Post 19 - Useful Online Research

Here are a couple of interesting on-line resources, which I neglected to post information about until now. They both featured in my task two draft and have been kept in for the task three.

First of all, Jonathan Frome wrote the paper titled : Eight Ways Video-games Generate Emotion. This is a very well written paper, which does shine some light on how video-games are able to evoke emotion. This paper also suggests reasons why this may be the case and explains them in a categorical fashion.

Another article was one titled: Pegboards vs Polygons:Animating for Video Games by Mark Garabedian. This gave me a lot of information into what is involved in creating game based animation, which are both successful and are able to a level of engagement.

The website from which this article was found has since been very useful and is similar to that of the Eleven Second Club site in that it is a central hub for animators from every level of animation.


Animation Arena - LINK
Frome, J - LINK

Post 17 - Discussion with Darren Wall

In my regular meeting with Darren Wall, we discussed the results of the Task Two submission. We talked about the themes explored in my report and where I should expand on. I feel that I could expand on:

How the video-game evokes an emotional response in from the gamer. Other considerations such as character investment and morals would also be interesting areas to include. All of these I feel are important as they can be shaped and manipulated to an extent by how characters are portrayed in video-games.

Post 18 - Task Two Results

I received the marks back from the Task Two ACM report draft. I got 17 out of 20, which I am very happy with. These were split up into four sub-marks, each category being marked out of 5, so for the first criteria I got 5 out of 5 and for the remaining three, I got four out of five. This is a great result, but as I would like some feedback on the content / anything I should be avoiding etc, I have emailed this document to Darren Wall; my supervisor. I don't expect an immediate response as it is Friday and it would be extra work for him, but any additional input would be welcomed. I believe that I am on the right track, but it is just me wanting to make sure.

I received a response from Darren and he suggested to bring it up with whoever marked it. As I had previously tried to gain some feedback, I decided to discontinue this line of enquire and will now focus on assessing what needs to be done to make the ACM draft in the final hand in. 

Post 16 - Task Two ACM Draft Hand in and info

Since the last post, I have completed and submitted the task two ACM draft report for my final project.
I feel that this was a good start and briefly describes what I'm going to be doing, how I'm going to do it, and the relevant research undertaken around the subject. The research focused on the progression of a narrative through character traits and emotions. This was coupled with research into what is important when animating and acting. This was backed up using the correct referencing and formatting.

Once these have been marked (although at this time it is unclear as to who will be), the feedback will be used to refine the idea even more, and add additional research.

In the mean time, here is a link to one of the useful websites, which I have been visiting every once and a while.

The Eleven Second Club - LINK

Post 15 - Task Two development

I have continued to construct my task two: ACM draft report. I have chosen to use Halo Reach, Dead Space and Bioshock as video-game examples. These will be used to highlight the use of character traits and the various styles of showing these motions. These are mainly done through the use of cut-scenes and in-game dialogue. 

There are also some additional books, which I have recently gained access to. These are as follows:

 

• Neuhahn, C. & J. Book (2006) Professional Short Films with Autodesk 3ds Max, Hingham, MA: Charles River Media.
  
• Kerlow, I. (2009) The Art of Computer Animation And Effects, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc. 
• Kundert-Gibbs, J & K. Kundert-Gibbs. (2009) Action! Acting Lessons for CG Animators, Indiana, U.S.A. Wiley Publishing Inc.

These books give a useful insight into some of the fundamentals of both animation and character development.

Professional Short Films - LINK 
The Art of Computer Animation And Effects - LINK 
Action! Acting Lessons for CG Animators - LINK

Post 14 - Research Tailoring

Second meeting between me, Darren Wall and this time Omar Khan about our Research Practice module. We discussed the idea of the low resolution character in conjunction with videogame cinematics. This went down well and seems to be a good idea (although the next stage is to quickly find some relevant research).

