The "uncanny valley", Mova, and a process called Contour

In today's WSJ, there is an article about a company called Mova, and its animation process called Contour. Supposedly this will allow animated faces to cross the "uncanny valley." If you need a history lesson regarding this valley (I did), it's basically this: around 3 decades ago Japanese robotic experts realized that people are more forgiving of visual flaws the less realistic the object they are looking at. However, they are very creeped out when something is trying to look real, but is just a little off.

The Contour process is supposed to overcome this limitation by creating completely lifelike animated images. First the actor covers their face (and possibly body/clothes) with a phosphorescent makeup. They then perform in a room brightly lit by fluorescent lights and surrounded by digital cameras. The lights are turned on and off so fast that to the human eye they seem to be always on. However, the digital cameras take pictures during the split second the lights are off. They construct a three dimensional computer image of the face, and then animators digitally insert the final details such as eye and skin color, and there you have a completely realistic human face!

Anyway, there is also some discussion about using the process for such things as making Joaquin Phoenix look exactly like Johnny Cash, using someone who looks a lot like Tom Cruise to make a movie with someone who looks exactly like Tom Cruise in it, resurrecting dead stars, making the actors look like younger versions of themselves, etc. Ironically, botox seems to mess up the process, since the face doesn't move! Now, if people want to look younger on film using Contour, they are going to have to risk looking their age in real life.

Pretty amazing stuff, and possibly industry changing as well. The creator of the process, Steve Perlman, already sold one of his early businesses, WebTv Networks Inc., to Microsoft for $500+ million a decade ago, so it looks like the rich will get richer. In this case, I think someone as creative as Mr. Perlman has earned it!