11/1/13 - Fight or Flight Part 2, proposal feedback

Proposal feedback
Just to get this somewhere a little more easily accessible to me i thought i'd record the main points of my feedback for my proposal. I got a good grade but i was still disappointed with it due to much of my feedback being things which i'd originally put in and then taken out in a later draft usually out of fear i wasn't going into enough detail on anything making it feel like i wasn't saying anything at all. Despite this i feel positive for the coming semester as long as i listen to my feedback.


Premise
"Note that it is advisable to introduce and critique quotes/sources rather than just inserting a quote."

Context
"In particular it would be good to see more breadth in the literature cited and discussed in your review. Given that your research takes into account several domains (acting/performance, artificial intelligence, and animation systems) the review should draw on a wider range of sources. It is especially important that the lit review identifies, explains, and discusses the criteria that are vital to your methodology. What are pivotal, supporting and background NPCs? What do we know about body language, and how do we study it? These notions are discussed in the methodology section but are not fully explained in the lit review."

Appropriateness of Methodology 
"The approach of combining case study and practice is apt. Be careful not to overlap literature review and case study - the latter is a research method, the form is the first phase of a research project. In your context review, there are examples drawn from games. Ensure that your case studies are sufficiently deep and detailed analyses of chosen games."

Clarity of Methodology
You should aim to present and discuss your critical framework with more clarity. A list of terms are provided, but the strategy for analyzing characters in games is not clear.

Predicted Outcomes
N/A

References
Minor errors found.. double check accuracy in future

Presentation
"In particular, pay attention to sentence structure and length. A lot of the text is lengthy which harms the clarity and precision of your writing. Shorter sentences will help to improve the quality of the writing."

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Fight or Flight Part 2

So as planned last night i spent a good deal of time irritating NPCs in GTA 4 again. This time i was assessing the fight or flight reactions. In yesterdays post i said i would use two NPCs from each NPC category (pivotal, minor, background) but when it came to filming i realized choosing two background NPCs wouldn't be enough to properly assess their behavior so the first set of animations focuses on Background NPCs. 

In total i tested and filmed 38 separate background NPCs trying to select a varied group i.e. gender, stereotypes, age. etc.. 22 were male and 15 female (they were harder to find varieties of) 

Here's the footage i took (well i condensed it a little as there was so much of it)

Main points of interest

• As with the previous GTA 4 test, they seemed to react in the wrong direction a lot of the time, they would look past you or not look at you at all.
• The reactions were often either understated or a little too extreme, would someone run away screaming after being bumped into a couple of times.. or would you be more likely to walk away quicker checking behind you every now and then. And one NPC (which could be a glitch) never fought back after being punched repeatedly.. even acted as if nothing had happened.

I know that the way an NPC falls is generated using the software developed by Torstein Reil  in 2003 (see this Ted Talk http://www.ted.com/talks/torsten_reil_studies_biology_to_make_animation.html) but would that stop an NPC that has been punched or pushed to the ground reacting in the direction of the player once they had fell?

What do i need to create reference footage for.

Using the Liket Scale from previous tests i will need to create animations of varying intensity for minor and major physical interactions. Things like brushing past or knocking someone and things like punching or kicking someone respectively.

On second thought, i would only need one set of animations for both these responses. I would however need them both as an option in the final character set up (see important notice for slight explanation)

Minor and Major responses to physical interactions

1. Extreme Flight - Running screaming

2. Flight -walking away at a slightly increased speed

3. Neutral -Ignores

4.Fight - Yelling, aggressive body language

5. Extreme Fight - Punches, physical aggression

Body language to include

Fight or Flight
The most obvious to include, there are tell tail signs documented by those that study body language directly relating to the fight or flight theory, first noted by Dr. Walter Cannon at Harvard Medical School in the early 20th century.

• Heavy breathing due to increased oxygen intake

produce more research on this in tomorrows post
Defensive

I already have some research into defensive body language that i may be able to apply to this test unfortunately it is all based on someone who doesn't run.

Aggressive
produce research on this in tomorrows post

IMPORTANT NOTICE
I haven't actually explained my system i'm considering for my final piece so to speak so i will dedicate a post to doing just that. It is a little confusing to explain so i'm hoping writing it will make it more clear. I'll also need to run it by Robin...