Stuck in the Uncanny Valley
Imaginary Worlds22 Mar 2018

Stuck in the Uncanny Valley

The holy grail for many animators is to create digital humans that can pass for the real thing -- in other words to cross the "uncanny valley." The problem is that the closer they get to realism, the more those almost-real humans repulse us. Blame evolution for that. I talk with Hal Hickel from ILM who brought Peter Cushing to life on Rogue One, Marianne Hayden who worked on games like The Last of Us and Uncharted for Naughty Dog studios, Vladimir Mastilovic from 3Lateral studios who worked on Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, and SVA instructor Terrence Masson about what it takes to cross that valley.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episoder(301)

Time Travelers of Renwick St.

Time Travelers of Renwick St.

New York City real estate is not usually a hotbed of fantasy, except the fantasy that you could afford that $20 million condo 50 stories up. But an unusual ad campaign for 15 Renwick St. in Hudson Squ...

3 Jun 201516min

The Greatest Cartoon Almost Made

The Greatest Cartoon Almost Made

At the height of his career, Richard Williams was hailed as the next Walt Disney -- and he won two visual effects Oscars for Roger Rabbit. But Williams wanted to prove that animation was high art, not...

3 Jun 201528min

Why Ron Moore Killed Captain Kirk

Why Ron Moore Killed Captain Kirk

Ronald D. Moore is best known for rebooting Battlestar Galactica for the post-9/11 era, but he got his start writing on Star Trek: The Next Generation. In fact, he really got his start in science fict...

20 Mai 201516min

True Vampires of New Haven

True Vampires of New Haven

A few years ago, I reported a story about a safe house program for vampires in New Haven, CT. The city supplied the vampires with blood if they agreed to live under police supervision. But the funding...

6 Mai 201515min

Beware of CyberCity

Beware of CyberCity

Ed Skoudis built a different kind of imaginary world. It's a three-dimensional model of a town that the military uses for cyber war games. Ed's team plays the role of the terrorists who keep trying to...

22 Apr 201517min

Politics of Thrones

Politics of Thrones

Game of Thrones is huge in every way. Why does this medieval fantasy with knights and castles speak to our time? Politics. There are a surprising number of international relations experts that see par...

8 Apr 201519min

Zombie Therapy

Zombie Therapy

Zombies. I hate them the way Indiana Jones hates snakes. I know it's a ridiculous phobia -- they're not real, and zombies are a classic genre full of rich ideas. So I decide to undergo zombie immersio...

25 Mar 201518min

The Mysterious James Tiptree

The Mysterious James Tiptree

Science fiction writer James Tiptree Jr. wouldn't talk on the phone or appear in person. He developed friendships with contemporaries like Ursula le Guin and Philip K. Dick purely through letters. And...

11 Mar 201525min

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