The Art of Acting Without Props – Mime

Mime is considered to be the earliest form of expression. Before language was developed, people would communicate with each other through gestures. Instead of being completely discarded after the development of language, it was practiced through entertainment. In Ancient Greece, Mime had become a theatrical form where performers acted out everyday scenes supported with elaborated gestures. The principle mimes were called ethologues who taught moral lessons through their scenes (Tripod par.1). Their most elaborate form of mime was called Hypothesis, which was more concerned with the development of characters than the plot itself (Tripod par.2).

As Greece also influenced the future of the art of the world, it also did with Western Drama. The Romans, who conquered Greece, made mime their own as they did with Greek art (Tripod par.3). After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Christian Church was opposed to adopting mime but started slowly accepting it by incorporating it into their religious plays (Tripod par.6).

The practice of mime continued throughout the middle ages and was rose to its peak within the sixteenth century in Italy as the form of Commedia dell’ Arte. This form of Mime was originally performed in market places in the early 1500’s. The performers, called Zanni, wore masks with comical features to attract attention to themselves and their acrobatic skills. They could relate to all classes with their contemporary subject matter. Due to their hidden identities, they could also ridicule any aspect of society. Their acts were also not limited by any language barriers so they could perform in any country (Tripod par.7-9).

In the 18th century, Jean Gaspard Batiste Deburau, improved the art of mime into the art form that it is known as today. He was a master of the art and created the character Pierrot’, the eternal seeker (Tripod par. 10).

After the First World War, Etienne Decroux and his student, Jean-Louis Barrault, developed the first elements of modern mime. Barrault after following his own route developed the first mimodramas.(Tripod par. 11). After the Second World War, Marcel Marceau, who was a pupil of Decroux was influenced by silent film actors such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. He created modern mime, as it is known today by developing a whole new style and tradition of mime (Tripod par.12).

There are two major types of mime, Literal and Abstract mime. Literal mime is the telling of a story with a conflict through the use of a main character. The gestures are used to clearly tell humorous stories. Abstract mime does not normally have a plot or a character. It is used to generate feelings, thoughts and images from a serious topic or issue. It is considered an intuitive experience rather that a literal one.

Though animation can include both Literal and Abstract mime, the following will discuss the use of mime in an animation of a character trapped in an imaginary box.

Since mime is a universal language that doesn't require translation, any individual with any language or background should be able and to understand and relate to a mimed preformance. If it is applied to animation then subjects within it could commicate with any viewer from anywhere in the world. For example, by using an animatable character’s hands to indicate that he is trapped in a box, the viewer understands the situation without being informed of it verbally. All people understand limitations and boundries from jail cells to farm fences.

According to Marcel Marceau, when he is asked if he is delivering a text, even though you doesn't say a word on stage:

Yes indeed, I feel that I am both an author and an actor at the same time. Although my performance is silent, I am not acting by means of gesture alone. I am using the power of thought. I communicate with the audience by means of the thought that goes into every movement and every pose. Writers make contact with their readers by means of words and the way they give form to words through a story. (Fargeon par.9)

Therefore one can convey a character’s thoughts without informing the viewer verbally of what they are thinking. For example, if a character is trapped in an imaginery box, one can express their claustrophobia through bodily movements of panic. By the character slamming and ramming on the interior of the box, one understands the desperation in a manner that words cannot.

Marceau comments on how mime can communicate in a manner that transcends words:

Mimes are always, by definition, wordless, but they present the fable of human life on stage by means of an art that transcends words. I often make use of themes that transcend language, such as The Heart Eater, The Cage, or The Mask-Maker, which are the titles of some of my sketches. They are actually parables that express deep thoughts. (Fargeon par.9)

The viewer understands more of the character’s fear more through bodily expression than if one was informed about verbally, because the sitation is presented to them in a manner that they can related to. The viewer can picture themselves within the situation physically because the character interprets and expresses the situation physically.

According to Marceau, on the quesion if he believes if the viewer’s recreate within themsleves what he is doing on stage:

Yes, exactly. Unless the audience is drawn into the action, the mime has failed to get his message across the footlights, his performance is closer to mimesis than to the true art of mime. He has not succeeded in radiating the poetical aura that evokes in the spectator what I would describe as a "zen" identification with the character portrayed. Laughter is aroused by what appear to us as distortions or discrepancies in relation to what is "normal", but the laughing stops when the outcome is tragic, when death intervenes. (Frageon par. 11)

So if the animated character cannot get the viewer engulfed into action within a situation, then the animater has failed. The animater would have only represented a situation without the viewer feeling as if they were within it themselves, by not being emotionally involved. Therefore the character should be expressing themselves in a manner that attracts the viewer to become emotionally involved. This by portraying the character’s thoughts an emotions through movement such as the fear of a being trapped in a box.

In conclusion, the art of miming, may it be literal or abstract, is an artform and a manner of expression through movement and without words that allows the viewer to recreate themselves into an action. One can communicate through body language without being restricted by any language barriers. Not only can one communicate to any individual through mime, one can communicate themes that transcend words. The art form of mime can contribute to an animation by allowing any viewer to understand and relate to it and effectively express a character’s thoughts and emotions through movement.


Works Cited:

Fargeon, Micheal. “The art of silence - interview with mime artist Marcel Marceau – Interview”. BNET. May 1998. < http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1998_May/ai_20825361> [accessed 11 02 2003]

“The History of Mime”. Tripod.com. <http://members.tripod.com/~kiko_mime/history.html>. [accessed 11 03 2008]

Secondary Animation

Another term for secondary animation is ‘follow through’ animation (Hogue par.1) (Lightfoot par.6). This principle of animation concerns the secondary movement that follows after the primary movement. This is so that animation can be believable despite involving movements of a subject that are exaggerated and impossible within real life. ‘Secondary’ or ‘follow through’ animation therefore allows the animator to make the audience believe that what they are viewing is real. Examples are, clothing, hair, extremities or any other object that is connected to another object that dictates its movement. Even though secondary animation is not distinctly noticeable, it compliments the whole animation.

According to Ollie Johnson and Frank Thomas who were Disney animators, “DRAG," in animation, for example, would be when Goofy starts to run, but his head, ears, upper body, and clothes do not keep up with his legs (Lightfoot par.6). They state ‘Drag’ as example of how secondary animation is an important aspect of their animations created within the Disney studio.

Hogue describes secondary animation further according to Newton’s first law of motion, “Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless an outside force acts upon them” (par.2). If one understands how objects move within reality, even a basic understanding of physics, they will have more capability to create believable animation. He also mentions that secondary animation is, “Slightly delayed due to the natural laws of physics and gravity” (par 1). Understanding gravity and the laws of physics will allow the movement to be resemble movement within the viewers reality allowing them to believe what they are viewing is a reality.

Jones explains the aspects of secondary animation in detail:

Follow Through depends on:
• Primary action of the character
• Weight and degree of flexibility of appendage
• Air resistance• Follow Through is how you terminate the motion (par. 7)

Not only does the speed, direction and weight of the primary motion effect the secondary motion but the environment it is situated within does as well.

Overlap depends on:
• Force transmitted through a flexible joint
• Progressively Breaking Joints
• No complete stop, before another action is started
• Nothing happens at the same time, this will give a feeling of solidity and weight (Jones par.7)

By placing the begging and end of secondary animation on separate keys than the primary animation, the animation as a whole will be more believable because secondary movement in reality. Also, because it ends after the end of the primary movement it continues despite if the primary object has stopped dead. According to Ollie Johnson and Frank Thomas, “Overlapping action is when the character changes direction while his clothes or hair continues forward” (Lightfoot par. 6). The animation not only is more believable but more visually stimulating because of the extra movement.

Follow Through: Posing Overshoot

Posing Overshoot:
• Natural motion does not stop abruptly or it will look mechanical
• Organic motion moves a little past the termination point before the “settle” pose…this is called “overshoot”
• Like a pendulum swing, the joints will over compensate for the motion and settle; then come to a complete rest
• Overshoot and Settle add accent and weight to your moves
• General Rule: 6-8 frames to settle, and at least 8 frames for the overshoot. If its only a hand gesture use less time (Jones par.10)

Here Jones explains where to situate the keys of the secondary movement on the timeframe. ‘Settle’ is the end of the secondary animation situated after the primary motion.