This is the major issue I have with the structure of the module. Task one was concerned with researching the area of interest / study. At the time, mine was modelling, plus animation so I was looking primarily at other people's work, modelling in the industry as well as animation technology. However, as I wish to focus on animation; specifically emotion conveyance and characteristic, I will now need to gain fresh research and a lot of past research will no longer be required or relevant.

This does not make task one's research redundant or useless as it is that research which has led me to where I am now with my project. However, as what I wish to do is a lot more specific, I need to hastily construct a draft report using new resources. However, it is a learning curve and the report will be all the better for it. A couple of interesting resources so far include:

Williams, R. (2008) Richard William's Animation Survival Guide: Animated (DVD)

Williams, R. (2009) Richard William's Animation Survival Guide: Expanded Edition

 Chong, A (2008) Digital Animation

These are very interesting and provide both contextual information about the role of digital animation, as well as fundamental principles/methodologies of animation. I will find more sources later on this evening, as well as several great examples of games which use cut scenes to convey characteristics.

However, I am aware that many recent games use less cinematics and a lot more in game dialogue (Half Life 2, Bioshock series etc)

One example which springs to mind is Halo Reach. This uses cut scenes, featuring characters which for a lot of the time are wearing helmets, so a lot of the emotion must be conveyed elsewhere (body, head motion etc).

The next step up to the hand in (Friday 18th 23:59) is to find more research, (library databases, relevant studies etc) as well as find some key game examples.

I have begun to construct the draft report, but it is very much in its infancy.


Animated Survival Kit - LINK
Animated Survival Kit: Animated - LINK
Digital Animation - LINK

Post 13 - Meeting with Darren Wall & Idea

 

I had a meeting with my supervisor for both the Negotiated Skills module, as well as the Research Practice module. I pitched an idea to him that I had recently. The original idea was to explore effective emotion conveyance with an basic object, or in a full figure rig with very few features (effectively featureless). This would result in a set of animations with the high resolution and low resolution characters. I would then compare the two for effectiveness of motion. However, as we both discussed this idea, it didn't seem to have much in the way of substance, rationale or purpose. So after researching this more, I have come up with the following proposal:

Emotion Motion - A Study into the effective techniques and methods for expressing emotion, character and motive driven action in game cinematics.

The need to communicate the essence of a character is very apparent in current generation computer games. Unlike film, games usually use short cut scenes to tell a narrative in between game-play. This means that all content within a cut scene must communicate emotions, expressions and characteristics as clearly as possible. An interesting quite to confirm this is by writer Heidi Landgraf.

"To further involve gamers in the plot, more cinematics are being used so that gamers can see exchanges between characters and the subtext of what a character is thinking. It’s in a cinematic where an animator must control how users see the scene and where the animation is created through the lens of a camera shot, which is similar to watching a small ‘movie’ unfold."

Landgraf, H. (2009)

The aim is to create a series of short animations (or scenes, depicting a clear emotion, gesture, or motive driven action. This will entail a significant amount of research into subtle and secondary motions, as well as body language and the conveyance of feeling. This will be accomplished using a rigged character (or characters where appropriate), which also includes facial rigging. Roughing out of the animation will be done using the 'low res' feature of the rig in order to assess the level of success in the full body expression and emotion being conveyed. Areas to look into will include:

- What could be gained from a study of this nature?

- What is required to communicate clear character traits?
- What information is lost with the low resolution character in comparison to the hi resolution character?

- What actions or movements would need to be emphasized to communicate a great level of
emotion?

The final artefact/s of this project will be a series of animations depicting varying emotions, gestures and motive driven actions, which should be easily recognisable in the context of cinematics.


Important areas include: 


-Weight, timing, anticipation, and emotion
-Game cinematics. (short space of time, need to learn the character, follow them and empathize with them).

Landgraf in the same article also includes a quote from Animator Mentor graduate Bill Buckley, who said:

"If you can get your audience to empathise with a character, they will follow you to the ends of the earth."


Buckley, B. (2009)





Animator Mentor article - LINK