11/05/13 - Destroy/Steal Reflection

This is representative of when the player destroys or steals something they shouldn't have. It is on a scale of 7 to help add subtly to the performances available. Helping to suit a wider variety of situations.
The example used is the player flipping a table because it displays unwanted destruction to property and because flipping tables is fun.

Let the flipping of tables begin.

┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻

Destroy 1
This is the most aggressive response for this interaction. The aim was to use force to get the player away from what they were destroying or stealing and then make themself bigger in order to intimidate the player.

                                       

Destroy 1

This clip is the worst one of the entire collection, where as some of the others have a few things wrong this one seems to have collected them all. Occlusion in the data caused some odd motions with the hands which didn't seem to be particularly solvable especially within the time allowed.Direction during filming led to a less than aggressive performance which is a little disappointing and then timing has played a major part in making this look pretty rubbish. It does however have some of the body language it was intended to have so it's not a complete failure.

Destroy 2
This clip is mainly focusing around the NPC sizing up to the player, invading the personal space of the player in an attempt to intimidate the character.

                                       

Destroy 2

Something seems a little off about this performance as well. It doesnt feel aggressive enough possibly due to the lack of tensing of the muscles. It does include the invasion of space but the open arms indicating not being afraid kinda looks like he wants a hug...


Destroy 3
The difference between this and the previous clip was meant to be the speed and the distance between the player and the NPC. The NPC was meat to walk towards the player but not invade the personal space quite so much. He should of displayed more annoyance than full blown aggression.


                                      

Destroy 3

Like before i don't really think the NPC looks tense enough to be aggressive and even though he does move slightly slower towards the player it seems very casual and not aggressive at all.


Destroy 4
The idea behind this clip was to make the NPC notice the player, check what he was doing then ignore it.

Destroy 4

The hand gesture Adam made during the motion capture performance is another example of how useful it is to have a real person creating the main chunk of the action. It creates an added realism to the performance which i may not have thought of. I'd say this clip is a success.

Destroy 5
Minimal flight behavior, the NPC is meant to display visible unease and caution.

Destroy 5

The NPC has good anticipation before the action happens as initial movement from the player appears to catch his eye causing him to look as the table is flipped when he reacts. He moves his body away from the threat without moving his legs and his arm raises slightly as if moving to cover his chest.


Destroy 6
More nervous than the previous clip, this is meant to display more caution and have the NPC escaping the threat or going to find help in a reasonably calm manner.

Destroy 6

I like the level of caution in this clip, i think the small half run is a good halfway point between a little wary and the more extreme reaction. I think this clip works fairly well.

Destroy 7

This is meant to be the most extreme reaction displaying the most fear.

Destroy 7

I think the poses could use more exaggeration and possibly a bit more speed when running away but this would be difficult to do without getting Adam to run into a wall due to the size of the capture area.. Size of capture area has been difficult when needed a moving reaction.



That's all folks...

┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ)

10/05/13 - Major Physical Reflection

The Major Physical interaction its originally based on a 7 point scale similar to the minor interaction however in hid sight it seems like it possibly would work better as a 5 point scale due to its more extreme nature.


Major 1
This is meant to be the most extreme of the fight reactions. The NPC displays no pain as they will be fueled by pure adrenaline which numbs the pain aiding a quick response.

Major 1

I don't think he looks quite aggressive enough. This is probably because Adam didn't want to actually hit to hurt, hes not very aggressive...

Major 2
The mid fight reaction is meant to display the immediate shock of the pain with a quick recovery as the adrenaline kicks in. This adrenaline fuels the aggressive reaction where it was intended that the NPC would attempt to invade the personal space of the player.

                                         

Major 2

This interaction lost some of its body language during the performance capture. Similar to clips in the minor interaction i think this is due to a lack of confidence in my direction during the first session. The performance looks more internal shown by the turn to the side away from the player.


Major 3
This interaction is the mildest form of fight and I'm not sure it's needed quite so much. It could be used for when the NPC knows the player really well such as the relationship between Nathan Drake and Sully in Uncharted. But Major 2 might also be suitable to fill this role. Because there's less aggression the adrenaline levels will be lower so the NPC can feel pain more than with major 2 or 1.

                                       

Major 3

Failed completely at showing the lower adrenaline levels but the aggression is less than major 2 by being less frantic.

Major 4

This interaction was tricky to figure out, It needed to maintain a neutral response that was neither fight nor flight but still be credible. I ended up focusing on the pain of the hit more than anything else.

                                        

Major 4

Issues with the performance are mainly in the timing. The whole interaction turned out to be quite short and considering it was meant to be quite a hard hit it doesn't seem like it had much of an affect.

Major 5
This is the mildest form of flight for this interaction. It should display some submissive body language as already displayed by other flight reactions. As the adrenaline is low the NPC should appear visibly hurt.


                                     

Major 5

The NPC appears to be feeling the pain as hoped but i think other than moving away from the source of the pain there isn't much submissive body language.

Major 6
Mid flight is meant to show some pain and then being to stagger away to a safe distance possibly with an element of confusion.

                                     

Major 6

The NPC looks confused at what just happened and begins to stumble away. The way the NPC remains facing the player is a way of showing that they are wary of player and is constantly checking the threat level.

