Meet the Puppet Masters - Carlos Grangel

They gave him an actual horse whilst designing for this movie, like damn.

   Carlos Grangel is a Spanish-born illustrator and character designer for animated films who has worked on some of the most famous titles in modern cinema, including 2D classics such as We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993), The Prince of Egypt (1998), The Road to El Dorado (2000), Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) to 3D and stop-motion works like Shark Tale (2004), Madagascar (2005), Corpse Bride (2005) and Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012). It is during Meet the Puppet Masters during 7th November event that I had the opportunity to have a closer look into his beginnings as a comic book artist to the amazing character designer that he has become today.

   To make that big leap from drawing for a German comic series (Which was still pretty successful) to designing characters for some of today's most famous animated films, Carlos needed to be versatile when it came to his art style to survive in the business. During his free time, Carlos would study animation on his own, to better improve his skills as a character designer (Having joked that the studio would have fired him had they actually seen any of his exercises). Turnarounds for characters had especially taken awhile to perfect, but they would prove to be one of the most important aspects for character design later on.

   To differentiate their art style from Disney, Dreamworks needed to push the shapes of their characters and in a way, make them more 'graphic' (Meaning much more exaggerated and cartoony, so keep your mind out of the gutter boi). Aside from turnarounds, silhouettes of the character also helped visualise each of their outline and personality. As character designers, the more references drawn by them, the easier it would make work for the animators (So try to get as many angles, expressions and poses done of a character when designing them before they are sent off to get animated... AKA, the concept bible).

   When working on The Prince of Egypt, it had taken 2 months for the character designers to finalise Moses' design. For such a film (And Road to El Dorado), it was of course beneficial to do some proper researching for more historical accuracy and genuine-ness-ness. Character lines ups helped in making sure that the art style would remain constant for all the characters (That's most definitely an issue many of us tend to face).

Carlos Grangel's character designs on cereal boxes,
consider it his signature or trademark if you will~

   Unlike past titles, Corpse Bride would be the first (Perhaps?) film where he would work from beginning to end. They needed Carlos' skills in bringing Tim Burton's sketches (As nice as they were in their scribbly goodness) to life, giving them a more solid and definite shape so that puppets could actually be made of them. He would also later on see how the characters would turn out when the model makers commenced their part of the job, and was in a way a supervisor of sorts in making sure that all the characters would turn out right.

   Carlos does not necessarily work on sequels, seeing as character designers aren't normally needed as the designs of the characters are already established. An interesting statement seeing as sequels tend to vary so much in quality. And while How to Train Your Dragon 2 definitely had a lot of heart and soul put into it, I did feel that one of the film's glaring issues was the fact that there wasn't a constant style used for all the dragon designs, making them all too different from one another. But going back to that statement, sequels tend to bring up new characters (Lame or not, it doesn't matter), character designers are surely still needed, especially those that had worked on the first title... or is this a Jim Carrey thing?

   So to end off this post, important things to consider if you want to become a character designer: Turnarounds, Silhouettes, Reference, Concept Bibles... PUSH IT.

Inspirations

   It has become apparent that I will not be able to make a fully animated piece for my practical, and so aside from my collection of concept art, I will be going to plan B (Plan C is where I just drop the entire animation altogether) where I will get a simpler and shorter (It should be less than 1 minute now) cinematic done with the use of After Effects. One or two scenes have already been cut out from the script or heavily simplified. with Rosy Turner helping me with the logo (I will show what she has done so far in another post later on) and title sequence, and Luke Tingle helping me with the sound and music, I will definitely have to pick up the pace on this.

  Below are a few of my main inspirations in terms of the art direction for Lurk's cinematic:

Silent Hill 4 Trailer

    Several settings are first shown at the beginning before previews of gameplay and a few cutscenes are shown. The scary atmosphere is very nicely established with the sound effects, music, and distorted camera effect. What I particularly enjoyed are the first person view shots of the enemies, especially when once they notice you. Some of these shots are practically something out of a David Lynch movie.

   Some of the stronger points of the trailer are its abrupt cuts to scenes such as Cynthia (The long haired ghost that drags herself across the ground) before yet another cut to a close up for the antagonist's face, the song is suddenly cut off and only her heavy breathing could be heard as she approaches the screen. It overall has a considerably nightmarish if not chaotic feel to it where it creates a necessary sense of dread to the player (And will make you hope from then on that something like this will never ever happen in real life).

Cat Lady Trailer

   Numerous voice clips are played throughout this trailer in contrast (Which makes sense seeing that the game is after all a very heavily voice acted narrative). The trailer also has a lot of shock value to it with the montage of images that are shown throughout. Aside from the simplistic (Its stiff and puppet-like movements for the characters however do suit the atmosphere of this point and click game) animation shown for its gameplay many otherwise still, flat images are cleverly shot (Something that can be obtained through the use of After Effects) and shown throughout.