Overlapping Motion: Progressively Breaking Joints

Using Timing for Overlap:
• Each part of the hierarchy must stop at a different time to achieve overlapping motion = Progressively Breaking Joints
• The “lag” in timing of each joint in the hierarchy creates a whipping motion
• The breaking of each joint works well for cloth or appendages that are light enough to demand the fluid action
• The end of the tree is the last thing to come to rest and usually moves more than the rest of the tree
• Can help eliminate twinning, through delayed parts (Jones par. 12)

The object that is secondary in motion to the primary object will more than likely be long and flexible. Therefore movement will start from the beginning to end of the object, with more motion towards the end of it like a whip. Extremities such as the hand and head may require such secondary animation. The following part of the object will overlap the previous part. For example, the movement of the head will overlap movement of the neck or movement of the hand will overlap movement of the forearm.

In conclusion, there are many elements within secondary animation. ‘Drag’ where the movement of secondary objects are determined by the movement of the primary object. ‘Overlap’, when the motion of the secondary object ends or ‘settles’ after the end of the motion of the primary object. In addition, not only does the aspects of the primary object such as its speed, direction and weight determine the motion of the secondary object. The environment does as well such as its weather conditions and physics. Secondary animation not only compliments the primary motion of objects by allowing them to be more believable but also makes the animation more visually stimulating as a whole.


Works Cited:

Hogue, Mike. “The Importance of Secondary Animation”. G4 Tech Tv. 2006. <http://www.g4techtv.ca/callforhelp/shownotes/0420.shtml?regular> [accessed 01 May 2008]

Jones, Angie. “Traditional Principles Applied to CG”. Scratch Post Artist Resource. July 2001. <http://www.thescratchpost.com/features/july01/features1d.shtml> [accessed 03 May 2008]

Lightfoot, Nataha. “Principles of Physical Animation”. FrankAnOllie. 2002. http://frankanollie.com/PhysicalAnimation.html [accessed 03 May 2008]

The Abstract Aesthetics of Final Fantasy VII

Compared to the latest games of the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy VII has distinctly more abstract aesthetics. Over time the games of the series have become more realistic in their overall appearance. This pursuit of realism in the games is because it acts as a means for the general public to visually benchmark the quality of the game (Wolf pg 53).

Though one cannot benchmark the quality of appearance of games through abstraction (Wolf pg.53), it is a neglected aspect of games (Wolf pg. 62). To understand the use of abstraction within more modern games, the following essay will discuss the use of the abstract aesthetics within Final Fantasy VII in relation to Mark J. P. Wolf’s article, Abstraction in the Video Game. This was one of the more modern games of the series that has had more abstract aspects rather than realistic qualities.

FFVII (Final Fantasy VII) adapted the Japanese anime and super deformed style. For example, Cloud’s simplified facial features, enlarged eyes and spiky hairstyle are typical traits of the anime genre. Also, particularly within the gamely, the characters have smaller bodies; shorter limbs and larger heads which is how super deformed characters are designed.

Figure 1: Goku from the anime Dragon Ball Z designed with spiky hair with simplified and abstracted facial features

Figure 2: Cloud also designed with features typical of anime

FFVII was the first of its series to be released on the Playstation, which was a console that could render far more visual information than previous systems. Because of this, the designer’s incorporated the anime style that players were already accustomed to (fig.2) from T.V. such as in fig.1 (Wolf pg.47). Though the Playstation had more capability of representation, the game was only released two years after the console itself was released. Therefore skills of the programmers would not yet have been advanced enough to represent more realistic characters. Adapting the anime style was a substitute for this. Later games such as FFVIII would adapt a more realistic style such as in fig.3 despite being developed for the same system.

Figure 3: Squall from Final Fantasy VIII is highly realistic as compared to characters of Final Fantasy VII

The use of Super-deformed characters on the other hand is also an adaptation from anime. According to Anime News Network:

"Super-deformed characters, SD for short (also called "Big Head", SD Mode, CB or Chibi Body or Chibis for the plural) exaggerates this deformation in the goal of appearing cute and funny.Artists often Super Deform characters in order to show an extreme change in the characters' mood. While the characters' mood may change to anything, seriousness, anger, embarrassment, feigned cuteness; the goal of the animators is always comedic cuteness. Often done at the punch line of a joke for an extra comedic oomph." (par. 1-2)

Figure 4: Ryu from Street Fighter designed in the Super-deformed Style

Figure 5: Cloud from Final Fantasy VII in a Super deformed style

FFVII uses this style to make a contrast between the gameplay and battle scenes (fig.5). Within the gameplay, characters are represented in the SD (Super-Deformed) style and are represented in the usual amine style within the battle scenes. This allows the seriousness of the battle event to be more apparent.

Though this is also a style that the player can identify with, it has already been used within the FF series. Because of the graphical limitations of previous consoles that the series where played on. They also depicted characters in SD so that the player could see their features within the limited pixels that the console could only display (fig. 6).

Figure 6: A scene from Final Fanasy VI where the characters are represented in the SD style

The use of these styles for the visual aesthetics of the game are forms of abstraction besause they simplify characters to their most distinct features instead of representing as realistically as possible (Wolf pg.48).

FFVII is not only abstract within it’s appearance but also with the behavior of the game This is according to Wolf’s different catagories of the elements of behavior. The player’s presence is surragate based and changes it’s appearance according its within gameplay or a battle scene. Also the player has a Limit Break where they can perform special moves within battle scenes depending on weather a bar is full on the battle menu. The enemys controlled by the computer are not always reprepresented within the gameplay yet they are present. As a one travels across scenes, a enemy my surprise the characters and will only be visible once the battle scene begins. Objects in the game that can be collected stand out from the pre-rendered background as real time graphics such as potions, save points or chests. The background environments are less abstract and more realistic than the characters of the game. This may be so that the player’s experience of the surroundings are more intuitive (Wolf pg. 52). The random battle scenes, chests and save points are traits adopted from previous FF games (Wolf pg. 49-50).

Because of these abstract qualities of behaviour, the game provides explanations for them during the course of the game where NPC's (Non-playable characters) explain their purpose and function (Wolf pg. 52). This is so that player’s that are not accustomed to these elements can be informed.

According to Wolf, abstraction can increase identification with the games diegetic world (pg. 60). The world of FFVII is a threating place and abstraction is used to express the character’s in comparison to what is external to them. For example, the character’s are represented as SD character’s within the gameplay yet they appear more defiant in appearance within the battle scenes (fig.7). Abstraction enhances the player’s experience of the world that the characters are within by expressing their interpretation of it.

Figure 7: A battle scene from FFVII

The ‘player’s mind is forced to complete or imagine game details, which engages and involves them more in the game’ (Wolf pg.64). By conversations being represented as text, players represented in a simplified manner, and the exclusion of the appearance of enemys, the player has to use their imagination to interpret the events and build a temporal view of the world within the game. This would be much like what occurs when one reads a book where one gets engaged into the story through their own imagination.

It is understandable that FFVII adopted the anime style within the battle scenes instead of more realistic representations of subjects because of the limitations during the time of it’s development. Despite this it also carried conventions from the previous games of the FF series, particularly within the gameplay when character’s could have been displayed in a more naturalistic manner.

Not only does the game have an abstract appearance but also abstract behaviours adopted from the previous FF games. This brings a nostalgia from previous games if the player has played them before otherwise the player is informed about their function and purpose through the gameplay.

These elements all allow players to be more actively engaged with the game by using their imagination to interpret them. FFVII is an example of a successful game that uses abstraction to its advantage instead of an only using it as an alternative. Games do not have to be created to be as realsitic and represenational as possible.



Works Cited:

Super Deformed. Anime News Network. < http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/lexicon.php?id=44> [accessed 27 04 2008]

Wolf, Mark J.P., “Abstraction in the Video Game”, The Video Game Theory Reader, 2003, Routledge.

Are Games a Waste of Time?

Games have been scrutinized and accused for influencing tragedies such as massacres that have occurred. People are skeptical about games because of the violent nature that some of them have. The perpetrators of the Columbine high school massacre, on the 20th of April 1999, played Doom and even created their own levels for the game. Since that tragedy, questions have been raised by the media about the extent of which video and computer games may have influenced such events to occur. Another example is when Kimveer Gill killed a woman and injured 19 other people during his shooting spree at Montreal College and then committing suicide on the 13th of April 2006. Before the incident, he wrote on online journals about his love for films, television shows and other popular elements of popular culture. (Lavender pg.1)

Out of most media of the modern age, lately games have been accused the most for influencing such people to commit these crimes because of how they allow the player to act in violent manners within virtual worlds instead of only viewing violent scenes.