Major 7
The most extreme flight reaction is meant to display little in the way of a reaction to the pain and only show they want to get away as fast as possible.


                                        

Major 7

The stumble to the floor was a nice addition by Adam during the motion capture session but i feel the NPC should pay more attention to the source of the threat and less to the pain in his face.

09/05/13 - Weapon Reflection

This post will cover the reflection of the weapon clips body language. It was decided that this interaction would be on a scale of 5 instead of 7 like the others because of how extreme the situation is.

Weapon 1

This clip demonstrates the most extreme aggressive response to having a weapon pointed at you. It was meant to be an instinctive reaction first dealing with the weapon with no regard for the NPCs safety then addressing the threat of the player.

Weapon 1

The posture at the beginning of the clip seems a little odd but i think this may be to do with the mesh and how the proportions of Adam have related to it. This is an example of the issue with making the NPC face the player when performing to help achieve a sense of consciousness.

Weapon 2
The less extreme fight reaction is the equivalent of the mid range action for the other interactions. This interaction was to show aggressive body language such as showing the player they were ready to fight and were unafraid.


                                        

Weapon 2

As with Minor 6, this clip has benefited from the input of the actor when recording. The beating of the chest is an extra addition that show the NPC is unafraid. The NPC ends the performance in the fight stance to aid with transitions.

Weapon 3
This was a hard performance to judge. It was tricky to think of a reaction that was neither aggressive or afraid  In the end i settled on trying to calm the player down. The use of submissive hand gestures combines with a strong unafraid pose succeeds in finding a neutral reaction.

                                      

Weapon 3

I'm pleased with how this reaction turned out as i think it succeeds in meeting it's goal of being both neutral and a plausible response.

Weapon 4
The less extreme flight is meant to show a lot of submissive body language. Curling into as small a space as they can, covering vulnerable areas such as the neck, chest and head. Turning so that the body is side on is another common sign.

                                         

Weapon 4

All of the body language hoped to be achieved by this clip is shown although i feel it might be better if the NPC starts to try and edge away slowly after a short while to try and get to a safe distance. This might not work so well though as it could be that the NPC is frozen with fear. This is a involuntary response the body may have which tenses all the muscles as if bracing for impact in an attempt to minimise damage.


Weapon 5
This is the most extreme flight reaction and the main inspiration for the performance was the immediacy of wanting to get away. During stressful situations it is possible that the body diverts all of it's energy to the legs to help run. This heightens reaction speed and quickens timing.

                                          

Weapon 5

The final clip turned out to include a lot more hesitation when running. Even though this wasn't the initial plan i think it worked out well as it allowed a believable performance from the NPC while he tried to get to a safe distance. Once at a safe distance the NPC would then break into a run.

8/05/13 - Minor physical reflection

Some of these have already been uploaded but I figure it might be nice to put up a post about each interaction, that way the posts aren't so long and cluttered.

MINOR PHYSICAL 

First up is the minor physical interaction. The intention for this interaction was to produce a range of responses to being brushed past. I chose to make this interaction using a scale of 7 rather than 5 because i felt there needed to be a middle ground between the most extreme reaction and the mildest reaction. For example its likely that many aggressive people would resort to yelling at someone without lashing out at them. Using a 5 point scale wouldn't account for this.

Before analysing individual clips success I'd like to point out issues that all of the clips have faced by using the Mixamo system. Mixamo allows little control when animating the hands which has limited the credibility the performance could achieve. For example the controls for the individual fingers are limited to curling as a whole whereas other rigs would provide controls to manipulate individual segments.Facial animation has had to be discarded due to time constraints and also the lack of controls provided by Mixamo. As much of the performance is focused on body language in this study this isn't so much of an issue. However, it does cause an uncanny affect as the blank face doesn't match the action.  While using Mixamo has drastically sped up the pipeline for creating the clips it has come at the cost of the quality of rig and subsequently the overall performance. This would be fixed easily by a custom script. 

Minor 1 

The main focus of this clip was to show extreme aggression. This could be suitable for an NPC who has already been wound up by something or someone. I've tried to include aspects of body language that show dominance such as towering over the player with arms wide apart to show they aren't afraid. The speed of the response is quick and instinctive with little anticipation.

Minor 1 
Note: This clip will be re rendered due to odd lighting.

Issues with this performance are mainly technical. Recording the player separately to the NPC has resulted in some timing issues but as this was a design for game it's highlighted a key problem with capturing specific actions involving the player. As such I've been able to include this in my findings section of the dissertation. 

Minor 2 
This clip is the middle road of aggression and aimed to show aggressive body language such as tensing of the muscles, clenched fists and making the NPC appear bigger and more intimidating.

Minor2

This clip has all the body language but it falls into the trap GTA NPCs fall into. It reacts in the wrong direction so it just looks like he's having a temper tantrum instead of directing the aggression at the player. This could possibly be solved with a system of making sure the NPC faces the player. It could possibly be achieved using blending techniques so that the bottom of the character moves to face the player while the hips and above play the performance.

Minor 3
This clip shows the mildest form of aggression. The NPC displays smaller movements such as the hand movement from minor 1 that implies they are not afraid of a fight. By reducing the size of the movements and keeping it closer to the NPCs side it indicates that the annoyance is more internal than directed at the player.