Silent Hill 4 - Teaser trailer 2

   Going back to Silent Hill 4, the series was always good in conveying its creepy atmosphere through imagery and sound alone. There is once again the usage of fuzzy camera effects (Which also hints to the effect they have on the playable character if they go too near) as the teaser presents the ghost enemy to the viewers.

Silent Hill 4 - Teaser Trailer 1

   Once again, there is no talking, but only a clever preview of what would be one of the game's creepiest and most annoying enemies. There are also some very disturbing sound effects to match her movements and... a little startling close-up of her face at the very end (Still not enough to be regarded as a jump scare but still effective enough to be scary).

Alice: Madness Returns - 2D Cinematics 

   Numerous times I was referred to this by others for inspiration (This is a little off topic but I went into such a rant about how half ass Soul Calibur V's own cinematics were as compared to Alice: Madness Returns, and Soul Calibur V came out later), and I can understand why. The paper cut-out styled cutscenes were always one of my absolutely favorite aspects in the game, aside from being incredibly appealing to look at, it just contributes so well to the overall atmosphere that such a game is trying to establish.

   Aside from making reference to the illustrations seen in the books, I find it amazing how much emotion and performance can still be conveyed from such a style of animation. Which goes to show that photorealistic and incredibly detailed animation isn't always the way to convey a strong performance.

And finally: The Walking Dead (unofficial) (2010) — Art of the Title (Sorry, couldn't figure out a way to embed the videos here like the others)

   As mentioned in another blog post (I think, totally lost track by this point), Rosy had referred me to this for inspiration when we had started discussing on which direction I will be taking my animation in. While I myself am not a fan of the television series, I found the usage of the art from the comic book series to be incredibly clever. Very much like the cinematics from Alice: Madness Returns, the strong poses from the artwork selected by the designer is able to effectively convey the story and the characters featured in the series.

Attempted Interviews

   From the beginning, the games of Quantic dreams would be focused upon in my essay on performance in video games (Seeing as David Cage had always aimed to make every game title he worked on an interactive movie of sorts), so around the 5th of November I had this message sent out to them in hopes of getting a response... no luck, though, but it was worth a try (Maybe I should have given Naughty Dogs a try too... wouldn't hurt to give it a try this weekend, I suppose, but if Quantic Dreams was too busy to respond, something tells me Naughty Dogs will be too).

Dear Quantic Dreams,

   I am a 3rd year animation student at Leeds College of Art, I have always been the biggest fans of your works and was wondering if I could do a simple email interview with you for my Dissertation? The topic I happen to be writing about is acting in video game animation. And seeing as motion capture plays a pretty huge role when it comes to the narrative of most games these days, I was hoping to know more about how you go about in creating an empathetic performance for your characters?

   Thank you kindly!

Yours Sincerely,

   Rebecca Wong Si-Lin

   And seeing as Jamaal Bradley made up a big part of my argument (Much like Ed Hooks was), it only seemed right to interview him if possible, but I suppose he himself is also busy on working on numerous projects at the moment seeing that he has always been really high in demand:

Hello Mr Jamaal,

   My name is Rebecca Wong Si-Lin and presently, I am studying my final year of Animation at Leeds College of Art and am presently working on a dissertation on Acting in Video Games. As embarrassing as it is to admit (Though then again I am incredibly slow with most things), I was only able to learn about you and your amazing career through LeSean Thomas' tumblr about a year or so back since I began my studies in animation, but have since then become a huge fan of yours!

   But my apologies for drifting off there, back to the subject at hand, I was hoping whether you could answer a few questions through emails?

   After reading Ed Hook's somewhat disheartening (But nonetheless still incredibly insightful) opinion on the future of acting in video games in his book "Acting for Animators", I was so glad that I was able to chance upon your interview with Nancy Beiman in "Animated Performance" and see a considerably more uplifting outlook on the progression of game cinematics. 
   
   I was wondering however, since that interview (Which should be more than 5 years since), has your opinion changed as well? Do you think there will be more video games to come that will have strong performances that will evoke just as much emotion and empathy to the audience as other forms of media do?

   Would you mind also sharing with me some of the game titles that you have particularly enjoyed when it came to the area of animated performance and storytelling?

   Aside from the more primary focus on gameplay back in the day, what do you think were the aspects that restrained older video game titles form giving a stronger performance (Is it writing? Graphics? Technology? Etc.) as compared to the games of today?

   Does your opinion still stand? Will games and film really have the same quality of character and animation in the future?

   Thank you kindly for taking the time to read my message, please have a wonderful day!

Yours Sincerely,

Rebecca Wong Si-Lin

Update: I gave it a shot and tried contacting Naughty Dogs after I had written this post, don't think I will be expecting a response from them however.

