Titulo Estágio
A Design Case Study of Animation in Games
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The Interaction Design and Game Design areas constitute rich fields of study, with many challenges and methodological open issues. Animation in games ranges from the sprite model to the high-end 3D-animation. Sprite-based animation resembles classical stop-motion, using a series of images that run in cycles, for each character action represented.
3D animation is based on classical 3D computer graphics with some adaptations for performance, built on top of a complex set of techniques involving polygon meshes, textures, UV maps, skeletons and rigging. While sprites are quite easy to understand they build on hours of illustration techniques to build a character action repertoire. 3D is more complex and difficult to produce, it can more easily expand movement repertoires and in som cases animations could even be generated automatically. Skeleton animation patterns are prepared manually or built from recorded motion capture systems. All these techniques are rather low level and complex.
Objetivo
How can we combine the simplicity of 2D animation with an artistic ability to use materials, illumination, focus and movement, to be effectively explored beyond the conventional flat aesthetics? Empowering game designers with the best of each technique is a still elusive goal that could potentially enable new flavours of gameplay. In this context we intent to make an inventory of animation techniques, and study the potential of each technique in games. In this project the candidate will be probing and testing each technique, and what could be the role of novel procedural content generation techniques in the context of animation in games.
The end goal is to prototype and demonstrate an animation technique in the context of a game demo, with the following goals:
a) assess current state-of-the-art in animation techniques for games;
b) design and build a workable demonstration of an animation proposal;
c) evaluate user experience by studying its aesthetic qualities;
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 1
A1. (M1-M3) State of the art research - research and document the relevant SoA, publications and software review, for the study of the problem at hand; detailed characterisation of the problem to be solved stating specific goals and requirements;
A2. (M3 - M4) Design Proposal - conceiving of a design proposal for the specific context, including visual identity, interaction models and user interface draft for the proposed solution, and mapping of assumptions and milestones for the rest of the project;
A3. (M1-M4) Paper - production of a synthesis of state of the art and conceptual design proposal for a research paper;
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 2
A4. (M5 - M9) Prototyping - implementation of a proof-of-concept prototype, tuning and corrections based on evaluation results;
A5. (M9) Evaluation - definition of evaluation criteria and method; performing evaluations and analysis of results;
A6. (M10 - M11) Dissertation - Dissertation with reflection on process and knowledge production
Condições
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Observações
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Orientador
Licínio Gomes Roque
lir@dei.uc.pt 📩