Today we studied about establishing a research topic for the thesis and the questions to keep in the mind before choosing a topic.
Researching your Topic
Choosing your topic will involve a considerable amount of initial research. Research involves locating key sources. There are two kinds of sources:
a) Primary or original sources. These could be a mediaeval manuscript, a poem, a photograph, the records of an institution, a dress, an interview
b) Secondary or interpretative sources i.e. papers/articles/books written about a subject.
Each source/text is written from a perspective and has a specific function. Interpretation, therefore, depends not only on the content, but also the context. In other words, don’t take everything at face value. Notice and make note of the position that is being taken by the author or producer. An essential part of a good Thesis is commenting on the different position’s authors take.
When you read books/articles/papers take notes. Be careful to make a note of the author, title, publisher, date of the book/article, and the page reference. If you copy words directly out of the book as you take notes, as opposed to summarising the argument in your own words, be careful to indicate the difference in quotation marks. It is easy to forget the difference when it comes to writing your Thesis and, hence to plagiarise inadvertently.
When taking notes note the different questions and issues. Writers differ in their interpretations. There is rarely a clear right or wrong position, so be prepared for this and note the differences – are they of fact, of interpretation or of opinion? You may need to assess the interpretation – what do you think, and why?
There are four main stages to research:
• Researching the research
• Planning the research
• Doing the research
• Finishing the research
Tentative Research Topics
Themes of Duality in VR games
Inclusivity and Diversity in Pixar Films- A study of the last decade
Themes of Belonging, Inclusivity and Diversity in Pixar Films
This week we studied different experimental animation landmarks and discussed the practices which breaks traditional narrative and alternative practices.
Conceptual Abstraction
This term relates to the abstraction of narrative structures or storytelling tools, traditional cannons, and communicative vehicles. This term relates to the abstraction and juxtaposition of narrative structures or storytelling tools, traditional cannons, and communicative vehicles.
Interpreting Abstraction
There is an integral link between conceptual application and technological advancement in the innovation of film and in particular, animation.
•Categorisation; Genre & Sub-genre what is the works background / setting, mood / tone, theme or topic?
•Form and Function; interpreting meaning and relating it to the format, or presentational mode
•Process; The techniques, materials and technologies applied within the work and the relationships between message and medium.
•Formal Elements; Use of space/composition, Light & colour, movement, rhythm, timing, pacing, transition and audio relationships.
This week we discussed how to write a research proposal and discussed the important points that makes our research strong. We also talked about the common mistakes students make while writing a proposal. Additionally, we also discussed the structure of the proposal and the key elements which should be kept in mind while writing a proposal.
How to write research proposal?
Research proposals, like all other kinds of academic writing, are written in a formal, objective tone. The language we use in the proposal should be concise and not to complex. A research proposal describes what you will investigate, why it’s important, and how you will conduct your research.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Avoid using complex and difficult words
Not providing context to the research question(s).
Not citing significant studies in the field that changed others’ understanding of the topic.
Not accurately presenting other research done on the topic.
Not staying focused on the primary research question.
Not proofreading for grammar and spelling errors.
Failing to have a clear sense of direction (proposals should flow like a research paper).
Structure of a Proposal
A thesis will usually contain most or all of the following sections:
This week we finished modeling the hand and adjusted the naming convention of the fingers and the parts of the hand.
Naming the Models
First thing I did was to name everything properly in the outliner so that the outliner looks clear and easy to understand. Naming also plays an important role during rigging. So, it is necessary to follow a good naming convention.
Hand Model
I used cube shape to make the back of the hand and then scaled it from one side to give it a hand like look. After that I bevelled and extruded some faces to give it an interesting look.
We then divided the back of the hand in two parts to make it flexible for the animation part. I also added some extrusions and bevelling in the hand. Later on I added some nuts and bolts as well.
This week we studied how the camera plays an important part in animation and cinema. We also discussed how important the rule of thirds and golden ratio are in cinema. It makes or breaks the scene.
The rule of thirds simply suggests that you place your subject on one of the places that those lines intersect. So, instead of putting the subject where you’d place the Xs and Os in that game of tic-tac-toe, place the subject directly on the grid.
