Master Of Animation, Games & Interactivity
Master Of Animation, Games & Interactivity

Theme: Play and body

Context:

When I think about this week's theme, I focus on the bodies of different objects. The biggest difference is the structure of the body, such as whether it has a tail or not, and whether it has the same number of arms. Recently, my studio is doing 3D animation, and in the process of binding animation, I found that 3D model characters can exaggerate their movements through the binding of bones. Some movements are not possible for the human body in the real world. So I designed a game.


Method:
I am using a character model of my studio2. This model has been bound to the skeleton, you can freely adjust the joint position to pose for action. A player will be on the computer, in a certain period of time, has been bound to the character model to adjust a movement pose. Another group of players will pose according to the model action. Since some of the model poses are difficult for one person to complete, a partner can help with the pose.

In order to increase the fairness of the game, the action of the model must be in line with the skeletal structure of the human body, for example, the lower leg can only be bent backward, not forward, because the human body can not do.


Response:

The idea was also inspired by the fact that I would refer to the movements of real people when making models of my characters. Wouldn't it be interesting if the real person imitated the rigid movements of the model? Such indeterminable and unjudgmental movements would add to the fun of the game. After learning to communicate and cooperate with each other as a group, I was also exploring the extreme movements of the human body.


Reflection:

After the game, I interviewed some of the people involved in the game and they gave some feedback.

  • The model character movements can add some randomness, and players can modify on the random movements without adjusting directly from the T-Pose, which will be more interesting.
  • Player actions cannot be compared with computer models. Information can be marked in the model, such as how many centimeters the legs are off the ground and how many centimeters the hands are open.
  • Increase the story of the action. For example, add props and background.


Video Link: https://youtu.be/EMsxbGo9wi4

Downloads:

About This Work

By Yuxuan Hu (Estella)
Email Yuxuan Hu (Estella)
Published On: 20/09/2022