Survey Results

   In an attempt to gather more research, I released a survey out to my family, friends and peers on every social media I had in the past weeks to see what their views on video games are in the coming future. Knowing that this was very open ended, I did my best to make the questions as specific as possible (Especially as there is also a ten question limit for SurveyMonkey and all...)

   While I can't necessarily use most of these for my dissertation (Or perhaps I can, at least insert in few bits and pieces in there of my findings in hopes that it would aid my practical piece as well) seeing as they are all so incredibly different from one another (Also due to the lack in narrowing it down to a specific target audience), it was interesting seeing everyone's views on the matter, from those that play games on their phone to kill some time every once in awhile, to those that make video gaming a huge part of their lives. I will still try to analyse these results a little when I can, as their views on the Uncanny Valley will still be of some help into my research. 

   And if I do get any more results, I will be posting them up here. Also, if you haven't take it yet, here's the link!

   Anyway, here are the results:

How often do you play video games? List down one or a few of your favourites and explain why.

1. everyday 
2. Quite a lot unless I have coursework to do. A few favourites are: Assassins Creed Black Flag - I love the world building and the amount of places that you can explore and actually achieve in the game is amazing. A lot of stuff to collect, interesting side quests, and I got quite attached to the main character through his personality, back story and characters he was friends with. Wind Waker - Again the world building and the exploration are amazing. Even though this is quite an old game its still by far one of my all time favourites. The plot is simple but its interesting and gets you hooked. I'm a sucker for the Legend of Zelda games. PT Demo - although it is a demo, I loved every minute of it. I liked how you were kept in this same room where everything was kept the same everytime the loop kickstarted again. It made it eerie and more scary. The use of sound and lighting played a huge role for the game as it wouldn't have been as scary without these elements.
3. Once a day. Halo for its gunplay. Bioshock for its environment design. The Legend of Zelda for game design.
4. I play them twice a week. My favourites are "Final Fantasy XIII" series and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. The reasons why they are my favourites is the interactive gameplay and the graphics.
5. Occasionally. Odin Sphere for its deft handling of story, characters and art. Okami, for the characterisation, unique gameplay and painting-like world.
6. I can honestly say that I pretty much play video games all the time. Some of my favorites are Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Undertale, Bastion, Transistor, and Journey. DA and ME, are my faves because I'm a sucker for games with character creation and I love most of the characters. Undertale because it's got amazing music and equally amazing characters. Bastion and Transistor because the art is amazing, music is A+, the stories always make me cry, and the game's are always narrated in interesting ways. Journey's art was amazing, the story was interesting (once you could figure it out), music was out of this world, game play mechanics were really interesting, and how they wanted you to play with other people without using your voice, I thought it was really cool.
7. I play video games constantly. My favourites include Metal Gear Solid, because of its memorable characters and strong story that blends itself well with the gameplay; Legend of Zelda because each game is fun in their own way, and age well. Chrono Trigger is my favourite RPG because it has a huge branching story, amazing graphics that age very well, and the best gameplay for an RPG around. Resident Evil 4 for the same reasons as MGS, plus a very smart blend of action and horror.
8. I play video games fairly often, on average once a day for about an hour. My favorite game is Okami, but some other liked games are the Sengoku BASARA series, the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors series, the Pokemon series, Soulcalibur series, and Undertale. I really like them for their unique character designs and their worldbuilding. The gameplay, of course, is quite good for all of the above as well.
9. Bayonetta - Interesting story, action-packed! Tales of Symphonia franchise - amazing narrative, typical Japanese RPG style Grand Theft Auto - open world, loads to do, storyline is great with ability to influence outcomes

Do you know what the Uncanny Valley is? Please give any form of explanation about it if you do and list some games you have come across that suffers from that issue.

1. no
2. Yes, when an object, animated or real, has an eerie resemblance to that of a human. Polar Express game, took the same evil looks as the movie, couldn't play it after the first few mins of gameplay. Can't think of anymore, tend to stay away from them.
3. That moment when you detect that something isn't quite human or alive. Anytime you stare at Commander Shepard's eyes.
4. Uncanny valley happens when a robotic or non living organism imitates real life action, which makes viewers feel uncomfortable. On certain cutscenes in Dissidia, the way the character's blink feels unnatural. The "Pirates of the Caribbean" characters in Kingdom Hearts II also have this issue.
5. The strange area when a representation of reality comes too near but is still too far from our understanding of it. It is not distant enough to be comforted by the differences, but too near to be in denial of its likeness. I'm not particularly attracted to realism in games, so I'm afraid I have nothing much to add here.
6. My basic understand is that video game characters look really human and it freaks people out. That's what I understand. If that's the case, Heavy Rain, Until Dawn, and Beyond: Two Souls are 3 that come to mind
7. I believe I do. It I believe a game that does kind of suffer from this is Silent Hill: Downpour, which does this unintentionally but its enemy designs are very uncreative for the game's creepy setting, and their animations and AI, especially with the Weeping Bat, were just goofy. Sonic 06 suffers by using really overblown HD FMV cutscenes that resemble Final Fantasy, when the game itself looks horrible. As well as the human characters looking way too realistic around the cartoony main characters.
8. The Uncanny Valley is when an object (or work of art, as in a video game) greatly resembles a human being, but does not look quite enough like a human being and thus triggers a response of disgust or fear from the viewer. I have not personally played any games that have this to a large extent, but I do know of some that exist. As for games that have slight uncanny valley, many of the created characters in Tecmo-Koei's Musou series have a slight uncanny valley effect to them, perhaps due to some face or outfit layouts not being suited to the created character face frame.
9. Yes, I guess it's that unusual and uncomfortable feeling you get when something doesn't feel quite right, usually down to awkwardly mimicked reality and distorted realism. Things like funfairs, puppets, and mannequins can be examples of this.

