Post 22 - Useful Web Document

I have just stumbled upon an interesting, if not quite brief academic conference article. It is titled: Why We Play Games: Four Keys to More Emotion Without Story. This is written by Nicole Lazzaro, at the time of its establishment Founder and President of XEODesign, Inc. This paper describes a series of 8 forms of emotion that a game can evoke in a gamer. These are as follows:

• Emotion: Common Themes and Triggers
• Fear: Threat of harm, object moving quickly to hit player, sudden fall or loss of support, possibility of pain
• Surprise: Sudden change; briefest of all emotions, does not feel good or bad, after interpreting event this emotion merges into fear, relief, etc.
• Disgust: Rejection as food or outside norms. The strongest triggers are body products such as feces, vomit, urine, mucus, saliva, and blood.
• Naches/ Kvell (Yiddish): Pleasure or pride at the accomplishment of a child or mentee. (Kvell is how it feels to express this pride in one’s child or mentee to others.)
• Fiero (Italian): Personal triumph over adversity. The ultimate Game Emotion. Overcoming difficult obstacles players raise their arms over their heads. They do not need to experience anger prior to success, but it does require effort.
• Schadenfreude (German): Gloat over misfortune of a rival. Competitive players enjoy beating each other especially a long-term rival. Boasts are made about player prowess and ranking.
• Wonder Over whelming improbability. Curious items amaze players at their unusualness, unlikelihood, and improbability without breaking out of realm of possibilities. 

 
It is my intention to introduce this information early on in my report, and refer back to it when discussing these types of emotion. These will be done so when discussing details of the individual video-game examples and situations that I will be using.

Lazzaro / XEO Design - LINK

Post 21 - Thinking Animation Book

A book which I noticed Darren Wall had on his desk I have now taken out of the library. 

• Jones, A. & J, Oliff (2007) Thinking Animation, Thomson Course Technology, MA, U.S.A.

   

Thinking Animation by Jones, A. & J, Oliff

 This book is fantastic and features several chapters, which can be applied to other fundamentals (both video-game and animation). The chapters which I will be using in particular include information on archetypes, character motivation and ‘flaws’.

Flaws are something which can prove to be extremely useful in my report as flaws are what make a character interesting. An interesting section of the book states:

"Survival is the core of human nature. Flaws are those traits that will get in the way of our achieving the goal of survival."

Jones, A. & J, Oliff. (2007)

This is great as it ties in with two areas of my paper that I wish to elaborate in. Firstly, survival and fear are easily recognisable human traits and ones which we can relate to. If we see a character who we are initially invested in, then it is our basic instinct to empathise and try to help, or rescue. This is one main draw which video-games use in the their narratives and characters.

The second point to make from this is that 'flaws' are often depicted through secondary, subtle motions. These can be gestures, facial expressions, or when pauses in animation, replicating a thought process. These can be applied to all of the video-game examples that I am using in my paper, but in particular, the relationship between the gamer and the character Alyx in Half Life 2. There are other sections in this book which will also help in my understanding of what aids a character's development, as well as what works in a scene.

Thinking Animation blog - LINK

Post 20 - Software Training Stuff

In Addition to the Richard Williams Book and DVD set, I have also acquired a set of animation training DVDs. These are by the Gnomon Workshop and are presented by Chris Kirshbaum.

• The Gnomon Workshop (2008) Character Animation: Fundamentals [DVD], Hollywood, CA: The Gnomon Workshop.
• The Gnomon Workshop (2008) Character Animation: Mechanics and Emotion [DVD], Hollywood, CA: The Gnomon Workshop.
• The Gnomon Workshop (2008) Character Animation: Acting and Lip Syncing [DVD], Hollywood, CA: The Gnomon Workshop.

 
These DVDs are oriented around the 3d software Autodesk Maya. Although I have suggested that I wish to use 3ds Max, the conventions of animation are not bound by software, or even technology, so I feel that these DVDs will still help in giving me a visual reference to how animation can work.

Once the project gets in motion, I will look more closely at these DVDs and note any useful tips and tricks for my emotion ideas.


Fundamentals - LINK
Mechanics and Emotion - LINK
Acting and Lip Syncing - LINK

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