Mike Strobel, who is a Canadian journalist for the Toronto Star, stated:

"How many times must a video game turn up as evidence at a crime scene before we wake up? Dawson College is the latest. Killer Kimveer Gill was a fan of Super Columbine Massacre, a lovely bit of Internet fun. ‘Life is a video game and you gonna die sometime,’ was young Gill's usual blog signoff." (Lavender pg.1)

It’s easier for video and computer games to be used as a ‘scape goat’ instead of being people objective and focusing on the other more relevant influences that may have incurred these tragedies. It is like accusing the medium of painting for causing an artist to act on the content he depicts in the artworks that he creates. Instead there should be more focus on why the artist painted such images. Such can also be said for computer and video games because they are more of a medium to act on, than a reason and stimulus for the act.

Though the objective of the following essay is not to determine whether or not games were a primary influence for these tragedies, some attitudes towards video and computer games are negetive without considering the positive apsects of those games. This is why the following essay will discuss if games are a ‘waste of time’ and what can be understood by the term, meaningful play.

According to studies by Mcdonald and Kim,

”the evidence suggests that children identify quite closely with electronic characters and that these identifications have implications for childrens emotional well being and the development of their personality” (pg.5)

This allows games to include positive effects for the individual playing them (Lewis and Weber pg.1). They can be used to develop a child through teaching as educational games. They also can teach the player personality and social skills/ Self esteem (pg 5 Lewis and Weber)

Gee also aggrees and games promote active and critical learning for other semiotic domains other than itself. Though games do not teach the player facts, they teach the player skills such as problem solving skills through embodied experiences and how to handle the structrue of real and imagined social relations (Gee pg.1). In other words, they teach the player to how handle socializing with people in the real world from practice in simulated worlds depsite them existing in different semiotic domians.

When people learn games they are learning a new literacy (Gee pg.1). Then if games are semiotic domians then they should not be considered a waste of time. Games are “good for people to learn to situate meanings through embodied experiences in a complex domian and mediate on the process (Gee pg. 2). Though semiotic domains may be completely different from eachother, the player learns the basic structures of them, how to function within these structures and therefore will be more capable of becoming accustomed to other different domains.

In video games, people and their social interactions determine the content they contain. Since social interactions always change so does content. These two elements are constantly influencing eachother. Therefore the design and content of games are determined by the needs of the affinity groups of games who decline or accept it (pg.3). Games then reflect the current cultures in society because if people define culture and also content of games then games and culture will both be interrellated.

If players play games to learn actively and critically then they:
1. “Learn to experience the world in new ways;
2. gain potential to join or collaborate with affinity groups;
3. develop resources for future learning and problem solving in semiotic domain the game is related to; and
4. learn to think of semiotic domians as design spaces that they can engage with and manipulate, help tp create certain relationships in society among people and groups, some of which have important implications for social justice.” (Gee pg. 6)

In conclusion, Lewis, Weber and Gee have indicated the positive aspects of games because of the skills they contribute to the player. By people using games as a scape goat as the cause for horrible tradegies, they disregard the opportunities for them to used for good and also the good they have done for society already.

When the player plays a game, the individual learns the basic structures of learning and problem solving. They have to handle a challenge by creatively finding alternative solutions. This is what can be understood as meaningful play because the player cognitively processes information in the semiotic domain of a game instead instead of only regurgitating the information form it.


Works Cited:

Gee, James Paul, “Semiotics Domains: Is Playing Video Games a ‘Waste of Time?” The Game Design Reader, 2006, MIT Press.

Lavender, Terry. “Games Just Wanna Have Fun… Or Do They? Measuring the effectiveness of persuasive games”. Canadian Game Studies Association. 21 September 2006 <http://www.wetcoast.org/drupal-5.1/files/games_just_wanna_have_fun.pdf>

Lewis, Melissa, Weber, Rene. “The Creation of Character Attachment in Video Games”. (accessed 20 April 2008)

Walk Cycles

All people vary in the manner that they walk and mostly because of subconscious reasons. They reveal aspects of themselves without being completely consciously aware. It allows people external to them understand what may be in their thoughts through their body language. With animation one can make a character act out movements and body language to convey it’s thoughts to viewers.

‘Believability is in the realm of art, not purely the result of CPU power and memory bandwidth’ (Porter and Susman par.14). This statement is made by Tom Port and Galyn Susmam people who work at Pixar in response to questions from people concerning the believability in Pixar’s animations. Therefore one can’t solely rely on software and hardware but rather mainly on the animator’s ability to bring life into character’s

According to Porter and Susman:

The underlying notion of Pixar and Disney animation is that action is driven by the character's cognitive processes—that it reflects intelligence, personality, and emotion. The animator is constantly challenged to depict in an unmistakable yet compelling way that the brain is driving the action’ (par. 11)

Toby Gard, the character designer of Tomb Raider agrees that:

The way people walk suggests vasts amount of information about them, such as how they feel about themselves and their surroundings. (pg.5)

Therefore a character’s walk cycle should represent that the character is cognitively controlling their body to express their personality consciously and subconsciously. This instead of replicating what a character may appear as when they walk but also what they are thinking during their stride.

Mike Brown who is currently principal artist at High Moon Studios says that when he watches walking cycles in animation reels, he's looking for four key things: weight, timing, anticipation, and emotion’ (Duffy par.8). Though there are other animation principles, these seem to be the key elements the game company he works at is looking for in walk cycles.

What this essay will focus on is the emotion or personality of walks cycles.

‘Animation is acting’ (Porter and Susman par.15). The objective is not to simply mimic how a real person would walk but to rather abstract the key elements that express emotion and reveal personality though acting. Studying a live person’s walk can be used as source material for animation even if it is recorded. The primary movements, weight transitions, timing, anticipations and emotion of the character’s walk can then be exaggerated in the animation for a believable walk cycle. The following will be a description of three different personality walk cycles.

‘Character and personality are what make the walk real and make the audience identify with it on an emotional level’ (thinkinganimation.com). Disney animator’s were the first to get the audience emotionally captivated with their storylines by expressing characters in a way so that the viewer could relate to them. The objective is to encapsulate the viewer into the narrative of an animation through the conveying of expression through character’s body language.

Happy
A happy character would be full of life and. It would have light steps to express the lack of stress in on their mind. The high steps would be at a medium pace to show that their stride is not deferred by any negative thoughts. It would have a flexible posture to show a relaxed attitude towards its surroundings. There would be a large contrast between each low and a predominantly high step to show its liveliness. Arms would swing with high elbows in front of the body while the head bobs to express lack of tension. The movements of the character’s walk would generally express the happy thoughts of the character as it interacts with its surroundings

Sad
A sad character would have a lack of liveliness. It would have low steps that hit the ground harder than a happy character. They would move at a slow pace to express the lack of motivation. A hunched posture would show its self-exclusion from its surroundings. There would be less contrast between the predominantly low stance and the higher stance. The dragging arms and hanging head would express its lack of will. The movements would express unhappy thoughts and lack of hope.

Angry
An angry character would walk in a focused manner on what it is pursuing. The pace would be faster than the other movement’s because of it’s pusruit of whatever made it angry in the first place. The character would lean more forward than a happy character. The stance would be lower than the happy character yet higher than the sad character. Its posture would be hunched and firm yet not as low as a happy character. The arms would be curved and stiff and the elbows would be raised higher towards the character’s posterior. The head will be more stiff and focussed on it’s objective. The movements would generally express the anger of the character about what it is focussed on and what it is not focussed on.

In conclusion there are endless interpretations one could express though walking cycles in animation. These are determined by the animators understanding of animation principles and their acting abilities.



Works Cited:

Duffy, Jill. “Ask the Experts: Animations Show Reels”. Game Career Guide. 13 April 2008 http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/494/ask_the_experts_animation_show_.php

Gard, Toby, “Building Character”. 2000. Gamasutra. 13 April 2008 www.gamasutra.com/features/20000720/gard_pvf.htm

Porter, Tom, and, Susman, Galyn. “On site: Creating lifelike character’s in Pixar movies “. Portal: Greater Western Library Alliance. Association for Computing Machinery. 13 April 2008 http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/330000/323839/p25-porter.html?key1=323839&key2=0501018021&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=23989445&CFTOKEN=40584935

http://thinkinganimation.com/walkcycles.php

Psychoanalysis of the Player’s Avatar

As games advance in their capabilities to give the player more options in creating their distinct avatar, more space is open for that individual to express aspects of themselves that is not visible to others, the ego. Interpretation of that person’s self-perception is possible by analysing their avatar. The following discusses the role of the avatar in the games Oblivion and Never Winter Nights 2 and the player’s decisions in the creation of their own avatar.

An avatar is not only a being in a game that a player controls but a being that they can become. According to Toby Gard: in games with a first person point of view, the player plays as if they are personally experiencing the game and unlike third person games where the character is distinctly separate from the character. The person becomes the avatar instead of controlling an actor (pg. 1). This may not be the case of that avatar is designed by the player themselves such as in Never Winter Nights 2 and Oblivion.