Are there any video games that you still enjoyed despite its issue with the Uncanny? If so, why?

1. not applicable
2. Until Dawn, even though the motion capture was crazy, it added to the atmosphere.
3. Mass Effect and Skyrim. Facial animation and conversations only make up a small part of gameplay and I could quickly move on.
4. Dissidia is one of the games I still like, in spite of this issue. I like to look at the visuals and textures.
5. The closest game I could perhaps bring up would be the later Final Fantasy series'. I enjoyed it mainly for the flashy and satisfying battle system and to some extent the customisation options of costuming. The uncanny valley is less intimidating when the game is padded with other unrealistic or middling aspects that distract from that disquieting realism.
6. Not really.
7. is something that differs entirely to what we are familiar with, and in film it is something withing that narrative that differs tonally to what the audience is accustomed to. A brilliant example of that is in Earthbound, which is a bright, jolly, and humorous game throughout, but at the end it intentionally becomes very dark and scary. It does not suffer from this but rather benefits from it. Deadly Premonition's dark tone is always killed by the very imperfect animations but that's one of the many reasons I enjoy that game. I find Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker's comic book style cutscenes way too visually jarring, when the gameplay is full 3D. It's still think the game makes up for it with a decent enough story and gameplay.
8. I still enjoy the Musou series quite a bit in spite of some created characters looking like scary human-dolls, haha. Mostly because the unique characters look good themselves and don't look unusual!
9. Dante's Inferno - story was great albeit a bit linear and felt a bit uncanny. Character (monsters especially) design was amazing! Fran Bow - interesting and creepy, but uncanny. Evil Within/Psycho Break - Bit of a bland story and incredibly weird but action packed and interesting to play. Outlast - horror game, amazing story

How important is it for video games these days to have a strong narrative?

1. Very
2. dont know
3. Extremely. It wouldn't be a good game without strong storytelling. Games are a form of escapism, we want to get drawn into the story and unravel the plot till the end, it must be gripping for the player to continue. I would rather have low graphics with an amazing plot rather than outstanding graphics with hardly any plot.
4. Important.
5. From a scale of 1(least important) - 10(Most important), I would give an 8.
6. Everyone and their dog can shit out a playable game these days. However not everyone can write good stories to make the game worth playing. Even a dull game can be livened up with a good story that takes the dullness and makes it part of a bigger and better whole.
7. Nowadays, if everything else in the game but characters and narrative is strong, it's a good game (ie. Bloodborne, Souls games etc). Personally, I think it's important to have a strong narrative.
8. I think video games tend to benefit from narratives, however I would not say they should be a selling point for games these days so it's not important.
9. It depends on the type of game. If it is a game meant to be played solely for the gameplay or to be played in bits (such as a puzzle-based handheld title), story does not need to be important. For games on home consoles or PC, story should be as much of a core focus as gameplay.
10. For me not too important as I get bored easily with games. GTA franchise was the only title that I stuck by all the way that had a strong and successful narrative. Maybe that's why it's so popular? I prefer lots of content over a good narrative, but GTA has always had both.

While a mixture is always good, would you choose a game for its gameplay or for its story? 

1. Gameplay
2. no idea
3. Most likely it's story, but if its a sequel I'll get for gameplay.
4. Gameplay.
5. For its story.
6. Depends on the game, and my expectations from it. I have chosen games for their gameplay, despite the lack of story- or games for their story, despite the terrible gameplay. Although I am more likely to finish games with adequate gameplay, rather than games with adequate story, the latter is more fulfilling and memorable than the former.
7. Most definitely the story.
8. If I had to choose it would be gameplay
9. It depends on the type of game. For RPGs, whether in the "Japanese" style or "Western" style, story is paramount. For action games or fighting games, gameplay is more important- but story is still more than welcome.
10. Gameplay definitely! If a game is enjoyable and can be played over and over that doesn't require you to complete a story, then I think it has more appeal, especially for those of us that get bored easily and prefer to free-roam and mess about, like Halo forge mode, Minecraft, GTA online, Elder Scrolls Online etc.

