Bex is finally in 3D, however because the final story does't involve her I think this is the stage she will be finished at.
Old VS New
I was never happy with the Chris model, and he is actually in the final animation so he needed a better model!
Monday 30 December 2013
Wednesday 13 November 2013
Storyboard
I have finally made a story I'm pretty happy with now!
Before this final story I had came up with a few others which weren't good enough.
But here's the script a story beforehand
Tetra talking about how she can climb to the top of the redwood and how she will show him.
they pass chris and he starts yelling at em,
Chris: hey you still pretending to be going out? everyone knows you're gonna come out that huge closet together? I mean it's probably close to bursting with all those basketballs (gestures to tetra) and bowties or whatever crap you wear.(points at coats)
Tetra : Ugghh, is that all you got? Cause I bet you're gonna regret it when we turn out way smarter than you and end up being your bosses!
-Coats already starting to walk away-
Chris: eh, maybe Coats, I've heard how he talks, like a fenchy puff pastry. But look at him he's running away!
Tetra: ughh unhg!? oh!
-she runs over to coats-
Tetra: Come on he was on his own! we could have totally won there!
Coats: I don't think anyone was gonna win there, y-you know people like that. stuck in a mindset and won't budge.
Tetra: can at least TRY to change him, like, I'm sick of this! every time we walk past him.
Coats: -hold his head- just gotta try to avoid him, can kinda see that mess of hair from a distance.
Tetra: yeah, hey! how bout i show you my tree skillz!
-Cut to a park tetra in a tree-
-Coats looking at a girl(Bex) making flirty gestures-
Tetra: ey hey you looking? -is behind coats and he's not looking, Tetra is off screen-
ARE YOU LOOKING!?
-Coats is startled by tetra's yelling-
Coats: ugh UGH YEAH!!
Tetra: Look I got to the top! And you promised me if i could you'd try to climb!
coats:...ah sugar lumps i did...ugh.
-He looks at the tree worried and jumps for a branch, won't let go.-
Tetra: Aww das not even trying!
-shot cuts to coats handing, tetra jumps down-
Tetra: Want me to push you up
Coats: N-no NO I'M FINE! I'll just...stay here.
Tetra: You are about 1 foot from the ground c'mon you can totes let go!
Coats: Have you seen my legs! they can't take a drop as big as that!!
-Tetra Sighs, puts her arms round coats- ok let go...
-coats does so and she puts him down-
-Coats Is on the ground and hugs tetra-
Coats: No more tree's!!
-ends up on his knees hugging her legs-
Tetra:..Uuhhhh...we can go to the suit shop...like..if that's better?
-Coats Does a camp tee-hee giddy thing-
Coats: Eeee! really! YOU wanna go for once?
Tetra: Aahh uhh suure.
-It cuts to inside a suit shop coats looking at a full 3 piece suit-
Coats: One day...ONE DAY I will have you!
Tetra: pppfttt yeah like in 30 years!
-hanging off a clothing poll or sat on top of a high shelf, is yelled at to get off-
Coats: Stop that man! we're gonna get thrown outta here! But uhh, hey are there any suits here you'd wear?
Tetra: Ey are there any suits that you can like run around in?
Coats: N-no no! You don't do that to poor suits! Think of the silk ascots and ties! think of the velour!
Tetra: But think of ME running round the court with a tie around my head, being a friggen cool kid!
Coats:...tha..that's not cool :c mother you ruin everything!! wwaahh waahhh!!
-fake sobs near the door-
Tetra: It's okay son, mother will never run in a suit, so long as you never get stuck in a tree again.
-They leave the store and end up passing Chris's house, Coats freaks out but Tetra wants to tell Chris off for his behavior before. Chris' sis Bex is there this time, as Tetra comes into there garden yelling Bex questions why, Tetra claims Chris is a bully-
Bex: So you think Chris is a bully?
Tetra: Well YEAH all he does is give us a hard time! Your whole house is just weird!
Bex: uh? So...ugh what am i then? If Chris is a bully what label you gonna give me then?
Tetra: Well..i dunno, ain't you a slut or something? I heard guys talking about you.
