Game Character Design

While searching for a unique video game character, I came across this article about The Aesthetics of Unique Video Game Characters written by Shaylan Hamm, a university student, back in 2008. Within the article, Hamm explores games that create unique characters which step away from the stereotype, and how rare it is to find this in female characters. A great example discussed is the role a female character plays in the game series, Gears of War.

For example, the male characters in the game Gears of War (Epic Games, 2006) reflect the dismal, harsh post-apocalyptic world they fight in. The art style of the game is highly dramatic, and accentuates the damage inflicted on a once-normal society. The masculinity of the characters is exaggerated by their huge, battle-scarred forms, and they seem almost as intimidating as the monsters they are fighting. On the other hand, Lieutenant Anya Stroud is the only female character in the game. She is young, presumably in her early 20's, with a flawless appearance. While not overly-sexual by design, she shows no scars, age, or other features that relate to the world that the men are so physically tied into. Her personality is calm, her background is undeveloped and she seems very detached from the game, as if she were included only to represent a pretty face. The bombed-out buildings and cars have more of a sense of history than Anya Stroud. Could a female character, perhaps older, with a few battle scars, or some gritty humor added to her appearance, be suitable for Gears of War? If such a character were designed, could she possibly appeal to potential female gamers and males as well? If she were portrayed with the same respect and visual interest as the rest of the cast, females may be more inclined to give a game like Gears of War a chance. (Hamm, 2008)

It's a shame that this portrayal of women is so often seen in video games, over sexualised or not, they are often still above a certain level of "attractiveness". But who is to blame for this common trend? For a long time I have assumed it to be a case of "sex sells" and companies just want to use this to make money, however, are consumers just as much to blame?

In an article on Kotaku, (Hamm also discusses this article), two images are posted of of Mirrors Edge main character, Faith.

The image on the left shows the official rendering by Swedish dev DICE of the parkour-inspired, Asiatic heroine - and the other was a reinterpretation edited by an Asian fan, imagining what Faith would look like if she had been designed according to what he says are Asian standards of beauty.

The reinterpretation changes only a couple of things, but they make a vast difference to the way I would judge her character. Her increased breast size is the most obvious change, but her increased eye size and narrowed chin make her look 10 years younger, less powerful and more scared.These minor changes have completely changed the character from being a normal, athletic strong woman to, as the producer of the game states, a 12-year-old with a boob job.

While reading the article, quite a few interesting questions and theories popped up, like do we really want realistic game characters? Would they be any fun? But the theory that interested me most, and fit in with my study of character design was:

Character visuals should represent what the player aspires to be like as a person, not what the player wishes they looked like.

But We Want To Respect Who We Are In Games In other words, "real" game characters act as visual representations of the values, concepts and ideas we'd like to step into when we play a game. They're perhaps symbols of the people we'd like to become. They might instead be representations of the concepts and ideas that work best with the game's plot. When we as gamers react with offense to oversexed or unrealistic game characters, we're not so much offended that the characters are hyper-beautiful or impossible - we're unhappy because we're getting meaningless eye candy dangled at us in lieu of substance. It's not that we hate big boobs. It's that we don't get why someone who represents values we admire would need to flaunt her breasts around. Alexander (2008)

However, some games criticized for their sexualised female characters may actually have good reason for this. Leigh Alexander discusses this theory using the game Haunting Ground, and its central character Fiona.


The dress is rather too short on Fiona – gratuitous flashing is a horror tradition, but the teeny ensemble is not remotely in the realm of plausibility. Moreover, she (another character, the maid Dianna) comments it’s “too tight around the chest.” We’re still in early cutscenes and she’s already talking about her breasts, which are rather sizeable considering her young age. 
Because of elements like these,  it’s quite easy to attack Haunting Ground as distasteful fanservice for lusty-eyed young males; poor Fiona also makes an easy target for video game feminists, for whom even the razor-sharp and indefatigable competence of Lara Croft is not a satisfactory model, simply because the gal likes to wear a crop top and shorts. But Haunting Ground’s peripheral elements are the real star of the game. Fiona may not be a particularly powerful or capable young lady, but she’s effective as an ordinary one, from the cutscene camera’s appreciation of her healthy shape to the sharp sense of her figurative and literal penetrability in the eyes of her pursuers, owing to her somewhat fragile constitution and general powerlessness in the game.