Moodboards
This week we also shared the moodboards of the ideas we were working on before.
Moodboard 1: The Dream
The moodboard I am sharing below is for the short film, “The Dream“. This short-film will be showing two worlds, a real world and the other will be the dream world. So the moodboards will show the contrasting themes and colors for each world.
The character I am planning to model for the final animation will be stylized but for the pre-vis I will be using the Bony Rig.
For the real world environment I am planning to choose a stylized artstyle with colorful and vibrant theme.
For the dream sequence, the idea in my head is to make an abstract or symbolic environment with mainly white color with hints of vibrant colors in the interactive objects only.
Moodboard 2: The Gift
The Gift is the story that revolves around Overbearing and Toxic Parenting. The artsyle I am planning for this short film will be stylized and color themes will be see a gradual shift from bright color schemes to dark.
This week we studied world building in animation. World-building is the process of constructing an imaginary world, sometimes associated with a whole fictional universe. World building is an essential part to support the narrative of our story.
A setting that is specifically chosen to act as the physical location for a story’s events often has a much larger role to play than merely acting as a backdrop. Setting informs the personalities of the characters, the choices they make, and the ways in which events unfold, but it also effects how closely themes and ideals within the narrative stick with the reader once the tale has ended. Just as characters evolve and influence the plot through action, so does a rich and vividly imagined world become an accomplice in its creation of atmosphere and identity within the narrative
Example of World Building
Image showing the environment of Courage the Cowardly Dog
John R. Dilworth’s surreal and darkly comic 1996 series, Courage the Cowardly Dog, exemplifies this perfectly through an infusion of influences drawn from sci-fi, horror, early cinema. Set apart by its grotesque art style and primary setting in the middle of nowhere, Courage begins in the midst of a neglected landscape that might not be immediately familiar to young viewers, but would certainly be recognizable to anyone who has grown up with the cult drive-in movies that defined cinema during the Atomic Age. There is initially very little life presented in Courage’s surroundings as the single two-story house with wooden walls and peeling wallpaper, which sits in the midst of a barren land with only a lone windmill for company, becomes an iconic image for the series that grounds it firmly in reality.
Set design/Staging in Animation
One of the most important aspects of any set/world in animation is the fact that it should work as a stage for the characters and story, as well as any action that takes place within it. When you look back at some of the classic feature film animations, you’ll notice that each frame is designed so that it contains the best composition to tell the story. Your set design should be no different: it should first and foremost be designed for the camera and story.
Storyboards
Idea 1: The Gift
So, the first idea I thought about revolved around the topic of overbearing parenting. I belong to South Asia and this theme is very close to the culture of the countries of South Asia. I decided to show this theme in a symbolic manner like most of the animation studios are doing nowadays.
This story revolves around a teenage girl who is loved by her parents and the parents are very protective for her. The girl is always wearing a knitted sweater, which symbolizes the love/care of her parents. The story proceeds like the sweater has slowly started to suffocate the girl. Initially it started tightening the grip on her which eventually leads to the difficulty to take the sweater off. The girl slowly started noticing the marks of the sweater on her skin which made her scared. One day when the girl was coming back from college the sweater started to tighten her grip, the girl towards home, she couldn’t breath and she barely made to her room. When she tried to take the sweater off it got stuck and didn’t come off. She saw scissors and cut the sweater to make herself free. The yarn of sweater then transformed into a demon and tried to possess the girl. The girl tried to escape but she was unable to do so. The knitted demon wrapped itself around the girl like the snake. The girl put all her energy and throws a candle from her table to the demon and it burnt off.
Idea 2: The Scar
This idea is about mental health and how it effects human. This story is about a girl who is very chirpy and is always a happy party girl. But one day she noticed a scar on her body (the scar here represents depression). The scar kept growing and she continued to hide her with clothes until one day her whole face was covered with the scar. When she saw herself in the mirror she got scared and she started feeling something in the mirror. She touched the mirror and there was a parallel world behind it. She went inside the mirror and sees a sad human covered with arrows inside her. When she was close to the human she noticed that it’s her. She got scared and started to take the arrows out. But then a demon appears from inside the body and attacked her. The girl started running first but then in the end she stopped running and faced it. After some months we see a happy her.
