How to further lessen the value of a human being.

[amused]

Look up 'uncanny valley'.

There might be a period of time when audiences accept a digital movie cast just because it's novel, but I suspect that they will never really accept the digital people as being real. Which will then provoke a resurgence of real actors. Rinse, repeat.

[FBM]

You've got to tell them!

Hollywood is people!

You've got to stop them somehow!

Depending on which way you take this, it could be really insightful...

[rasetsu]

Look up 'uncanny valley'.

Is this a sex joke?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Look up 'uncanny valley'.

There might be a period of time when audiences accept a digital movie cast just because it's novel, but I suspect that they will never really accept the digital people as being real. Which will then provoke a resurgence of real actors. Rinse, repeat.

You give movie audiences far too much credit, I think.

[JimC]

Look up 'uncanny valley'.

There might be a period of time when audiences accept a digital movie cast just because it's novel, but I suspect that they will never really accept the digital people as being real. Which will then provoke a resurgence of real actors. Rinse, repeat.

Point taken, but I think "Zilla was postulating a point where we'd made it over the other side of the valley...

It will happen, one day...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Look up 'uncanny valley'.

There might be a period of time when audiences accept a digital movie cast just because it's novel, but I suspect that they will never really accept the digital people as being real. Which will then provoke a resurgence of real actors. Rinse, repeat.

Point taken, but I think "Zilla was postulating a point where we'd made it over the other side of the valley...

It will happen, one day...

Yep. People talk about the "singularity" and such. This is a minor feat compared to that. In the past twenty years there have been some very exciting things done with CG characters, MASSIF being just one. There's no real reason except lack of computing power for there not to be lifelike characters in the future movies. Look at "Avatar".

[amused]

Yes, maybe we will. The undoing would be that the digital characters would have no presence in the real world though. No sex scandals, drug abuse, or stupid political statements. Some smart agents will try to fabricate all that too, but it can't hold. There was a recent movie that revolved around that as a plot device, but I can't bring it up just now.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Yes, maybe we will. The undoing would be that the digital characters would have no presence in the real world though. No sex scandals, drug abuse, or stupid political statements. Some smart agents will try to fabricate all that too, but it can't hold. There was a recent movie that revolved around that as a plot device, but I can't bring it up just now.

The one with Bruce Willis, "Surrogates"?

The actors that provided the personalities for the aliens in "Avatar" are real enough. So for a while I see their counter-parts in the future being "famous for being famous" until the computers can produce believable substitutes. I imagine a transition period where they "almost got it right", meaning the CG persons will be embarrassingly bad and touted as wonders at the same time.

[rasetsu]

The problem is a simple economic one. The production of a fleshling, from conception through design to manufacturing to programming is a much shorter development cycle, the bulk of which can be completed by unskilled labor. A CG movie depends on computers, programmed by degree toting and ass smooching asshats who take more coffee breaks than Fellini, designers with degrees after their name that include letters you didn't even know existed, and rare materials like, selenium, and, intelligence. As long as flesh can be manufactured and employed so cheaply, no machine can ever compete. And a computer that goes without work doesn't suffer, but a human must work to live, so the human will always outbid the machine in pricing itself into slavery.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The problem is a simple economic one. The production of a fleshling, from conception through design to manufacturing to programming is a much shorter development cycle, the bulk of which can be completed by unskilled labor. A CG movie depends on computers, programmed by degree toting and ass smooching asshats who take more coffee breaks than Fellini, designers with degrees after their name that include letters you didn't even know existed, and rare materials like, selenium, and, intelligence. As long as flesh can be manufactured and employed so cheaply, no machine can ever compete. And a computer that goes without work doesn't suffer, but a human must work to live, so the human will always outbid the machine in pricing itself into slavery.

Based on present conditions, I agree. But looking into the future I see people creating entire movies on a single computer, using no material objects at all in the production. He/she could buy the rights to certain "canned actors" and describe the general plot of the movie and have the virtual actors work out the fine details. The computing power would be extreme compared to today, but if we note the computing power available when we went to the Moon the date of realization doesn't seem that far into the future.

[amused]

You can sorta do that now at xtranormal.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You can sorta do that now at xtranormal.

I've been doing it in my head since 1958.

[Drewish]

Oh no, save the poor endangered actor. What will we ever do when star names can't sell movies and special effects peak to the point where what we're left with is story telling? Oh the horror

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Oh no, save the poor endangered actor. What will we ever do when star names can't sell movies and special effects peak to the point where what we're left with is story telling? Oh the horror

Interesting reply, but who said such a thing? I think it would be an interesting turn of events, because they'd be able to do things no human actor could do. True morphing, survival in unlikely environments, etc. The Battle of Trafalgar would be wonderfully bloody.

[Clinton Huxley]

None of the above innovations would alter, in any way, the proportion of good to shit films.