The Dreamland Chronicles Page 217…
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Okay, I don’t understand something. Maybe the more artistically inclined out there can help me. It’s about teeth: in the original CGI comic, all the characters (with one or two exceptions) had teeth that were white and uniform in size and shape. In other words, not terribly realistic, to the point of almost jarring on occasion. However, in Tracy’s version, the characters’ teeth, when visible at all, are just an undifferentiated white stripe. This should be less realistic, and yet it comes across as less jarring and more natural. Why is this?
As I think about this further, another thought trickled through my brain, leaving behind a possible clue: could this have something to do with the Uncanny Valley?
maybe they have really good dental insurance in dreamland – it’s filled with magical creatures and everything a kid can dream of – why not that…
Not really an art person myself, but the Uncanny Valley might well have something to do with it.
The Uncanny Valley’s whole schtick is that artificial-looking things look creepier the closer they get to looking real. An undifferentiated white stripe has less detail, so our brains can clearly parse it as artificial/part of the art style and don’t find it creepy.
In the original, the teeth were detailed enough for us to see that they were indeed all the same, with the same spacing between them. That looked fake.
In drawings, on the other hand, if they are not detailed enough to tell, we fill-in the details in our minds, so to speak. Cartoons don’t need to show everything in detail, but only to hint that what we’re used to seeing is indeed there. Details will only be added if it adds to the narrative.
A good example of this is the Girl Genius webcomic: normally, you only see a white strip to hint at teeth. But when a spark goes into the madness space, the teeth are actually all detailed and oversized, exaggerated, to emphasize that something weird is going on, that the spark is having an episode…
Compare Daniel’s mouth above with the Dwarf king’s mouth, in the Discord banner below: He’s yelling, there is more action than just casual conversation, and you can see the shape of his teeth. It adds emphasis to the heightened tension of yelling.
I hadn’t noticed Bognok’s teeth; that’s a very good point of contrast. Even his teeth are less jarring than the 3-d chiclet teeth.
😜
Third panel: this is Nicole’s “I am not impressed” face…