According to Bob Rehak concerning cinema, ‘spectator’s are “stitched into” the signifying chain through edits that articulate a plenitude of observed space to an observing viewer’ (pg. 121). Film expresses the subjects to the viewer by depicting the relevant scenes to them and by excluding the irrelevant ones through editing.

Rehak also states how “development should presage a new type of psychological film in which the camera will reveal the human mind, not superficially but honestly in terms of image an sound.”(pg. 120). Though this is a goal for cinema to express the subject’s psychological status through the type of images instead of only through editing, games can already do this through the player’s design of their avatar. For example games such as Oblivion and Never Winter Nights 2 allow one to customize the appearance of their avatars (Fig. 1.1-2.2) so that they players can reveal their ego how they perceive themselves.

“If the mirror stage initiates a lifelong split between the self-as-observer the self-as-observed, and the video game exploits this structure, then, in one sense, we already exist in an avataral relation with ourselves” (Rehak pg.123). Games allow as to reflect are perception of ourselves within the game. The computer screen then acts as a mirror as we construct our temporal view of our reflection. By doing this a player can reveal their ego to others. For example, though the avatar created in both games (Fig. 1.1-2.2) resembles the player’s appearance in reality, they may act as a mask. This is because the player’s ego is hidden behind mundane features. There is little contrast between the Avatar and the player and therefore one cannot tell how the individuals perceive themself.

“Egos are founded on the assumption of wholeness, a wholeness misperceived in the form of the symbolic other. The other that functions retroactively to bestow the authenticity on the self could be described as a living avatar” (Rehak pg 123). If we already have an avatar temporally in our minds than video games allow can us to create depict them. For example, most people’s choices in the design of their avatars are different from their physical features in reality, excluding the case of Fig.1.1-2.2.

In games we can “toy with subjectivity, play with being” such as separating oneself from other that we do in our minds called “Liminal play: an attempt to isolate and capture (fleetingly) the oscillatory motion of consciousness by which are sutured into this reality” (Rehak pg 123). Games allow us to play with being and appearance, allowing the player to express them and to others through their appearance. For example, these games allow one to choose many features that one can choose to represent them just as we would in real life in our choices of clothing. In the case of the custom avatar of Never Winter Nights 2, the choice clothing is how the player presents himself instead of through physical features.

“We create avatars to leave our bodies behind” (Rehak pg.123) The player would unlikely want to recreate their real appearance because they enter another reality as another being through the avatar. This is not the case in the avatar created in this game since it may be a subconscious attempt to hide the ego of the player.

Our extensions through various media are predicted on the body as a root metaphor (Rehak 124). The avatar created in both games acts as a metaphor for the individual that created it and therefore it’s physical features would act as metaphors of the individuals personality. Features may act as icons that represent something that they player wishes to convey and what they cannot in real life.

“The worlds we create- and the avatarial bodies through which we experience them- seem to be destined to mirror not only our wholeness, but our lack of it” (Rehak 124). Avatar’s created in the games may not only represent what is there but what is not there that makes us whole. For example one may create a being that is not human or lacking certain features that resemble them in reality revealing a large contrast between their self-perception and their appearance.

In conclusion, whereas most people reveal their ego and self perception through the avatars they design, realistically depicting oneself in the game may act as a manner to hide one’s self perception by using the avatar as a mask. This would hide their ego and that individual’s self-perception from other game player’s so to not reveal aspects of oneself such as the level of aggressiveness and skill that the player may have. It could even act as a technique to through other players off from ones own abilities. The main factor is that it is more than likely a subconscious mask created to hide ones ego.

Figure 1.1: Never Winter Nights Custom Avatar

Figure 1.2: Never Winter Nights 2 Custom Avatar Torso

Figure 2.2: Oblivion Custom Avatar (Side)

Figure 2.2: Oblivion Custom Avatar (Front)

Works Cited:

Gard, Toby, “Building Character”. 2000. Gamasutra. 13 April 2008 www.gamasutra.com/features/20000720/gard_pvf.htm

Rehak, Bob, “Playing at Being: Psychoanalyses and the Avatar”, The Video Game Theory Reader, 2003, Routeledge.

Narratology versus Ludology

Henry Jenkin’s ‘Game Design as Narrative Architecture’ favours Narratology while Gonzalo Frasca’s ‘Simulation versus Narrative’ favours Ludology. Despite this they don’t completely dismiss the other area of studies significance altogether. Instead they describe alternatives in the analyses of games with their own appoaches. The following will indicate each theorist’s key factors to determine whether which ones concepts are more favourable.

Gonzalo Frasca, ‘Simulation versus Narrative’

According to Frasca, narrative describes while simulation includes models of behaviour that reacts to certain stimuli. Video games structure simulation while narrative structures representation. Narrative and simulation seem to be similar because people perceive the output of a medium. That is why it is easier to apply narratology to the study of games.

Games can be used as a medium through simulation to give the player a different experience to narrative. For example, games are beginning to be used for advertising so that players can get an experience of products rather than only be informed about them. Also they could be used as propaganda such as depicting urban dynamics and dictatorships.

Games also are not a binary medium with fixed sequences of events. An author can express multiple possibilities rather than one such as in a book or film. Therefore there can be multiple interpretations.

“Simauthors” can incorporate different degrees of fate while “Narrauthors” can only incorporate a predetermined and fixed fate.

Games have behaviour rules that allow each experience of the game to be different. One may play the same part of the game multiple times yet outcomes may be different because of the behavioural rules of the game’s artificial intelligence. One is responsible for their own actions. The game is not only stated info but also a model of difficulty.

Interactive narrative pretends to give freedom to the player yet still maintains narrative coherence.

Narrauthors have control of the outcome while Simathours set some rules so the outcome of the game may not be so certain.

Plaida refers to the form of play present in early children while Ludus represents games with social rules. Ludus games are more fixed like narrative because there are only two possible endings such would winning or loosing. Plaida on the other hand goes beyond this and allows games to have greater possibilities.

Interactive narrative is the most used manner of creating games, which pretends to give freedom to the player while holding onto narrative coherence.

Most games use goal rules but Frasca proposes manipulation rules which do imply a winning scenario. Games would have rules that determine how the player attains the outcome instead of determining if the player gets the outcome.

There are three different ideological levels of simulation:

1. Simulation shares with narrative and deals with representation and events.

2. Manipulations rules: what the player is able to do within the model.

3. Goal Rules: what the player must do in order to win.

4. Meta Rules: how rules can be changed

Simulation is also limited because it is an approximation. It is an alternative to narrative and not a replacement. It does not deal with what happened or is happening but rather with what may happen.

Henry Jenkins, ‘Game Design as Narrative Architecture’

Jenkins argument is that game designers tend to apply film theory to games instead of recognizing the differences between games and film. Choices about design and organization of game spaces have narratological consequences. In his article he discusses the unique forms of narrative that games can covey.

First he discusses factors of games such as:

1. Not all games tell stories. Interface design and expressive movement.
2. Many games do have narrative aspirations
3. Narrative analysis needs not to be prescriptive. The goal should be a diversification of genres.
4. The experience of playing games can never be reduced to the experience of a story. There are more elements to games that do not relate to narrative at all.
5. If some games tell stories, they are unlikely to tell them in the same ways as other media. Transitions of stories may not work well from one medium to another because they are constructed to suite the medium they were intended for.

Ludologists dismiss the idea of the use of narrative and also do not fully understand it. Therefore they do not acknowledge the relationship between narrative and games.

Spatial stories and environmental Storytelling
Game designers don’t only tell stories but also ‘design worlds’ and ‘sculpt spaces’. Game designers should be considered less as storytellers and more as narrative architects though spatial storytelling.

Environmental storytelling creates preconditions for an immersive narrative experience in at least one of four ways:

1. Spatial stories can evoke pre-existing narrative associations
2. They can provide a staging ground where narrative events are enacted
3. They may embed narrative information within their mise-en-scene:
4. They provide resources for emergent narrative.

Evocative Spaces
Through transmedia story-telling spaces can be created in a manner in that they evoke of a story from another medium by also being part of a larger narrative economy.

Enacting Stories
Because a storyline is normally fixed, ‘spatial stories’ are not regarded because they are episodic. Spatial stories are not badly constructed stories but rather are stories that respond to alternate aesthetic principles, privileging spatial exploration over plot development.

Micronarratives
These are short narrative units that intensify emotional engagement such as ‘attractions’. These are any element in a work that produces profound emotional impact.

