Realistic animation and the Uncanny Valley

Okay so the other day in class after hearing and participating in the conversation of animation vs live action, I had a realization. Technology and talent is becoming so advanced that rolls that live action use to fill are slowly becoming animated and the animation is slowly becoming more realistic. Here are some examples for what I mean by animation is slowly becoming more like live action:

Anomalisa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT6QJaS2a-U

I'm actually very curious to see what this film is really about. At first i wasn't sure if it was stop motion or not when watching the trailer, up until you look at the puppets faces and see the line where the eyes and mouth movements are often changed. This movie looks like it could have been done live action with no problem, but i think the director choose stop motion for a reason. The tagline of it being a very human story that stars no humans is kind of weird though, but the story should prove as to why that is. With a very realistic looking art style for an animation style that often times has very stylized character designs, it's different looking for both forms of media (film and animation alike).

Until Dawn

Okay, this is a PS4 survival horror video game that throws back to every slasher film from the 1980's and forward. BUT LOOK AT THIS GORGEOUS MOTION CAPTURE THAT LITERALLY TAKES THE ACTORS PORTRAYING THE CHARACTERS AND PLOPS THEM INTO THE GAME LIKE IT'S NO BIG DEAL.

When i saw it at first while watching someone let's play it on the internet i was like HOLY SNAPPLE THOSE ARE SOME IMPRESSIVE GRAPHICS. I literally could not believe what i was see at first was motion capture animation and acting rendered so well! Here is a link of how they did the whole process in how they created something so live like and how they fused both the actors acting and the animation of the characters movements in general:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcHZzK3OseY

From the behind the scenes clip on how they captured it all, i was really fascinated at what was put in just to make this seem as realistic as possible. Sure there is a little bit of the uncanny valley effect in there, but after getting use to it all it was really a beautiful game visually to look at.

The Good, the Bad and the Uglies as reaction to this:

For one thing this is amazing how technology can depict real life so realistically now. No more are we seeing so many polygons or carved out edges when looking at animation in movies and/or video games that are trying to depict things that are life like. Anything goes now in special effects! But there are some kickers to this updating technology; and that's the uncanny valley. The Uncanny valley describes that weird sensation you get when you look at something that looks exactly like a human, but your natural instincts are like "Dude that's not human, it's creepy and could be a threat."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFW0i-tmmlY

It's a really weird thing to consider that things are getting so realistic that it's almost creeping us as a species out a bit. That's why i think after a while of having hyper realistic animated films, shows and video games that there will be a resurgence of stylized media. Something a little more cartoony to ease our eyes and bring a spring to whatever movie or tv series step.  A good example of this happening in modern day is the Sims franchise of video games. Going from almost realistic Sims 3 to a more stylized and cartoony Sims 4. 

Have a good day everyone and good luck on those big projects! :)