By 2020, you'll be able to score with "Emily"

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:40:20 -0700

For those who find the cartoon-esque avatar animations in virtual worlds unattractive, there is hope. The Times Online reveals "Emily," a photo-realistic character animation that makes you look twice until the end when the video shows some of the layers to show Emily's construction.

The technology, from computer-generated imagery studio Image Metrics, breaks out of the "uncanny valley" difficulty in creating realistic animations. The theory of the uncanny valley is that the closer animators get to making animation look real, the more unreal it seems to the human eye. Image Metrcis COO Mike Starkenburg claims that the eyes are the biggest issue with photo-realistic animation:

"Ninety per cent of the work is convincing people that the eyes are real. The subtlety of the timing of eye movements is a big one. People also have a natural asymmetry - for instance, in the muscles in the side of their face. Those types of imperfections aren't that significant but they are what makes people look real."

Image Metrics' technology uses individual pixels to study and recreate movements modeled by humans, rather than the previous technique of using dots placed at strategic areas on faces and seeing how the dots move.

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