Hamm, Shaylan, 2008 http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/854/the_aesthetics_of_unique_video_.php?page=1

Alexander,Leigh, 2008 http://kotaku.com/5070485/you-gotta-have-faith-does-style-beat-out-realism
Alexander, Leigh, 2007 http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/11/column_the_aberrant_gamer_haun.php

Ideas for Motion Comic

While browsing the forum library, I found this book...

The Artful Storybook, written by Terry Tailor, 2008

This craft book is all about creating your own storybook, and although I will be creating a digital motion comic, I really liked the rustic/scrapbook feel of the designs and hope to incorporate this style into my animatic tale.

What makes a good video game character?

Still struggling with formulating a questions and narrowing my subject for my research report, I found a book that really interested me titled "Better Game Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach" by Katherine Isbister. The book focus' on what makes a good game character with a psychological approach to how the player perceives game characters and how they react to them.

At this point I am thinking of using this book to find out what makes a good game character, and them compare to popular video game characters and whether they fit in with what the author says. I will also compare to "bad" or unpopular characters and discuss what aspects needed to change to make them popular. So at this point I have a working title of:

What makes a good Video Game character design?

The first chapter discusses the physical appearance of a character, how we as humans perceive attractiveness, and how this can be applied to characters. 

Studies have shown that many qualities are attributed to people with attractive features—sometimes referred to as the halo effect. These qualities include being seen as warmer, kinder, stronger, more sensitive, more outgoing, more socially persuasive and dominant, and even smarter than others. It’s even the case that attractive people get more lenient sentences in court, and they may get preference in hiring decisions.

Isbister states that a healthy, symmetrical face and body and straight profile are features that have been shown to produce higher attractiveness ratings and a strong chin is a mature facial feature often associated with attractiveness in men.

These are attributes that can be given to the popular video game character, Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series.

Whereas, a characters with asymmetry in body and features, a snaggle-toothed smile, unhealthy skin, weak chin, and convex profile is loaded with cues that have led to lower ratings of attractiveness.

Jimmy from the game Bully could be argued as having these less attractive features

However, different cultures have different views on what being attractive is. For example, a lot of eastern games, particularly attractive Japanese characters, resemble a more feminine look, opting for a more heart shaped face, larger eyes and overall younger look, but still adopt the symmetrical face and body.

Two examples are Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil (although he has had a "manly-stubble upgrade" for resident evil 6) and many of the many main characters in the Final Fantasy series such as Tidus from Final Fantasy 10.

Not only is it important for the playable character to be attractive, but the look of other characters the player interacts with must be carefully designed too. If the main character has a love interest, it is important for this character to be attractive to the player as well, in order to feel fully immersed into the main characters world.

These are two of Nathan Drakes love interests in the Uncharted Series. Their characters are both very different, Elena (left) representing the more kind-hearted, good girl that any guy would gladly take home to meet the parents, and Chloe (Right) the sexy, bad girl that no mother would approve of. Despite their differences, they are both still attractive to both the player and Nathan Drake, and both reflect different aspects of his personality making his relationship with each believable.

Baby faces.

The next section goes on to talk about Baby faces:

The human bias is to assume that those who have babyfaces will be warmer and

more trustworthy but also may be more dependent, less responsible, and more

submissive and manipulable. Psychologists call this an overgeneralization: attributing

traits of a child to adults with childlike features. The babyface bias has been

shown to affect judgments of people from infancy to old age. The babyface effect

transcends cultural and even species lines—people find baby animals just as cute

and nurturable as baby humans.

This baby face effect, has been used across many cultures in the entertainment media, the one that first springs to mind for me are Chibis, popular in Japanese manga.

Chibi (ちび or チビ^?) is a Japanese slang word meaning "short person" or "small child". The word has gained currency amongst fans of manga and anime.

Taken from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chibi_(term)

A Japanese word that is often used as a put-down in its original context, being roughly equivalent in meaning to "shrimp," "runt," "squirt," "dwarf," "midget," or "small-fry." In slang, however, it occasionally takes on aspects of cuteness, particularly when the individual in question is young, female, and already considered "cute" by the speaker. It can also be used as shorthand for a drawing style of Japanese origin more properly known as super deformed (SD). Its usage in English (or rather, Japanglish) ignores the word's derogatory context, and focuses on the "cute" meaning as it often appears in anime and manga, and its exclusive usage in this context is a good sign that the speaker does not, in fact, know how to speak Japanese.