Bex: So, I like sex huh, woah how awful of me.
Tetra: Well that's not awful but I mean Chris he-
-Shows coats talking to Chris, Chris head in hands-
Tetra: What the!? Why he, Coats?
Bex: Chris is gay tetra...And our mam doesn't like it. Pretty silly isn't it.
Tetra: wWell how were we suppose to know!
Bex: And how is Chris suppose to know you from first glance? What do you think he labels you coats as.
Tetra: He labels him as gay, even though it's a lie.
Bex; maybe Chris thinks Coats was the same as him, to afraid to speak up. If you met Coats for the first time What would YOU label him as.
Tetra: eh I i can't put a label on him! He's...he's got to much going awn!
Bex: exactly...
And the plan i had before the finalized story, I had a longer version where Chris ended up finding them in a clothes store. same story just dragged out.
I wanted to show Tetra and Coats in both of there preferred environments.
Very rough sketches on paper.
Saturday 2 November 2013
The journey
After being told we were to give a small presentation about our journey through MA and what we plan to do for the final semester, I went on to try and think how i ended up here and say it in an understandable way.
So...
I had initially started looking into female characters in games.
The first thing that was pointed out while comparing males with there female counterparts was that female characters are more often sexualized.
Which in turn made me instantly want to design and model characters with no possible sexualization.
At first i was going to make higher poly characters, around 10K after being interested in 'Borderlands' style.
But seeing the low poly count and sharp shapes in black water gospel, with there amazing textures using a heavy amount of black lines, I lowered the poly count, using mostly alpha's for the detail such as mouths, hair and eyes.
And because I rigged 3 character that i felt would be easy to animate due to there low poly count.
I had my first go at a walk cycle.
I realized i was not a big fan of manual animation.
I then looked further into the more negative traits seen in media, knowing what sort of things to avoid. Things like only having 1 female character in a group of main characters.
Female roles that are used mostly to drive a male character, such as killing the female off or most there dialog revolving around trying to make a male cheer up and become a better person.
And at this point i was doing the essay, my subject, ’Are sexualized women needed to make a mature game popular?'
And with that essay I came to the conclusion of no, female characters do not make a game popular and nor to males.
Game play is what sells a game, visuals in general will also differentiate a game, however characters with personality will make the game more memorable, quotable and overall more enjoyable.
So it became more important to me to design women with more diverse personality traits and looks to them.
And at this point I had noticed it wasn't just female characters who were being poorly written and under developed.
Male characters also tend to just be lumped into a singular trope, they may still get majority of the attention in games so statistically more likely to have more well written and diverse, but a lot of them seem to have the same stereotypes.
This lead me to want to create men and women who weren't the typical game character personality, I wanted them to emote and have feelings, not revolving around revenge or strength.
I wanted males who could share feelings without being considered not a 'real man' and having females who didn't want to show skin or show emotions or have a typical game girl body and be considered not a 'real woman'
Feelings don't make a character weak, they simply make them human, relate-able, and far more interesting.
After the second essay the animator Candy Guard was most useful, she said that anthropomorphic characters let you make content about gender roles without making it to obvious.
She also mentioned personality being more important than the design, as her animations were very simplistic, but you wanted to see the characters interact with each other anyway because they were written well.
So i ended up having 5 characters who wouldn't fit into the stereotypical role usually found in games.
I had my adventurous tomboy who likes to be considered one of the guys.
A feminine male who has a love for fashion and is incredibly skittish when it comes to conflict.
Another male character who had the general masculine features, aggressive and closed off emotionally, he was also gay and felt it threatened his image if it got out.
A 2nd female character who was shy but fairly open about her sexuality and permiscuois but was shamed for doing so.
And finally a 3rd female who looks very masculine and cave man like, a cold and uncaring woman because she's been treated like some sort of freak show because of the way she looks.
Originally i was going to make a game idea with these characters, but a lecturer in drama was asking for 3D models for his students to work with using motion capture data as they wanted to try a new form of acting education.
As games are using the mo-cap technology more and more it will be useful for students to learn how to act in motion capture studio's.