Game designers struggle to determine how much plot will create a compelling framework and how much freedom players can enjoy without ruining the larger narrative trajectory. Game designers are yet to develop craft through a process of experimentation and refinement of basic narrative devices, becoming better at forming narrative experiences without restricting the space and freedom within the game.

Embedded Narratives
In film, the viewer pieces stories together through a mental map. In games, the player has to act upon those mental maps.

The game designer has to steer the player in the correct direction yet the player may not pick up on clues set by the designer.

The game designer can use two kinds of narrative:

1. Unstructured and controlled by the player as they explore the game space and unlock secrets.
2. Pre-structured but embedded within the mise-en-scene.

Therefore there is a balance between the flexibility of interactivity and the coherence of a pre-authored narrative.

Games are not locked into the eternal present. The art of game design come from in finding artiful ways of embedding narrative information into the environment without destroying its impressiveness or without letting the player feel as if they are being dragged trough the narrative. Using clues, artefacts and transformed spaces can do this. Game Designers could study ‘medoldrama’ because it provides a model for how the embedded story may work.

Environmental storytelling
Not retelling the story but evoking a nostolgai and an atmosphere. Working on ones pre-existing knowledge.

Emergent Narratives
The player’s have control to make determine their own results and create their own narrative.

Conclusion

Frasca favours simulation over narrative yet he does not completely disregard narrative. Though Jenkins favour’s narrative more he still also attempts to take a more of a middle ground between Ludologists and Narratologists.

I cannot identify with either Ludology or Narratology because both of these authors reveal relevant information about the structure of games. The focus of game study should not be to force the field into either Ludology or Narratology because games vary in their genre and structure. Some games do have structures that revolve more around story telling yet others may have structure that focus more on gameplay and simulation.

The focus should not be on which form of study is correct or incorrect but rather on how they are both relevant. This would allow the study if games to be far more diverse and complex because all factors would be considered instead of being dismissed. Therefore the best factors should be extracted out of both Ludology and Narratolgy and be combined into a new terms and a new area of study for video and computer games so that there would be no more discrimination.

Works Cited:

Fasca, Gonzalo, "Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology", The Video Game Theory Reader, 2003, Routledge.

Jenkins, Henry, "Game Design as Narrative Architecture", The Game Design Reader, 2006, MIT Press.

Edge Loops

How well a model is created determines the quality of the whole animation sequence that it’s intended to be used for. This is because how the faces in the polygon mesh are positioned determines the models flexibility. Creating 'Edge loops' is a technique that allows one to create the most efficient and economical model possible. It’s a manner of organizing polygons so that the model has as much form as possible with using the least amount polygons. They are also used to allow facial features to be more flexible and limbs to bend without them appearing unusual.

According to a comment in a forum edge loops are "a series of connected edges following a unique symmetrical path" and "The idea is the edge loop continues as long as there is a middle path to follow between two paths that its doesn't follow". Facial edge loops are "a series of quad faces connected through their opposite edges".

Faces are connected to each other in a circular manner around facial features such as the eyes, nose and mouth. The other edges follow the form of the rest of the facial features. They are created this way so that when facial expressions are animated; there will be no unnatural deformations that would make the character appear less naturalistic and believable. Edge loops are also placed around the circumference around joints so that when any limbs bend in an animation, there are enough polygons to accommodate the change in shape. This is also to enhance movement of characters and make them more believable.

To create edges loops, one can use the ‘add edge tool’, which allows one to draw the correct pattern of edges in the polygon mesh. One should then delete the excess edges, which also saves a model from containing unnecessary polygons.

Works Cited:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=101859

Huizinga’s Theory of Play Compared with Final Fantasy VII

According to Huizinga, previous research has attempted to define play’s function, but if it has a function is “not play”. Therefore he does not attempt to describe play’s psychological and physiological functions but rather describes it in a social context. His main concern is to grasp the value and significance of manipulated images that play is based on. Also the action of play and it as a culture factor in life. Play and culture are interwoven into each other.

The following essay will compare Huizinga’s definitions of the characteristics, functions and elements of play with the game Final Fantasy VII.

The main characteristics of play

1.1 play is not “ordinary” or “real” life – it is stepping out of real life into a temporary into a tempory sphere of activity with a disposition all of it’s own
1.2 its secludedness, its limitedness – The amount of time and space. repetition and alteration for every time it is played and in its structure.
1.3 it creates an order, is order – it brings a temporary limited perfection through rules.

The function of play

2.1 The contest for something or the
2.2 representation of something.
2.3 Or together as a representation of a contest or a
2.4 contest of representation.

Elements of play

3.1 order
3.2 tension
3.3 movement


Huizinga’s theory compared to Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII is originally a console game for the Playstation and was released in 1997. It is a good example of a turn-based role-playing game and many others are very similar in their structure. There is usually an interactive world with thresholds within it, a world map and separate battle scenes that act as a gutters or transition areas between thresholds in the narrative. The following is the attempt to compare Huizinga’s theory of play to this game.

The main characteristics of play

1.1
Though one gets serious and absorbed into the game play and the acts may be a serious chore for the characters within the storyline, it is an act of leisure for the player. For example, the battle scenes would be a matter of life or death for the character’s yet is a game for the player. The player is always aware that the event is fiction and not real.

1.2
There is limited in length because there is a definite beginning and end to the game. Also there are limited spaces within the game that the player cannot advance through until they’ve accomplished certain tasks such as defeat a monster in a battle scene. Though one can generally play it their own pace there are events within the game where the character has a limited amount of time such as when Cloud only has ten minutes to escape from the reactor before it explodes.

1.3
Rules with in the game are most evident with in the battle scenes. The primary rule in the game is that player has to defeat the boss before he or she can advance and cannot flee from boss battles either. Also if all player’s character’s run out of health then it is game over. Rules may also work to the player’s advantage because a boss may be weak to certain elemental spells such as fire, ice, or thunder and the player can use these it if they can identify these advantages.

The player also may have to solve a puzzle in an area before he or she can advance. For example, while entering the 2nd reactor, the player has to press a button consecutively with the other characters before the door will open so they can advance.

The function of play

The battle scenes are where one is in a contest with the game itself for victory. The adversaries in the stories challenge the player and each side’s goal is to defeat each other by depleting the other sides health. These battles can be considered as a representation of a contest.

Elements of play

3.1
Order results from the limitedness and rules that are placed within the game. This results in tension and the relief from tension. The game does not contain any cheat codes so the rules of the game cannot be broken.

3.2
Tension is brought from the narrative, game play and the combination of both. Tension in the narrative would be the uncertainty of the events that have occurred in the present, past, or future. For example, the truth behind Cloud’s past becomes questionable further in the story when Tifa reveals a different version of the story to the other characters.

Tension is also brought from the game play such as the battle scenes, puzzles and mini games. An interesting factor about the game is that it contains mini games within the main game itself. For example Golden Circle where one can play arcade games within the prefabricated world with the main character in a video game arcade.

Tension is also brought from the narrative and the game play combined because the battle scenes and the puzzles supplement the tension of the storyline as they restricts the player from advancing in the same event. A adversary may discuss his intentions which builds up the tension before he attacks which results in a battle scene. Random battles while travelling across thresholds also bring tension because the player is surprised by a sudden restriction in movement and is only relieved once they have defeated the enemy

3.3
The element of movement would be how the player has to explore the world and solve puzzles to advance. He or she has freedom to interact and explore the world in any order unless restricted from a certain area by a puzzle or a battle scene. Movement in the battle scenes is determined by the choices of commands by the player that determines the result of the battle.

The Role of Thresholds in Final Fantasy VII

According to Laurie Taylor, comics and video games are similar because they are both more spatial mediums rather than sequential. This is because of the interactivity that the viewer has with them. In her article she deals with the spatial aspects of the mediums by addressing the use of ‘exacting thresholds’. These are "places where the viewpoint that dramatically changes after movement over a specific line or point" with games and the panels of comic books (Taylor).

The following are the similarities of the thresholds between comic books and video games indicated by Laurie Taylor.

Thresholds
Comics book thresholds are indicated by the panel borders and gutters that separate images.
Video game thresholds are the video frame spaces that only shift to the next space when the player stimulates it.

Focus
The center of the panels of comics are not the only focus but also the layout as a whole may bring a focus to certain parts of the page.
With video games, though the focus is the center of the screen like film, the focus can be changed by the player so they can view the space as a whole.

Retracing
Comics can be reread or retraced easliy without disrupting the flow of the story.
Some video games require the player to retrace certain spaces to advance through game.

Direction of a linear path.
The creators of comics attempt create the layout in a manner so that the viewer follows a certain flow of reading.
Games are also made so that the player is lead in a certain direction, yet the player can take another route at their own will.

