While investigating incidents where imperfection improves the whole instead of ruining it—across disciplines including animation, particle physics, and rug making—the narrator of “Botched” remembers an early childhood trauma, and explores how this flaw might have shaped her own life. “Botched” is a literary exploration into the heart of imperfection, blending fiction, nonfiction, memoir, and photography.

"Desire and Hope" is three short animations. The main concept in these three animations is human desires; the goal in each animation was to explore a ways to tell this concept by adding some level of ambiguity, so viewers can watch it through their own vision. / Master of Fine Arts

This work will give a wide survey for various techniques that are present in the field of character computer animation, which concentrates particularly on those techniques and problems involved in the production of realistic character synthesis and motion. A preliminary user study (including Questionnaire, online publishing such as flicker.com, interview, multiple choice questions, publishing on Android mobile phone, and questionnaire analysis, validation, statistical evaluation, design steps and Character Animation Observation) was conducted to explore design questions, identify users' needs, and obtain a "true story" of quality character animation and the effect of using animation as useful tools in Education. The first set of questionnaires were designed to accommodate the evaluation of animation from candidates from different walks of life, ranging from animators, gamers, teacher assistances (TA), students, teaches, professionals and researchers using and evaluating pre-prepared animated character videos scenarios, and the study outcomes has reviewed the recent advances techniques of character animation, motion editing that enable the control of complex animations by interactively blending, improving and tuning artificial or captured motions. The goal of this work was to augment the students learning intuition by providing ways to make education and learning more interesting, useful and fun objectively, in order to improve students’ respond and understanding to any subject area through the use of animation also by producing the required high quality motion, reaction, interaction and story board to viewers of the motion. We present a variety of different evaluation to the motion quality by measuring user sensitivity, observations to any noticeable artefact, usability, usefulness etc. to derive clear useful guidelines from the results, and discuss several interesting systematic trends we have uncovered in the experimental data. We also present an efficient technique for evaluating the capability of animation influence on education to fulfil the requirements of a given scenario, along with the advantages and the effect on those deficiencies of some methods commonly used to improve animation quality to serve the learning process. Finally, we propose a wide range of extensions and statistical calculation enabled by these evaluation tools, such as Wilcoxon, F-test, T-test, Wondershare Quiz creator (WQC), Chi square and many others explained with full details.

Computer animation projects, specifically feature film productions, require large teams of artists to manage and coordinate the use of enormous amounts of data containing both aesthetic and technical information within a specific time frame and while using finite resources. Mismanagement through information loss or inefficiency can result in both a compromised artistic vision and a financial loss. This thesis presents the conceptualization of a work management system based upon a successful system used in architecture and construction called Building Information Modeling, or BIM. BIM principles are adapted for use in animation production through the use of images as containers of information. The thesis does not include implementation of the management system described but does predict, based upon comparisons with architecture and construction, that a significant level of information carry-through can be achieved from concept art to final frames and we expect a positive gains in the efficient use of production resources. Adoption of this proposed project management structure could reduce production budgets, improve the communication flow between directors and artists, and develop an empirical based record for predicting the resource usage requirements for proposed projects in the future.

<p>En stor del av spelkänslan ingår i hur saker beter sig och hur karaktärer rör sig. Animering är ett viktigt verktyg för att åstadkomma realistiska rörelser men räcker i många sammanhang inte för att leverera en fulländad känsla av realism. I fall interaktion med omvärlden är av stor vikt kan det vara nödvändigt tillämpa tekniker för dynamisk animation, ett komplext område som har potential att öka interaktivitet i datorspel.</p><p>Detta arbete presenterar en teknik för att tillåta animation att påverkas av externa krafter såsom gravitation, friktion, kollision och annat. Tekniken bygger på simulerad fysik i form av trasdockor (eng. ragdolls) som animeras genom data från animation och fysikberäkningar presenterade häri.</p><p>Tekniken testades i en applikation där trasdockorna animeras samtidigt som de utsätts för externa krafter. Applikationen påvisade att teorin är korrekt och har all potential att leverera animerade trasdockor som en modulär lösning till ett existerande system. Applikationen visade även att tekniken har mycket arbete kvar att göras innan den kan ses som färdigutvecklad eftersom trasdockan inte i alla fall beter sig naturligt.</p><p>Om tekniken tillåts evolvera fram tillsammans med andra arbeten inom området kan man komma att se stora förbättringar vad gäller interaktivitet i datorspel.</p>