It's also a completely new way to act for students as they may have to try and move as thought they are the cartoon characters shape, bigger hands, shorter legs etc.
This opened up a new way to showcase a story using my characters interacting with each other. Filming the students faces while doing these animations so i can add details
to the characters faces on top of the gestures made with there body.
So for this to work, I had to learn the program motion builder, as you had to set up a special rig in this program so the skeleton knows which bone is a thigh, an arm etc. So it can move with the drama student.
Now i have 2 of my 4 characters ready to be used with the drama students. I just have to come up with some form of narrative that I'm happy with, for them to act with and be directed.
I will try to come up with a story that involves a lot of body language and gestures which also shows characters that are likable and fun, yet branch out from the stereotypes. So both me and the drama class get something out of it.
So for my final 3rd semester I'll be creating and animating a story, I'm going to have to create the 3D environments which will depend on what the story's going to be. I have up to 5 possible characters to use
So...
I had initially started looking into female characters in games.
The first thing that was pointed out while comparing males with there female counterparts was that female characters are more often sexualized.
Which in turn made me instantly want to design and model characters with no possible sexualization.
At first i was going to make higher poly characters, around 10K after being interested in 'Borderlands' style.
But seeing the low poly count and sharp shapes in black water gospel, with there amazing textures using a heavy amount of black lines, I lowered the poly count, using mostly alpha's for the detail such as mouths, hair and eyes.
And because I rigged 3 character that i felt would be easy to animate due to there low poly count.
I had my first go at a walk cycle.
I realized i was not a big fan of manual animation.
I then looked further into the more negative traits seen in media, knowing what sort of things to avoid. Things like only having 1 female character in a group of main characters.
Female roles that are used mostly to drive a male character, such as killing the female off or most there dialog revolving around trying to make a male cheer up and become a better person.
And at this point i was doing the essay, my subject, ’Are sexualized women needed to make a mature game popular?'
And with that essay I came to the conclusion of no, female characters do not make a game popular and nor to males.
Game play is what sells a game, visuals in general will also differentiate a game, however characters with personality will make the game more memorable, quotable and overall more enjoyable.
So it became more important to me to design women with more diverse personality traits and looks to them.
And at this point I had noticed it wasn't just female characters who were being poorly written and under developed.
Male characters also tend to just be lumped into a singular trope, they may still get majority of the attention in games so statistically more likely to have more well written and diverse, but a lot of them seem to have the same stereotypes.
This lead me to want to create men and women who weren't the typical game character personality, I wanted them to emote and have feelings, not revolving around revenge or strength.
I wanted males who could share feelings without being considered not a 'real man' and having females who didn't want to show skin or show emotions or have a typical game girl body and be considered not a 'real woman'
Feelings don't make a character weak, they simply make them human, relate-able, and far more interesting.
After the second essay the animator Candy Guard was most useful, she said that anthropomorphic characters let you make content about gender roles without making it to obvious.
She also mentioned personality being more important than the design, as her animations were very simplistic, but you wanted to see the characters interact with each other anyway because they were written well.
So i ended up having 5 characters who wouldn't fit into the stereotypical role usually found in games.
I had my adventurous tomboy who likes to be considered one of the guys.
A feminine male who has a love for fashion and is incredibly skittish when it comes to conflict.
Another male character who had the general masculine features, aggressive and closed off emotionally, he was also gay and felt it threatened his image if it got out.
A 2nd female character who was shy but fairly open about her sexuality and permiscuois but was shamed for doing so.
And finally a 3rd female who looks very masculine and cave man like, a cold and uncaring woman because she's been treated like some sort of freak show because of the way she looks.
Originally i was going to make a game idea with these characters, but a lecturer in drama was asking for 3D models for his students to work with using motion capture data as they wanted to try a new form of acting education.
As games are using the mo-cap technology more and more it will be useful for students to learn how to act in motion capture studio's.
It's also a completely new way to act for students as they may have to try and move as thought they are the cartoon characters shape, bigger hands, shorter legs etc.
This opened up a new way to showcase a story using my characters interacting with each other. Filming the students faces while doing these animations so i can add details
to the characters faces on top of the gestures made with there body.
