15/10/12 - Reflection and Plan

Presentation
I think that this presentation went the smoothest that I've had to do while being at Uni, all through 3rd year i spent quite a bit of effort trying to weaken my stage fright and become better at public speaking but despite all of that i never managed to find a technique that worked for me. I either wrote too little in my notes and it didn't jog my memory enough or i wrote too much and so i didn't read any of it or just read it like a script. This time i approached it from a couple of angles. For a start, the meetings i had with the other girls meant i had more people to practise in front of and anything i didn't include or didn't explain well enough was brought up. I got to see what other people had done and what they'd included which for the most part was a little daunting but to be honest the range of approaches people had taken made me feel alright with my own. When it came to notes i got my boyfriend to write out the things he thought were most important when i presented to him and so they were just the right level of detail then when using them to present i could add adjustments where needed. Sorting out the slides was only difficult because i had to piece together my notes and blog posts into a consistent thought process and figure out which parts were relevant enough to bring up. The only thing i think i might have wanted to include was the process for self improvement I've started in regards to facial emotion (and looking to include poses as well).

The feedback i got was encouraging, the lecturers seemed to think i was on the right track which is nice to hear and gave me a few tips on areas i should look into. Here are my notes:

What people play games? Would it be a hindrance to some of them?

Film the tests i do while playing games

Make sure that i remember to say which games actually give you the opportunity to interact outside of cut scenes and mini interaction games.

Make test animations, they don't have to be too detailed, evaluate them against the existing animations.


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Plan of attack

1 or 2 days playing games and writing notes
2 or 3 days animating tests and evaluating
2 days researching relevant theories and journals

When playing games I'll have a camcorder ready to film findings I'll be playing games specifically to annoy NPCs but also I'll be playing games normally to see if i find anything out just during the process. I'll also be using a kind of form I've put together, it'll include the following information:

Name of game
Developer
Year made
Genre of Game
Whose it aimed at?
NPC type
Action
Reaction

I've chosen to record these things for various reasons but mainly it's so if i find something in journals or books about techniques used i can then say in my dissertation whether the technique was around at a certain time or was affordable for smaller developers. The genre will reflect the audience it's more likely aimed at and the NPC type will affect what extent the personality needed would be.

I had a thought for my personal development as well! I've decided I'm going to take part in the 11 second club's voice clip competition... well, sort of. I'll create storyboards reflecting emotion in characters once a week and not look at my old storyboard before drawing a new one. Practise emotions and maybe create an animatic.

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Today i read parts of the illusion of life focusing on adding personality to characters to help me develop my animating ability further. Also to see if i could pin point anything useful for my lit review.

Tomorrow I'll start playing games so i have something to base my tests on