Synthesis Crit

A few weeks ago we had a synthesis crit where we presented our ideas, research and any practical work, showing how we were going to synthesis both practice and theory together. So far I had produced some practical tests of motion capture and also keyframe animation to see the difference between the two and how it would affect the overall performance of the character. Something that I've come across whilst doing this is that the rig that I've been retargeting the motion capture data to, doesn't have as much control as I would like. There aren't enough controls for certain parts of the body e.g the spine so I find that when I need to tweak parts of the motion capture data in the spine, it's not that easy and sometimes not possible to get to certain joints. To get around this would be to build my own model and rig (which I've done in a previous post) where I'm able to add in as much control as I need.

Regarding the synthesis part, I've been researching into the pros and cons of motion capture along with performance, appeal and realism vs believability. All of this will help inform my practice by giving myself prior knowledge to what will work better e.g certain softwares, performance and animation techniques, what makes a believable character/performance. I will incorporate this into my work and whatever I produce I will end up with my own findings which I will then relate back to my writing. I will be learning throughout and making links between both aspects.

Because I'm looking into performance and aiming more at film rather than games, it will be good to give my final animation a story, something I can work with that will make the whole thing more believable. In order to give a good performance you should understand your character first. A story can also add appeal in the form of how the character may react in certain situations. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out and if I come out of it with any new findings.