Honors Research Study

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Hello everyone, this is Wen, this page is for my Honors research study.

The research study related to many different areas such as acting, animation principles, emotions, body language and 3D animation.

My primary focus is to use the combination of acting techniques and animation principles in 3D animation to convey character’s emotions. The animation use only body movements to convey emotions.

The Early Experiment section has some early animation tests I did at the beginning of the research. As the result of the experiment, new animation tests in Happy, Anger and Sad section were created based on the new animation process and workflow I re-developed.

Before you watch animation, take a look at some notes for it.

The animation tests follow the the following order:

1. Animation without acting techniques and animation principles.

(basic animation)

2. Animation without acting techniques but with animation principles.

(technical centric animation)

3. Animation with acting techniques but without animation principles.

(performance centric animation)

4. Animation with acting techniques and animation principles.

(advanced animation)

Rules are based on the following 2x2 matrix:

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Emotion one: Happy
Notes: Happy animation tests are partially under the consideration of 2x2 matrix. For instance, there was no character development and action analysis for this set of animation tests. In order to demonstrate the purpose here, I shall use the table.

Background story:

A girl who won the first price in a game. This animation is the moment where she walks to the podium.

1. Basic animation.

Analysis:

It contains no timing, no clear poses, no sign of animation principles such as overlapping, squash & stretch. Acting wise, the excitement need to be more exaggerated. Action seems boring and lifeless.

2. Technical centric animation.

Analysis:

Better timing, improved overlapping, no slips on her feet.

3. Performance centric animation.

Analysis:

Bad timing, no overlapping, unclear posing, very snappy actions.

Acting wise, she shows more excitement. Double bounce walk nicely demonstrate the happiness.

Note: At the point where I created the animation, I only had mental notes on acting, there was no character developed or action analyzed during the process.

4. Advanced animation.

Analysis:

better timing, obvious overlapping action on her entire body, specially arms.

Acting wise: because of the lack of character development and action analysis, even the animation appears to be more interesting and dynamic, the actions do not make sense. it seems very random actions.

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Emotion two: Anger

Background story:

A guy who is playing a deck of cards. one of the sudden, a paper ball flys over and destroys his cards tower. However more paper balls are coming. He gets really angry.

1. Basic animation.

Analysis:

It contains no timing, no clear poses, no sign of animation principles such as overlapping, squash & stretch.

Acting wise, he is more violent rather than being angry. Base on the character’s personality, he is the type of person who has a soft heart, even he is angry, he would not do such thing.

2. Technical centric animation.

Analysis:

Better timing, improved overlapping.(where he hits the table)

3. Performance centric animation.

Analysis:

Bad timing, no overlapping on arms, very even actions.

Acting wise, he fits into the character, not so violent but still show a sense of anger.

4. Advanced animation.

Analysis:

better timing, clearer secondary action on the chair. obvious overlapping action on his left arm when he points at somewhere.

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Emotion Three: Sad

Background story:

A girl who just lost her beloved puppy, she tried to find it everywhere. She is extremely upset. when she gets home, she walks into her room. and that’s where the story begins.

1. Basic animation.

Analysis:

no timing, unclear poses, no sign of animation principles such as overlapping, squash & stretch.

Acting wise, she does not fit into the character, there is no enough exaggeration in actions. At the end, the action contain an emotion other than sadness, which is disappointment. It is confusing.

2. Technical centric animation.

Analysis:

Better timing, improved overlapping on her body. Better sense of weight and tiredness.

3. Performance centric animation.

Analysis:

Bad timing, no overlapping on arms, very even actions.

Acting wise, she fits into the character very well, base on the character development, she is a very exaggerated person, over react to anything. Through the animation, she only shows her sadness.

4. Advanced animation.

Analysis:

More obvious overlapping actions through her entire body at the beginning. Clearer dragging on her feet, it shows a sense of weight and tiredness. Actions happen in order.

Squash and stretch displayed on her body when she sits down.