CGI-Quality said:
As much as I love HEAVY RAIN, it has some of those issues. Stiff animations and dead eyes were also frequent. |
Indeed. When it comes to the Uncanny Valley, the first things I notice are the eyes and the mouth. The movement of these two facial features are crucial to make something "believable" as a human being... and if something is off (even slightly) I'm quick to notice. Take your link for example (the one that follows the mouse). Most of the facial features are fine, but when the "person" blinks or smiles (especially the smile, ugh!) you can tell that there's something off. Heck, even the picture above it... it's pretty incredible for sure... but there's something just not right about the mouth... I dunno. 
This is what impressed me about the movie Avatar so much. Yes, there's some stylization going on that (intelligently on James Cameron's part) masks some faults of present day CGI technologies. However, I took careful watch of the eyes and the mouth of the characters... and I could never find a flaw that took me out of the movie experience (there was that last shot where Jake opens his eyes... It wasn't quite right.) But other than that, I'm not thinking to myself "Man, that's some great CG work!", I'm just watching (and enjoying) the movie, and that's what impresses me most.
