You know what gives away CGI every time? It's the skin.
Computer-generated human skin is almost always too smooth and too plastic-y. Even the best CGI look like they're wax models. That close-but-no-cigar skin puts CGI faces right smack in the uncanny valley.
But not for long: Researchers at the University of Southern California Institute of Creative Technologies have released a new technique that can create amazingly realistic artificial skin.
Koki Nagano and colleagues scanned real human face to capture details at the 10 micron magnification level - close enough to capture details like tiny wrinkles and pores - and then created an algorithm to mimic the stretching and compression of the skin in regular human facial expressions.
The results are absolutely stunning:
Via Co.DESIGN