Minor 3

This clip is mainly successful in it's use of body language although the aggressive stance at the end could be clearer.

Minor 4
This clip is the default performance as it seemed to be the most obvious response to being brushed into. The body language was meant to indicate they were aware of the interaction and what it was cause by but then decide it wasn't a threat and return to normal fairly quickly.

Minor 4

I think this clip appears more aggressive than was intended and would work better as the mild fight clip. This is most likely due to bad direction when recording the clips. It was recorded in the first session and i think i felt a little cautious about directing as i didn't want to seem bossy, in the later sessions i feel i overcame my worries and remembered it was actually what i was there to do.



Minor 5
This clip shows mild flight. The body language is minimal but clearly submissive, after being bumped into the NPC checks the threat and then reacts by lowering the head and raising a palm to indicate respect. The NPC also hunches his shoulder making him appear smaller making it obvious he is no threat.

                                      

Minor 5

I think this clip is pretty successful, the timing works well and the movements are minimal and believable.

Minor 6
This is the mid flight response  not wanting to appear too extreme, this performance is primarily to show the NPCs unease. The NPC was meant to keep his eye on the player, checking that the threat hasn't increased any. He moves away to help distance himself from the threat where he relaxes a little.

                                       

Minor 6

I like the skip in the step at the beginning of the response as it adds an extra initial sense of unease. This points out a benefit to using motion capture. Without it, the skip would probably not be part of the performance as it was completely improvised by Adam on the day. Once seeing the skip it was obvious it was a nice touch and so was added in to all of the takes after.

Minor 7This is the most extreme flight response. This would be the response of a person with a very nervous disposition or who is possibly traumatised and on edge anyway. Body language was to be limited to pushing all energy to escaping the threat.

Minor 7

This clip shows the body language that was intended but in hindsight, i would probably make the character cower a little more while they escaped.

05/05/13 - Critical Framework.

So as the deadlines approach and I'm spending  less time worrying about whether I'm doing something right and more time actually doing it I've actually come to a startling revelation.

Today while writing up thankfully the last few sections of my dissertation I discovered my critical framework. It sounds quite bad that a week or so before deadlines is the time i realise what my framework is but in truth it's been there all along. Reading through my dissertation, the honours project, the case study and even the way i evaluate the success of my project it's already there. It's just taken me till now to actually put it in one place and recognise that they are all the aspects I've been using to analyse everything.

So now.. what seems to me like a pretty late addition to the documentation of my project.. I'll explain what it is that has been the underlying structure behind my thinking.

The elements marked with Blue are related to things the performance needs to maintain credibility, those shaded in orange are industry specific limitations that are needed to validate that the outcome is a viable one for the medium of games.

Term	Description
Illusion of Life	Does the performance give the impression that the character has thought processes, goals and memories like those of other narrative media?
Individuality	Is the performance true to that characters individual personality?
Body Language	Can the performance be read without the presence of dialogue or facial expressions?
Suspension of Disbelief	Does the character maintain credibility at all times?
Player Agency	Does the performance maintain credibility whilst allowing the player to have complete freedom to do as they please?
Animator Control	How much control over the final performance does the animator have? Will the performance suffer with less control?
Time and Money	Will the method used be economically viable based on time constraints?

There it is.

In other news i should be posting more of the final clips in the next few days.

21/04/13 - Setting the score part 4, Change in the overall system, System Dies

Carrying on..

Drawing a weapon or aiming a gun...

As i said previously the expected outcomes are Ulfric would draw his own weapon, Sully would have the default action, Wrex would mid to extreme fight and Ben would extreme flight.

again as before not changing anything would result in the reactions staying the same as the minor physical interaction results. Ulfric and Sully would come out as the default, Wrex would be the mild aggression and Ben would be Mid flight

So are there any factors which wouldn't apply in this situation?

Personality is a big group to discount and would be a major contributor in the individuals reaction
Reputation of the player will either help to put the player at ease or heighten whichever extreme that character is most prone to.
Past Experience of the player will do the same.
Environment, I don't think environment would change how someone reacts. Dangerous place or safe place, you would react the same in either...so discount that ones score.
Relationship to the player would probably still affect you in the same way past experience and reputation would.

Removing the environment however necessary actually doesn't help in this case though.

New scores without environment influence

Ulfric:0
Sully:0
Wrex:0
Ben: +1

It actually balances them out.. so maybe it's time to delve a bit more into the aspects of a characters personality and see whether certain aspects could be ignored.
I attempted to use the original three category split to work this in but honestly after finding that character design checklist (almost?) yesterday i figure it would probably be better to have that checklist make up the personality section for each character and then grey out the aspects that wouldn't affect each interaction. So the personality score would be more influential as it probably should be anyway...

So that means it would change the system factors balance. almost splitting it into three parts instead of five?

NPC related things, All the personality checklist.
Player related things, reputation, past experience, relationship.
Environment related things.. well just the environment really.

It's difficult to explain in purely text so here's the new version of how things would affect it.

So as i just said there's now three major factor sections. NPC, player and Environment.

Personality section has all of the traits mentioned here but there doesn't seem to be a place for prejudices so I've added that in too, also minus the physiology section because as already mentioned i'd need a different set for each build of character.

The player section would have reputation, past experiences and relationship in.

Environment has to be its own section as with body language context is very important.