So for this to work, I had to learn the program motion builder, as you had to set up a special rig in this program so the skeleton knows which bone is a thigh, an arm etc. So it can move with the drama student.
Now i have 2 of my 4 characters ready to be used with the drama students. I just have to come up with some form of narrative that I'm happy with, for them to act with and be directed.
I will try to come up with a story that involves a lot of body language and gestures which also shows characters that are likable and fun, yet branch out from the stereotypes. So both me and the drama class get something out of it.
So for my final 3rd semester I'll be creating and animating a story, I'm going to have to create the 3D environments which will depend on what the story's going to be. I have up to 5 possible characters to use
Friday 11 October 2013
Making the characters and narrative ideas
When it comes to writing character, particularly female, I came across a few articles talking about the phrase 'Strong female character'
Article here: http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/08/i-hate-strong-female-characters
I remember watching Shrek with my mother.
“The Princess knew kung-fu! That was nice,” I said. And yet I had a vague sense of unease, a sense that I was saying it because it was what I was supposed to say.
She rolled her eyes. “All the princesses know kung-fu now.”
No one ever asks if a male character is “strong”. Nor if he’s “feisty,” or “kick-ass” come to that.
''What happens when one tries to fit other iconic male heroes into an imaginary “Strong Male Character” box? A few fit reasonably well, but many look cramped and bewildered in there.''
''Nowadays the princesses all know kung fu, and yet they’re still the same princesses. They're still love interests, still the one girl in a team of five boys, and they’re all kind of the same.''
''Badass gunslingers and martial artists sure, but also interesting women who are shy and quiet and do, sometimes, put up with others’ shit because in real life there’s often no practical alternative. And besides heroines, I want to see women in as many and varied secondary and character roles as men: female sidekicks, mentors, comic relief, rivals, villains.''
So the characters have to have more than just there few traits.
A great site that almost makes a check list on how to make a good character helps think about how to create one.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SoYouWantTo/DevelopCharacterPersonality
''In order to understand how a character’s personality will be affected by gender roles, you need to take into account the 3 things we spoke of before.
(Environment) The rules and expectations the society where your character resides has for each gender.
(Free-will) How much does your character follow the rules of that society? Does your character defy or follow what society expects of him/her? And how much to they follow/defy them?''
I have used multiple questions they asked ion this web page for 2 of my characters.
So I can have my female character Tetra with my male character Coats, On the screen at the same time. working off each other in this narrative.
Now I have to think of what sort of character I want to show through body language and interaction with one another. And not just rely on one or two roles such as 'woman is strong, boy is weak' or vice versa.
I like using this list to start off making the characters.
Tetra
The more energetic of the 2 main characters, physically stronger than Coats and talkative, confident, but not a lot of charm, often comes off just loud and obnoxious. Very adventurous, however she will drag poor coats a long with her and become quite thoughtless when it comes to things she can do, but coats clearly can't, so she may end up climbing over an obstacle and forgetting coats can't do it. Walking for a few minutes before realizing what she's done.
How is your character when alone?
She is not alone to often, she is out of the house a lot, she likes to keep active. Climbing tree's a lot. But when at home she spend a lot of the time on the internet socializing with others.
Does your character treat everyone the same?
She acts similar to everyone, it just depends if people will stick around her loud pushy personality. Coats is her closest friend, she is as nice as she can be to him, however doesn't think about his feelings unless he's clearly upset.
Skill flaws.
She may be physically skilled, quite limber due to her ape features. But she doesn't think very logically.
Moral flaws.
She will often put her own needs in front of others, if she wants to go somewhere, she will drag others no matter what they think. She will often try to be the center of attention either through sheer volume or showing off.
Extraversion/Introversion.
Extrovert, Tetra gets uneasy on her own for to long, she gets bored quite easily. Possibly because she doesn't feel like what she does matters if no one can see her doing it.
Coats
A rather timid skittish camp guy. Who would soon rather run away rather than face what he's afraid of of intimidates him. He often relies on Tetra for emotional support.
