As I have been researching my project I have decided to change my brief slightly. I think by focusing on a specific part of what I had originally planned would allow me to achieve more in my specialist area of study - character animation.
My changed project is to still create a run cycle in the theme of a chase scene, but to focus on the secondary action within that to create emotion out of body language. Comparing it to a game level I have realised is unnecessary, because games are influenced by film. As long as I can get the emotion acted out in the body language in a believable way, then it is easy to apply it to a game character design and animation.
Since I have slightly changed my idea for my final project, I have changed my dissertation idea so that it is relevant. My new title is:
"Without secondary action, a walk cycle is just an emotional and mechanical series of actions."
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Silent Movies
I have decided to look at silent movies because without speech, they had to show through body language the narrative of the film. This is a very important reference when looking at acting in a character animation. They have to act out each pose perfectly to fully represent the narrative of the film they are acting in - which is similar to how posing is key in animation to bring the characters to life. If I can manage good posing in my characters, with good timing between the movements, then I think I will be able to achieve a decent character animation.
Buster Keaton is particularly famous for having amazing poses in his films. He is probably as close to being an animated character as a person will get. The perfect exaggeration and timing of secondary action in his acting means that there really is no need whatsoever for any narrative - making him the perfect silent move actor.
Like Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin was also very talented in posing. They both had the knack for getting rid of the need for narrative, and relying on their body language and acting skills.
This film was shot in a very abstract way, with a twisted sense of reality. In terms of filming something that shows the fear in a character, The obscure angles and strangeness really help create an atmosphere, and draw you into the strange world in which the film is set.
The shadows used of Dracula in Nosferatu create suspense and the feeling that there is an impending doom looming towards the characters. In a chase scene, suspense is key to keeping the interest of an audience, and also in creating believable emotion from the characters being filmed or animated. This is a perfect example of how to draw out the emotion of fear in a film.
Buster Keaton is particularly famous for having amazing poses in his films. He is probably as close to being an animated character as a person will get. The perfect exaggeration and timing of secondary action in his acting means that there really is no need whatsoever for any narrative - making him the perfect silent move actor.
Like Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin was also very talented in posing. They both had the knack for getting rid of the need for narrative, and relying on their body language and acting skills.
This film was shot in a very abstract way, with a twisted sense of reality. In terms of filming something that shows the fear in a character, The obscure angles and strangeness really help create an atmosphere, and draw you into the strange world in which the film is set.
The shadows used of Dracula in Nosferatu create suspense and the feeling that there is an impending doom looming towards the characters. In a chase scene, suspense is key to keeping the interest of an audience, and also in creating believable emotion from the characters being filmed or animated. This is a perfect example of how to draw out the emotion of fear in a film.
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Research!
I have been looking at various chase scenes in films and games to get some inspiration for how I should shoot my trailer in terms of camera angles, lighting and how best to pace the movement and the shots with the Maya camera.
Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark Opening Scene
This scene shows both how suspense is created - by making the character suspicious of any danger in and unknown area, and therefore cautious of his surroundings, which makes him jump at any movement around him. This movement of being slowly cautious, but having fast reactions to movement creates suspense, while after the danger is realised, the camera shots switch to show all angles to show just how much danger the character is in.
The Lion King - Hyena Chase Scene
This chase scene similarly shows the varying camera shots, and really emphasises the character's change in emotion as the scene goes on. Being animation the character's facial expressions are highly exaggerated, but at the right times to effectively portray their emotion. The chase scene's suspense is amplified as the characters go through various obstacles in the way of their escape. I think this is very important to how a chase scene works, as this keeps the interest of the viewer by constantly adding new things for the characters to overcome.
Vertigo Opening Scene - Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock was very good at showing fear in a scene, and here he introduced the "vertigo" shot where the camera zooms out to make the height look much higher, replicating the feeling of vertigo that a person feels when looking down on a great height.
Jackie Chan - First Strike Fight Scene
Jackie Chan's movies greatly consist of running away, or avoiding people, and the way he moves is extremely exaggerated. He has said before in interviews that he apparently takes influence from Charlie Chaplin and other silent movie actors, who rely on body language instead of speech to convey the story of their films.
It is interesting to see how different characters respond in different ways to fear and being chased. The way each film I have researched is shot also effects how you view the characters. By doing things such as changing the camera shots you can get a much more intense chase scene - creating suspense and fear. I want to emulate this in my animation.
Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark Opening Scene
This scene shows both how suspense is created - by making the character suspicious of any danger in and unknown area, and therefore cautious of his surroundings, which makes him jump at any movement around him. This movement of being slowly cautious, but having fast reactions to movement creates suspense, while after the danger is realised, the camera shots switch to show all angles to show just how much danger the character is in.
The Lion King - Hyena Chase Scene
This chase scene similarly shows the varying camera shots, and really emphasises the character's change in emotion as the scene goes on. Being animation the character's facial expressions are highly exaggerated, but at the right times to effectively portray their emotion. The chase scene's suspense is amplified as the characters go through various obstacles in the way of their escape. I think this is very important to how a chase scene works, as this keeps the interest of the viewer by constantly adding new things for the characters to overcome.
Vertigo Opening Scene - Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock was very good at showing fear in a scene, and here he introduced the "vertigo" shot where the camera zooms out to make the height look much higher, replicating the feeling of vertigo that a person feels when looking down on a great height.
Jackie Chan - First Strike Fight Scene
Jackie Chan's movies greatly consist of running away, or avoiding people, and the way he moves is extremely exaggerated. He has said before in interviews that he apparently takes influence from Charlie Chaplin and other silent movie actors, who rely on body language instead of speech to convey the story of their films.
It is interesting to see how different characters respond in different ways to fear and being chased. The way each film I have researched is shot also effects how you view the characters. By doing things such as changing the camera shots you can get a much more intense chase scene - creating suspense and fear. I want to emulate this in my animation.
Project Proposal
I want to make a short trailer for a game, focusing on the movement of my character in a run cycle, being chased by a creature. I want to focus on how I can bring out the emotion of my character by how it moves, and how best to bring out the idea of suspense and fear, in a game context - not necessarily having a serious theme, but creating that emotion in the character as best as possible.
The target audience is young adults, as this will end up being a short animation that will appeal to their humour and will be influenced by chase scenes that they can relate to through their knowledge of popular film and games.
By creating mini projects for myself, for example creating a run cycle, modelling and rigging my character, I can explore stage by stage how to best bring to life my idea.
Alongside this project I will be writing a dissertation on a relevant theme, which will be on, "How cinematic techniques used in film are progressively being used more and more in gaming".
I have been looking up quotes from various sources to explore the subject of my dissertation...
The target audience is young adults, as this will end up being a short animation that will appeal to their humour and will be influenced by chase scenes that they can relate to through their knowledge of popular film and games.
By creating mini projects for myself, for example creating a run cycle, modelling and rigging my character, I can explore stage by stage how to best bring to life my idea.
Alongside this project I will be writing a dissertation on a relevant theme, which will be on, "How cinematic techniques used in film are progressively being used more and more in gaming".
I have been looking up quotes from various sources to explore the subject of my dissertation...
- "The first thing you see is how we handle our cinematics, everything is real-time, and there are no cuts in the action, so we can smoothly transition in and out of different sequences. Kratos is the same Kratos that you see in the start menu, the cinematics and when he is this big on the screen." - Stig Asmussen, Interviewed by Ricardo Torres from Gamespot
- Heavy Rain Trailer
Brief
For this Project I plan on creating a short 3D trailer for a game concept that will incorporate examples of story and gameplay. The theme is a chase scene, portraying a simple level in a game, having a main humanoid character running away from a dangerous creature. I have chosen this because I want to keep my animation story simple, focusing on body language according to emotion, rather than dialogue. I think that this will enable me to combine the story and gameplay much more effectively, as in both the story scene and the gameplay scene the characters movements are based on the emotions the characters are feeling.
The learning outcomes are to work on the movement of the character and how this portrays emotion, even in a game context. I will look at various games trailers to get an idea of how to portray this effectively. To achieve this idea, I will have to improve my rigging skills and learn to use them effectively to animate my characters. I will also look into the use of controllers as I think these will make effective animation much more easy to achieve.
Recently I have been influenced by games with a toon-shaded design, so I have decided to look at games such as zelda wind waker and the dragonball Z budokai series, amongst others, for reference and ideas on how to create toon-shaded characters that have lots of emotion in them.
The learning outcomes are to work on the movement of the character and how this portrays emotion, even in a game context. I will look at various games trailers to get an idea of how to portray this effectively. To achieve this idea, I will have to improve my rigging skills and learn to use them effectively to animate my characters. I will also look into the use of controllers as I think these will make effective animation much more easy to achieve.
Recently I have been influenced by games with a toon-shaded design, so I have decided to look at games such as zelda wind waker and the dragonball Z budokai series, amongst others, for reference and ideas on how to create toon-shaded characters that have lots of emotion in them.
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