So to test the new system i'm effectively going to have to re do the character bios to follow this and then test each interaction again...here we go.

NEW CHARACTER BIOS
went all fancy and used Excel to keep it clearer

For the purposes of this one I've removed the key trait aspect that existed previously but kept the rest. I've done this more for simplicity reasons and then if its needed i'll consider adding it in again.



At the moment this new system is giving appropriate results for minor physical. Wrex would be expected to flip out at nothing, Ben would run away, Ulfric would be restrained but angry and Sully would probably not mind at all.

Ok to cut a slightly longer story short. I've just attempted to remove certain factors that i would think wouldn't affect a characters reaction for the major physical interaction but i'm running into quite a big problem. By taking out a trait such as the relation ship between characters it achieves the desired affect in 3 of the characters as it increases the likely hood of Sully and Ulfric to get angry and fight but it decreases the likely hood for Ben to run away and so confuses the system. this happens with other traits as well and basically shows that this system is also highly flawed in a similar way to the last one.

Why i think it doesn't work

The main issue with both approaches to the score part is that you can’t grey out the same areas for every character because it just doesn't work. Generalizing the reactions of individuals especially individuals that have been designed to be pivotal NPCs is too simplistic to produce the appropriate numbers required for credible performance.
In hindsight the traits that are used based on the Lankoski, Heliö & Ekman  method of character design aren't suitable guidelines to consider as they are focused on the characters perceivable personality and not the aspects of the character that are never going to be explained to the player apart from within stressful situations. In essence the whole concept of using characters perceived personality to dictate their reaction is flawed as in real life people’s subconscious will dictate their choice of action. A way to overcome this problem would possibly be too completely re-evaluate how pivotal NPCs are designed to help devise a comprehensive list of traits that would influence a characters subconscious decisions, however even doing this would not solve the initial problem of over simplifying human emotions. 

Well now that the system is pretty much well and truly dead which i'm not surprised about all that remains is what i'm going to show at the showcase.. I'll make a seperate post. This one is messy.

19/04/13 - Setting the score Part 3

I left off a little while ago just before i was about to test the system against the major reaction. The problem i was facing was that the default for major could be either mid fight or mid flight depending on the character and there wasn't really a generic middle ground.

If i made it so the default was the middle like with the minor a lot of reactions could seem unnatural as they'd probably end up being the same as the previous outcomes so Ulfric and Sully would come out as the default Wrex would come out as the mild fight and Ben would come out as the mid flight. Most of these don't make sense.

Expected outcomes:
I'd expect Ulfric to express mild or mid fight, Sully would probably be over ruled by his relationship with nate and do the default actually...,Wrex would possibly have the same reaction as before.. instinctively aggressive but restrained to minimal aggression and Ben to go to extreme flight.

So what if you cancel out some of the factors that don't apply to this situation. If someone punched you would you take into account their past actions towards you? Probably not so i'll discount that first.

Changes to result taking out the past experience

Ulfric : -1
Sully : 0

Wrex : -1

Ben: +2

Well... that worked nicely...
 I should probably mention that the other factors would need to be affecting the score still because personality makes up a massive part of the NPC's decisions, relationship would stop you from having as extreme a reaction to things and would add to what the NPC expects, reputation would make you either more cautious or more aggressive depending on what you expect and environment would also affect someone in the same way.


So to recap so far. Everything applies to minor physical and everything except past experience applies to major physical.

Should probably mention that yesterday i did the hopefully final set of motion capture i'm going to be doing and recorded another 2 interactions so i should probably assess my system using them as well. The two i recorded are Having a weapon drawn on you and witnessing the player destroy or steal something. I chose these two because they were also on the fight to flight spectrum and because you'd need to change scores for the other spectrum it just made sense.

So starting with weapon...

Ulfric would probably draw his own weapon, sully would probably try and calm them down and tell them to put it away, Wrex would probably draw his own weapon and Ben would run. Like never before he would run.

It's getting a bit late so i'll carry this on tomorrow...


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Side note for future progress with this system:

I'm very aware that my system is basically using a series of educated guesses based on the character bios i found but given the time frame and all the time consuming issues i've had with cleaning up motion capture it's the best i can do for now. If i was to properly look into it i would probably look to use the aspects of a characters personality outlined by Lankoski, Heliö & Ekman 2003, and based on Egri 1960 to help create a new character bio for each of the characters.. this would keep the amount of characteristics uniform and the score system less erratic.

2003, www.uta.fi/~petri.lankoski/characters_in_computer_games.pdf (25.12.2003).
1960,  The art of Dramatic writing, Lajos Egri

17/04/13 - More final clips

I've got another four clips batch rendered out now for a total of 5 which means i'm over half way through one interaction. Yay! I've got another mocap session booked in for tomorrow so i should be able to get more than the two interactions done by the time the deadlines roll around.

Heres 3,4,5 and 7 respectively I've cleaned up 7 a little as i said i would and shortened it in line with the others.

3

4

5

7

16/04/13 - First clip finished... Minor 6, Quadruped Cycle

Here's the first clip out of the 14 minimum i'll be using to demonstrate my system. This is Minor 6 the second most extreme flight animation. The player is there and I've played with the render settings and things. this is only a rough version to show i'll be putting them together better later on.

