---
title: "Welcome to the Era of the Computer-Generated Human"
description: "Saya is a computer-generated school girl created by Japanese artists Teruyuki Ishikawa and Yuka Ishikawa. She looks so detailed that she has broken past the uncanny valley, and she could herald a new era in CGI."
date: "2016-09-13"
modified: "2016-11-29"
authors:
  - name: "Michelle Lee"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/michellelee.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/blurring-the-lines-this-girl-isnt-real"
categories:
  - "Computing"
  - "Robots and Machines"
tags:
  - "cgi"
  - "japanese"
  - "realism"
  - "telkuya"
---

# Welcome to the Era of the Computer-Generated Human

![cgi realism japanese telkuya](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/School-girl-CGI-has-everybody-guessing-if-shes-real-or-not.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Futurism/LPM\</em\>*

Japanese artists Teruyuki Ishikawa & Yuka Ishikawa (a.k.a [Telyuka](<http://www.telyuka.com/>)) have given birth to Saya, and she's remarkable. But despite how realistic she may look, she's not real. Rather, she's a computer-generated rendition of a school girl.

Telkuya started the Saya project in 2015, and they have been working to constantly improve her—make her more detailed and more life-like.

The below images reveal what Saya looked like then and how she looks now. As you can tell, she was pretty good to start, but the improvement is simply astounding.

![2015 Saya. -Telkuya.com](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2015-3.jpg>)
*2015 Saya. [Telkuya](<http://www.telyuka.com/>)*

![A photo of Saya. -Telkuya.com](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/big1.png>)
*A recent (2016) photo of Saya.[ Telkuya](<http://www.telyuka.com/>)*

However, there's a problem in creating realistic models, and it's called the "[uncanny valley](<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/13/robots-human-uncanny-valley>)."Basically, this is when a creature looks *nearly* identical to a human but is just "off" enough to evoke eerie feelings of revulsion. The uncanny valley often surfaces when artists make something terribly realistic, but it's still noticeable that the model is CGI.

Telkuya, though, seems to have broken past the uncanny valley with Saya. And so, we have entered a new era in CGI, and the possibilities are utterly endless.

## More

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- [That Robot With the Super Creepy Facial Expressions Is Back, and Yikes](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/robot-creepy-expressions-back.md>)
- [Scientists Just Launched the First Quantum Computer Into Space](<https://futurism.com/scientists-quantum-computer-space.md>)
- [Software Engineers Say They’re Losing the Ability to Code Now That AI Does It for Them](<https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/engineers-losing-coding-ability-ai.md>)
- [The Future of Quantum Computing is Almost Here: Research Extends “Qubit” Life 10x](<https://futurism.com/the-future-of-quantum-computing-is-almost-here-research-extends-qubit-life-10x.md>)
- [Scientists Suggest Our Brains Work Like Quantum Computers](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/brains-work-like-quantum-computers.md>)
- [Scientists Control Venus Flytrap With Implanted Computer Brain](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-control-venus-flytrap-with-implanted-computer-brain.md>)
- [China May Have Secretly Built Two Exascale Supercomputers](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-two-exascale-supercomputers.md>)