Taken from the Urban Dictionary : http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chibi

The image on the left is a piece of Fan Art (by Kittyshinigami on Deviant art: http://kittyshinigami.deviantart.com/art/Bebop-chibi-Spike-146382563) that shows Spike from the anime Cowboy Bebop in a "Chibi" form. His large eyes and baby face makes him look cuter yet weaker and a need to be cared for. Whereas, anyone who knows the original Spike, (image on the right) would know that he is fully capable of looking after himself.

At this point I am wondering whether to compare western and eastern cultures in game character design:
What is the difference between good Eastern and Western character Design?

Stereotypes
The way we judge people is based on Stereotypes: 


"schemas or prototypes in your memory that associate a
pattern of cues with a typical set of qualities in a person. These cues can include
dress, build, posture, grooming, age, gender, race, style of speaking and moving, as
well as the company in which a person is seen." Isbister 2006


"height is something associated (for males) with responsibility and social
dominance"




Nathan Drake is portrayed as an "average joe" but he isn't so average, in my opinion he is portrayed as being tall, (even thought the uncharted wikipedia states him being an average 5ft 10) as well as good looking, which portrays his responsibility, as a player we have a trust in him that he can handle most tasks, and social dominance, which he is seen to have over most characters.

Although stereotypes can be bad, they can also be useful in game character design, for example, if a creature attacks a player, the player will assume the knowledge that all creatures resembling that initial creature will be an enemy, thus creating an in-game stereotype.


Goombas from the Super Mario universe have developed a stereotype, everyone knows these things will hurt you if walking into them, and so avoid them like the plague. But who knows, maybe that strange mushroom headed creature just wanted a hug, but you opted to jump on the poor little guys head instead, due to stereotyping.

These are two characters that also have wearying stereotypes. Big Daddies and Little Sisters from the Bioshock series.
 
During the game, when you first meet a little sister, you immediately judge her to be a poor abandoned child and you, the player, are the only one to protect her. (it is in our human nature to feel a need to protect the young). However, you soon get that feeling of greatness shoot out of you when the big guy comes a long and you realise that this little girl isn't quite as helpless as you first thought, all while trying to fight off this mechanical, armoured beast. This then creates a stereotype with these girls, and whenever you see one throughout the rest of the game, you have a stereotype that a fight will come shortly after any encounter.


Good designers also build memorable characters by taking well-worn stereotypes
and crafting characters that have a few traits that go against type.

The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses

The Nature of Game Characters
If we are to create games that have great stories in them, these stories must contain memorable characters. It is an important question to ask: How are characters in games different than characters in other media? If we examine fictional characters in various media side by side, some differences become apparent. Here are some samples I chose from lists of the best novels, films and videogames of the twentieth century.


Within this chapter (AUTHOR) discuses the differences between characters in novels,films and games. The main differences stated are:
The Mental and Physical Struggles: Characters in novels are mostly tumoiled with mental struggles, which makes sense considering when we read novels, we are hearing the main characters inner thoughts. Film characters tend to struggle with both mental and physical worries, which makes sense as the nature of the media is to watch, see the physical, and hear, the characters mental struggles through speech. Game characters struggles are mainly physical, again, the nature of the media suits this problem better because the player is taking on the role of another character, and therefore every players mental struggle would be different
The Reality or Fantasy of the world: Novels tend to be set in reality, films tend to be set in a realistic world that pushes the boundaries of fantasy whereas nearly all games are set in a completely fantasy world with characters built from that fantasy world.
The complexity of the plot: The plot of most popular novels tend to be rather complex and deep, and the complexity of plot tends to diminish from film to game. In my opinion, this is probably due to the intention of each media, games are intended to be fun to play and engage with, whereas novels only have words as form of entertainment, therefore, the story has to be wholly engaging.
Schell goes on the say that this might conclude that video games are doomed to have simple fantasy characters engaging in mostly physical actions. However, some games to employ deeper characters to a basic game-play in order to create a complex or deep storyline and experience (for example, Final Fantasy VII). Schell believes players are crying out for games with richer more meaningful characters and story-lines.