What are your thoughts on photo realistic (Eg, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls) and more stylised games (Telltales: The Walking Dead, Journey)? Do you have a preference between these two?

1. Goosebumps
2. no comment
3. It all depends on the narrative but I personally prefer the stylised games, its brings something different to the story and game play.
4. They both have their moments and each lends itself to their own gameplay design.
5. The photo realistic games tend to tackle more serious issue and emotions as compared to stylised games. I personally prefer photo realistic.
6. Stylised games. I play games not for more reality, but an escape from the banality of it.
7. I think they're both very interesting. Photo realistic shows how far video game making technology and such has come and I think that's really cool. Stylized games like Telltales games, I'm personally not into because they mess with my eyes, Journey was super pleasant though.
8. I prefer stylised games. Photo realism isn't, it can certainly still have art style built around it, but I just find stylisation more appealing to video games.
9. I prefer stylised more than realistic. I notice many games I play have heavy anime influence. Realism is still a nice thing to have, of course.
10. Telltale games do a really good job in general when it comes to realism. The Game of Thrones game they did looked amazing. Realistic-looking games tend to be more believable, but more stylised and quirky-looking games with unique characters and an 'avant-garde' sort of look might tend to be successful among younger audiences as there's that element of imagination and surrealism.

Why do you think so many major game developers are going for the more photo realistic look when it comes to recent games?

1. Video effects are instant
2. more realism
3. I think its to make it seem more realistic, with the advancement of technology as well, they have all the tools to allow them to do this, Until Dawn as a recent example.
4. Photo real (technical) is arguably easier then highly stylised art direction (e.g. Wind Walker, Okami, Jet Grind)
5. It is due to the current capabilities of games engine since they are able to support better and able to store high resolution/photo realistic information. Also, they want to give players a sense of reality, especially on VR or simulation games.
6. Because it is a safe and easy choice, requires less guesswork, less visual development. Easy to shit out and not have to think too much about.
7. They want to drag the people in more, think that they're actually there, I guess? I don't really know to be honest.
8. I believe it's so that the games appeal to casual gamers, or audiences just getting into games, like they don't want to distance that audience too much from film. It's unlikely that a casual gamer will look at Okami and Call of Duty then pick up Okami, for instance.
9. It is likely that they feel it makes them seem more "adult" or "mature", so that they can lure in people who feel they are too old for cartoons and by extension cartoon-esque games.
10. With improved technological advances and a huge demand for games that have amazing graphics, I imagine developers would want to opt for a realistic style as that seems to be the target of competition at the moment - games are aiming to aesthetically 'wow' the audience. When GTA V came out (sorry, I love GTA so much!) everyone was fascinated by the detail and realism of the environments, characters, and physics. That sold so well and I think that was one of the main reasons - it looked so real!

In recent years, people have begun to analyse video games much like they would films and while this for some reason continues to be an argument among critics, are even seen as works of art. What are your thoughts on this?

1. Beside kids adults are into it so thus different demands..LIKE
2. great
3. I think it should definitely be a form of art or even interactive literature, at the end of the day you immerse yourself in this narrative, in the game, much like you would with a film, animation or book. They are all a representation of a reality that the creator has envisioned.
4. Video games and interactive media are indisputably art. And just as the medium is young and finding evolving, so to is the language to critique and dissect it. Unlike static art forms, games introduce a larger number of variables to their consumption. As such, the only question is not whether gaming is art, but what path it's school of examination will take.
5. It is great to have more exposure on various roles.
6. Works of creativity are always worthy of analysis or admiration. Art is meant to make you feel, and make you think. If a game is able to do that, why can't you call it art?
7. Hm, well I get why people do it but I personally don't really care about what other people think of games. I just wish people would stop tearing at each others throats over it. It's getting kinda ridiculous.
8. I believe we've far since reached the point in which games can be considered art. The games industry in the 90s was practically at the point film was at during the 1910s, when people were trying to prove this could be used to tell stories. A lot of games have challenged audiences and experimented enough for the medium to be considered an art form.
9. If the industry is to develop and not stagnate, criticism of games as art must be allowed. This includes criticizing more than just gameplay- but story, art direction, animation, music, voice direction/acting, and more. It also includes being critical of more social issues.
10. Video games are most definitely works of art! They provoke the same if not more intense emotions that traditional art, they engage us in the same way and allow us to interact with them unlike other forms of art. Designers, artists, modelers, programmers, and coders alike all make some form of art - art comes from the imagination and soul and video games are exactly that!

What would you actually like to see in the future of video game narratives?

