A good phrase was used that although images can be made to look realistic it's not real. An example of this is photo-manipulation in Photoshop, where the image will look very realistic and can even convince viewers that what they are seeing is real, however it is not.
These were some interesting points raised aswell as how different animators approach realism, both 2D and 3D in the seminar later.
The entire lecture reminded me of a documentary I had seen a couple of years ago called My Fake Baby.http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/educational/watch/v15565477Tt8Gmz96
A fascinating documentary but also quite sad as these women use these realistic babies to replace what they don't have or have lost. Also interesting how some find the babies appealing and cute and others are disturbed that they are TOO real. Personally I think it would creep me out if I saw a baby thinking it was real only to discover that it isn't. A topic that was also brought up later in the seminar during animation discussions. Would it be amazing or creepy to completely master the human form in animation? This is referred to as the uncanny valley. Where things are so real it can become destabilizing, a point I had never really thought of before and so caught my interest especially in relation to the documentary.
Personally I think it would be unnecessary to master the human form in animation as I believe the beauty of animation is that you can create something that is pure fantasy and imagination. We can make them look to be real but know it is not, a pure fantasy brought to life.
Realism is an interpretation or transformation of what we see, an attempt to reproduce reality. However I found interesting the views of those that oppose recreation of reality completely! Even paintings were considered by this man to be a "corruption of reality" which I found to be quite a sad quote really as being an artist I like to not only create it myself but enjoy viewing other artworks. I also believe that beautiful worlds and images from the imagination can be only created through art, a big example of this is the movie Avatar where they created an entire world. Although fantasy, it was based using concepts from reality, which were discussed later as part of the seminars.
However it was soon discovered that some people found the world to be too real and became depressed and suicidal that they could never go to this world of Pandora. Which raises the point told by Plato as a part of his theory of forms, that creating representations of the world is illusory and can be dangerous. An extreme example of a movie capable of hypermediating.
In the modern world however the entire media is based on making things look better than they actually are! Which creates a lot of pressure on people such as in advertising and as a result has created the existence of things such as plastic surgery, photoshopping, models, extreme games such as Second life etc.
Are people creating there own fake reality?
As an animator personally these lectures and seminars raised very interesting questions and thoughts for me to discuss and think about.
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