Costume Influences

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is a very popular tv series about a fantasy medieval world, but also strongly resembles a lot of medieval Britain. The tv series recently won an Emmy for its costume design and so I thought this would be a good place to gain inspiration for my characters.

This character is Osha, she is a "Wilding" someone from beyond the Wall and extremely low on the social class ladder. Her clothing reflects this, as well as he "wildness" This is something I can use for my characters.

This is the character Robb Stark, his clothes represent a much higher status in society, so his costume is less useful for my project, however, the fur draped around his neck is something I could implement into my characters.

This is Daenerys Targaryen, he character is set in a completely different place, a hot dessert, barren country. Her clothes reflect the change in climate as well as the more tribal lifestyle she leads (at this point). I love how the designers and creators have made her clothes look "lived in" and reflect the hardships of crossing the dessert. Small details like the ripped and torn leather,or weaving coming lose help tell a story and make the clothes look "home made". This is a look I want to re-create in my characters.

Again, these are similar to the images above, they look rough, lived in and home made.

This is the character Ygritte, who, as you can tell from her clothes, lives in a very cold climate. Although my characters aren't ploughin through snow, this could be useful again for ideas of how to use fur, and how it can keep them warm.

This is a short video showing michele clapton's costume designs and processes of Game of Thrones.

http://www.micheleclapton.com/

Merlin

http://www.samanthacousins.co.uk/#!__gallery

Research Report

Since changing my research report idea to be about concept art, I have been reading different concept art books as well as some other sources of information.

Uncharted 2

The first book I looked at was the art of Uncharted 2 published by Ballistic publishing, well known for publishing books on celebrating digital artists. 

Naughty Dog Staff

                        Art Director: Robh Ruppel

                        Page 40 (Need to Scan) “In Uncharted 2 it was extremely important to come up with distinctly different classes- the lighter armour class being easier to kill, while the heavier class are more difficult” “…we wanted the visuals to give the player an idea of what they were up against, to convey information that would allow the player to strategize.”

                        Page 44 (Need to Scan) “All the different classes of soldiers had to be easily visually identifiable by function. The heavy soldiers are the largest guys, big bruisers that are physically intimidating. Both their gear and their size sets them apart visually from the rest of the soldiers.”

                        Page 46 “First we came up with what we wanted them to look like – massive ape-like creatures with long horns- and then we realised we had to believably fit a guy inside there.” “Once we settled on a design, we reverse-engineered how the monster suit would realistically work…we designed the elements of the outfit to look as though it was constructed out of local objects…”

                        Lead Character Artist: Rich Diamant

                        Page 57 “Modelling characters generally begins with a concept, sketch or series of reference photos to establish the look of a character…(on modelling) we do a lot of really quick models to get them into the engine quickly to give a rough example of what it could be like in-game. It can be hard when you look at something on paper, because you’ll ask “Is it going to work? Will it be suitable for the environment? Is it too colourful? Is it not colourful enough?”…we were able to do that step (get the model in the engine) within a couple of days by building a fairly basic block mesh and projecting the reference images as textures onto the models.”

                        Page 72 “He (Tenzin) started with a long jacket, which became a problem because it would require another level of cloth dynamics. If you have something that’s fairly long, then it’s going to look weird when the character is moving around. We took some design liberties and instead gave him a smaller jacket that fit tighter”

                        Page 75 “Characters like Flynn are pretty easy to model…Male characters aren’t scrutinized to the same level as females”

                        Page 76 “Because he’s only in cinematics we didn’t have to be too concerned about performance – his hair alone is made up of about 6000 polygons.” (Talking about Karl Schafer)

                        Page78 “We even thought about what would be in his pouches to give them the right shape. His design is a classic case of form following function. The final model gently blends the initial concept with the actor’s (Graham McTavish) physique and features.”

                        Page84 “We did a bunch of redesigns of the character and removed fur from a lot of area, but kept it in key areas that would work in-game.”

Rob Ruppel

Concept Art: Environments

                        Page 90 “The design of environments is a collaboration between game designers, concept artists and environment artists”

The Art of God of War

I also looked at the Art of God of War, also published by Ballistic publishing.