He feels at ease when talking to women because he has had a history of being ridiculed mostly by men, being told to 'man up' being asked if he was gay.
How is your character when alone?
He is quite happy to be alone, he doesn't feel judged for his love of clothes. He spends a lot of time in suit shops almost drooling over the clothes, trying to come up with the perfect outfit for whenever he has the money.
Does your character treat everyone the same?
He is usually quiet around people. With Tetra he feels more comfortable so openly talks about cool clothes he saw that say or has seen on the internet.
Where as with his father and other males he deems wouldn't understand him he stays silent unless spoken to, ashamed of his desires.
Skill flaws.
He is very physically weak with very little stamina, It is almost impossible for him to be sneaky to, on hard floors anyway because of his hooves.
Moral flaws.
He often over reacts and freaks out if embarrassed, especially in public. He will also lie to others if it makes life easier for him.
Extraversion/Introversion.
More of an introvert, he will judge people based on appearance and if he feels like someone is not going to understand his life style he won't talk to them, being alone or with Tetra is just easier on his nerves.
So when it comes to story, possibly something revolving around Tetra doing things, dragging coats along Tetra getting across obstacles fairly well, able to balance and walk over a log above a stream, where as coats is having trouble and has to crawl across. Coats needing to yell for tetra to slow down, maybe seem exhausted leaning against a wall.
But when it comes to some sort of puzzle, Tetra will try to solve it with physical skills without thinking about it. But because Coats is so tired he just looks at the puzzle and realizes it needs thought.
Not sure on the environment yet, possibly use the game idea i originally had, inside another characters subconscious, as there could be all kinda of objects and shapes in the way.
I'd also like dialog in the scene, but I don't want there to be voice acting and lip sync. Probably have text boxes and the characters faces can just show the feelings of the character.
Article here: http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/08/i-hate-strong-female-characters
I remember watching Shrek with my mother.
“The Princess knew kung-fu! That was nice,” I said. And yet I had a vague sense of unease, a sense that I was saying it because it was what I was supposed to say.
She rolled her eyes. “All the princesses know kung-fu now.”
No one ever asks if a male character is “strong”. Nor if he’s “feisty,” or “kick-ass” come to that.
''What happens when one tries to fit other iconic male heroes into an imaginary “Strong Male Character” box? A few fit reasonably well, but many look cramped and bewildered in there.''
''Nowadays the princesses all know kung fu, and yet they’re still the same princesses. They're still love interests, still the one girl in a team of five boys, and they’re all kind of the same.''
''Badass gunslingers and martial artists sure, but also interesting women who are shy and quiet and do, sometimes, put up with others’ shit because in real life there’s often no practical alternative. And besides heroines, I want to see women in as many and varied secondary and character roles as men: female sidekicks, mentors, comic relief, rivals, villains.''
So the characters have to have more than just there few traits.
A great site that almost makes a check list on how to make a good character helps think about how to create one.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SoYouWantTo/DevelopCharacterPersonality
''In order to understand how a character’s personality will be affected by gender roles, you need to take into account the 3 things we spoke of before.
(Environment) The rules and expectations the society where your character resides has for each gender.
(Free-will) How much does your character follow the rules of that society? Does your character defy or follow what society expects of him/her? And how much to they follow/defy them?''
I have used multiple questions they asked ion this web page for 2 of my characters.
So I can have my female character Tetra with my male character Coats, On the screen at the same time. working off each other in this narrative.
Now I have to think of what sort of character I want to show through body language and interaction with one another. And not just rely on one or two roles such as 'woman is strong, boy is weak' or vice versa.
I like using this list to start off making the characters.
The more energetic of the 2 main characters, physically stronger than Coats and talkative, confident, but not a lot of charm, often comes off just loud and obnoxious. Very adventurous, however she will drag poor coats a long with her and become quite thoughtless when it comes to things she can do, but coats clearly can't, so she may end up climbing over an obstacle and forgetting coats can't do it. Walking for a few minutes before realizing what she's done.
How is your character when alone?
She is not alone to often, she is out of the house a lot, she likes to keep active. Climbing tree's a lot. But when at home she spend a lot of the time on the internet socializing with others.
