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I was going to comment something like "yeah, yeah, everyone's an expert, it's easy to say you can spot the CGI once you've been told it's there", but then I loo

I was going to comment something like "yeah, yeah, everyone's an expert, it's easy to say you can spot the CGI once you've been told it's there", but then I looked at the video and... wow, that really is a pretty weak showing!

ChuckNorris89 5y ago
If you follow the 'VFX artists react' series on YouTube you learn what give CGI humans away pretty easily. Getting CGI humans right is very difficult and few VFX houses, with decades of experience, get it right even with post processing, let alone doing it in real time. CGI Jensen looks like he came out of a 2009 videogame. Nvidia may have the tech but you can tell it lacks the artistic supervision of a proper VFX house so the end result looks like something their engineers put together in a last minute crunch (which is probably what happened).
- IshKebab 5y ago
  I don't think you have to watch anything to learn what gives CGI humans away. I don't think anyone has actually managed a truly convincing one yet. This is the closest I've seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrHXA2cSpNU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrHXA2cSpNU
  - codetrotter 5y ago
    The coolest thing about that video is how good it is, but the second coolest thing about that video is the fact that Lucasfilm recently decided to hire the guy that made it. https://www.cnet.com/news/lucasfilm-hires-deepfake-youtuber-who-fixed-luke-skywalker-in-the-mandalorian/ https://www.cnet.com/news/lucasfilm-hires-deepfake-youtuber-...
  - ubercore 5y ago
    I feel like Deepfakes really count as CGI human though. At least not in the sense being thrown around by Nvidia here
    - IshKebab 5y ago
      nVidia used deep fakes for this.
  - pkroll 5y ago
    Rachel's appearance in Blade Runner 2049 was shockingly good to me. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDx3WwWR6y4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDx3WwWR6y4) On the other hand, I though Tarkin looked pretty good in Rogue One, and for some people he's a corpse. I don't think the uncanny valley is as consistent among people as folks here are suggesting.
    - IshKebab 5y ago
      Yeah I thought Tarkin was not convincing (though still really impressive, especially for the time). I totally forgot about Blade Runner - I agree that was really good - better than Star Wars.
- sumedh 5y ago
  > If you follow the 'VFX artists react' series on YouTube They should have given the work to those VFX guys, Corridor crew would have done something much better in just couple of days.
- krisoft 5y ago
  > If you follow the 'VFX artists react' series on YouTube you learn what give CGI humans away pretty easily. For those who don’t want to watch all of it (even though it is quite excelent) the points I remember are: - subsurface scattering of skin - do the pores stretch? (As the face is moving) - movement, especially movement of the upper lip as the character speaks
  - techrat 5y ago
    In the case of the nVidia presentation, it's quite obvious from the video where it's CGI Ceo: Awkward standing position, stiff arms and fairly inarticulate fingers. He looks fairly suspended, as if there's nothing to convey weight/physics in his movements... however brief.
- christophilus 5y ago
  I can't think of a time when I've been fooled by CGI (though, of course, I wouldn't be aware of being fooled if I was, so it's a catch-22). I really hate when movies throw in a CGI character expecting it to come off as real. It pulls you out of the movie in a way that normal over-the-top action CGI doesn't. I remember watching the recent Star Wars movies and being jerked out of the flow by CGI Princess Leah and some other characters (whoever the villainous old man was in that movie). I'd be interested to see any videos of CGI faces that can fool experts.
  - Aeolos 5y ago
    I get your point, but "I can't think of a time when I've been fooled by CGI" is a tautology: you remember = you weren't fooled. If you had been fooled, chances are you wouldn't remember. There are videos from CGI artists, e.g. Corridor Crew, that break down really good CGI, which is almost entirely invisible to the non-expert eye. That is in fact the best kind of CGI: the one that enhances reality so seamlessly that it's almost impossible to pick apart. Quite entertaining and informative videos.
    - jtbayly 5y ago
      There are plenty of possibilities to be fooled and then find out later. At which point you would remember later.
      - jfk13 5y ago
        Although if you're fooled, and find out later, I think there's a strong human tendency to re-write the internal narrative.... "Really, I could kind of tell all along." In which case it's not so clear how you'd "remember" things later.
        refulgentis 5y ago
        You laid out how: if you don't re-write your internal narrative You're right that theres a possibility that someone is fooled and never finds out, and another possibility that someone is fooled, finds out later, and claims they never thought it was real. However, it is very clear that it's possible to be fooled and find out later.
- solarkraft 5y ago
  > so the end result looks like something their engineers put together in a last minute crunch (which is probably what happened) They actually say that’s what happened in the video on it.
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    I'm pretty sure that's SOP for Nvidia conference demos. Was in a breakout after the main Jensen presentation and the engineer was talking about how they were fiddling with K8s to get the demo to work right, the night before. And this was the money demo in the middle of the presentation. On the other hand... I actually kind of like a company that half-asses demos. It suggests they're spending their time on more important things.
- HWR_14 5y ago
  > CGI Jensen looks like he came out of a 2009 videogame. Nvidia may have the tech but you can tell it lacks the artistic supervision of a proper VFX hous That's part of the point. If computer software alone can replicate state of the art human effort from 12 years ago, that's what they're showing off. It's not "look how great this rendering is", it's "look how good the AI that made this is".
tailspin2019 5y ago
Yep, this. I've seen more convincing Thunderbirds puppets :)
geoduck14 5y ago
I jumped around a bit, and I'd say the video looks like a zoom call with poor internet. The portion that was "cg" wasn't too different that conference calls I've been on where the signal is messed up.