Cecil Kim: lead visual development artist                       

“When you are working on a project as big as God of War, designing a new character will demand lots of revisions. I personally admire our teams’ professionalism because it requires a different level of patience to endure the countless revisions and notes from other creative departments such as animation, combat design, character modelling and tech art.”

Andy Park: visual development artist

                        “The whole time I was designing this I could not help but wonder how they were going to pull this character off in the game (Poseidon Leviathan)

Concept Art (d'artiste digital artists master class)

George Hull: Concept artist who worked on the matrix

                        “Breaking into Concept Art: At the end of the day, your artistic value is based on what makes you special. What can you do that sets you apart from what others do? There are a lot of young artists that can paint an image and make it look dramatic, colourful and maybe realistic. This is important, but the market is saturated on that end. What is hard to find are artists with refined drawing and design abilities. I always get calls looking for referrals of young design talent – artists that know forms, architecture, design details, and how to draw them well.”

                        “Even with vehicle designs, everything should relate to the story ideas…the ships needed to look repaired and battered like they had been through many sentinel attacks.”

Andrew Jones: Creative Director of Massive Black, a high calibre outsourcing studio for the video game industry.

Nicolas “Sparth” Bouvier: Artistic Director and concept designer in the gaming industry since 1996.

                        “The Concept design industry was just immerging in 1996. We all looked to famous artists like Syd Mead and Ralph McQuarrie for inspiration.”

Viktor Antonov: Art Directed and did concept designs for “Half Life 2

                        “I switched from industrial design to games after I realized the amazing possibilities and freedom games allowed. I’ve always loved designing realistic yet fantastical places. 3D game engines allowed new levels of immersion. The main challenge was using a primitive medium to get a sophisticated message through.”

                        “The process for concept art in games is definitely different for each project. Games are a collective effort – the process is very organic, mainly depending on the individuals making up the team and the company culture.”

Guild Wars 2 Art Book

Artists:

·          Matt Barrett. http://mattpostsarthere.blogspot.co.uk/

·          Kekai Kotaki http://www.kekaiart.com/

·           

                        Foreword, p3 “We don’t regard concept art as a blueprint to be slavishly reproduced, but rather as an inspirational starting point for our amazingly creative production artists. Multiple layers of personal contributions are expected and encouraged, sometimes leading to significant deviations from the initial idea, but always adding depth and richness.”

                        Ascalon, p7 “Striking a balance between function and inspiration was difficult with the new charr, who’s massive iron structures needed to be always ready for war.”

                        Ascalon, p9 “ Ascalon was the first land players explored in the original Guild Wars, and it was important to us that it remain recognizable – but also show ravages of 250 years of war and charr occupation.”

                        Ascalon, p11 “The template colours for Ascalon remained very similar to those in the original Guild Wars – yellows, oranges, browns and reds. Autumn colours, colours of the sunset. It was purposeful in the original Guild Wars to reflect the war and fall of Ascalon; in Guild Wars 2, it’s a reflection of the fiery attitudes of the charr, now the dominant inhabitants of that nation.”

                        (Find images from old game, compare with concept art and in game of gw2)

                        Kryta, p34 “The City of Divinity’s Reach is made of heavy stone and mortar contrasting with the wilderness that surrounds the city. This was designed to give the city a feeling of solidity in a chaotic world.”

                        Kryta, p37 “Clothing and weapons have become more like those of the renaissance…”

                        Kryta, p48 “From strong initial designs to fine craftsmanship of final game assets, Guild Wars always strives for high-quality art. However, we never aim for absolute realism. Instead, the key is to create a believable world. These creatures (scan and add images) are not ones you’ll find at any zoo, but their anatomical design, textural materials, and animation sets are based on real living animals. Anchoring the fantastic in familiarity lends credibility and, ultimately, fosters player immersion.”

                        Maguuma, p57 “The depths of the Maguuma Jungle were relatively unexplored in the original Guild Wars, so the design team and artists had a lot of leeway and room to grow into wonderful concepts and fantastic settings.”

                        Maguuma, p59 “The sylvari, our newest race, were a challenge because we wanted to bring in a fae influence, but keep it distinct from the common fantasy “elf.” Their plant-like evolution and extreme youth in contrast to the other races gives them a unique place in the genre.”

