with Nigel
This session covered Harvard referencing conventions and further discussion around proposal development.
Alongside lecture, I started thinking about possible connections between my final animation project and my thesis. Instead of approaching them as completely separate projects, I explored the idea of building both around a shared research theme that could support my practical work while providing a strong academic focus. As I am planning a character-driven piece that focuses on performance and emotion, I identified several broader research themes that could be valuable throughout both the production and thesis process.
At this stage, I am particularly interested in topics such as emotional storytelling through animation, non-verbal communication and character performance, and the application of animation principles to enhance audience engagement. Rather than committing to a single direction, I am using these themes as starting points for further investigation, as they all have the potential to directly inform the creative and technical decisions within my project.
Over the next few weeks, I plan to continue reviewing existing research and practice-based projects before refining my focus.
with Ting
This week began with an Animbot workshop, where we explored a range of tools and features designed to improve animation workflow efficiency. The session introduced practical shortcuts and techniques that can speed up common animation tasks, allowing animators to focus more on performance and less on repetitive technical processes. I found the workshop particularly useful as it demonstrated how professional tools can streamline blocking, posing, and polishing stages. Learning these workflow improvements will help me work more efficiently in future projects.
To reinforce what we learned, we completed a practical an exercise, applying these new tools in a simple animation task. Working through the exercise gave me a better understanding of how professional workflow tools can increase efficiency while maintaining animation quality, and it helped me become more comfortable integrating AnimBot into my everyday process.
Following the workshop, I continued developing my Advanced Animation Shot in the Blocking Plus stage. During this week, I received feedback on several aspects of my shot, particularly regarding posture, symmetry, camera movement and overall visual interest. It was pointed out that some of my poses felt too symmetrical, which reduced the appeal and naturalism of the performance. To address this, I adjusted the character’s posture and introduced more asymmetry throughout the poses to create a stronger and more dynamic silhouette.
Another area of discussion was the prop used in the shot. Initially, I used a ball as the main prop, but feedback suggested that replacing it with an object of greater value or significance could strengthen the narrative and make the character’s actions feel more meaningful. While I applied the majority of the feedback throughout the week, I am still exploring alternative prop ideas and have not yet settled on a replacement that fully supports the performance.
Overall, this week focused on responding to feedback and improving the quality of the shot through stronger posing, clearer acting choices, and more thoughtful storytelling decisions. The process reinforced how small changes in posture, asymmetry, and prop selection can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of an animation.
with Serra
This week focused on the early testing phase of our AI data extraction project in TouchDesigner. The main objective was to explore different tracking solutions and evaluate which methods would be most suitable for extracting meaningful data from live video input.
We began experimenting with MediaPipe and tested several of its tracking capabilities, including body, face, and hand tracking. These tests helped us understand the strengths and limitations of each approach and how accurately they could capture movement data in real-time. Through these experiments, we started identifying which tracking methods might be the most effective for our project goals.
Alongside the tracking tests, we also explored different camera input setups. One of the main tasks was connecting a smartphone camera to TouchDesigner to achieve a more flexible filming setup. We experimented with OBS and related tools to stream the phone camera feed into the project, testing both connection stability and image quality. This allowed us to compare webcam and phone camera inputs and evaluate which option would provide the most reliable data for future development.
Overall, this week was dedicated to technical research and experimentation. By testing various tracking methods and camera configurations, we gained a clearer understanding of the tools available and established a stronger foundation for the next stages of the project. In addition, we continued researching and watching tutorials related to TouchDesigner, MediaPipe, and real-time tracking workflows to better understand the development process and prepare for the next implementation stages of the project.