1. Short to the point..
2. full explanation of how to play and what is the goal of the game
3. I want to see the next stage up of a game like Until Dawn, Until Dawn was great I loved how it was designed to make it appear like an interactive movie, but I would have loved to have seen more interesting endings that don't all depend on the entire house exploding (not saying anymore as spoilers). Would have been nice to have seen more substantial consequences etc.
4. Narrative informing gameplay and vice versa. Gaming is not film. It shares some similarities, but it would be a mistake to neglect the power of its original intent which is to afford the user control and agency. This participation is what separates gaming from all other media and should inform its evolution.
5. More interaction with players.
6. A more cohesive whole, between gameplay, aesthetics, story and characterisation. Showing a story rather than telling it, and characters that engage and grow with the player rather than a brainless ragdoll you fling through the game.
7. Honestly, I just want less white scruffy dudes with tortured pasts. I want more girls as game protags
8. More narratives that aim to challenge audiences and work with the gameplay, like the Mother, or Silent Hill series'.
9. More games set in Asia or Africa. Also, more games with female leads. I'd also like it if Western devs would give games set in Japan a try without fetishizing the setting (i.e., ninjas everywhere in a game not about ninjas, geishas everywhere in a game not about geisha, characters going "HONOR this, HONOR that" outside of the Edo period, etc.)
10. I'd like to see a greater level of interaction between the audience/player and the game through the use of augmented and virtual reality, much as the Oculus Rift allows the player to move their head and arms to react to the game. This will mean that narratives can be even more influenced by the audience and in the future who's to say we can't push the limits of gaming and create worlds that we're psychically capable of interacting with on a more sophisticated level? That could change the future of narrative in gaming.

Interview with Shanen Pae

   Shanen Pae is a close friend of mine whom I was incredibly fortunate to befriend just a few years back. Having studied at the the Art Centre College of Design, she has recently been busy working as a visual development concept artist, and has been hired to work on several well known game titles (With one of them being "Mafia 3"). And so, I decided to ask her a few questions to see what her perspective as concept artist is on narrative storytelling:

1. What are your thoughts on colors and lighting when painting a setting and creating that atmosphere that is suitable to a specific scene?

Storytelling! I tend to be very direct and just light things in a way that frames the focus of the image, along with creating nice shapes in the composition. Dark against light, light against dark, a backlit silhouette, a figure through venetian blinds. If you're doing sequentials, it's good to plan out your scene for consistency and design your frames around that space you've set up. 

2. What are the most important features of a character in hopes of bringing out their personality?

Relatability. Substance is foremost - a great design communicates your first impression of what a character is like, great acting either confirms or defies it. Yes, that tiny anthropomorphized kitty with the large eyes and round head is adorable as she seems, or, ah! The giant barbarian with the handlebar moustache is actually a cowardly lunk.

3. Is it possible to evoke empathy during the concept stage?

Yes! Again, creating with context is what clues people's imaginations in on what a character is like or what's happening in a scene. It's fine to do the concept art guy™ standing around in space if you're figuring out the design part, people do look at these kinds of pictures and say, "I relate to this because it looks like me," or, "he looks like an ex-boyfriend of mine" and find themselves immediately connecting in that way. I'm a big fan of emotion through action, though, and a sucker for storyboard panels or things that are otherwise beautifully cinematic. Two kids playing Nintendo in the long red lights of the 5pm sun, a lover's quarrel admist a sea of grey, apathetic faces, hellfire raining down on us from the Northern Lights, all the things you can imagine and capture in a still image.

4. Have you considered how well most of your concepts translate into the finished product?

Ya! For a lot of things you just have technical restrictions, like when something's gonna be 3D printed the modeller'll tell you that edges have to be a certain minimum thickness, things like that. Sometimes it's a matter of time or ambition or skill, sometimes it's a matter of art direction and marketing hierarchy, the bane of the independent creative. 

5. How much do you go about in the facial details/expressions and body language of a character?

As much as they'll pay me, haha. Jk. it's important to me, especially for personal projects. I won't talk about draftsmanship, because a pixel game like Earthbound was enough to make me bawl my eyes out. But you need to concentrate on the messages you're trying to communicate through your work, always, and consider the whole package involved in getting those points across. I'm influenced by anime and Disney, and character acting is something I find not only aesthetically juicy but a channel for my own feelings, too, so I pay special attention to it. Don't you feel a pang of Chihiro's sadness when you see her glassy eyes and giant Ghibli teardrops? So good.

Email Interview with Ed Hooks

   Whilst Rosy has passed on the videos and recordings she had made for her CoP2 project (Which I still hope to make good use of for my research), I still found it necessary to personally email Ed Hooks on a particular section of his book, that being his chapter on animation in video games. Seeing as the book was written in 2011, I wanted to know whether his opinion had changed since then, especially after the release of critically acclaimed titles such as "The Last of Us", and even "Beyond: Two Souls", which I believe focus on a more interactive form of storytelling (Along with many other recent games) as compared to older games that had originally focused solely on gameplay.

