Am I crazy...?

[Kordeth]

PS: What is the uncanny valley effect?

Basically, human psychology conditions us to accept as "attractive" or "normal" both highly-stylized representations of human beings (such as or cartoon characters) and 100% accurate representations of human beings (like photos or, well, real people). There's a point between those extremes, most commonly reached with modern CGI, where a representation of a human being is extremely close to being real, but just "off" enough that instead of triggering a positive reaction, it causes us to be creeped out. That "dip" in the graph of realism compared to positive reaction is called the Uncanny Valley, and it's the reason a lot of people find movies like The Polar Express or Beowulf to be creepy. Same goes for those super-realistic-looking Japanese robots you see video of on the net sometimes.

 

[AverageCitizen]

Basically, human psychology conditions us to accept as "attractive" or "normal" both highly-stylized representations of human beings (such as or cartoon characters) and 100% accurate representations of human beings (like photos or, well, real people). There's a point between those extremes, most commonly reached with modern CGI, where a representation of a human being is extremely close to being real, but just "off" enough that instead of triggering a positive reaction, it causes us to be creeped out. That "dip" in the graph of realism compared to positive reaction is called the Uncanny Valley, and it's the reason a lot of people find movies like The Polar Express or Beowulf to be creepy. Same goes for those super-realistic-looking Japanese robots you see video of on the net sometimes.

ah thanks. I have noticed the same thing, but I think its more likely with the robots than with animation. BUT! You have helped me discover exactly what I don't like.

Mannequins. They creeped me out when I was little. And the DDI characters look just like them.

 

[HeinorNY]

Basically, human psychology conditions us to accept as "attractive" or "normal" both highly-stylized representations of human beings (such as or cartoon characters) and 100% accurate representations of human beings (like photos or, well, real people). There's a point between those extremes, most commonly reached with modern CGI, where a representation of a human being is extremely close to being real, but just "off" enough that instead of triggering a positive reaction, it causes us to be creeped out. That "dip" in the graph of realism compared to positive reaction is called the Uncanny Valley, and it's the reason a lot of people find movies like The Polar Express or Beowulf to be creepy. Same goes for those super-realistic-looking Japanese robots you see video of on the net sometimes.

OMG it must be true!

Those quasi-human japanese robots freak me out. I don't know why but they do. I think there is something about their eyes... an undescribable feeling of wrongness... something that should not be...in their eyes.

And that movie, The Polar Express. All those Tom Hank's clones gave me the creeps!

 

[Cadfan]

I with you, except that I doubt that any 3d character visualizer possible would have appealed to me. Maybe in 20 years.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

DDI makes characters look like transvestites.

DDO makes characters look like potato bugs.

 

[The Little Raven]

Mannequins. They creeped me out when I was little.

Especially Kim Cattrall.

 

[mmu1]

It may just be me, but I really dislike the style of 3d art that they're using for the character creator. I'm not a graphic artist by any means, but from my experience viewing other's work it seems to be a very unforgiving medium.

Nah, you're not crazy. The DDI art - even aside from technical consderations, like polygon count, etc. - is of pretty poor quality.

 

[hong]

IIRC the DDI character pics are meant to be of your character's mini as it shows up on the virtual tabletop. They look okay at mini-size, but terrible when magnified. They're not meant to be portraits as you would find in an actual CRPG.

 

[AverageCitizen]

DDI makes characters look like transvestites.

DDO makes characters look like potato bugs.

Ahhhhahahahahah hah hah... heh. Whoo! *wipes tear* Moving on!

Especially Kim Cattrall.

Potentially because of Kim Cattrall. That movie confused the crud out of me.

IIRC the DDI character pics are meant to be of your character's mini as it shows up on the virtual tabletop. They look okay at mini-size, but terrible when magnified. They're not meant to be portraits as you would find in an actual CRPG.

Which would be unfortunate if true. They do seem to have the portrait thing going, but I understand if you've got something that can do it, if not well, you still might as well use it.

Still, I think a lot of us artistically challenged would pay good money for a high-quality visualizer with good features. If it was good I'd lay down 100-150 bucks, no problem. Still cheaper than commisions.

 

[baberg]

Those quasi-human japanese robots freak me out. I don't know why but they do. I think there is something about their eyes... an undescribable feeling of wrongness... something that should not be...in their eyes.

Well you better not watch this video of a Japanese Dentist trainer robot then. Seriously, that video's nightmare material. I'm only linking it because some lady called me right after I finished watching it and said I had 7 days to send it along.

On-topic, I prefer the highly-stylized when it comes to my fictional characters. I want larger-than-life characters with larger-than-life shoulderpads that no sane person would ever wear. I want bows with skulls on them just because you could. That's why I've always shied away from the "realistic" character creators in favor of a more unreal-but-fun image.