Approaching The Uncanny Valley Through Star Citizen's Character Faces

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In a special episode of 10 For The Chairman, Chris Roberts sits down with Character Art Director Josh Herman to talk character face designs, and show-off footage that's closing in on the uncanny valley: the point where we can't differentiate between humans and replicas. The show answers player questions, but the highlight is the facial design footage.

When the game releases players will choose a base head model and then customize their appearance however they like, as is expected: "9 architect heads for male, 9 architect heads for female."

The videos below show off an impressive amount of detail, especially when the faces run through their animations: eyebrows lifting, creating forehead creases, even displaying subtle emotions with slight glances and the lifting of the upper lip. While not perfect, it's nuts to see how far tech has come. I hope to see it in-game one of these days.

Star Citizen: 10 for the Chairman - Special Edition

And here's a supercut of the in-game rendered faces and animations thanks to Jack Frak:

Star Citizen Alpha - Supercut in-engine rendered faces and animations