CoP Practical: Collecting Further Feedback

I produced another short questionnaire on Survey Monkey, in an attempt to receive feedback on my animations. Once again I put together the three tests into one clip, and asked my audience which one they preferred.

Test Two

Questionnaire Results

Once again, I received similar results to my first test; a majority of the audience thought the rotoscoped animation was the best, claiming that it was the 'most realistic'. However, not as many people participated in this questionnaire as last time, so it maybe too early to conclude that the rotoscoped animation was the preferred version. I will try to push others to submit answers to try and make the results more definite, but as it stands the rotoscoped animation does have a large lead with it being preferred over 80% of the time.

CoP Practical: Test Two - Rotoscoping

My final task for my practical was to rotoscope my reference footage.

Rotoscope

When I rotoscoped last time, I drew over EVERY component in EVERY frame, but this time around to save time and in hopes of reducing line boiling, I copied and pasted elements that didn't move/had very little movement. I think this resulted in a more visually pleasing animation.

I'm going to have to disagree with what I have read during my dissertation research, as I think this is my favourite out of the three animations.Though I think it is very close between this and my 'with reference' test, I think this animation is just so smooth. The timings of this animation portrays the hesitancy of the character as they look for the cup with their hand really well. Though some practitioners seem to think that rotoscoping drains the life out of characters and makes them 'wooden', I don't believe this to be the case in this animation. I think it is the most lifelike out of the three and portrays the most realistic movements.
I do think if I was to give myself more time, I would be able to make my 'with reference' more realistic by adding in more in-betweens to slow down the motion to imply a greater sense of hesitancy. I only spent two days working on the 'with reference test' where-as this rotoscoping session took around 3-4 days as the video was much longer. Having said this, it is only a test and the rotoscoping method has produced some realistic movements anyway.

CoP Practical: Test Two - Animating With Reference

The second part of my testing was to animate the same sequence, but this time around I allowed myself to look at the reference material I had recorded.

Attempt One

Even though my animation wasn't quite finished, I very much preferred it when I compared it to my 'no reference' animation. Though at the time I was pleased with my first animation, looking back the arm feels a little too mechanical when the character takes a drink and moves the cup away from their face. I also don't like the shape of the cups as the character is taking a drink, and if this were for an actual production or short film rather than just for testing, I would completely re-animate this section.

I felt my first attempt at animating with reference required a few more in-betweens as the cup is brought to and away from the face. 

Attempt Two

I thought this test went much better than the first, and I like that the addition of the in-betweens has made the movement feel more natural. I think the motion is smooth, and I like that it feels like the cup has content due to how slowly it is tipped towards the mouth.

CoP Practical: Test Two - Animating Without Reference

The first part of my second test was obviously going to have to be animating without reference material, in order to make my testing fair. Again - similarly to my last test - I had to record the reference material before I started animating, so I knew how I was going to frame each animation. So once again I am animating Frank Thomas' view of looking at the material and then putting it away.

I decided that I was going to produce all of my animations in Photoshop this time around. By doing so, not only will it allow me to practice animating digitally (as I have pushed it aside as I have a love and a strong preference for animating on paper at the moment), but it will also make my test much more reliable. By making all the outcomes look alike in line quality and overall finish, I'm hoping that it will be much harder to distinguish between the different methods of working. This will mean that the results I get will be purely down to the performance of the character. 

Attempt One

Already I was much more pleased with how this test was going. For me, there is a significant difference between my first 'no reference' animation test and this one; this test being much more successful. Whether this be down to the change of perspective or the change of medium, or perhaps even practice at animating the action of picking up mugs, I am unsure. I have definitely been able to draw more accurately this time around, and have been able to convey more emotion and intent in this attempt. However, I still thought it was lacking some small elements. The main example being that I thought the book and the right arm should have more movement.

Attempt Two

In the second attempt, I made sure to make the hand with the book drop as the left hand missed the cup for a second time. I thought this would help enhance the characters intentions, as they are taking a break from reading to look where the mug is, in order to be able to grab it and take a drink. I also made it dip a bit to indicate the weight of the book, and how this has been distributed now that the left hand is no longer keeping it balanced. Though these tweaks have been small, I think they have greatly improved the performance, making for a more believable, naturalistic action. 

CoP Practical: Starting a New Test

Originally for the second part of my practical, I was going to test a different theory/subject that was - or going to be - discussed in my dissertation; for instance, anthropomorphic characters. However, when it came to writing about my first lot of test animations and the responses I had received, I realised that it might not have been the most reliable test. I decided that I wanted to do-over the test but this time try to eliminate or minimize test limitations, such as the inconsistency in animation method (traditional and digital). A lot of participants may have only chose the rotoscoped animation as it had cleaner lines and a cleaner, digital finish, when compared to the other two tests, rather than focusing on the performance, which is what I asked for.

This time, I'm going to focus more on expressing the emotion of the character, rather than purely trying to animate someone picking up a cup. I'm going to try to bear in mind what I have learnt so far whilst writing and researching for my dissertation, and really try to portray intent behind a character's actions. I have re-recorded some reference material of myself taking a drink whilst being focused on work, and it is this that I am going to try to capture in my three animation tests.

Reference Material One

Reference Material Two

Once I am finished, I am going to conduct another survey/questionnaire exactly like I did before, and from here I will be able to evaluate my results and compare them to my first test.

Case Study: The Iron Giant

I've chosen to look at the Iron Giant more closely, as I think it is a great example of animated performance. I watched it over the summer for my own amusement having not seen it in years, and I was soon reminded of what a brilliant film it is; I'd forgotten how emotional it was too. I knew I just had to write about it in my dissertation.

The scenes I want to talk about in particular, are;
- When Hogarth meets the Giant properly for the first time, and teaches him the name of objects
- Hogarth saying grace at the dinner table
- The witness of a deer being hunted
- The ending

There is a range of different displayed emotions within these scenes, yet they all portray the illusion of thought extremely well. This will be a good opportunity for me to refer back to previous statements and findings within my essay, to emphasise the importance of your character having thought processes and intention behind the movements they make. I also think these scenes have a great display of acting, especially the one where Hogarth is trying to say grace and alert the hand to get out of the kitchen simultaneously.