We spend so much time on Photoshop making people look unreal, that now our perception is so screwed up that we think CGI looks real!
It does not, it looks like a very well done computer graphic but a computer graphic non-the-less.
Avatar was a motion picture. Our eyes are much more forgiving of detail on objects in motion.
A still image is meant to be dwelt upon and studied. Computer generated images of people just can't cut it yet.
Will they ever? Probably. But it's a world I don't want to live in.
I think there will be a huge backlash to it someday.
Just as the hippies of yesteryear rejected the social constructs of their day and helped reshape the way western civilization lives now.
So too, I believe that our synthetically created worlds will be rejected.
There has already been some of that happening.
There has been some small outcry about how perfect 'shopped' models look in magazines which in turn makes our daughters feel as if they are not good enough.
ETA: and when it does take over Microstock, expect to be paid 5% per download.
After all, you did not have to hire a model or a MUA or a stylist or a...
