I can't figure out the film industry's obsession with motion capture and its insistence that it is in some way desirable.

The Shallow Problem

A concept, known as "The Uncanny Valley," first explored by robotics engineers but equally as important to artists, describes a curve that represents the appeal of a human-like creation to real humans. As the creation nears reality, the appeal to real people steadily increases except for a sizable dip right before the creature reaches perfect realism.

Disney's recent film, TRON: Legacy is a perfect example. While digitally perfect in every other way, it still failed to bring convincing life to a leading digital character. Jeff Bridges' alter-ego, Clu, is a digital model driven by a motion capture performance from Jeff Bridges himself. It is an impressive likeness and very realistic — when motionless — but as soon as the automaTRON moves, something isn't quite right, particularly on facial shots. His mouth seems rigid and stuck in an eternal underbitten smirk. Compare Clu to the human characters that drive the story of Pixar's The Incredibles. While these characters are far from photo realism both in form and motion (Elastigirl can morph into a parachute for crying out loud!), they are far more attractive to an audience because Pixar chose to leverage the strengths of the medium instead.

I run into similar problems when I try to illustrate photo-real people, even if especially if it's traced from a photo. Pixel-perfect precision always lands an illustration deep in Uncanny Valley; eyes seem beady and squinty with flat and unexpressive mouths. It takes artistic judgment, exaggeration and media-specific finessing to get a character that, though perhaps a tad less correct, is exponentially more appealing. That's why those goofy cartoon-ized Facebook and Twitter avatars never quite seem to capture the essence.

The Deep Problem

We insist on imitating reality in media and circumstances not well suited for realism. One of the most common criticisms I remember hearing from my animation professor was that many animated films would be better executed in a live action format. Over time I began to see what he meant. A year and a half ago, Disney released A Christmas Carol, another animated film driven by motion capture, and an excellent example of a story that has been and will always be better told through live action. While admittedly fascinating, mimicking reality ultimately has no point. Instead, play to the strengths of your medium and create something truly unique. If your objective is photo-realism, you might as well grab a camera and start filming. Art of all kinds is most interesting when it allows us to see something we otherwise wouldn't.