A Reflection on Realism

That lecture was pretty deep actually O_o a lot of people thought it was boring, but I didn't (I'm not just saying that). Realism seems to be a concept that scares a lot of people, and after that lecture I think I understand why- there is a fine line between reality and illusion. For example:

http://www.stuffwelike.com/stuffwelike/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/grand_theft_auto_3.jpg

That's a gameplay image from Grand Theft Auto. The subject matter is pretty horrific- if I were to witness that in real life, it would likely stay with me forever. But since it quite clearly isn't real, and doesn't look real, I'll probably forget about it by tomorrow. It seems that in the world of computerized imagery (animation, games etc), there's an urge to reach the 'realistic' stage- is that good or bad? Personally, I think its bad. Very bad. The whole point in computerized imagery is to mimic reality, make the audience 'believe' in it- to a point where they know it still isn't real, but they can appreciate the realistic quality of it. Now, look at this image:

http://thearchnemesis.com/images/Subject%20Zero.jpg

This is a frame from a cinematic trailer for Subject Zero from the role playing game Mass Effect 2. I swear on microsoft, when I watched this trailer and viewed the comments people posted about it, most of them thought it was a real woman, not a computer generated image. Even I was fooled temporarily. My point is, if the characters in Grand Theft Auto looked as real as that, I for one would be extremely freaked out by it. I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one. And because people get so sucked into games, this level of reality could possibly upset them because it seems so real. It isn't, but there's still the principle. It's similar with animation- if the graphics are photo-real it could freak people out- here's an example of some of the ramblings you may hear if this happened: 'what the hell?!? That looked so real!! But it wasn't!!! Did that really happen? No, it didn't....but it looked like it did!!!' and so on. I think you catch my drift. When we believe that something is real we automatically connect with it in some way, but as soon as we realise its in fact an illusion, that connection is suddenly cut off and we're left with the subconscious realization of 'oh god.... I knew that thing....I connected to that thing......and it turned out to be a lie'. For example, I can't tell you how many times I've bumped into mannequins in shops and said 'sorry', thinking they're actual people (out of the corner of your eye you pay more attention to shape rather than detail- so if its shaped like a human I'll automatically think its human until I actually look at it) then when I turn around and realize its actually a mannequin, I'm grossed out. Why? Because it wasn't what I thought it was. And that's my point- play with illusion too much and people might start to believe its reality.

And isn't the whole point of games and animation to escape reality?