Not really sure what else to say other than I've cleaned up 5 and 4 and obviously the players clip. I also animated a horse because i wanted to have a go at a quadruped cycle. Horses are hard and made harder by the fact that the digital tutors trial ended before i'd seen the any of the tutorials to do with animating the body. I had a go using reference footage and the poses i could find on the internet and it turned out ok but i'll definitely be revisiting it.

Rig is downloaded from digital tutors project files.

I'm not convinced with quite a few aspects of this. the ears aren't quite right and i know the tail is off but it was only a fairly quick attempt and for my first quadruped i'm fairly happy.

13/04/13 - Motion capture cleanup minor 6 & 7

Technically i cleaned up 7 yesterday but i'm looking at it today and i'm not entirely convinced it's finished anymore....

Minor 7. Post cleanup

Things I've changed

• The head was moving far too much so i toned it down a bit
• Arm fixes
• Hand twitches
• Torso needed correcting at points

Even though he's meant to be on edge and a little twitchy which is why the stretch is there.. it doesn't really feel convincing for me. I think i'll leave this one for now and come back to it another day when I've done a few more and have a better grasp on what needs to be done. It might help looking at it with fresh eyes.

Minor 6. Before cleanup

I may have accidentally left it on half speed when recording... 

Minor 6. Post Cleanup

The things I've changed

• Adjusted the head movement so he doesn't move quite as much
• Fixed arm rotations
• Added in hand animation.
• Exaggerated certain poses slightly.

Just because this video quality isn't great i also did a close up of the hand movement.

As this is the second most flight one i added a slight hand movement where it looks like he's scratching his thumb.. this is a nervous habit for a lot of people and is a sign of self comfort.

11/04/13 - Mixamo

So all my problems have now been fixed. (yay!)

There is a mystical tool available online called Mixamo...

You give Mixamo a mesh.. not rigged.. doesn't even have to be in a T pose and then you place certain points that it gives you.. like this...

It then does some sort of magical trickery and churns out a skeleton for the mesh and skins it. It even rigs and skins the fingers.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

This new skeleton is labelled for use in motion builder which means i can characterize it and add the motion capture that i've already done.

Then i bring the newly rigged file into maya and there's more trickery. Mixamo comes with a script that makes this handy little window pop up...

And there it is.. the answer to all my problems.

This button then adds a control rig to the mesh..and after importing the animation using the fbx i export from motion builder and copying the animation to the rig.. I can use the animation layers to modify it!

TA DA!

The only thing it doesn't provide is facial animation controls and it also seems to have gotten rid of the eyes but i can always solve that in a little while after all the main work is done. 

09/04/13 - Motion Capture Cleanup Part 4

Back to this again.

Last week i struggled to get the marker data to transfer quite so cleanly to the skeleton as the first take did. Grant has worked out the system needed and it's slightly different to my own and should speed up my pipeline a hell of a lot.

I'll document it today, there's a couple of key things that need to be remembered to get it to work.

Bring in Grunt to the window. He needs to be in the T pose and just for convenience later on I've renamed his joints and saved him out again so i can easily characterize him for the other takes. Create a Ctrl rig for grunt.

SAVE FOR LATER

In a new file, bring in the motion capture data as before and this time delete everything apart from the label solvers. Use the top node here to rotate the motion capture skeleton to face positive z (important for later).

Then characterize the motion capture skeleton too. I've saved this here in case things go wrong but you can then go on and create a file with the animation in. (File--> Save animation)

Open up the characterized control rigged model again and this time use file and load animation.

When bringing the animation in check plot to control rig (if you want to do any animation modifications in motion builder) This should cause the animation to play using the grunt rig. After modifications, use the character settings to plot the animation to the skeleton ready for saving to an fbx ready for maya.

Heres the reason you need to make sure they're facing the right way when exporting the animation....

So i have maya ready files for all of the interactions for both the major and minor physical interaction apart from the two extreme fight ones which both go weird in a slightly different way to the bug above... the tell tail mark is that they don't start with their legs crossed or in odd places and its mainly the arms that are going wrong...

Other than that the only ones i have to do now to get the full two sets are the player motion captures. I'll do them once these are cleaned up a little more so i can judge which one will be most suitable. Timing will play a key part in this..

03/04/13 - Setting the Score Part 2

Continuing!

I think i forgot to fill in the expected outcome for Sully which again i think is meant to be default considering how well he knows Nate's character in the game.

The results given by the purple system still match the expected outcome for Ulfric and for Sully but both these expected outcomes were the default and there seems to be a lot of traits that pull the score back towards the middle. So what about a more extreme character?

Moving onto my third character Wrex from the Mass Effect Series.


WREX (Mass Effect)

Personality

Natural Warrior -1
Rebellious -1
Strong beliefs 0
Honor-bound +0
Intelligent 0
Disapproves of being a mindless warmongering people +0
Bounty Hunter -1
Rarely loses his temper +0
Quiet +0Enemy of my Enemy is a friend +0


-Prejudice
Prejudice against taurians and solarians 0

-Fear
N/A

Reputation of character/player
Shepard is a Spectre who works for the council. Wrex does not like the council. -1


Past Experience of player
N/A

Environment
Semi Hostile territory (back alley of the citadel) -1

Relationship to Players character (Shepard)
N/A

Player: Shepard

Interaction: Minor Physical

Expected outcome: First level of Fight (Minor 3) Due to his ability to stay calm but not be walked over. From his description is seems like he would be more likely to make an inward comment of disapproval and aggression than external.


