with Nigel
This week’s session focused on feedback for the literature review and discussing next steps for the thesis proposal. I was unable to attend the live session due to a Course Committee meeting, but I reviewed the Moodle materials afterwards and kept up with the session content independently.
I also signed up for a tutorial slot to receive feedback on my literature review for next week.
with Ting
This week each group presented their creature studies. Listening to every group’s detailed analysis of different animals was extremely interesting, but also very educational from an animation standpoint. Seeing how anatomy influences movement across different species gave me a much broader understanding of creature locomotion and performance design. Our bear presentation focused on weight, balance, plantigrade movement, and the contrast between heaviness and agility in bear locomotion.
After receiving feedback on my dialogue shot, I made a few final body animation adjustments and then moved into facial animation. Since the facial performance initially felt too subtle, I pushed the facial poses further and made the transitions snappier to create clearer emotional readability. I also added eye darts and incorporated anticipation before larger opening poses to strengthen the timing and performance. I prepared the updated version for the next feedback session, and my plan for the following week is to address the remaining feedback and finally move into the lip sync stage.
At the same time, I also began the blocking phase of the creature locomotion assignment. After reviewing all the creature presentations and references, I chose lions and gathered reference footage from multiple perspectives and started analyzing their movement patterns and moved onto blocking.
with Serra
This week focused on presenting our project progress and receiving feedback on both the technical and creative direction of the project.
A large part of the feedback session focused on the technical aspects of the project and whether we would realistically have the necessary infrastructure and tools to achieve our ideas. We talked about possible tracking methods and interactive technologies that could support the project, and our tutor suggested experimenting with tools such as Kinect and Leap Motion for movement tracking and interaction. This discussion was especially useful because it helped us better understand the technical limitations and possibilities before moving further into production.
On the creative side, we received suggestions to research artists working with data visualization, glitch aesthetics, and experimental digital media. One of the references mentioned was Rosa Menkman, whose work explores digital artifacts, glitches, and the relationship between technology and visual communication. We were encouraged to look into the concepts and technical approaches used by artists working in similar areas, especially those combining real-time systems, AI, and data-driven visuals.
I found this feedback session very valuable because it showed how important research is, not only technically but also conceptually. It also gave us a clearer direction for how we can develop our own project while balancing experimentation with a stronger conceptual framework.