Šokis ir aerobika yra judesių programų pavyzdžiai - jos susideda iš tam tikra tvarka surikiuotų, pakartotinai naudojamų komponenčių. Norint efektyviai modeliuoti tokias programas, reikalinga formali žmogaus judesių notacija. Pasinaudoję esamomis priemonėmis (3D modeliavimo įrankiai, OGRE grafikos variklis, H-Anim) ir sukūrę savas, realizavome procedūrinių humanoido animacijų veikimo schemą. Ji leidžia sudaryti žmogaus judesių programą ir yra nesunkiai suprantama net ir tiems, kurie neturi animacijos ar trimačio modeliavimo patirties. Procedūrinės animacijos užrašomos XML formatu. Jas pavaizduoja mūsų peržiūros programa. Formatas leidžia abstrahuoti judesius į "procedūras", juos apjungti į sekas ir kaupti judesių bibliotekas. Turint pavienių judesių komponentes, procedūrinės animacijos kūrimas, pildymas ar keitimas yra žymiai paprastesnis ir lankstesnis, be to, tokia animacija yra nepriklausoma nuo humanoido modelio geometrijos. / Dance and aerobics are examples of movement programs – they consist of reusable components laid out in particular order. Efficient modeling of such programs requires the usage of some formal movement notation. With the help of existing tools and standards (3D modeling packages, OGRE graphics engine, H-Anim), as well as utilizing the ones we designed ourselves, we have implemented procedural humanoid animation schema. It allows for creating human movement programs and is easy to grasp even for those with no experience in animation or 3D modeling. Procedural animations are written in XML and visualized by our viewer software. Using our format, one can abstract movements into "procedures", combine them into sequences and store them in movement libraries. With all the individual movements at hand, creating, extending and modifying a procedural animation is much more simple and flexible. Moreover, this kind of animation is independent of model's geometry.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2010. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 30).

The use of anthropomorphic animal characters is pervasive in animation, but there has been little examination of how and why these are created, and how a viewing audience understands them. This Practice-based PhD examines how a re-defining of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic representation might bring a new impetus to the use of animal imagery within contemporary animation practice. An initial stage of research was to define the term anthropomorphism both as a visual language within animation practice and in the wider contexts of scientific and philosophical discourse. Social and psychological aspects are discussed, recognising this form of hybrid representation throughout the development of human culture. Links with Human Animal Studies disciplines raised the question of relating anthropomorphism to negative aspects of anthropocentrism and this led to a second stage of the research that explores ways of working with anthropomorphism that do not promote an anthropocentric bias. This is firstly achieved through the devising of a new theoretical approach to character analysis that is based on the recognition of perceptual aesthetic and sensual animal qualities in human-led , animal-led and design-led anthropomorphic characters, rather than a reliance on conceptual symbolic referencing of human experiences, goals, and narratives. Moving into the practice and influence from historical animation work provides impetus for a move away from character and narrative based work. Experimental animation techniques are used to create rhythms and patterns of abstracted animal and human imagery. This new work is based on contemporary ecological ideas that discuss relationships between humans and animals as interconnected species, thus providing a second way of lessening of anthropocentric bias in the subject matter. Having a starting point of aesthetic and sensual responses to actual experiences with animals is an important factor and live action film is re-animated to create digitally manipulated rhythms of colour, texture, movement and sound. The practical research outcomes are animation samples that evidence the coming together of experimental digital techniques and contemporary ecological subject matter. An action research model was devised for the research to enable the integration of theory and practice, and reflection on theory and practice to have an important influence on the practical outcomes. The approach taken was dependent on experience as a creative practitioner and as a teacher helping others to develop a sustainable creative practice, in allowing an open and intuitive discovery of ideas from both theoretical and practical explorations to create a flow through the research. The combination of theoretical and practical research undertaken provides an impetus towards the creation of future animation work using an anthropomorphic visual language redefined as zooanthropomorphic animation . The submission includes outcomes of a written thesis and links to practical animation work.

En stor del av spelkänslan ingår i hur saker beter sig och hur karaktärer rör sig. Animering är ett viktigt verktyg för att åstadkomma realistiska rörelser men räcker i många sammanhang inte för att leverera en fulländad känsla av realism. I fall interaktion med omvärlden är av stor vikt kan det vara nödvändigt tillämpa tekniker för dynamisk animation, ett komplext område som har potential att öka interaktivitet i datorspel. Detta arbete presenterar en teknik för att tillåta animation att påverkas av externa krafter såsom gravitation, friktion, kollision och annat. Tekniken bygger på simulerad fysik i form av trasdockor (eng. ragdolls) som animeras genom data från animation och fysikberäkningar presenterade häri. Tekniken testades i en applikation där trasdockorna animeras samtidigt som de utsätts för externa krafter. Applikationen påvisade att teorin är korrekt och har all potential att leverera animerade trasdockor som en modulär lösning till ett existerande system. Applikationen visade även att tekniken har mycket arbete kvar att göras innan den kan ses som färdigutvecklad eftersom trasdockan inte i alla fall beter sig naturligt. Om tekniken tillåts evolvera fram tillsammans med andra arbeten inom området kan man komma att se stora förbättringar vad gäller interaktivitet i datorspel.

This thesis is a supporting paper for three of my 3D animations created and presented for a Master of Fine Arts graduate exhibition. It discusses how the two realms of graphic design and 3D animation helped me to develop my heuristic techniques of creating animations. Using the three animations as examples, I make an attempt to explain how linear and figurative images influence each other in the creative process of creature/character development. I also discuss the various influences and cumulative explorations behind the imageries of animation. A brief discussion about Asian Indian aesthetic concepts and the general methodology of creating 3D animation using Alias|Wavefront Maya is also included.