Why it’s so hard to make CGI skin look real

Realistic-looking skin isn’t all that different from realistic-looking skim milk.

In the above video, Vox’s Phil Edwards looks at why realistic CGI skin is so hard for visual effects artists to master. Weta Digital’s Nick Epstein and Luxion’s Henrik Wann Jensen serve as guides to the parameters that separate realistic-looking skin from the waxy, fake-looking CGI of the past: albedo, displacements, subsurface scattering, and dynamic changes.

There’s been extraordinary progress from the cutting-edge CGI characters in 2001’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within to 2019’s Alita: Battle Angel. This video shows a bit about how that happened.

[plsarguewithme]

imagine being called the "milk guy" because of how amazing your milk rendering is

[Hatamoto]

I love the fact that this huge technical achievement is best demonstrated by the difference of Shrek 1 and 2

[arfansthename]

Some guy in the supermarket: dude why are you shining lasers at our meat
Jensen: _it's for the oscars_

[userliiil]

Frankly speaking, Alita's skin looks more realistic than zoom record

[KENZOkm]

"Because skin stretches!" - Niko, The Corridor Crew

[f_yeevy]

I just noticed the uncanny resemblance between Alita and the Sam Samsung Assistant

[clayouse]

this channel is the best at making me interested in things i would have never thought i’d enjoy

[Lines]

Renaissance painters painted faces using layers of translucent paint. One layer was black.

[arthurgwg]

I had a friend who was studying 3D since 2001 (he is now a top consultant to Netflix) and he blew my mind explaining subsurface scattering (we were 15 at that time). The technical problems of early VFX were a matter of not only programing but technology... Renders used to take forever back then!

[thehumancs]

Honestly the Final Fantasy movie skin still doesn't look that bad, specially for 2001

[dcgurer]

‘Hey smoothskin don’t act like you have never seen a ghoul’

[flirtyfloran]

It's not hard for Mark Zuckerberg

[Lord_Avalanche]

Alita Battle Angel is such an underrated movie and did not receive the credit it should have. Such a brilliant movie!

[starlight]

“A cookie guy” you can’t do the gingerbread man like that🥲

[mgz_]

This made me realize that even before Shrek and Toy Story, Jurassic Park was ahead of its time. Just look at that masterpiece….you’ll be dumbfounded at the fact that those dinosaurs still look realistic and better than most recent sequels.

[reaux]

I remember Uncharted 4 was so realistic with the visuals and animations that you could see light glowing through Nathan's ear lobes when the sun was shining, it wasn't pre-rendered either but live as you were playing.

[ACarter]

These are essentially no different than an oil painting artist

You have to apply all the blue and red and green shades/tones underneath the “pink” skin tones, simply because those colors do exist underneath us without us really being aware

This is all amazing stuff

[Wowreference]

This is why Alita wouldn't be viable through a streaming series. There's just too much time and work required to make her face look the way it does. It'd fall apart working under streaming deadlines.

[jmitzenmacher]

Just a note to the editor; The audio clip starting around 0:58 is out of phase and is therefore silent on a mono speaker. I had to switch to stereo to hear it. Check your videos for mono compatibility, it's an accessibility issue!

Edit: Seems like it is fixed now! Maybe it took extra time for youtube to finish processing the video correctly?

[barrodexteriit.]

I love how the evolution of this great technology is shown through Shrek 1 and Shrek 2