Project so far...

So over my last few posts I have been talking about my progress in modelling and how I am working through my model but not really talking about the project itself. So as I explained in my oral what I want to do is basically play with Masahiro Mori’s uncanny valley. When we see something so real such as a 3D character or robot , humans have a visceral reaction of repulsion, or more specific an uneasy feeling saying we don’t like it. The character which I still need to name (so any suggestion please let me know) will hopefully fall into the bottom part of the uncanny valley where our visceral, uneased response is tapped into and then Ill get a human to interact with it.

After talking with Sam, my original idea of creating a short film where I would need to not only create my character but a story board, script, film and edit was changed, which I was actually glad as it posed too much work for the time frame I had. Instead what Sam suggested was to create a character head and set up an installation where I would get people to sit in front of the screen with my character and have almost like a “speed dating session” with them. This idea is great as it does exactly what I wanted to do, if not better. I am still playing with the concept of the uncanny valley but what works great is that any individual can sit down and have a go and see what they think instead of watching a short film. I also would like to hear what the people’s thoughts were with the interaction. Overall this new idea makes the project more one on one interactive, fun and something new to try out. Although the responses from my character will probably be premeditated I will try and use broad responses to take into account variances with the human side of the interaction.

Another Idea that Sam suggested was to create different characters that can be placed on different point of the uncanny valley graph and see if people interact differently or if they react more positively/ negatively to them. This idea is great but as said before time is a big issue and I have never done lip syncing before (making a 3D character talk) so depending on the difficulty of that Ill be able to determine how much I can do.