  Needless to say, I was absolutely nervous as I wrote this email, fearing that my questions would be nothing but nonsensical to the father of acting in animation. But, taking a deep breath, I decided to go right ahead and ask him the first few questions that came to mind. It was through his site that I was able to find his email, and thanks to Rosy (Again), we were able to properly speak to one another from there.

This was the message that I had sent him through his site, when he attempted
to contact me, there were once again issues with my Yahoo email. But fortunately,
by mentioning Rosy, he went on to contact her about me so that I could share with
him another one of emails for contact.

My first email:

'Hello Sir!

Rosy forwarded me your email!

I am terribly sorry about the email issues, for some reason my Yahoo email has been having a lot of issues as of late. But I am sure we will be able to communicate through this email instead (If not, my professional email is wholahayola@gmail.com)

Thank you so, so much for the incredibly fast response!

I would like to start off by saying that I absolutely enjoyed reading your book "Acting for Animators", out of all the books I have been reading for my research, your book has given me so much to think and write about (I especially find the aspect of empathy to be an incredibly interesting topic and issue to look into when it comes to acting in animation). I however do have a few questions to ask about your Video Games chapter.

I was wondering whether your opinion has changed since then? About whether video game acting has actually improved since then?

Your chapter on empathy especially got me curious about whether you have tried any other games aside from "Ico". I was wondering what your thoughts on games such as "The Last of Us" might be, especially? And whether you have managed to find games that have more humour to them as compared to "Call of Duty"?

I am still listing down some more questions to ask, but for now, I am absolutely dying to know about your thoughts on the progression of video games so far.

Thank you kindly!

Yours Sincerely,

Rebecca Wong Si-Lin'

His response (About an hour later):

'Hey Rebecca,

I'm glad you found me. <g> I often have difficulty with e-mail addresses in the far east. The company that hosts my domain name, edhooks.com, is Earthlink, and it blocks many addresses over there, presumably because of piracy issues. It is a hassle.

In answer to your question, my answer will probably surprise you: I do not play video games. I teach for all of the major studios -- most recently for Valve and Warner Brothers Games -- and I understand the acting issues the studios encounter, but I do not personally play games. Well, Monument Valley on my iPad now and then, but that's about it. Having said that, I do make it a practice to study the walk-throughs now and then. When I know I am going to be teaching at a particular studio, I will always review their most recent games to see what I might be dealing with.

"The Last of Us" is basically a game-length cinematic, IMO, and it has much stronger performance than the typical game. It also has a very clever design, putting a child in a lead roll. That - all by itself - is going to evoke an emotional response in the player because it triggers an evolutionary impulse to protect our children. Very smart.

"Ico" was the first game I saw that did anything special with empathy, which is why I mentioned it in the book. An essential element of empathy is distance. You cannot empathize with yourself and, since the player is imposing himself or herself on his or her avatar, the player cannot empathize with his own avatar. At least not to the extent that the avatar is responsive to direct instruction. (Go left, shoot gun, turn 360 degrees….)

My impression is that cinematics in general are being phased out. The smaller the platform, the less well the cinematics function. That evolution has caused the studio job of Level Designer to be the hot ticket, career wise. Especially the Level Designer who has some understanding of acting, emotion and empathy. When I first started teaching at the game companies, it was really difficult to get Designers to take the class. They considered that anything and everything having to do with acting was something for the animators to worry about. They were thinking of themselves mainly as programmers, and so there was a systemic division in most studios -- programmers on one side, animators on the other. Mocap was somewhere in the middle but, in the beginning, I also rarely had mocap directors in the class. Today, it is different. Wherever I teach, the classes have representatives of all divisions, and I expect that trend to continue.

Ed'

   I will surely be sending more questions his way as I progress in my dissertation, until then, I do believe that I have gotten quite a bit of useful information from this response alone. I am glad that I had finally taken the chance to contact him. Hopefully I will be a lot less awkward in my next email to him.

