Charlotte's blog

Month: May 2026

Categories
Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Theory (term 3)

Week 4 – Feedback on Literature Review Draft

The feedback on my literature review was overall positive. The topic was seen as relevant and worthwhile, and the review itself was communicated clearly. It was also clear that I already have a good starting base of sources to build from. One of the strengths of the project is the way it brings together ideas around war, memory, animation, and metaphor. The example of Waltz with Bashir was also seen as particularly relevant to the direction of the research.

At the same time, there are some areas that need further development. One important point is that the title and wording of the project need to be sharper, as the current phrasing could be more precise. From this, it was suggested that the title should be turned into a clearer research question, so that the study has a stronger central focus. I also need to improve some academic conventions in the writing, such as simplifying in-text references by using the author and year rather than full publication titles, being more consistent with page numbers for books, and giving the correct details when films are mentioned.

Another key part of the feedback was that the bibliography should continue to expand. I need to read further around animated documentary, memory, war, and the idea of animation as a form of representation or document. This will help strengthen both the theoretical background and the connection to my practice.

More broadly, the feedback confirmed that this is a good topic because animation can communicate things that live action often cannot. This includes memory, associations, metaphor, individual pain, and wider social issues. Rather than only showing conflict in a direct or literal way, animation can offer a more indirect and sensitive form of representation.

Overall, the main message from the feedback was that the project is moving in a strong direction, but now needs to become more focused and structured. My next steps are to rethink the title, turn it into a clear research question, begin considering a possible chapter structure, and continue developing the bibliography with further reading.

Literature_reviewDownload
Categories
Advanced 3D Animation Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques

Week 13 – Creature Study, Creature Animation and Dialogue Shot Blocking Plus

This week focused on creature animation and continuing the Dialogue Shot assignment. On Thursday, we started the Group Assignment: Creature Study, where we had to choose an animal topic and research it from an animation point of view. The aim was not just to collect random facts, but to study details that would actually help with animation, such as how the creature moves, behaves, turns, speeds up, slows down, and how its anatomy affects the movement.

For my creature study, I chose fish. We focused mainly on locomotion, especially fins and gills movement, and how fish speed up, slow down and turn in water. We also looked at how timing can change depending on the species. This was useful because fish movement is not only about the tail moving side to side. The fins, body, gills and direction changes all work together to make the motion feel natural.

The creature animation lecture helped explain the process of studying animals before animating them. We were encouraged to collect a lot of video reference, build a reference library from different angles, and study the creature before trying to animate it. The lecture also explained that creature locomotion depends on understanding anatomy and movement patterns, even if we do not need to become anatomy experts.

Even though many examples in the lecture focused on quadrupeds, the same idea still applies to fish. Instead of studying legs and gaits, I had to think about the body curve, rhythm, fins, tail and how the motion travels through the body. For fish, the spine/body curve is especially important because the movement often flows from the front of the body towards the tail, with the fins helping with balance, steering and subtle adjustments.

On Friday, we continued with the Dialogue Shot – Blocking Plus assignment. At this stage, the shot had to move beyond rough blocking and become clearer in terms of timing, acting and facial performance. Since this is a dialogue shot, the main focus is not just body movement, but how the body, face and mouth shapes support the character’s intention.

We also had Lip Sync Demo & Tutorials available as support. These tutorials were useful because they reminded us to use reference, even if it is just a mirror, to check mouth shapes. This connected back to the lip sync lesson from the previous week, where we learned to animate the sounds rather than the written words.