Does your character treat everyone the same?
She acts similar to everyone, it just depends if people will stick around her loud pushy personality. Coats is her closest friend, she is as nice as she can be to him, however doesn't think about his feelings unless he's clearly upset.
Skill flaws.
She may be physically skilled, quite limber due to her ape features. But she doesn't think very logically.
Moral flaws.
She will often put her own needs in front of others, if she wants to go somewhere, she will drag others no matter what they think. She will often try to be the center of attention either through sheer volume or showing off.
Extraversion/Introversion.
Extrovert, Tetra gets uneasy on her own for to long, she gets bored quite easily. Possibly because she doesn't feel like what she does matters if no one can see her doing it.
Coats
A rather timid skittish camp guy. Who would soon rather run away rather than face what he's afraid of of intimidates him. He often relies on Tetra for emotional support.
He feels at ease when talking to women because he has had a history of being ridiculed mostly by men, being told to 'man up' being asked if he was gay.
How is your character when alone?
He is quite happy to be alone, he doesn't feel judged for his love of clothes. He spends a lot of time in suit shops almost drooling over the clothes, trying to come up with the perfect outfit for whenever he has the money.
Does your character treat everyone the same?
He is usually quiet around people. With Tetra he feels more comfortable so openly talks about cool clothes he saw that say or has seen on the internet.
Where as with his father and other males he deems wouldn't understand him he stays silent unless spoken to, ashamed of his desires.
Skill flaws.
He is very physically weak with very little stamina, It is almost impossible for him to be sneaky to, on hard floors anyway because of his hooves.
Moral flaws.
He often over reacts and freaks out if embarrassed, especially in public. He will also lie to others if it makes life easier for him.
Extraversion/Introversion.
More of an introvert, he will judge people based on appearance and if he feels like someone is not going to understand his life style he won't talk to them, being alone or with Tetra is just easier on his nerves.
So when it comes to story, possibly something revolving around Tetra doing things, dragging coats along Tetra getting across obstacles fairly well, able to balance and walk over a log above a stream, where as coats is having trouble and has to crawl across. Coats needing to yell for tetra to slow down, maybe seem exhausted leaning against a wall.
But when it comes to some sort of puzzle, Tetra will try to solve it with physical skills without thinking about it. But because Coats is so tired he just looks at the puzzle and realizes it needs thought.
Not sure on the environment yet, possibly use the game idea i originally had, inside another characters subconscious, as there could be all kinda of objects and shapes in the way.
I'd also like dialog in the scene, but I don't want there to be voice acting and lip sync. Probably have text boxes and the characters faces can just show the feelings of the character.
Friday 4 October 2013
At the Mo-cap studio!
The studio itself is quite large, a lot of space to work with.
There's a small station where I put my FBX files on a laptop which had a cable connecting to the computer beside it, Which is where they set up the actual mo-cap rig.
Having the computers connected allowed the actor to move the model as he moved, live streamed the mo-cap data straight to the model.
They had a lot of camera's surrounding the room to pick up on the mo-cap sensors.
And to calibrate those camera's they would use this stick with 5 of the sensors. They would wave it around the whole room ever inch for all camera's to pick it up, starting from the center to know where the center of the scene is.
With in the mo-cap studio They can in fact act out multiple characters at the same time.
They do this by having a specific 'cluster' on there suit, This lets the camera distinguish which suit is controlling which character.
This cluster must be places in an unusual place so the computer does not mistake it for a part of the skeleton.
To calibrate the Character the person in the suit has to start in a T-pose, and move every joints, arms, bend the elbow, crouch, bring each leg up etc.
And this is what the outcome was during the first mo-cap session.
Tetra's arms seem to move oddly, I am unsure why because mo-cap data i have downloaded from websites seem to work fine when i attach them to the skeleton.
The next session will involve drama students, so they want me to come up with something they can work with such as a story or some form of narrative and be directed. And i think a better narative will happen if i were to use more than one character and make use of that 'cluster' feature in the mo-cap suits.
Thursday 19 September 2013
Motion builder works!
