This is one of the final outcomes for this unit, my critical report. I really found this topic fascinating, and I found that there is considerably more to investigate. I strongly believe that there is a gap in the research- theoretically, I would be interested in completing my own study to try and fill this gap in this area if I were to pursue further study, but at the very least I would strongly consider looking into this topic again if later modules.
In Maya I am finishing up my body mechanic shot. After my blocking last week I feel confident in moving this shot forward into spline and further polish. I think that this shot is quite strong considering the entire progress of this module overall, and when looking at the difficulty that I had with some of the exercises, such as the ball and tail I think that my skills have improved over the course of the module. I am eager to make more shots with this level of planning, and I think that creating the 2D plan beforehand really helped me visualize how I wanted my shot to look.
In the final workshop of this term, we used videos of ourselves to create a metahuman facial motion capture system. I had some technical issues due to my oversight of not removing my glasses, which made Unreal’s recognition of my face limited. Despite this, setting up the motion capture was simple to follow and produced really great results when it was able to read my face. I can see how this would be a really fast way to produce some detailed animations, especially when applying what I have learned earlier in the term about collecting keyframes from objects.
In Maya this week I started planning my body mechanics shot. Looking at considerable references on YouTube, I wanted to do a shot that involved parkour or roof jumping. I want to push myself to do a multi-step process, so I have blocked out a small scene and have animated 2D plans for a body mechanics shot. I have used this shot plan to create the block out in 3D since I like the pacing and movement.
This week in unreal we were looking at finalizing our scenes and rendering our camera shots. This is quite exciting because I feel like this is a really good way to finalize my scene in Unreal. I have added quite a lot of buildings to my scene as well as adding props and and animating some elements of the scene. I feel I have been able to use my understanding of lighting and materials to create a really fun environmental scene. I do think there are still some things that I want to add to my scene before the final hand in but rendering is able to produce some really nice-looking final outcomes. ultimately I feel I have been able to at least to some degree visualize what I laid out in my initial sketchbook plans at the start of the module, particularly the shot at the top of the hill, which includes the house and the waterfall. I created two particle effects, one of falling water that is overlaid to the front of the waterfall and has collisions. This adds an appearance of more textured water. I also added a particle effect to the bottom of the waterfall to make it look like the water splashes upon landing.
Following last week I have narrowed down my research topic and goals. The question I am asking is twofold:
How do people choose who to play in games and are they able to choose freely?
I’m asking this question because I have a personal hypothesis and belief that there are not enough options for play as (non-sexualised) female and non-white characters in games. I have a personal interest in psychology and sociology and upon researching further I have found numerous psychological studies examining how players choose to represent themselves in games. I would also like to discuss the (lack of) availability of lgbtq+ representation, but with the limited word count, I am going to focus on race and gender equality.
I think this topic could have greater world applications, as evidence that there is a market for particular character designs could guide game companies with their choices, while wider representation may make games more marketable to a larger audience. Not only this but representation is a growing topic in wider social discussions, and as an aspiring game developer and animator, I want to create socially responsible works and contribute to a more racially/gender-equal society. I’m inspired by some games I have played in my own life:
Harvest Moon- has been criticised for creating separate copies of games based on gender- Harvest Moon DS/ Harvest Moon DS: Cute
Genshin Impact- High criticism for a lack of POC playable characters, with only three of dozens of characters being visibly non-white, despite having world regions based on northern Africa
The Sims 4- A life simulation game that has historically been criticised for a lack of representation of skin tones and low-quality applications of ethnic hair textures, but has improved on its availability of representation
World of Warcraft- Criticised for a lack of diversity options as well as criticised for sexist “dimorphic” character designs, with sexualised female characters
In Maya I used this week to continue developing my walk cycle. I found that I had too much of a heavy side-to-side motion and required a more dynamic use of overlapping action especially when it came to offsetting the motion of the body from the feet. I wanted to also emphasize more of a peel-off motion of the feet from the floor, so I need to ensure that I add more dynamic curves to the bend of the feet. overall I am confident that I have a good understanding of the mechanics of a walk cycle.
this week we looked at creating control rigs we used available human body rigs from the unreal marketplace and created a controller system. I was pleasantly surprised about how similar the process is to creating a rig in Maya, and I found the process very understandable. This is a huge positive for me because I would like in the future to use Unreal to make games. even if adding a character is out of my scope for this project. I also found that animating the character after the control rig was complete was easy to understand and performed in a similar way to Maya, which so far has been the only software I have animated characters in. As for the development of the design project, We have decided that the island is too small to create much of a village, which I would like to do. I have been looking at the concept art from Disney’s Luca, which in the film is set in a small fishing village on the ocean with a vibrant market. I would like to have more of a central marketplace, so I will remake this level into a larger island.
Due to my background and continued interest in game development, I want to focus my critical report on games rather than film.
The potential topics I am interested in revolve around identity and representation in video games, and whether games differ from other forms of media in terms of representation, particularly regarding race, disability and gender. However, I may need to choose between these facets if discussing all three is out of my scope. I found a photography project from artist Robbie Cooper, who explored the individual in contrast to their in-game avatars.
I am interested in several topics within this concept:
Looking at who plays games, in contrast to playable characters in games and whether that is representative of its audience
Looking at games with character creators, and how individuals choose to represent themselves, or are limited in how they can represent themselves
Comparing representation of minority groups in games vs film – or how this has changed in recent years in games specifically
Do individuals of minority groups choose to be themselves in games, or do they embrace being someone else?
Is creating representation in games more viable than in other forms of media?
Sources I’m considering using within my critical report:
I obviously will need to clarify exactly what my question is before deciding which sources will be most important, so my focus for the coming week is to decide on my essay question.
In Maya this week I polished my weight shift animation which I found to be a good precursor to beginning working on a walk cycle.
I found that planning the walk cycle was very similar to planning the weight shift from the front view in terms of body mechanics, though obviously, a walk cycle includes forward movement, which the weight shift did not. Having some experience in game animation, I’m very used to doing on-the-spot walk cycles. However I am not very used to doing walk cycles that involve the character moving forward outside of a game engine, so this is a good exercise for me.