Choice Notes: Natural warrior means hes more inclined to aggression. This would be his underlying drive and so should be the most important trait.


PURPLE
WREX

Personality +0
Reputation -1
Past Experience N/A
Environment -1
Relationship N/A

Overall -1


This still works for Wrex but it did need some work towards finding out what his opinion of Shepard. As i'd chosen the first time they met for the setting this video helped a lot to establish that. I assume any developers that would follow this would know enough about their character to construct this fairly easily...maybe.

On to Ben!


BEN (walking dead)

Personality

Caring 0
Inept combatant +1
Runs away when things turn bad +1

Stands up for self after persistent abuse -1


-Prejudice
N/A

-Fear
Greatest fear, being eaten alive 0
Fear of blood 0

Reputation of character/player
N/A

Past Experience of player
You try and help him +0

Environment
Woods +1

Relationship to Players character (Shepard)
Stranger +1

Player: Lee

Interaction: Minor Physical

Expected Outcome: Mid level Flight (Minor 6) Character is of a nervous disposition and due to being a stranger and the environment this would add to his nerves.


PURPLE

Personality +1
Reputation N/A
Past Experience +0
Woods +1
Stranger +1

Overall +2


YAY! So at the moment the Purple system works for this interaction but i do have a few queries and problems anyway...

Problem : It keeps nagging at my brain that all of the characters have different amounts of characteristics but im not sure whether this is actually a problem or not... It does make me wonder whether its easy to come up with more traits to help balance things out the way i want them to be. I don't think ive added anything wrong though...i guess we'll see how the next interaction works out, can't add any more now.

Ok moving onto the next interaction Major Physical... instant problem is im not sure how to figure out what the default should be... would the average person cower or fight back?


oh dear.

02/04/13 - Case Study Outside Perspective

I know i don't normally like posting more than one post a day but i didn't want to clutter up the other post with this as it's not really something i can use and more for my own record...

Picture from here

As i may have mention i've been looking at the character Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite and her animations for part of my case study. I've played it myself and watched another person play. Despite having two perspectives they are both influenced by my research. I'm obviously going to critically analyse everything and pay much closer attention to the performance than the average player to the point where i cant help but break the immersion slightly. The person i watched knows everything about my project and so will have a similar if not quite as extreme version of this which will skew their experience and any feedback i get from them.

Because of this it occurred to me that i should probably ask others their experience of Elizabeth, not to use as references due to questions on quality but more so i could have a couple more impartial opinions to think about.

I asked two people who luckily both will have had different levels of immersion due to their backgrounds. The first is a student at Abertay and due to the nature of his own project he will be looking at certain aspects of the game more closely but wont be looking at animations at all. As far as i know he's never looked into animations too deeply and so that wont sway his opinions. He has seen a load of the stuff before hand though which may have encouraged him to pay closer attention as Elizabeth has been a big focus for bioshock infinite.

In an attempt to avoid spoilers I'll trim the feedback down to just some key quotes which don't reveal anything and fill in the gaps myself in a more vague non specific manner.

"so far I am really liking the character development. There are some really authentic lines of dialogue, that from a game point of view,is what makes her well rounded and implemented well."

" I think that the way that she moves and interacts is very well done."

This statement was followed by a few examples but interestingly most were either referencing dialogue or the sort of in game cuts cenes that a lot of games now use to try and help maintain immersion.
He then went on to explain that Elizabeth's nature is in keeping with her background but doesn't go to the extreme where it could become irritating implying that the balance that they've achieved is creating a likeable character that  the player is able to form a connection with.


The other person i asked is someone whose finished an animation degree 5 years ago but hasn't really acted on it since, they also only have a basic knowledge of game development process and animation for games and so they will have the knowledge to judge performance but probably wont be actively looking for it, allowing them to achieve a level of immersion I'm not able to. Finally they haven't seen any previous footage in regards to the development process so their comments are uninfluenced.

"I'm impressed with the way she seems interested in things. I like how she sits down if she gets bored. I adore the fact that she tells you not to worry about her, and that she can fight for herself (I have a personal hatred of Protect The VIP missions in games)
In fact, she doesn't act like a game NPC She acts more like Rapunzel from Tangled, as if she has been animated at every turn by the chaps who did her"


It's interesting that he picks up on the general vibe mentioned by Ken Levine in his Bafta interview/presentation they were going for in regards to the Disney princess type actions and also that he seems to speak as if she has a mind of her own and that she's thinking about where she is and what's happening around her, this is key to creating a character seem believable in Film animation.



I've asked both of them to let me know if they have any thoughts as they continue playing.

02/04/13 - Setting the score

This post will be me working through the system figuring out what scores should affect what and using the character bios collected yesterday to help test it. Basically it's going to be me rambling to myself and hopefully coming to a logical conclusion that works to some degree. I'll make sure to point out problems i notice and any methods i come up with to fix them.

Before really starting I've already hit a problem...

Problem: If the score is used to influence the scales then an issue will arise when i need to choose which of fight or flight corresponds to the positive or negative number. It's not easy saying that running away is positive or fighting stuff is positive.