This site was pretty interesting saying how over sexualized images of women is a less important area of 'women objectification'
http://cratesandribbons.com/2013/06/08/the-objectification-of-women-it-goes-much-further-than-sexy-pictures/
''Because it is all too obvious and difficult to ignore, we tend to focus on sexual objectification. ''
''After all, being presented in a sexual way doesn't always mean objectification. Sexy pictures of men, in contrast to sexy pictures of women, frequently portray them as sexual subjects, actors exercising their sexuality, instead of objects meant to gratify someone else’s sexuality.''
''Now in an ideal world, we would find ourselves randomly cast as either subject or object at different times, depending on the situation, with no problems. However, in society’s dominant narrative, subject and object status is heavily gendered''
So maybe games should be less stressed out about how there female character looks or how sexualized she is and more bothered about creating a more even gender ratio of this subject and object situation. Sometimes a woman and come to a mans aid and vice versa.
The article later refers to the new tomb raider game and another article about players not feeling they they are playing AS lara croft but there to help her and protect her.
http://kotaku.com/5917400/youll-want-to-protect-the-new-less-curvy-lara-croft
"When people play Lara, they don't really project themselves into the character,"
"She's definitely the hero but— you're kind of like her helper," he said. "When you see her have to face these challenges, you start to root for her in a way that you might not root for a male character."
Now I personally have never really felt like i was helping a main protagonist, i have always just seem a game as me playing AS the character. So i am not quite sure how that mind set is done, nor how it is created. Is it just for female characters? Do those feelings jump into action as soon as you see a female in a situation where she is portrayed as weak? Even if they have clearly shown there ability to look after themselves.
Or is it something coded into peoples genes? Man looks after women and children while women look after children and themselves.
I'd say this goes hand in hand with the 'subject and object' thing. Women aid men, men aid women. No gender in particular needing assistance and the player can be told through the story and actions of the characters which one's need to be helped.
More work
I fixed The motion capture issues.
They seemed to be all in the wrists, as whenever i linked the wrist skeleton to the rig inside motion builder it was the wrist that turns parts of it orange. And MB seems to use green > orange > red colours to show errors. Highlighting the dot in the upper right corner will tell you what is wrong with your rig.
My issue was ''left arm does not seem parallel to the x'' Meaning the wrist or elbow was a little skewed.
I wasn't sure exactly what did this but i just re-did the whole arm area. making sure to hole shift when making the arm so it was flat, even the fingers.
Like this image: http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/motionbuilder2014/en-us/images/GUID-0C39FAFA-474D-4F57-A794-8C765BDF0A86-low.png
Free motion capture animation here:
http://www.motioncapturedata.com/
Some MB tips: http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-69562.html
http://cratesandribbons.com/2013/06/08/the-objectification-of-women-it-goes-much-further-than-sexy-pictures/
''Because it is all too obvious and difficult to ignore, we tend to focus on sexual objectification. ''
''After all, being presented in a sexual way doesn't always mean objectification. Sexy pictures of men, in contrast to sexy pictures of women, frequently portray them as sexual subjects, actors exercising their sexuality, instead of objects meant to gratify someone else’s sexuality.''
''Now in an ideal world, we would find ourselves randomly cast as either subject or object at different times, depending on the situation, with no problems. However, in society’s dominant narrative, subject and object status is heavily gendered''
So maybe games should be less stressed out about how there female character looks or how sexualized she is and more bothered about creating a more even gender ratio of this subject and object situation. Sometimes a woman and come to a mans aid and vice versa.
The article later refers to the new tomb raider game and another article about players not feeling they they are playing AS lara croft but there to help her and protect her.
http://kotaku.com/5917400/youll-want-to-protect-the-new-less-curvy-lara-croft
"When people play Lara, they don't really project themselves into the character,"
"She's definitely the hero but— you're kind of like her helper," he said. "When you see her have to face these challenges, you start to root for her in a way that you might not root for a male character."
Now I personally have never really felt like i was helping a main protagonist, i have always just seem a game as me playing AS the character. So i am not quite sure how that mind set is done, nor how it is created. Is it just for female characters? Do those feelings jump into action as soon as you see a female in a situation where she is portrayed as weak? Even if they have clearly shown there ability to look after themselves.
