hi everyone!
I'm currently half way through completing my 4th year studying computer arts, and within my honours project. The aim of my project is to focus on facial emotion within an animation. I want to create an anti bullying campaign within a narrative where you see the main effects of bullying within a character, and see the stages of boy, man, and old man. (inflenced by Pixar's UP) The advertisement message is aimed just as much at the bully, than the victim. I think this forum would be a good place to create a series of threads to gain general feedback on the research that will go along with my main project Idea.
[B]Do you think Visual style contributes to how emotion is portrayed, or is it the character design itself?
Can you think of film examples where the emotion from characters could of been portayed better?
why do you think this is?[/B]
If there is any interest, I have a blog I can post which will explain more about my project.
Any feedback would be much appreciated!
Are these not the same thing? The character's design IS the visual style, no?
I can think of animated sequences--usually from television--where there was considerable incongruity in the emotions portrayed. Most of the time this was due to dialogue not working properly with the emotions shown. The tone of voice would be several notches down from where the facial expression was, or vice versa. Features seldom has this kind of problem.......usually because there's more time in film to work out stuff like this.
What makes emotions read better in animation is often the small things--Ratigan snapping his pocket watch shut to show pique in The Great Mouse Detective is a good example. The point of it all is to make sure the emotions READ.
Thus a sigh of frustration, needs to be exaggerated just a bit more so the shoulders can antic up and then drop and follow through at the bottom slightly. If its done right, the audience can see it, read it and understand it in the context of the scene.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
hmm, you raise some good points there... I have currently got two versions of my animatic, one with narration, and one with just sound alone... it would be great if anyone watching it could give there opinion of which animatic you feel makes the most impact, and post either on here, or on the comments section of my blog, which you will find more info on the project.
the animatic is still in rough stages.. and in the last part of narration the voice is to low.. so turn it up to try hear it clearly.. this will be sorted for the final aniamtion though.
Any feedback would really help my dissertation research, and of course you will be included within my references with your blog or website address.
http://www.gemzhonoursproject.blogspot.com
cheers:D
Gemma
[QUOTE=Ken Davis]Are these not the same thing? The character's design IS the visual style, no?
When I talk about the character design, I mean the structure of the face, and body, and the process of development gone through to come to the final conclusion, and the visual style being the medium the character fits into - Cell paint, CGI, traditional animation etc
sorry for the confusion! :)
How do you think animators portray emapthetic performance within characters for animation and games?
Are you talking about something like this?
Warning Don't watch this if you do not wont to see violence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ialZcLaI17Y
wow, this is very dramatic and powerful with that element of character empathy! I don't no why, but now want to play this game! :D
Within my practical project, my aim is to create a 3D animation for an anti bullying campaign within a narrative, which shows the progression of the victim and bully from boy to old man. In terms of the style compared to the DeadIsland trialer, it's not going to be realistic. One of my arguments however is, can you portray character emotion better using realistic style, or is it just down to how good an animator is at portraying the emotion from acting reference?
What films, and games have you experienced where emotion is portrayed better than other films and games?
Is it down to the narrative and character design?
the character design plays a part in the perception of the character. but what direction you go in with the character after that. can be and usually is completely different from the characters appearance. as far as emotions go.
it doesnt matter how the character looks you can convey whatever emotion you would like to. it just may not be what the viewer expects based on the appearance
I am beginning to think along the same lines... here is my blog where you can see the progression I'm making on the project.
http://www.gemzhonoursproject.blogspot.com
Any feedback would be great
Gemma
So this is my final animation for my honours project... It would be great if you could give it a watch, and base any feedback you can give me on the following questions:
Do you feel empathy for Jaime? and why?
Do you feel sympathy for Jaime? and why?
Do you think this animation would make a successful campaign to raise awareness within the specific anti - bullying message? and why? Do you think the audio and (or) narration enhances the emotional response? and why? Do you feel any emotional response?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5azsBWhHnc
Thanks
Gemma
Well, you asked for honest feedback, so here goes--though its not going to be positive.
No.
It starts with the character's design. There's nothing appealing about the character's look, so any attraction to the character remains at arm's length. The character doesn't move much at all, is often badly lit in several scenes and doesn't emote aside from a tear on the cheek. There's no emotional connection to the character because we are TOLD to make a connection , rather than actually FEEL a connection by seeing that we share something in common ( with readable facial expressions and gestures) with Jaime.
Nope. Nada. Zilch.
For many of the reasons just listed above, but also because the character has no life to it. Its hard to feel anything for a simulacrum. Toilet dunking is an almost comical example because although its humiliating for the victim, its not as physically injurious as, say, a beating might be. The toilet dunking example is made even more "funny" because the character we are supposed to feel something for looks completely inhuman. Its like dunking a puppet. There's no other "feelings" expressed, other than a tear running down a face. There's no fear shown, no anxiety, no anger.....the entire piece comes off cold and lifeless.
No. It works against itself on so many levels. The character designs are very weak. The rigs are so plain that the're no faciilty to emote on the characters. There's no animation to speak of, and certainly no readable emotions shown, except for a couple of broad strokes.
Its badly lit in a couple of spots, and the shots have little to no juxtaposition to them. I have zero sense of where I am in connection to any of the shots or scenes. Far too many scenes use truck-in's to reach a character's face, only to not see ANY registrable emotion. Truck-in after truck-in in successive scenes is a sloppy film-making method--as it is forcing the audience to unnaturally look closer at something over and over again. In order for this piece to work for its message it needs to be refined and enhanced to deliver the SPECIFIC emotions needed to convey said message. Right now, as just viewed, its a sloppy jumble. The weak film-making decisions work against it delivering any message at all because it is literally too hard to watch.
I watched the piece through with the sound off the first time. Then I watched it a second time with the sound playing, and I actually laughed when the toilet flushing came on. Unintentional, I'm sure, but that is how it played. The sound helps only by a half-measure. It comes across as mushy, hard-to-hear even. Its trying to be sombre and instead becomes plodding.
None at all. There's no zeal in saying that. You asked for honest feedback and I looked over the piece with an open mind, and have relayed my impressions to you as they struck me.
This looks like what it is...a student film. It has the flaws that many students films betray, its weak where many are weak and as a result the "message" therein falls short because of the weaknesses.
Let's face it, if the idea of the project is to create something for the public to view, you are going to have to work the material to the degree that the public expects--which is to the level of polish that Madison Avenue is capable of--or as close as you can get to it.
Characters need to have appealing designs. Character animation actually needs to emote and animate, shots need to cut and juxtapose with some logical sense against each other.
This is probably an example of an idea that is too ambitious for the capability of the artist. This idea would have played better in life-action, because the situations and emotions needed would come far more naturally. Expressing it via animation is actually much harder because there's a host of split-second emotions that come into play that are very hard to register in animation--unless the animator is very skilled. The audience is used to seeing such expressions in live actors, and not finding them here in the emotional set-pieces makes the whole thing feel short-changed.
Look, I know this critique is bound to be crushing......but its made all the worse by critiquing a finished piece, rather than the project in stages.
from designs, to storyboarding to animatics to rigs......there's things that could have, should have been addressed much earlier.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)