Short term Solution: Have two separate scores that kick in for the different scales. For the purposes of this test if i only include those interactions that range from fight to flight then the scores won't need to be applied to multiple scales which don't correlate. So because of these the interactions from the list i produced previously would be limited to:

• Minor Physical
• Major Physical
• Gun Aim
• Destroy/Steal
• Inappropriate action

This isn't that bad because this is actually just over half the interactions listed. For the purposes of this first trial for the numerical value of the score i'll use +1 for a more flight reaction and -1 for a more fight reaction in line with the numbers of the interactions 1 being the most aggressive and 7 being the most submissive. Starting with Ulfric's character

ULFRIC (skyrim)

Personality

• Religious +1, +0, +0
• Military trained -1, -1, -1
• Guided by honor +1, +0, +0

-Prejudice

• Prejudice against non-nords -1, -1, -1

-Fear
N/A
Reputation of player

• Kahjits are not to be trusted -1, -1,-1

Past Experience of player

• Escaped Helgen together +1, +0,+0
• Part of the stormcloak army +1, +0, +0

Environment

• Home (well guarded palace) +1, +0, +0

Relationship to player's character (Kahjit)

• Colleague +1, +0, +0

Choice Notes: The military training will give the character an impulse reaction that they are trained to have resulting in a more aggressive response.

Player: Female Kahjit Allied to the Stormcloaks, chose to go with Ulfric at the beginning of the game.


Interaction: Minor Physical

Default: Neutral 4

Expected outcome: Default. He has positive past experiences of the player which should help balance out his prejudices which are already quite passive due to his sense of honor. He isn't afraid of the playerespecially with him being on home turf which should help him feel at ease and as the player is on his side this should lessen fear as well

In theory the conflicting aspects such as the  attitude towards non-nords and the general view of kahjit's should be balanced out by the NPCs past experience of the player and their relationship.

RED: Initial score test

Personality 0
Reputation -1
Past experience +2
Environment +1
Relationship +1

Overall +3

If i used the system that the score modified the reaction by 1 notch for every positive or negative then this would lead the reaction to be +7 which is the most extreme fight reaction... for a battle hero such as Ulfric this doesn't make sense. The main problem here seems to stem from giving a plus or minus 1 to each of the attributes in the factors where some of them wouldn't make him more likely to run they just make him less likely to fight. But i can't just leave them as 0 because then there wouldn't be anything to help balance out the negative modifiers and he would just end up with a heavily aggressive reaction.

New theory... what if the aspects that are used to balance others are labeled as +0 which brings the score closer to the default?

BLUE: Modified Score 1

Personality 0
Reputation -1
Past experience +0
Environment +0
Relationship +0

Overall 0 (+2)

Using this modification does give the expected result but one of the issues which im not sure if it is an issue until i test it on another character is that the past experience section would have a double +0 as it's outcome. I'm not sure whether you'd need the double + to carry over to help balance or not... we'll see.

NEW CHARACTER

SULLY (Uncharted)
Personality

• Father Figure +0
• Military Trained -1
• Driven by money 0
• Explorer +0
• Compassionate +0
• Thief +1

-Prejudice

N/A

-Fear

N/A

Reputation of player

N/A

Past Experience of player

Over ruled by the relationship to players character

Environment

• Hostile area -1

Relationship to Players character (Nate)

• Father Figure +0

Player: Nathan Drake

Interaction: Minor Physical

Expected outcome

Choice Notes: The explorer trait will mean that Sully is used to unexpected things occurring and will help stop him from being startled. The thief trait will ad an instinct to run to avoid being caught.

Interesting point, if the players character is one that is a pre-planned and established character such as Nathan Drake, Shepard from Mass Effect and Lee from the walking dead then the past experience of the player will be over ruled by the relation ship (if it exists) 

The problem i have when applying this to Sully is that his core underlying drive is his greed but having everything equal in the personality section doesn't reflect this, now i think about it the same applies to Ulfric's sense of Honor. Maybe it would make more sense to have a bonus score added to what could be seen as the NPCs core personality trait that will always win out over others. Obviously when it comes to the fight or flight scoring Sully's greed wont affect him quite so much but it will affect Ulfric. And it's also good to note for when applying this scoring system in a slightly different way to the positive negative spectrum some of the other interactions need.



GREEN: Including Core Personality trait bonus.

Ulfric

Personality +0
Reputation -1
Past experience +0
Environment +0
Relationship +0

Overall 0 (+3)
Sully also brings up the point of what personality traits should be considered for each spectrum. His greed wont play a part in his reaction to being punched so surely it wouldn't score at all? Giving it a value of 0 would effectively discount the trait for this spectrum.

PURPLE: Excluding traits that have no influence on the interation

Sully

Personality +0
Reputation N\A
Past Experience N/A
Environment -1

Relationship +0

Overall 0 (+1)

Continue tomorrow...