Idea 3: Star
This idea was more light hearted and comedy. It is about a school going boy.
The story starts with an introduction of a science quiz happening at a school and whoever will win this competition will become the star of the school. All kids have worked hard and they are filling their answer sheets. Everyone wants to win the competition. The camera pans through the students who are busy filling their sheets, the camera stops at the protagonist who is very sleepy and he is trying hard to stay up. The camera then zooms on his sheet where he is just drawing stars because he doesn’t know the test. Soon he stars seeing a portal opening from the sheet and he fells inside.
When he wakes up he was shocked to see the star badge at some distance. He got excited and planned to get that star but when he stands up he sees multiple obstacles in the way to get that star. He started running and jumping over the platforms, he was running fast and about to get there but then he falls down but he falls down on a paper plane flying towards the direction of the star. After crossing all the obstacles when he was finally about to pick that star, he started listening alarm ringing and he wakes up in the classroom. It took him sometime to realize that he was dreaming.
This week we started our new term and this term we are supposed to design, model, rig, texture and animate a mechanical arm. We started with basic modeling today.
Designing
The concept of mechanical arm
Modeling
We started with modeling fingers first. We used basic shape and then adjusted the poly count from the channel box to adjust it according to our desired style.
Firstly, we designed a part of the finger. I used bevel and extrude modifiers to get this desired look.
Secondly, I modeled the wheel
After modeling basic parts, I combined them all and made a finger. Later on I made the hierarchy and named the fingers properly. I copied the geometry of the finger and made rest of the fingers and adjusted the sizes.
After modeling, all the fingers I tested basic animation to see if everything is working fine. The fingers were working fine.
World-Building is the process of populating or creating digital environment assets from a library such as Mega-scans and compiling them in a 3D scene in Unreal Engine. Assets such as physical objects as well as sounds and music.
It is not necessary to always use physical objects in the environment to communicate a narrative sometimes an audio is also enough for a narrative.
2.3D Scans
Scan 1
Scan 2
Photogrammetry
This week we worked with Photogrammetry in reality capture. We begin with learning the basic navigation and understanding the interface of the software.
Firstly, we imported a video of our scan in the software and it converted the video to image sequences and imported in the software.
2) Secondly, we set the interface and projected the images in a form of 3d mesh. We can see the scan in the form of 3D model now. Afterwards, we had to clean the extra mesh. But at this point I got to know that my scan was not good enough to capture the whole 3D view so I decided to replace it with other scan.
3) The new scan worked really well and now I can see the full 360 degree of mesh. I started doing the cleanup with the lasso tool.
4) After cleaning the mesh, we imported the texture of the 3D scan and implement it on the model. The end result was decent. Then, we exported the mode in the fbx format in case we want to work on it further.
3. Collaborative Project
This week, Neeti showed us the first glimpse of the Lost World project. She setup the terrain and put some place holders in the scene to give us a a rough idea how the scene and particles look.
Video showing our first VR experience of our project
After that I, Donatella and Neeti did an art direction work meeting and set up the monument, moon, and terrain. This is how we set up the scene and it looks visually similar to the concept art now.
This week we had a work in progress presentation of our project. We gave the introduction of our team and shared the progress of our project. We visited Tate modern museum to scan sculptures and paintings. We also had the second session of Unity with Herman Ho.
2. Collaborative Project: Presentation
The presentation was extremely helpful to enhance our communication and public speaking skills. The feedback we received on the presentation helped us to fill the loop holes of our project.
Image showing some of the team members of “Lost World”
One-Liner
An immersive experience that takes you on a journey through the dystopian environments of post climatic apocalyptic Earth inhabited by evolved creatures.
3. Tate Modern Visit
After the presentation we visited Tate British Museum on a study trip. The main aim of this visit was to do the 3d scanning of the artworks of our choice. This visit allowed us to explore the creative installations and artworks from the people of different cultures.
4. Getting Started with Unity
Later this week, we had our second session of Unity. In this session, we worked on creating looping animations. We got familiarize with Unity Animation System.