Lecture Notes 13: Dissertation or Extended Written Piece: Library Research

• If you require aid when researching over the summer (With chances being that you won't be in Leeds during that period), do contact chris.graham@leeds-art.ac.uk
• The book loan limit has been upgraded from 10 to 15 for third years.
• eStudio >>> College Library (To the right)
• Notable Things that are available there:
• 1. Harvard Referencing- Comprehensive Guide
  Secondary Referencing Using Harvard, Pg 25 (For referencing the quote by an author different to the book's author itself) 
• 2. SCONUL ACCESS (Allows you to access other University libraries, such as University of Leeds)
  Step 1: Full Time Undergraduate
  Step 2: Leeds College of Art
  Step 3: Fill out a form
  Submit and wait for an email
  You won't have to repeat this process for other facilities once you have done it once
• Keywords when researching: Focus and Relevance
• Clearly define the area of study you wish to focus on before you actually begin researching, so to avoid wasting time looking into irrelevant material
• Examples of Dissertation Titles:
  Straight Forward Example: "The role of costume within the film "A Taste of Honey""
  A More Wooly Example: "Did western society ever need cars; are they a necessary and how have they contributed to the formation of the urban environment" (Practically two topics instead of actually one)
• Mindmaps help as always, to identify areas you should begin to research, it will obviously continue to expand as you go along with your research
• Primary Research - Gathering your own original data (Interviews, etc.)
• Secondary Research (Scholarship) - Reading up on the subject, making use of the research and findings of others for corroboration, disagreement, triangulation, theoretical underpinning, etc. (Books, magazine, the contextualising of your findings)
• Exciting stuff if you can actually contradict you secondary research
• Research methods:
  Visual practice, experiment, interest and enquiry (Research and critical diaries)
  Questionnaires/Survey (Qualitative/Quantitative), try to give a time limit (So people won't take their time when filling it out) and give a draft
  Interviews
  Case Study
  Site Visits
• Literature Search 1:
  Books and Journals (Try to go for text heavy stuff, instead of 'picture' books', though the latter would be of use for the practical response)
  Websites/Blogs/Online forums
  Videos/DVDs
  CDs/Tape Cassettes/Vinyl Recordings
  TV/Radio
  Newspapers/Maps?Reports
  Printed Ephemera (Flyers, Posters, things that aren't actually meant to last)
• Literature Search 2
  Knowing where to look most effectively
  Effective use of catalogues:
  - Narrowing and broadening search terms
  - Using related terms
  - Browsing using Dewey Decimal Classification
  Using of contents page and index
  Reading the introduction or abstract
  Using a book's own bibliography to inform further reading
• Book Search
  SCONUL (Again)
  The British Library in Boston Spa
• Journal Search 1
  InfoTrac (Available outside of college)
  - A store of online magazine articles
  - If at college, click the "proceed" button
  - If at home
• Journal Search 2
  - JSTOR
• Journal Search 3
  - EBSCOhost
• Internet Search 1
  - Athens
  - A store of password protected sites
  - Each student who wishes to access this site will need to ask the Librarian for a login and password
  http://www.athens.ac.uk
• Internet Search 2
  - WGSN (For fashion and textiles)
  - A database of fashion information and trends
  - www.wgsn.com
• Internet Search 3
  - Google Scholar
  - Some fill text PDF articles available:
  - scholar.google.co.uk
• Two Tips:
  - Keep the topic and title focused and manageable
  - Create a sense of momentum (Note taking, writing a draft section when you can, keeping your bibliography up to date)

Subcultures - Character Design Reference

I just wanted to get a rough idea on how I should go about the process of character designing, instead of simply diving right into it, and so I decided to look into various examples that have been used for more professional means. It was no surprise that I soon enough gathered an ample supply of references and tutorials, just by going through several animation-focused blogs alone.

See how important moodboards are?

There were some incredibly detailed ones (Even for characters that would just wear one type of clothing throughout the entire show's run), so I tried picking out the simpler ones that I will be able to apply to my own character designs (Again, I should really try to avoid going overboard with this visual response). 

For animated works, it is no surprise that these model sheets would focus a lot more on how far a character can express him or herself with both their bodies and faces, sure they are given one page where they are roughly shown how their outfit, but there seems to be a lot more focus on their facial expressions and body language than anything else.

I will be doing at least one turnaround animation, so it's no biggie.

Perspective and Expressions

They probably extracted these from a much larger collection of model sheets.
Note how each character is shown how they look from the front, side and back
like the Sailor Neptune character sheet, as well as the an assortment of expressions
to distinguish each character more from one another.

As I am planning to design some extra clothing for each character, I felt that it was necessary to also look into how fashion sketches are normally displayed by fashion designers. I am sure there is still so much more to look into when it comes to how they professionally display their concepts, but I believe these rough concepts are already good enough for displaying each of my characters' own unique wardrobe.

I will most probably also be reusing the same character model for every outfit, instead of attempting to redraw each character in a variety of poses (And this is excluding the various perspective shots of them in their main outfits).

Not surprisingly, while character model sheets focuses more on the characters themselves. 

These fashion concepts of course tend to focus on the clothing themselves, though
they do get extra points if they actually bother giving these faceless models
some extra personality, hehe.

Speaking of that... while these are only colour block exercises, there is already so much personality seen in these faceless models (Which is not surprising really since these were done by the talented cartoonist Tiffany Ford). If I were to go for a simpler art style, I might actually have more time to draw my characters in more poses and so on. It will definitely give the overall visual response a more lighthearted tone to it, which would make it so much more entertaining and interesting.