ChuckNorris89 5y ago

If you follow the 'VFX artists react' series on YouTube you learn what give CGI humans away pretty easily. Getting CGI humans right is very difficult and few VFX houses, with decades of experience, get it right even with post processing, let alone doing it in real time. CGI Jensen looks like he came out of a 2009 videogame. Nvidia may have the tech but you can tell it lacks the artistic supervision of a proper VFX house so the end result looks like something their engineers put together in a last minute crunch (which is probably what happened).

IshKebab 5y ago
I don't think you have to watch anything to learn what gives CGI humans away. I don't think anyone has actually managed a truly convincing one yet. This is the closest I've seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrHXA2cSpNU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrHXA2cSpNU
- codetrotter 5y ago
  The coolest thing about that video is how good it is, but the second coolest thing about that video is the fact that Lucasfilm recently decided to hire the guy that made it. https://www.cnet.com/news/lucasfilm-hires-deepfake-youtuber-who-fixed-luke-skywalker-in-the-mandalorian/ https://www.cnet.com/news/lucasfilm-hires-deepfake-youtuber-...
- ubercore 5y ago
  I feel like Deepfakes really count as CGI human though. At least not in the sense being thrown around by Nvidia here
  - IshKebab 5y ago
    nVidia used deep fakes for this.
- pkroll 5y ago
  Rachel's appearance in Blade Runner 2049 was shockingly good to me. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDx3WwWR6y4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDx3WwWR6y4) On the other hand, I though Tarkin looked pretty good in Rogue One, and for some people he's a corpse. I don't think the uncanny valley is as consistent among people as folks here are suggesting.
  - IshKebab 5y ago
    Yeah I thought Tarkin was not convincing (though still really impressive, especially for the time). I totally forgot about Blade Runner - I agree that was really good - better than Star Wars.
sumedh 5y ago
> If you follow the 'VFX artists react' series on YouTube They should have given the work to those VFX guys, Corridor crew would have done something much better in just couple of days.
krisoft 5y ago
> If you follow the 'VFX artists react' series on YouTube you learn what give CGI humans away pretty easily. For those who don’t want to watch all of it (even though it is quite excelent) the points I remember are: - subsurface scattering of skin - do the pores stretch? (As the face is moving) - movement, especially movement of the upper lip as the character speaks
- techrat 5y ago
  In the case of the nVidia presentation, it's quite obvious from the video where it's CGI Ceo: Awkward standing position, stiff arms and fairly inarticulate fingers. He looks fairly suspended, as if there's nothing to convey weight/physics in his movements... however brief.
christophilus 5y ago
I can't think of a time when I've been fooled by CGI (though, of course, I wouldn't be aware of being fooled if I was, so it's a catch-22). I really hate when movies throw in a CGI character expecting it to come off as real. It pulls you out of the movie in a way that normal over-the-top action CGI doesn't. I remember watching the recent Star Wars movies and being jerked out of the flow by CGI Princess Leah and some other characters (whoever the villainous old man was in that movie). I'd be interested to see any videos of CGI faces that can fool experts.
- Aeolos 5y ago
  I get your point, but "I can't think of a time when I've been fooled by CGI" is a tautology: you remember = you weren't fooled. If you had been fooled, chances are you wouldn't remember. There are videos from CGI artists, e.g. Corridor Crew, that break down really good CGI, which is almost entirely invisible to the non-expert eye. That is in fact the best kind of CGI: the one that enhances reality so seamlessly that it's almost impossible to pick apart. Quite entertaining and informative videos.
  - jtbayly 5y ago
    There are plenty of possibilities to be fooled and then find out later. At which point you would remember later.
    - jfk13 5y ago
      Although if you're fooled, and find out later, I think there's a strong human tendency to re-write the internal narrative.... "Really, I could kind of tell all along." In which case it's not so clear how you'd "remember" things later.
      - refulgentis 5y ago
        You laid out how: if you don't re-write your internal narrative You're right that theres a possibility that someone is fooled and never finds out, and another possibility that someone is fooled, finds out later, and claims they never thought it was real. However, it is very clear that it's possible to be fooled and find out later.
solarkraft 5y ago
> so the end result looks like something their engineers put together in a last minute crunch (which is probably what happened) They actually say that’s what happened in the video on it.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  I'm pretty sure that's SOP for Nvidia conference demos. Was in a breakout after the main Jensen presentation and the engineer was talking about how they were fiddling with K8s to get the demo to work right, the night before. And this was the money demo in the middle of the presentation. On the other hand... I actually kind of like a company that half-asses demos. It suggests they're spending their time on more important things.
HWR_14 5y ago
> CGI Jensen looks like he came out of a 2009 videogame. Nvidia may have the tech but you can tell it lacks the artistic supervision of a proper VFX hous That's part of the point. If computer software alone can replicate state of the art human effort from 12 years ago, that's what they're showing off. It's not "look how great this rendering is", it's "look how good the AI that made this is".

tailspin2019 5y ago

Yep, this. I've seen more convincing Thunderbirds puppets :)

geoduck14 5y ago

I jumped around a bit, and I'd say the video looks like a zoom call with poor internet. The portion that was "cg" wasn't too different that conference calls I've been on where the signal is messed up.