Multiple sequentialities
Comic book panels may be placed as a collage so the reader reads them insequentually yet is still be able to read them sequentailly.
Games also allow the player to experience areas in any order yet they can still follow the intended route.

Spatially judged time
The space in a comic book judges time though time may be represented differently in panels.
The amount of space the player moves through judges the time in a game unlike films where one is forced to experience the movie at a set pace.

Direction of time
Artists in both mediums find it difficult to indicate time because the viewer has the freedom to experience the mediums at their own pace.

Division of Panels
Spaces in games are usually part of a large one collectively. These large areas can be considered larger structures that are seperated from each other.
Pages in comic books can also be considered as larger structures that are separated by turning the pages.
Both mediums do not have ‘spaces in which the story of the game "happens" but rather landmarks for the work of reading’ (Taylor).

Conventions for spatial creation
As games draw on cimematic conventions they also draw on the spatial conventions used in comics such as changing perspectives on the same scene or limiting the viewers vision of a scene.

Interrelating Panels.
Some games use 2D backgrounds that may be considered to be flat and lack depth. It’s the interrelation between these panels that give the illusion of depth just like comic panels do.

Doors as transition spaces
Loading areas in games may use a simple animation or image to indicates the transition from threshold space to another.
Comics panels and gutters also indicate the transition from one threshold to another. They both mark and divide structures of both mediums.

Final Fantasy VII (game)
Though it may not be as impressive as when it was first released in 1997, it still is considered by many to be the best game over created. For it’s time it was impressive graphically, with gampley, with it’s narrative and sound. It’s one of many of Role Playing games from the Final Fantasy series.

The story revolves around a company which extracts a substance out of the planet and by doing so is killing it. The main characters are a rebel group who attempt to stop the company from damaging their world any further. As the story unfolds one learns of the charcter’s history, each ones version of the past, and the truth behind their pasts. Also the goal shifts from defeating the company to defeating Sephiroth, the main antagonist of the game.

Though Taylor, the writer of this article, compared thresholds in comics to survival horror games, some role player games also use thresholds in the same manner. This game is an example of one of these games.

Thresholds
This game uses 2D backgrounds and static views much like horror games and comics use. When one passes a certain line in a space, the view changes to another space. For example, when one walks into a door in the background threshold will change to the interior of a building.

Focus
Though one cannot move the camera view such as one can in other games, a large area is viewed as a whole. A certain object may have focus drawn to it by standing out from the background. For example, lighting is used in the slums from the Neon lights which brings focus to what they signify. This directs the player to areas that he or she can access.

Retracing
One often has to retrace areas in a parts of a game to advance. For example, in the begging of the game, Cloud has go deep in to a reactor to plant a bomb, and then retrace his steps to escape before the reactor explodes.

Direction of a linear path.
Items or objects that a character must collect may stand out from the background so that the player knows to pick it up or stimulate it.
For example, items may stand out from the background by being three dimensional while the background is two dimensional.

Multiple sequentialities
The entire game can be read as a whole because one can go anywhere on the planet of the game at any time, unless intentionally restricted. Though there is an intendend linear path that one has to follow to complete the game, one can freely travel anywhere on the whole planet.

Spatially judged time.
The time one takes to move and advance through in the game is judged by the amount of space covered by the player. The player dictates the pace unlike linear media such as film. The game even records the amount of time that is taken to play the game which can be viewed at the menu.

Direction of time
There is no indication of day or night during the game and no exact date or time for the events that occur. This is because the player has the freedom to play the game at their own pace. The only parts where time is a factor is when one has a time limit in the game to attain a goal. For example, Cloud only has ten minutes to escape the reactor before it explodes.

Division of Panels
The cities or towns can be considered larger structures that are seperated from the world map.
Conventions for spatial creation
An area may suddenly be shown in a different perspective so that it would appear more dramatic. For Example, when the main character, Cloud runs away from the soldiers that are persuing him, the view changes from an angle of streets to another perspective as a cut scene.

Interrelating Panels.
Because FFVII uses 2D backgrounds, there are usually multiple perspectives of them that give the viewer the illsion of depth such as in the scene when Cloud is being persude by the soldiers.

Doors as transition spaces
When a battle occurs the player is transferred from a version of a space that has a 2D background to a version of the same space that has a 3D background, and a different style for the character’s. These areas seem to be similar to gutter’s in comic books because they separate thresholds in the narrative. One has to complete and defeat the villian before they can advance in the story. The world map can also considered a gutter because one has to use it as a crossing between important areas that are thresholds in the game.

The 4th dimension
Comics can represent different times simutaneously and separate at the same time. Though this is not indicated by Taylor there is and example in FFVII where Cloud tells a story about his past and the player can move and interact in his past as if it were the present. The scenes also transfer from the past to the present when he is telling his story and back to the moments in time in his story.

Text
Text is placed like boxes much like speech bubbles are placed in comic books. They are positioned according to where the character’s are placed on the screen.

Working With a Self Made Rig Compared to Working With the Default Rig of XSI

Since rigs are what allows one to control models, the type of rig that one uses is what will allow certain parts of the model freedom and flexibility. This is why it is critical that one has the right type of rig for the purpose that the model is intended for.

XSI has a default rig and this can be created by clicking the ‘Animate tab’, then on the ‘character tab’ and selecting 'Biped Guide'. This creates a skeleton that one can transform into the right shape by positioning it inside the model that one intends to create a rig for. Once it's the size of the body parts of the guide are correct, one can create a rig from it by selecting the Biped Guide, clicking on the character tab and selecting 'Rig from Biped Guide'. A menu will appear that allows one to choose the characteristics of the rig that will be created. One would select certain characteristics depending on the purpose for the model that this rig will be used on. After clacking 'ok' in the menu the rig will be created. An advantage of using the Biped Guide is that one can create as much rigs as they desire all at the same scale.

The problem with using these rigs though is that they have bugs and do no always work in the manner that they are intended to. For example, one may save their scene and find that the Biped Guide is not in the same scale that it was created in. One may also find that the rigs created from it are in different positions when one loads a saved scene of them.

If one compares this to making ones own rig it will not be able to have all the distinct characteristics that one will have from creating their own rig from scratch. Knowing how to making a rig empowers one with the ability to give distinct functions to the model that may not be available to the default rigs. Also one won't be burdened with bugs unlike the default rig.

Sin City – The Film Adaptation from the Original Comic

When an adaptation is made from one medium to another, challenges occur that effect how successful the transition between the two mediums will be. This is because the different mediums have their own distinct advantages and disadvantages. To make the most successful transition between them one should be aware of these differences so that one can make an adaptation that is as loyal to the original as possible. An adaptation may also be considerably different from the original by being another perspective or approach to the original story. However the case, one must have an understanding of the challenges of transitioning a story between media to decide what approach to take and what kind of adaptation to make. The creator of the original comic was a co director so seemed to considerably help with these decisions. The following attempts to discuss the film adaptation of the Sin City stories from the original comic books by discussing these challenge’s indicated by Pascal Leférve.

In Pascal Leférve’s article, "Incompatable Visual Ontologies", he indicates problems that occur when making an adaptation from a comic book to film. These problems are:

1. The deletion/addition process that occurs with rewriting primary comics texts for films.
2. The unique characteristics of page layout and film screen
3. The dilemmas of translating drawings to photography
4. The importance of sound in film compared to the ‘silence’ of comics.
   

Sin City

1.
The time one reads a story in a comic and views it on screen is different. A story may take longer to read in the comic because the viewer reads at their own pace and may take more time to view a drawing, page or panel. The viewer may turn back a few pages to return to an event that previously occurred in the story or view panels on a page in any order they desire. This is why comics have a more non-linear kind of narrative. Films on the other hand are more of a linear medium. The viewer is forced to follow a set path in the story at a set times and one cannot view the events at their own pace.

This is why the film adaptation of the sin city movie had to combine multiple stories into one film. This is not so much of a problem because stories in the original comic overlap by an event or character from one story often briefly appearing in another or characters in the story referring one from another story. When these stories are put on film they all relate and link together so that the film’s stories all work as a whole. For example, the character Marv dies at the end of his story during the course of the movie yet is later seen still alive in Dwight’s story. This is because the stories exist at different times. It may be an attempt of the director to allow the film to be as non-linear as the comic is.

These changes effect how text is used converted to dialogue in film. Certain words may sound appropriate as text in a comic but may not sound as good or relevant on film. Words as text are deleted or altered to suit the progress of the story of the film. For example, in the begging conversation between detective Hartigan and his partner is longer in the original comic than in the movie. An example where text has been altered is when Dwight comments on how Marv would be right at home in an ancient battlefield. This comment was originally made during a different story in the comic.