                        Maguuma, p65 “From their homes to their garb and armour, and even skin and hair, the design of the sylvari is all centred around their absolute bond with nature. They are essentially the embodiment of the natural spirit, so it was important that this idea be echoed in every facet of their civilisation.”

Maguuma, p68 “The monsters in Maguuma gave the artists a wonderful chance to play around with unusual textures. Wood, thorns, vines, and other natural elements all came together into one imposing whole.”

The Art of the Video Game by Josh Jenisch

This is a book I found while browsing for research resources online, and the description sounded like it would suit my research report as well as be an interesting read about games as art too.

The art of the video game has come a long way in the past 25 years. Once upon a time, the person responsible for a game's aesthetics was a solitary programmer - often presenting characters and landscapes as little more than bits of code and coloured pixels. Nowadays, entire teams of artists work together to create cohesive, often breathtaking, works of electronic art. Thanks to the technological sophistication of highly advanced gaming system, virtually anything that can be conceived of can now be rendered in the digital universe. "The Art of the Video Game" is the first book to celebrate the artistry of video games, which are poised to define 21st-century entertainment, much as talking pictures revolutionized the previous century.

A brief history of video game art

"At this point in gaming history, (1970s) artists played no direct role in the creation of video games. Development teams consisted of programmers buried neck deep in computer code. The main focus was on game-play dynamic, not the visual environment; artists wouldn't find a place on development teams for more than a decade. However, some of the greatest fantasy artists of the day were hired by gaming companies to create ancillary art (posters, box designs, instruction manuals, game cabinets, and the like). In the absence of truly engaging in-game art, manufacturers tried to capture gamers imaginations via auxiliary aesthetics."

"At this time (1980s) in game history, programmers were still the major workhorses of production, and most had little interest or training in art history, aesthetics, or design. But as the graphics capabilities of the machines increased, programmers were increasingly asked to showcase such features, and those with natural visual instincts found themselves on the fast track to success. One example in Shigeru Miyamoto, who became Nintendo's golden boy. As the creator of such properties as Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., and Legend of Zelda, Myamoto was single-handedly responsible for bringing in billions of dollars of revenue (not to mention the colourful and whimsical look that influenced many of the company's other titles). Myamoto's knack for combining interesting visuals with superior game architecture is renowned to this day."

"At this point (Early 90s), many game companies began hiring concept artists to solidify a title'f overall appearance. These artists worked in the early stages of game development, creating sketches and illustrations that set the tone for the characters, environments, gameplay, moods, and atmosphere. Unfortunately, technology was still unable to fully replicate any of these concept illustrations "in-game," so none of this work was ever seen by home players. But when programmers were faithful to the original concept art, gamers could feel its influence in every minute of gameplay."

Influences for Animated Graphic

These are some influences I found and looked at for my animatic i will create in BA8

Pans Labyrinth

For Research of the style I want to capture for my studio work, I decided to watch Pans Labyrinth. Previous to watching the film, I did not know much about the film but I had seen many images of the Fawn character and some other mysterious creatures. It looked like a dark fairy tale to me, and so I thought it would be useful.

The story: Synopsis

Spain, 1944. The end of the Civil War. Recently remarried Carmen moves with her daughter Ofelia into the house of her new husband, coldly authoritarian Vidal, a captain in Franco’s army. Finding her new life hard to bear, the young girl seeks refuge in a mysterious labyrinth she discovers next to the sprawling family house. Pan, the guardian, a magical creature, reveals that she is none other than the long lost princess of magical kingdom. To discover the truth, Ofelia will have to accomplish three dangerous tasks, tasks which nothing has prepared her to face…

Taken form the official Pans Labyrinth website. http://www.panslabyrinth.co.uk/

After watching the film, I realised it was not what I was expecting. Instead of a fairy tale, it focuses more on the trauma of the “real world” and the imaginary world the girl creates in order to escape the horrors around her. I was expecting to get ideas for the style and nature, but instead it inspired my story and ways I can use the theme of children escaping the real world to infuse fantasy into my story.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Another short story I looked at for inspiration was the animation within the film Harry Potter about the Deathly Hallows. This story inspired me because of the way the story was told and the rhythm of the narration worked really well with the animation.

