Interesting article: Why reaslitic graphics makes humans look creepy

[vegeta1215]

I read this article about how models of people in video games nowadays, while very real looking, sometimes look very creepy beacuse of their often blank expressions. I didn't think about this previously, but after reading the article, I agree with the author very much. What do you guys think?

http://slate.msn.com/id/2102086

[Radium]

Didn't read the article but I do not think that we'll be having the blank expression issue for very much longer with Doom III, Half-life 2 and Duke Nukem Forever (I know... it's a long shot... lol) coming around the bend fairly soon (we hope!). They will all set new standards for in-game models I'm sure ;)

[AtmaWeapon]

And the only game designer who has produced a 20-year string of popular characters is Shigeru Miyamoto, the architect of Nintendo's Disneylike visual style.

:middlefinger: -> MSN.

Disneylike? More like Fungameslike.

[KingArthur]

I think he meant disneylike in terms of expressiveness. And besides, saying your art looks disneylike isnt a bad thing at all, disney does GREAT animation and art, look at Finding Nemo and such, or my personal favorites, Aladdin and The Black Cauldron, they all look sweet.

[Shadowblazer]

Interesting read. I wonder if that's what my problem with EverQuest 2's models is. They have a very impressive degree of realism, abut it's like he said, they all look like they've been given massive injections of Botox.

http://blazer.armageddongames.net/img/eq2human.jpg

To me it looks like he's made out of plastic. Now I know that when the character is actually animated, it helps to alleviate this, but he's still "too real" to be believable.

http://blazer.armageddongames.net/img/wowhuman.jpg

This guy, on the other hand, looks like he came out of a comic book. Not so realistic but at the same time, more believable than the one from EQ2.

Obviously that's just my opinion but still, it's interesting that there's an actual scientific study that supports me ;) Maybe this is why I also prefer WW's graphics over OoT's...

[Rainman]

The guy seems overly sensitive to the blank stares tough. In Oot, I never was frightened by links inhuman leering. At points I found it funny.

[ShadowTiger]

Funny...

The expressions of the characters in the games we play are limited by the technology used. If Link's stare had to be like that due to limitations in the graphics engine, or even the lazyness of the artist, god-forbid, then so be it. We just have to live with that. If someone's eyes catch your attention more than the gameplay, ... you know what you need to do. (Look away, for those who don't know.)

I think those graphics look just fine. :shrug: Any step up is a step up. I don't see anything particularly wrong with them. Frankly, if a step up in graphics leads to such querulous attitudes, why not just stick with the old graphics and raise the gameplay? :shrug: .. It's an interesting effect, really. Why would people notice more problems in advanced graphics than in graphics of the olden days?

.. I don't mean to cause trouble or flame or anything. It's just very interesting.

[Michael Moore]

Well, its a video game, what do you expect? Lots of game use cutscenes to make characters expressions and such. In wresting games, they try to use facial expressions as they fight, at one time wrestlers didn't even make a fist when punching, now things have come along way, so I mean, just give it time and we will be seeing better things.