2.
The frames and page layout in the Comics are more regular and rectangular. Therefore, when they are converted to film there is not as much of a problem because the screen is rectangular. Despite this, the screen cannot change shape as a frame in a comic can. Though other movies attempt to use split screen it is not used in the Sin City movie. This may be because the director may have decided that this technique may be problematic because it draws the viewer’s attention away from the story and towards the technique itself. The camera is also mostly static in the film. This may be because that the director wanted the views to resemble the static frames in the comic book.

3.
The film is very faithful to the style and appearance of the drawings in the comics. The whole film is almost completely black and white just as the comic is. It also uses single colours to bring focus on certain subjects, For example the yellow senator’s son. The each character also appears to have individual lighting to give them the same high contrast and highlights as they have in the drawings in the comics. These lights are also used to show features of the faces such as Marv’s deep wrinkles. The backgrounds are pre-rendered so they seem to have a similar other worldly quality that the comics do. They tend to go from naturalistic to having the extremely high contrast quality of the scenes in the comic.

The one aspect that the live action film does not capture is the use of line. The line in the comic tends to be hard-edged and more or less intense to express events and characters. For example, females tend to have purely white faces with little use of line while male character’s face have more lines drawn to depict their hard features. The characters in the comic also have more abstract features, some character’s event tending to look like cartoon characters such as the Barman the story ‘Family Values’. The techniques of drawing style and the abstraction tell more about the subjects. Marv and the yellow senator’s son seem to be the only character in the film with these kinds of abstract feature’s that is more similar to the comic.

Marv has more harder and monumental facial features, which is not natural for a normal human being to have. The senator’s son appears to be made to appear like a cartoon character such as the late 1800’s newspaper strip cartoon character, ‘Yellow Kid’. The style of the senator’s son seems to refer to this yellow kid because his resembling features of the stubbly nose, bald head, large ears and the face. Also the colour that was chosen to colour him is yellow.

4.
Since the comics style resemble early 1900’s black and white detective movies the director may have studied these movies as an influence to the music and accent of the character’s since the comics cannot tell as much except from the writing style of the text. Though the music of the film seems to be similar to the music from these older films it still sounds distinct and otherworldly. The character’s tone of voice also resembles these movies yet seem to be ‘over acted’ to suit the style of the movie. Without getting much influence of what the music, how dialogue would sound like from the comic the films sound still seems to work coherently and express the mood of the comic.

In conclusion, despite some minor differences between the comic and the film, it is still a great adaptation and may be considered the best that there has ever been between a comic and film. The directors have a full understanding of the comic since one of them wrote the comic itself whereas most do not have this kind of understanding of the content that they are about to transfer to live action film. It does not only give respect to the original stories but also the visual style and mood of the original comics. Though there have been a few alterations made, this was so that the film worked as a film. There were considerations over the similarities and the differences of the mediums of film and comic.

Filmic and Comic Visual Narrative Techniques

The following essay is a comparison between the visual narrative techniques between films and comic books. These techniques have been extracted from the articles called “Imagetextuality 'Cutting Up' Again” by Donald Ault and “The Possibility of Minimal Units in the Filmic Image” by Sophie De Grauwe. The following are points that are concerned with the narrative of different mediums, which will be compared in the conclusion.

Comic book Narrative techniques

According to Ault, comic books have three aspects which are the:

Imagery order - the pictoral dimension
Symbolic order - the linguistic dimension
Real order - the interruptions or cuts in the body-space of the page

The Narrative Techniques that comic books use are:

The use of an undivided image to illustrate a verbal text - The word spaces cover parts of the images on the page so that one has to use their imagination to compensate for the rest of the image.
Fragmentation of the gaze – This allows one to see a character from different places at the same time or different places at different times
Cut and the suture - this invokes subtle temporal and spatial discrepancies that produce a visual surplus or excessivity. Simultaneous, different spatial "perspectives "
characters relating indirectly to the reader and characters relating directly to the readers
shifts in aspectual incommensurability – same character goes through radical transformations
cutting in the body of the page so severely that it calls attention to the surface of the text.
cutting up frames into (dis) ordered fragments.
myself seeing myself - This momentary allusion to the desire to master the imaginary by transferring it to the fortuitous actions


Producing identity through the failure of representation:

· multiple intersecting trajectories of misrecognition.
· relay of signifiers,
· explicit mobilization of the roles of metonymy and metaphor.
· disruption of the suture of the imaginary and symbolic by the real

The different narrative strategies:
the gaze,
the imaginary,
the symbolic,
and the real

Film Techniques

De Grauwe has a social semiotic approach to analysing the minimal units of narratibve in film that are:

Abstraction,
Discreteness,
Iconicity,
Economy, and
Arbitrariness

Representations represent dynamic relations between participants. These processes are represented by vectors (diagonal lines) or directional movements.

One-participant action process - action realized "by the vector created by the diagonal line of action
Symbolic attributive process - symbolic, realized by juxtaposition (establishes the identity of the Carrier, i.e. what the Carrier means or is)

Interpersonal metafunction
(between the producer and viewer

size of frame - eg "close-up" "long shot"
horizontal and vertical angles
moving camera
"speech functions" or "speech acts",
modality "truth value or credibility of […] statements about the world" (K&VL 1996: 160).

Different social groups that determine modality
· technological,
· sensory,
· abstract,
· and naturalistic

Iedema has identified four coding orientations of the moving image:
· the Real,
· the Really Real,
· the Real-as-Sensation,
· and the "Symbolizing the Real".
textual or compositional metafunction
· Salience “degree to which the element draws attention to itself" (K&VL 1996: 225)
· Temporal
· Spatial

Semiotic systems can be studied at different levels of specificity,
different levels of schematicity:

Langue1 is the most abstract level - Phonic and conceptual terms in the two orders of difference

Langue2 is the level of "sign types" - Sign types; typical lexicogrammatical forms and patterns (morpheme to sentence)

Langue3 is the level of the typical uses of the forms according to the text type

Metz

According to Metz, there is no one cinematographic "code", but a multitude of cinematographic codes. Each of these codes has its own minimal unit:

Segmental units are units which "occupy a continuous segment of filmic space and time" (Metz 1971: 151; my translation
Suprasegmental units are more abstract, being not present in the "textual surface".

Eco

Three articulations in film (kinesic, iconic signs, iconic figures)
Two articulations in verbal language

Groupe m

Minimal units on visual perception and cognition

Groupe µ identifies three basic terms involved in the constitution of iconic signs
Signifiers and referents (see figure 6). Types are mental representations of visual precepts


Groupe µ's division of the semiotic field into iconic and plastic signs

Meaning is realized simultaneously on three different levels: the referential, the interpersonal, and the compositional level

Phonemic features
Contrast is established by realising a distinction between the feature and its absence, Different positions, making each position into a different feature

Exaggeration of both similarities and differences in the image.
It exaggerates the difference between figure and ground and it emphasises the similarities constituting the figure.

Mobility between entities and sub-entities
What is an entity in one image can be a sub-entity in another.

Representational processes
These can be discreted on the syntagmatic and paradigmatic level through features like movement, duration of movement.

Interpersonal and compositional levels
The contrasting systems are gradational systems: contrast is established by making a distinction between degrees of a feature

Visual parameters
The contrasting system is again a gradational system. ‘Relative contrast may be less relative in some cases than in others, and absolute contrast is not as absolute as is sometimes maintained. As regards the former, the feature of /brightness/, for example, is a gradational feature’ De Grauwe

Viewer/listener has to go through certain discretion and abstraction processes to establish discrete units.

Referential abstraction.
In the filmic image, the concretisation is established not only by the context of situation and the textual context but also by the instance itself, its concrete expression

Abstraction of a concrete is given

Through selection of its pertinent features so that a type is established
Through its analysis into several types rather than one

This is a result of the arbitrariness of verbal language. Arbitrariness induces a distance from reality

A certain level of abstraction is necessary to understand the filmic image: without it, there could be no recognition of concrete instances.

Lighting and focus can also enhance abstraction of represented participants as well as of the setting in general.

Limited number of meanings realised by absolute contrast it offers a large number of possible meanings realised by relative contrast.

