymmetrical movements for that is what makes a person look human or real. Till now, animation has been too symmetrical and even the eyes have always looked unreal. Image Metrics, the company, analyzed facial movements at the level of pixels and the resulting image or video crosses the 'uncanny valley' the dividing line between what is real and unreal for the human perception. AMD meanwhile has launched a new chip that has a billion transistors with unimaginable graphic potential. However, AMD themselves say that to achieve a chip that blurs real and unreal will be possible only by 2020. Till then, Emily never ceases to amaze us with the capabilities that animation can produce.

Via: TimesOnline