This will be useful for my project when creating the narrative script, when recording the narration, and creating the storyboard. I really like the style of the animation, in my opinion, the 3D shadow puppet style and mood really work well (strong lights clashing with the dark) with the story. The characterture style of the puppets has also given me influence on how I could design my characters and express their movements.

Lord of the Rings Animation - Beginning

Guild Wars 2 Cinematic

The style and cinematics of Guild Wars 2 really influenced me to want to do this project. The style is very lose, and lots of different types of animation are combined to create this one cinematic. But mostly, they focus on using their beautiful artwork for their cinematics instead of creating highly polished 3D renders like many other games do.

This is a video, posted by Arenanet, in it they talk about how they create the cinematics and the process they go through.

In this video, Horia Dociu, Cinematics Lead on Guild Wars 2, reiterates what I like about their style, the way they use the art work and paintings to create a story.
Process:
Work with writers to create a rough storyboard.
Pose the storyboard into a rough animatic to work out timings, transitions and narration. 
The storyboard is then handed over to an illustrator, who adds mood to the image, making sure to keep every element on a separate layer for animation.
(Cinematic Artist, Richard Anderson)
Animators then take these illustrations, adding 3D characters, particle effects and pretty much anything they like to help the story.
The animators focus on bringing any concept art and illustrations the artists do, together and bringing them to life.
Once the cinematic is complete, they then set about adding sounds effects, such as music, background noise and narration.

Taxi

Taxi is a 2D animation created using after effects by Mark Roberts from Sheffield Hallan University- Media of the Arts. I stumbled across this short animation on YouTube and found it to represent the style of after effects animation I was looking for.

After watching this short animation, I decided to have a go at after effects, and see if I could replicate the separate movements of a human body (like making an arm wave). This was not as easy as I first thought, and although I believe I could learn how to do this properly, I felt it would take away my focus on the artwork, which is what I want to be the prominent feature, with after effects as a platform to show it off in a nice way. Therefore it is unlikely that I will use this particular animation style for my animatic, however, I did like how the text was used and the story was clear without the need for a narrator.

Spiderwoman Motion Comic

The credits from Sherlock Holmes

Great British Wildlife

For my two characters, I want their attire, as well as their movements and personalities, to reflect the animals and creatures they have learned to live with in the woodland. This means researching: what animals were native to England in the 16th century, which lived in woodland, what they were/are like (movement, habits, characteristics etc) and how my two characters may use them (such as furs, cooking etc).

My first main thought was the British Red Fox.

According to the British Wildlife Centre website, (http://www.britishwildlifecentre.co.uk) the British fox is native to England and so I can use them for my studio work project and they will fit in with the 16th century setting.

Foxes are very common in folklore from around the world, and are particularly perceived as the antagonist in children's stories such as The Gingerbread man, The Sly Red Fox and the epic poem Reynard the Fox. "Such stories typify the stereotype that foxes are cunning and deceitful, but also successful and to be admired. In language, to fox means to trick or deceive. It can also be used to refer to a cunning or deceitful person, though more recently a fox or foxy can be used to refer to an attractive woman."
"The fox has lent its name to many dozens of plants...The most obvious fox-plant link is the foxglove. The name stems from the belief that foxes wore the flowers as gloves on their paws."
It is popular belief that foxes kill for pleasure, this is something I was always told growing up, however, the fox website disputes this myth.
"This accusation is untrue: foxes do not kill for fun. Most animals need to find food every day to survive. Some nights are better than others in terms of food for a fox so, given the opportunity, foxes will always kill surplus food and cache (bury) it, to eat on another night when hunting is less good. This is a very successful strategy for surviving in the wild.
However, when a fox breaks into a hen house it is surrounded by easily caught prey. Its normal behaviour, and a good survival strategy is to kill all prey available and try to cache it. Given the option, the fox will come back for the remaining corpses and cache them."
I can use these facts when forming my characters, create a den for them within my environment to show where they store their food.
 "...since foxes travel and hunt on their own, they are said to be solitary animals. This is not to say that they avoid other foxes but to exemplify the fact they do not hunt in packs like some other canids, such as wolves."
"Foxes are territorial animals, i.e. they defend the area where they live against other foxes. That said, the use of scent marking to delimit their own space is a very effective way of communication and neighbours normally avoid meeting each other. If neighbours do meet, these encounters are generally benign, avoiding direct fights. Foxes are more aggressive towards strangers rather than other neighbouring foxes."