01/04/13 - Character bios, Skyrim NPC generator

As i mentioned previously, to test my systems and adjust the score part i'll be using existing characters in games and their bios. I've chosen four characters to begin with, each from different games and with slightly different drives behind their personality.  They are:

Ulfric Stormcloak:  (Elder Scrolls: Skyrim)

Picture taken from here

I've chosen Ulfric because he can be viewed mainly as an unlikable character. He is a nationalist, so much so that he will leave cities of non-nords to suffer from bandits without a second thought. Despite being unlikable he does have a redeeming feature in the fact he is guided by honor displayed by his restraint when using his Thu'um.
Information taken from here

Traits
Extremely Nationalist
Extremely Prejudice against Non Nords
Religious (went to war for the right to worship Talos)
Military trained
Rebellious nature
Hates the Empire
Doesn't use the Thu'um unless it's absolutely necessary but will use it for battle.

Victor Sullivan: (Uncharted series)

Picture taken from here

As a direct opposite to the setup of Ulfric Stormcloak, I chose Victor Sullivan (known as "Sully") from the uncharted series due to his likable nature and tendency towards acting in a fatherly manner. His friendly persona is only broken when you realize that the only thing more powerful than his loyalty is his greed and that he will trade up even Nate to rid himself of debt.
Information taken from here

Father figure (more forgiving to drake in particular when hes older due to raising him and opts to protect children he doesn't know)
Antique dealer (affects Item transaction)
Explorer
Navy/ Military trained (Disciplined)
Hired Thief
Observant
Compassionate (Stays to comfort wounded)
Driven by Money ( walks away from opportunity when no money is to be gained, is in debt at the beginning of uncharted 2 and despite loyalty to drake informs rival treasure hunter)

Urdnot Wrex: (Mass Effect)

Picture taken from here

I've chosen Wrex from the Mass Effect series due to the fact his isn't military trained. His people are natural warriors implying they battle more from instinct than disciplined routines. This combined with the explosive rage that can occur when his character is pushed too far makes him a good example of extreme negative reactions after repetitive negative action.
Information taken from here and here


Natural Warrior, (Naturally violent but with no military training)
Rebellious
Strong beliefs
Honor-bound (turns away from own people and father at one point because of this)
Intelligent
Disapproves of being a mindless warmongering people
Worked as a gun for hire
Rarely loses his temper
Doesn't voice his thoughts often but when he does. you listen.
Don't get on his bad side.


Ben Paul: (Walking dead)

Picture taken from here

As with Sully, Ben from the walking dead series has been chosen to mirror the characteristics of Wrex. As opposed to being a natural warrior, Ben is the epitome of the "dirty coward" trope and is driven by his own sense of self preservation and his fear of being eaten alive to the point of putting other more vulnerable characters in danger.

Greatest fear, being eaten alive. Over rules all other urges including relationships
Inept combatant
Runs away when things turn bad
Fear of blood (Would pass out if asked to cut arm off)
Stands up for self after persistent abuse


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been sidetracked for part of the day by one thing or another but party because i came across this while looking at Ulfric..


Skyrim NPC personality generator for background/minor NPCs
(including followers and potential spouses)

Taken from here, the website found describes what happens when an NPC dies within the world. A new NPC is randomly generated using the following three stats. It mentions that the aggression level will differ depending on the "faction combat modifier" which is similar to the relationship factor I've included in my own system.

Aggression

There are four possible values for aggression. Together with the faction relationship combat modifier this governs whether the NPC initiates combat.

• 0: Unaggressive
• 1: Aggressive
• 2: Very Aggressive
• 3: Frenzied

Confidence

There are five possible values for confidence:

• 0: Cowardly
• 1: Cautious
• 2: Average
• 3: Brave
• 4: Foolhardy

Morality

Morality determines whether or not an NPC will commit various crimes, and controls whether or not a follower will agree to do certain requested actions. There are four possible values for morality:

• 0: Any Crime. NPC is willing to commit any requested crime.
• 1: Violence Against Enemies. NPC is willing to commit violence against enemies, as well as property crimes. NPC is not willing to attack innocent people.
• 2: Property Crime Only. The only crimes the NPC will commit are property crimes (e.g., theft).
• 3: No Crime. NPC is not willing to commit any crimes. Followers with this morality will still not report crimes that they witness you committing (with the exception of crimes against them, such as stealing items owned by the follower).

I'd be interested to see if i could find anything else that goes into how this system was created. As I've noted in my case study post, which I've been accumulating for a fair few days now and haven't actually posted yet, the problem i have with the skyrim animations is that the performance doesn't change anywhere near enough for exaggerated characters for example Cicero with his amazingly eccentric voice acting that doesn't come across with the sound off. This example may make a character more aggressive in how likely it is to start a fight but its more to do with how it initiates combat and it doesn't seem to factor in the possibility they might want to run away or hide? I know it has cowardly in the confidence section but does that over rule a character with "frenzied" in the aggression section or vice versa?
The morality trait seems to be an interesting idea though... would the relationship and personality factors of my system be enough to influence the outcome of an event where the player asks you to do something? Would that be better factored into the list of interactions than adding a new factor?

22/03/13 - Trax Editor

Why does it seem like the only thing that's translated right in the trax editor is the clavical joints... Just makes him do a strange peck dance. The keyframes are there but they aren't playing.

Very short post today. I can't get help with this for now and so for now will be working on my case study and all the other things i need to do. It might do me some good to take a step away from practical anyway. As Robin said in the supervisor meeting today, i might feel more on top of things after completing some of the background things and when i come back to the practical my mind will be free to think of the task at hand instead of worrying about time.