Or is it something coded into peoples genes? Man looks after women and children while women look after children and themselves.
I'd say this goes hand in hand with the 'subject and object' thing. Women aid men, men aid women. No gender in particular needing assistance and the player can be told through the story and actions of the characters which one's need to be helped.
More work
I fixed The motion capture issues.
They seemed to be all in the wrists, as whenever i linked the wrist skeleton to the rig inside motion builder it was the wrist that turns parts of it orange. And MB seems to use green > orange > red colours to show errors. Highlighting the dot in the upper right corner will tell you what is wrong with your rig.
My issue was ''left arm does not seem parallel to the x'' Meaning the wrist or elbow was a little skewed.
I wasn't sure exactly what did this but i just re-did the whole arm area. making sure to hole shift when making the arm so it was flat, even the fingers.
Like this image: http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/motionbuilder2014/en-us/images/GUID-0C39FAFA-474D-4F57-A794-8C765BDF0A86-low.png
And now look at her! She can slip up and use the motion capture data!
http://www.motioncapturedata.com/
So i moved onto getting another ready as i do want multiple characters to be able to animate like this!
The same issue pop'ed up with Tetra but was easily fixed now that i know the issue is due to the arm.
Re-doing the arm skeleton seems to be the best way to make sure it works.
I'm unsure how much rotations in the arm MB can handle. But to be on the safe side i make the arm perfectly straight. the fingers don't have to be it seems.
You also CANNOT have other joints, i had some in her tail and tie, did not go well.
So those sections of Tetra will have to be animated pose-mo-cap.
Some MB tips: http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-69562.html
Friday 2 August 2013
Mo-cap and motion builder (And a lil bit of fairy)
A few months ago I was told that I could collaborate with drama students creating animations using motion capture. All i needed to have was a model and have that character rigged.
The opportunity to work with motion capture is going to be so valuable as manual animation takes up far to much time and it is something i am not particularly interested in. Where as motion capture there is only post edits after the actor has done there contribution.
Motion captures animations look more fluid and and just generally better to me, So i really hope this works out! Animation would really put the life i want into my characters.
On July 5th I met the drama tutor to discuss our work He spoke of wanting to have his student act and use mo-cap as it's something new and little drama students are able to do this sort of practice.
Where as i just want some form of life an animation for the characters as still shots are okay and get across a character but animation does so much more.
So I have been looking into motion builder as by September they would like me to have a character rigged in the software.
I have had to re-rig the characters are you NEED a T-pose instead of the more natural gesture i had her in.
She will also need to be weight mapped again but i will do so later. This is a test to get a character into the new software successfully and be able to move her within.
To figure out this software i looked at a lot of tutorials but most of them seemed to talk as though you knew the software etc.
This video talks about exporting FBX's into motion builder.
At about 10:00 is where it starts to show you how to 'characterize' a rigged character.
As in motion builder to set up a rig to move with mo-cap you need to rig it using motion builders tools.
This video shows you how to use those tools and set up a character for the motion capture.
This guy has done a whole set of video's going from modeling, UV mapping, rigging and then using the character in motion builder. I will be going through his tutorials.
This is also a handy list of things you need to do before you export from maya to an FBX
Putting character into motion builder
I have not set up her weight paints yet but tried to import her to understand how you set up these rigs.
Her skeleton moves in the same way it would in maya.
To make motion builder know what joints are arms legs etc. there is a drop down list that appears with body parts. Where you drag your joints into the correct labels such as your thigh bode would go in 'leftupleg.'
The next step was to 'charactertize' her. This is the part where IK handles come in.
Her legs seem to work fine, the IK handles work.
As do her hips.
Although everything above her hips do not move at all, even when i try to rotate.
So i will need to find out what's causing the problem by re-watching videos on how other people set up there rigs.
Fairy model
Her whole body has been modeled now and UV mapping is almost done!
Unsure how to go about her wings, either just a flat plane or add poly's to them so they can curve slightly. I don't think butterfly wings curve much of at all though.
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