Imitating life TOO closely
(Visited 7467 times) Game talk
Jul 282009
Spotted via New World Notes: Ryker Beck’sTutorial For Photoshopping Avatar Skin Imperfections.
Yes, that is right, we are now to the point where we not only have to cover over the imperfections in real people, but also in non-real people.
This is a good example of what I mean when I talk about the fact that we have imported a bit more of real life into virtual worlds than may be strictly healthy. On the Internet now, people now know you’re a dog thanks to voice, increased realism, etc — but at least you’re an airbrushed dog.
6 Responses to “Imitating life TOO closely”
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Incredible!Not the tutorial in itself but the mere fact that it does exist.
Some time back, and I can’t seem to find it now, I saw an avatar portrait that had been give the full PhotoShop treatment; photo-sourced skin and hair layered and blended with the screenshot of the avatar. The result was startling – I was looking at a convincing photograph of a woman who never existed.
But that’s just post-processing a screenshot for artistic effect – it’s not imposing any degree of realism on the environment itself (unless the portrait is re-imported, but even then it’s a just picture on the wall or in the profile). And correcting for blotchy skin textures in a portrait is just a prudent recognition of the limitations of texture resolution and peculiarities in how the texture maps to avatars of different shapes and sizes, not much different than zapping zits in prom pix.
The more interesting dynamic in the Second Life context is a backlash against photo-sourced avatar skins by some creators that proudly proclaim that their skins are 100% hand-painted. They recognize and exploit the virtue of some level of abstraction in avatar presentation. At the same time, photo-sourced skins are continuing to evolve and improve. The skins I like usually use a blend of photo and paint techniques to produce textures that are idealized but still believable.
That styles from cartoonish to near-photoreal can mingle in the same virtual space I find one of the more engaging aspects of the Second Life experience.
I’m not surprised in the slightest. I mean, second life is really the closest thing to a virtual life so we should expect stuff like this 🙂
Good tutorial though 🙂
If anything, I would say this betrays our desire to seek a *greater* departure from reality. However, we never *import* real life anywhere – it’s always with, whether we admit it or not.
The fact that we airbrush an avatar says we want a deeper fantasy. Why should my avatar suffer from my zits? The point of my avatar is that it is *not me*. If I’m going to create a digital avatar, it might as well be the best one I can make it.
That we care enough about the avatar to spend precious real life currency (time counts!) betrays the fact that we never cease to be real people, in-game or out of it.
Are there better ways to invest our time and care? Probably.
Our virtual faces are how we choose to present ourselves, and how other (real) people perceive us. Touching up an avatar portrait is no more or less an exercise in fantasy than combing your hair before you go to the DMV (assuming the player intends to share the portrait in some form and not just gaze at it in a narcissistic fugue).
I don’t think this has much to do with the virtual reality angle – its a typical process in modern digital art where many tools are used to get desired visual effects. Most 3D artists creating stills do paintovers in Photoshop. Most 3D artists creating movies do additional image processing in the video compositors.