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That's what happened to Farscape.

I agree that putting "To Be Continued..." at the end of Andromeda would serve more to scare viewers than to entice them, and like you said, the show initially had a lot of potential. I love the concept of interfacing with the ship's AI as a person on a screen, or as the android. I first saw that concept on The Starlost , and I'm sure it'll surface again, perhaps in reality this time. We are getting pretty good at drawing people. Now all we have to do is animate them... Oh, and develop artificial intelligence.

I think this is brilliant. I little pointless but brilliant.

You can find some more great 3D stuff here. http://raph.com/3dartists/artgallery/ Some of the leading ladies are many years old.

Take a look at this picture, or this one or maybe even this one. Granted, these are stills, but CG "actors" are not that far off. (OK, one more.)

Take a look at this picture, or this one or maybe even this one. Granted, these are stills, but CG "actors" are not that far off. (OK, one more.)

Take a look at this picture, or this one or maybe even this one. Granted, these are stills, but CG "actors" are not that far off. (OK, one more.)

Take a look at this picture, or this one or maybe even this one. Granted, these are stills, but CG "actors" are not that far off. (OK, one more.)

An even better example IMO here.

or this

Or how about this

I find this to be a good example of being "nearly-there".
Didn't Freud talk about this in his examination of the unheimlich? We're freaked out by stuff thats almost-but-not-quite human.

Add your own jokes here

I am having a pretty rough time finding artists myself. I am closed source but I have no capital. My plan is to have an artist that will take a gross percentage of sales but even that has been hard to find because I can offer nothing up front.

I was on an indie team that made a Mac RPG Atlas and we got artists to do exactly what I am talking about but getting them was by some weird process that appears to be closed right now. I would think that getting college aged people that are looking to build a portfolio is your best bet (and mine). I am currently trying to get on Raph 3d artists because it looks like they have a big list of people that you can look for folks wanting part time work. But so far I can't log in for some buggy reason.

That is all I have. I am sure that if you can find some people to work for free on your project, I can find people to work for possible future dividends...

The reason you think you've never seen photo-realistic CG is because when it's photo-realistic you can't tell that it's CG :) "Special effects" aren't the only computer graphics in movies nowadays; in a lot of movies nowadays the set that the movie is filmed on isn't actually what's seen in the movie - buildings are added (in a LOT of movies, many of which you wouldn't even think would have CG at all), people are added (for example, in the edited version of "Eyes Wide Shut", CG people were added to block out penetration and appease the US's puritan hangups. The problem was, the people were completely static and it was obvious that they weren't real), atmospheric effects are added, etc.

I don't remember what movie it was, but I read an article on the making of some movie (set in the 1800's, one of those cheesy romantic dramas, released about 2 years ago) and they showed the original filmed scene where you could see scaffolding, cameras, and lights. Then they showed the final result, which was a fully convincing 1800's-era scene. Most of the buildings and background people were created in 3D Studio MAX and rendered with Mental Ray, and you just can't tell. It was truly impressive. The buildings moved perfectly with the camera angle, the CG people walked and moved perfectly (there were no closeups of them, which removed the hardest part - facial modelling. The human eye is very good at picking up inconsistencies, especially in objects we observe every day, such as human facial emotions. It was very impressive nonetheless).

Of course, convincing facial modelling isn't impossible - look at this picture by Asier Hernaez Laviña, which was modelled and rendered in 3D Studio MAX. Not video, but it's an amazing technical achievement and is almost indistinguishable from a photograph.
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