Looping Animation
We started with important basic pre made assets and recorded an animation of a cube first. After that we tagged the plane as ground. To make the cube animation go up and down in a loop we copied the animation node of the cube and linked it back to the first animation node of cube. We also reversed the speed to -1 from 1 so that the animation becomes a perfect loop.
Image showing the scene in unity
Image showing the process of making loop-able animation
Then, we worked on how to import pre made animations and put them in loop by turning the loop animation checked in the inspector.
This week we discussed the challenges we are facing during collaboration. We then had a guest lecture by Jenn Leung on Digital Identities and Avatars Workflow.
2. Collaborative Project: Finalizing Concept Art
This week I made the concept art of both environments. I presented it to my tea and we finalized all the color themes.
Idea behind Concept
The main idea of this project is to show a fictional aftermath of the planet earth in 3023 AD. The art style was a mixture of abstract and realistic.
1.Environment: The monument in the scene takes most attention because it connects us with the culture of the place. The other assets like cars, rocks, trees signifies the remains of pre climatic apocalypse.
2. Moon: The moon shining behind symbolizes the hope. The hope that everything will become better for the planet again.
3. Creatures: I am planning to add glowing creature animations in the scene. Glowing creature signifies that evolved species have inhabited on the planet Earth. Glow and translucency shows the evolution, transition and hope.
4. Lighting: I have kept the lighting dull and monochromatic because the only source of light on the planet at the night is moonlight or the light coming from the glowing creatures.
3. Challenges faced in the Collaborative Project
Later in the session we discussed the challenges we are facing in the collaborative project. The main issue my team and I am facing is finding a common time suitable for all the team-members to meet and discuss the project. I also gave an idea to book an independent study class for all the students of collaborative unit where they can come and do their work without worrying about finding a common time of meeting.
Image showing Online Meeting
4. Digital Identities and Avatars Workflow
In this session we discussed the concept of avatars and what are their roles in the games and their history. We also analyzed their implications in 3d. As this was an interactive session we engaged with the lecturer through Miro board.
Digital Identities
A digital identity is a collection of information about a person that exists online. When this information is grouped together, it can provide a digital representation of an individual.
What are avatars?
An avatar is a personalized graphical illustration or image that represents an individual, or a character or alter ego. An avatar can be represented either in three-dimensional form (for example, in games or virtual worlds) or in two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and virtual worlds.
Image showing the avatars
What is the role of avatars in digital spaces?
An avatar plays a significant role in digital space as it shows your personality and several times it communicates your identity with other people.
History of Avatars
The early appearance of avatars dated back to the 80’s in computing, where internet users and gamers had on-screen representations. Avatars were seen as important, particularly in gaming to make the experience more immersive. If a person playing the game had an avatar that they felt reflected them, it would facilitate a first-person view.
Since then, avatars have popularized gaming experiences with the likes of Fortnite and The Sims generating revenue through an expansion of avatar/character customization. It was clear that gamers had the desire to personalize their on-screen avatars to better represent who they wanted to be in a game.
Pipeline of making an Avatar
In the session we studied how to make an avatar from a concept to 3d and add animations on it. We discussed different pipelines to make the final avatar. The one we used in class for practice is shown below.
Creating 3D Avatars
We also created the 3d avatars from the drawings we made during the exquisite corpse games. We made 3d avatars by making 3d models and using some pre made assets.
Image showing the process of making 3d avatar
4. Getting Started with Unity
Unity: Session 1
This week we had our introductory session of Unity with Herman Ho. We explored the interface of unity and got to know how we can use unity as an artist in the games industry. As unity is one of the primary gaming engine so this session was extremely helpful for us to make us understand the working pipeline of this software. We got the idea about making and exporting game ready assets for Unity or Unreal Engine.
Setting up the scene
After basic introduction about the interface and the software itself we moved to setting up the scene. Herman guided us how to import assets in unity and how can we build an environment using these props or assets. Then, we received ready made assets from Herman which we imported in unity to create an environment.
After importing the assets, we put some ambient occlusion, chromatic aberration and grains in the scene.
Then, we changed the color temperature of the scene to the cooler tones. We also added the fog in the scene.
I adjusted the color tones further and that is how the environment looked at the end.