All above quotes taken from www.thefoxwebsite.org


I also managed to find a recording of a Red Fox which I could use within my animatic as ambient sounds.
http://sounds.bl.uk/Environment/British-wildlife-recordings/022M-W1CDR0001493-0900V0

Badger - Meles meles

The badger is the largest member of the Mustelid family and Britains largest land carnivore. They are nocturnal, emerging at dusk in summer to spend the night foraging. In winter they are much less active but do not hibernate. They live in social groups of 4 - 12 adults and when not active they lie up in an extensive system of underground tunnels and nesting chambers known as a sett. The female is called the sow, the male the boar.

Badgers are now protected by a number of laws. The Protection of Badgers Act 1992 consolidated past legislation, which had made badger baiting and digging illegal and in addition made it an offence to damage, destroy or obstruct their setts.

This protection has enabled the UK badger population to dramatically increase to the point where it is said to equal that of the red fox. The issue of the badgers role in the transmission of bovine tuberculosis to cattle is very controversial, there are other factors apart from badgers which need to be studied before a final conclusion can be reached.

Origin:	Native.
Size:	Head/body : about 75 cm, tail 15 cm. Weight 8 - 9 kg in spring, 11 - 12 kg in autumn
Description:	Thick set, round-backed, very powerful. Black & white striped face. Coarse, grey body fur, black on legs.
Habitat:	Favour woodland close to arable farmland. They prefer a well drained soil and often dig their setts under matted tree roots to provide stability to the soil.
Nest:	Nest chambers in the tunnels are lined with dry grass, bracken and straw. Bedding may be taken to the entrance of the sett in order to air in the sun. Fox - Vulpes vulpes The fox is a remarkably adaptable and successful animal found, where food is plentiful, in almost every habitat. It is a success because it is willing to eat almost anything and has become particularly adept at surviving alongside man in farmland and urban areas. With its bushy tail, large ears and narrow muzzle, the fox is unmistakable. The coat colour can be extremely variable - usually reddish-brown on top with lighter undersides, but much darker or even silvery forms are not uncommon. The mating season is December to February when the vixen can be heard at night uttering its eerie, high pitched scream. Four or five cubs are born in the Spring and the female fox stays with them in the 'earth' for two weeks, fed by the dog fox. They remain with their mother until Autumn when they disperse to find territories and mates of their own. Lynx New Evidence of Lynx in Medieval Britain A recent study has brought important insights into the history of the Eurasian lynx in Britain. It was once thought that the lynx became extinct here over 4,000 years ago, as a result of natural climatic change. However, subsequent studies have brought the extinction date forward. Most recently, scientists have used radiocarbon dating to age lynx bones found in a cave in north Yorkshire. The youngest of these are thought to be from around 1,500 years ago, bringing the extinction date into medieval times. This is significant, as it strongly suggests that human factors such as hunting, deforestation and declining prey populations caused its extinction in Britain. This new evidence has even been of interest to linguists. A 7th century lullaby in the ancient language, Cumbric, contains a list of animals killed by a hunter. There had been some uncertainty about the identity of one of the animals in the poem, and the lynx was generally dismissed as a candidate, as it was thought to have been long-extinct by the 7th century. But these findings make it much more feasible that the animal being referred to, llewyn, was in fact a lynx as some scholars had thought. The lynx is the largest of northern Europe's two feline species (the other is the wildcat), but weighing around 20 kg it is harmless to humans. It is very much a woodland animal and its main prey is the roe deer, although young red deer, the introduced sika deer and foxes also feature in its diet. Under the EU Habitats and Species Directive, member states including the UK are obliged to investigate the desirability of restoring native species that have been wiped out by humans. Successful re-introductions have already taken place in several parts of Europe, including France and Switzerland. With plenty of prey, and increasing habitat, there is a strong case for such an investigation in Scotland. http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/forest/missing/medieval_lynx_evidence.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7330504/Bears-lynx-wolves-and-elk-considered-for-reintroduction-into-British-countryside.html