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ADDING PERSONALITY to FANTASY CREATURES Using Animal Motion References

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ADDING PERSONALITY to FANTASY CREATURES Using Animal Motion References nrik v He d a apa l sk Ma ADDING PERSONALITY TO FANTASY CREATURES Using animal motion references Bachelor Degree Project in Media Arts, Aesthetics and Narration 30 ECTS Spring term 2019 Isabel Håkansson Supervisor: Tobias Karlsson Examiner: Lissa Holloway Attaway Abstract Fantasy creatures are an essential part of many games, but while there are several studies focusing on body language and how expressive gaming companions may enhance the player’s experience, creatures and animals are rarely the focal points. Personality is closely related to believability, which is what most game developers work towards hence believability may improve the gaming experience. The purpose of this paper was to explore how the personality of a fantasy creature would be perceived by the observer when using different animal motion references. A 3D-model was created and animated in three different styles using motion references from a cat and lizard. A survey with Likert-scales was then formed with the intention to evaluate the animations. The participants in the survey were assigned one of the three animations to rate statements regarding personality and believability. Rather than a certain type of animal being associated with a certain type of personality, the result suggests that it was mainly certain motion cues and postures that affected the participants’ ratings. The study was deemed to be insufficient for a reliable result. In the discussion part, there are ideas on how the study could be improved with the aim of continuing the research to gain a clearer insight into the subject of personality and creatures. Keywords: Creatures, Animation, Personality, Believability, Human-Animal Studies Table of Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 2 Background ................................................................................................................................ 2 2.1 Animation............................................................................................................................................................ 2 2.1.1 Motion Capture ............................................................................................................................................................. 2 2.1.2 Laban Movement Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 3 2.1.3 The fundamental principles of animation ........................................................................................................ 3 2.1.4 Simulated characters ................................................................................................................................................. 5 2.2 Fantasy Creatures ............................................................................................................................................ 5 2.2.1 In films .............................................................................................................................................................................. 5 2.2.2 In games ........................................................................................................................................................................... 6 2.3 Human-Animal Studies .................................................................................................................................. 7 2.3.1 Human-Animal bonds and attitudes: historically and culturally ........................................................... 7 2.4 Believability .................................................................................................................................................... 10 2.4.1 Personality ................................................................................................................................................................... 10 3 Problem ..................................................................................................................................... 12 3.1 Research questions ...................................................................................................................................... 12 3.2 Method .............................................................................................................................................................. 13 3.2.1 The artefacts ............................................................................................................................................................... 13 3.2.2 Research method ...................................................................................................................................................... 14 3.2.3 The questionnaire .................................................................................................................................................... 14 3.2.4 Participants ................................................................................................................................................................. 15 4 Implementation ...................................................................................................................... 16 4.1 Pre-production............................................................................................................................................... 16 4.2 The 3D-model and rig ................................................................................................................................ 16 4.3 Animations ...................................................................................................................................................... 18 4.3.1 The Cat ........................................................................................................................................................................... 18 4.3.2 The Lizard .................................................................................................................................................................... 20 4.3.3 The Mix .......................................................................................................................................................................... 21 4.4 Pilot study ........................................................................................................................................................ 21 5 Evaluation ................................................................................................................................. 23 5.1 Result ................................................................................................................................................................. 23 5.1.1 Demographic............................................................................................................................................................... 23 5.1.2 Artefact 1 - Cat ........................................................................................................................................................... 24 5.1.3 Artefact 2 - Lizard ..................................................................................................................................................... 25 5.1.4 Artefact 3 - Mix........................................................................................................................................................... 26 5.2 Analysis ............................................................................................................................................................. 27 5.3 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................................................... 29 6 Concluding Remarks ............................................................................................................. 31 6.1 Summary .......................................................................................................................................................... 31 6.2 Discussion ........................................................................................................................................................ 31 6.2.1 About the method and credibility ..................................................................................................................... 31 6.2.2 About the demographics ....................................................................................................................................... 34 6.2.3 About creatures, personality, and motion ..................................................................................................... 35 6.3 Future Work .................................................................................................................................................... 35 References ....................................................................................................................................... 38 1 Introduction Fantasy creatures are present in nearly all modern films and games that includes fantasy elements, which makes them common and essential. Dragons are only one example of common mythological beasts that are included in many modern films and video games of today; sometimes even emerging as one of the core features. Dragons
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