Iconicity, arbitrariness and economy

Iconicity
This is linked to systems of relative contrast on the basis of gradational scales. It also entails an increased difficulty to manipulate reality when compared to arbitrariness, pro-filmic reality, abstraction of represented participants, changes in colour, form or texture, etc

Arbitrariness
This brings about a distancing of reality, so that manipulation of reality becomes possible.
The greatest distance from reality

Economy
Results in arbitrariness. There is no paradigmatic economy as regards the inventory of represented participants. However, paradigmatic economy is also concerned with the limitation of grammatical gradational scales

Syntagmatic level

Temporal syntagmatic economy - Rather than being a grammatical limiting device, increase or decrease of temporal complexity has become linked to text-types

Spatial syntagmatic economy - the reduction of represented participants through abstracting devices, and the reduction of information through the limitation of depth of field

Conclusion

Comic narrative is a more non-linear form of narrative and is concerned with the use of frames, how hey are depicted as a whole, what they represent and how they relate to each other. Film is a linear kind of narrative that uses abstractness and discreteness, iconicity, economy and arbitrariness to express the subjects and events. This is through different camera positions, lighting, editing, ect to depict a perspective of the subject, events and story. Comic’s verbal form is text, which is expressed in a visual manner while film uses audio, which is expressed through tone and diction. Despite this, both comics and film express their subjects, stories and events through the selection by the producer or creator of what to reveal to the viewer but in their own distinct manners.

Differences in Timing Concerning the Weight of a Bouncing Ball

Factors that effect how a ball bounces are temperature, internal air pressure, air resistance, the surface that it contacts, rigidity, speed and weight. When attempting to simulate a bouncing ball through animation, one should consider these factors. The following focuses on how the weight of a ball effects its timing during it’s bounce. What other applications can be used from this exercise when doing more complex animation will also be discussed.

The weight of a ball will determine how high and how many times a ball bounces. To set the places in time, where and when the ball will bounce, one must position it accordingly and set keys in the timeline. First one should move the ball to the position where it's falling from and press the 'k' button to set the first key on the timeline. Next, one should move forward in time by moving the bar in the timeline and then move the ball halfway towards where it will contact the ground. The next key should where and when it makes contact with the ground.

Each bounce that follows will be less and less. The first bounce will be animated by keying the ball in the time where it should be at its highest. The end of it should be keyed where it contacts the floor. The following bounces should be created the same way except smaller than it's previous bounce. This is because each bounce that follows will be less and less. Where and when the ball has finished bouncing a key should be set at the end of it's bounce and a key to where and when it will stop. A ball would not stop dead so to make it more convincing and believable a key should be set slightly backwards, forwards again, and back to emulate the ball setting. This settling should be a movement through a minute space and should take a long time therefore the keys should be far apart on the time line.

Now one has a basic bounce but it won't be convincing. This is because a ball would accelerate as it falls and decelerate as it rises. This is called 'slow in' and 'slow out' in animation. One can control these aspects of the animation by opening the 'Animation Editor' by pressing '0'. This shows a graph with 'tangents' that are the curved lines and 'Bezier handles' which are the handles that allow one to control the bends of these lines. Currently the ball appears to move in a wave instead of having sharp bounces. To resolve this one can break the tangents by selecting the keys on the 'y' tangent where the ball makes contact with the ground and selecting the 'Mirror Slope Orientation’ button. Now the handles are broken into independent and symmetrical lines that allow one to sharpen the balls bounce from the tangents. The ball may not proceed at an even speed. To resolve this one should delete the unnecessary keys on the 'z' or 'x' tangent so that only the first and the last key are left. The Z tangent will move in one smooth motion because there will only be one curve that controls it.

The last problem is that the ball does not squash from the force when it makes contact with the ground. To simulate this in the animation a key should first be set just before and just after each bounce. This is so that the ball would only start to squash when it hits the ground instead of changing shape too early or too late. To simulate the actual squash, the pivot point of the object should be moved to the surface that its making contact with by selecting the object and holding the alt key and then scaling the ball horizontally. This will make the ball squash towards the surface instead of away from it. After scaling it, a key should be set and the same should be done at every bounce but it should be scaled less than the previous bounces.

There are other kinds of movements in animation that relate to the movement of a bouncing ball. The walking motion of a character is similar to this. A foot also moves to and from a surface much like the bounce of a ball. This is because it would make contact with the floor and separate sharply just like the bounce of the ball. The general movements of animated objects move through time and space and also include slow in and slow out movements that can be controlled with the animation editor.

References:
http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/0031-9120/33/3/018/pe8308.pdf?request-id=AICepCjl3BGk1_wf3Ai7Kg

Précis of Pascal Leférve’s “Incompatable Visual Ontologies”

According to Pascal Lefévre, films based on comic books are not regarded successes according to art critics and comic readers. Why these movies may have been successful is because of people who have hardly read the comics who watch and support these movies. The following is a concise summary on Lefévre’s article on what the problems are when making films as adaptations of comic books.

Some support these adaptations and some comic book creators completely reject them because they say that their stories were only created and intended for the comic medium.

Comics and cinema are similar because they both tell stories through sequential imagery. They also differ because comics include still frames while cinema is live action.

The audience prefers first time they experiences a story because of how they picture it in their imaginations. Movies have to also deal with this aspect.

Though animated versions of live action require an analysis of their own they tend to encounter the same problems of live action.

Though comics and cinema are both mass-produced they are different because a person is solitary when reading a comic and in a group while watching a movie. The production of a comic books are also done by a few people or one person while movies require a large budget and a mass of people to produce it.

There are four main problems in the comics medium:

1. The deletion/addition process that occurs with rewriting primary comics texts for films.
   
2. The unique characteristics of page layout and film screen
   
3. The dilemmas of translating drawings to photography
   
4. The importance of sound in film compared to the ‘silence’ of comics.

1.
There are not many adaptations that respect the original storyline of a comic. This is because scriptwriters have to consider the difference in the narrative length norms of the two medias and the fact that comics have there own norms and rules. They therefore have to cut out scenes, remove characters and add new ones.

Comic book creators understand that the stories in comics require changes as ‘retellings’ of the stories. Diehard comic book fans rarely applaud the rewritings because they see as the changes as betrayals. If a movie is too faithful to the comic book it will seldom be a good movie. This is because Cinema is another medium with it’s own characteristics and rules. The best one can do is to try there best to be as truthful as possible to the original work.

2
Comic book readers can read at there own speed, focus on certain frames and return to previous ones easily at their own free will. This is because comic books are a more spatial medium and panels are placed like a montage. Cinema obliges one to follow a rhythm of sequences in a linear-time sequence. The layout of panels is also a factor of comics. When movies attempt to fragment the image it is noticeable and breaks the usual cinematographic illusion.

3
Although comics and cinema both use flat images they differ because comics are drawn while cinema is photographic. Comic books also use static images that appear frozen in time while film uses moving images that give the illusion of realism.

The drawn images have distinct edges that photographic images in cinema do not have. The mind has to interpret the bundles of light to be able to distinguish between the objects edges. Drawn panels in comics include clear edges and contours. Though less realistic they depict what is necessary for the viewer to see according to the artist and tells more about subjects. This result may also be done through picture elements such as simplicity of shape, orderly grouping, distinction between object and ground, and the use of lighting perspectives and distortions.

Impossible elements are more easily attainable to comic book creators than filmmakers. Though film can also depict such scenes they are restricted by budgets and the fact that they also have to appear as realistic as possible. Therefore they appear are less subjective as compared to comics.

Comic books, through a regular style of images, represent a visual interpretation of the world that expresses the creator’s specific view. This obliges the viewer to see through the creator’s perspective. Photographic images of cinema fool the eye; therefore some graphic and violent scenes accepted in comics may be more disturbing in film.

This difference in visual ontology may be the reason why it is difficult to interpret stylised drawing and caricature into photographic images. The artist can balance between realism and caricature and if interpreted in film results into ‘confusion incredulous surface’. This is because of the lack of the ‘clear line’ and artist may have been using.

Despite this cinema may attempt to adopt the stylisation of comics. Comic book artists have acted as co directors and have transitioned their style and approach onto films resulting in them being more successful. Film can also represent an alternate interpretation of the content in comic books by this being a deliberate choice.

Some comic books have no unique defining style and go through changes over time yet one still does not get confused between their same content. Because of this a film may be seen as a different style and therefore one does not get confused with it from the comic and accepts it as just another interpretation.

4.
There is a problem when converting a story from a “silent medium” into a “sound medium”. Comics may give hints to how a character’s sound like in a comic but it will be a shock to the reader when they hear it in film. This is because the reader’s interpretation would have been different. Also dialogue in a comic may not be as effective when converted to sound in film.

These four problems are the crucial problems of filmic adaptations of comics. First, to what extent has a scriptwriter for a film to rewrite the story, second, how to go from a page layout to a single, unchangeable screen frame, third, how to translate static drawings into moving and photographic images, and fourth, how to give the “silent world an audible sound?

When evaluating a film adaptation one should forget about the original work and credit the new work for it’s own merits, which should be judged as movies and not as adaptations.