The following are some task I am planning to work on this week:

Added the last controls to the rig using the set driven key tool:

eyes controls for closing the upper and bottom lids and a locator for the eye to rotate them

Beak control to open and close it

Finally bonded the skin to the rig

Adjusted the rig influence using the paint skin weight tool especially for knees, wings and beak

This is an rig testing for the wig after I have bonded the skin to it:

Seagull 2 Rig

I tried to match the other seagull rig to the other one had to make few changes:

Just like I did for the other model I have created some curves to set driven keys for the eyes lids to be closed to create an eye blink.

Using the same technique I have created a circle to parent it to the beak and created an attribute to turn on and off to open and close the beak.

This seagull has also eyebrows so I have created a circle to parent with the joint attached to them to make them move easily.

I had to create a new wing controls with IK handle to make the wings fold

I froze the transformation of each nurb circle control after I have adapted it to the new mesh to male the animation process easier.

I after binded the rig to the skin and modified the paint weight of the brows, the knees and wings just like I did for the other seagull

Model props

I thought to create a character design for the child who is going to be included in the pier scene.

I have included drawings with characters having a big head, over proportioned for his body, big eyes and a mischievous/angry tone and expression.

I also created a model sheet starting from the character designs I have created. And imported it to maya to experiment with the model as well, using different techniques such as poly modeling or starting from geometries and adapting it to the shapes of the character design.

Storyboard (continue)

Before getting into the VR storyboard we thought that designing a “traditional” storyboard would have been useful to use as a reference when working in VR, so I continued to storyboard our game according to the last script version:

In the frames, just like I did last time I have drawn an eyes perspective view considering that what is shown is a probable view of the player

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Animation list according to the script

Default move (look finding nemo)

Beak movement for when they speak

Turning head

Grab the fries underneath his wing (seagull B)

Eating the fries (seagull B and A)

Take one fries (seagull A)

Offer fries to the player (seagull A)

Eyes rolls and wing on his face (annoyed, seagull A)

Look at the player (seagull A and B)

Seagull taking the stick (seagull A)

Offer the stick to the player (seagull A)

Worried (Seagull B)

Fly (Seagull A and B)

Holding an ice cream (seagull A)

Landing, stumbling and stabilizing (seagull B)

Eating with fork and knife (seagull B)

Eating with the wings (seagull A)

Speech bubbles

This is an initial list however it would be more useful to create a template with a section for scene, character and action to put the animation into a context.

Animation testing

I have started experimenting with the rig that I have created for the Seagulls. I thought I could do the default movement they would do when they are not involved in a particular action.

The animation of the seagulls from finding nemo were the movements I used as a reference

I have first positioned the seagull in a starting position with the wings folded and his beak closed. I after created some “loop” movements for the wings. I have also made his belly move forward and inward to simulate breathing and made his neck move making snap movements and blinking from time to time.

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This is a to do list we came up with to accomplish before we meet for our next project meeting:

During this week’s meeting the team members from VR showed us the environment we are going to use for the game and also we saw the models I have done for the seagulls in unity too to have an idea of how they will look like.

We also covered the following point:

• Adding cell shading for the overall look
• The models we should make (for instance I thought I could ask for the age and the range movements of the baby model we have to include according to the script)
• The script was finalised and so I am able now to finish the storyboard: we thought that we could have a traditional drawn storyboard and we can also create one in VR (next week we are planning to book a VR booth Esme and Callum and I to create them using the traditional one as a reference). Moreover the script they have created included more detailed descriptions of movements so it will be easier for creating the animations.
• The player will have the seagull wings, being one of them as well but we won’t need the whole wing model but only a small part (the feathers/fingers) so I can create them starting from the original wing mesh.
• We also decided to have real voices for the seagulls. We will record the seagulls voices before we start animation.

Storyboard (for current script draft)

Storyboard for VR games

Storyboards are commonly used in film, web and game design as a quick, effective way to communicate spatial position, sequence, motion and interaction to pre-visualise a scene.

Before starting the storyboard based on the draft of the script we have, I thought I could carry a research into storyboarding in VR since that storyboards are usually used to frame a scene but I am not used to storyboarding when there is no frame at all. However, is still possible to storyboard a scene, but instead of objects being defined relative to the frame (directing audience attention), objects are relative to the audience.

So instead of controlling what the audience sees in VR, probabilistic areas of user attention based on ergonomic data are used (modified the work to fit the player, not the other way around).

This video Mike Alger was very useful to comprehend better VR interactions. He mentions the field of view in a VR head-mounted-didplay (HMD)- the goggles you would wear when playing in VR- which is 94 degrees. I a seated position, a person head can rotate side 39 degrees and up 55 degrees (when standing or using a wireless HDM these numbers might be higher).

When considering distance, people tend to pay more attention when objects are closer: The minimum comfortable viewing distance in an HMD, before a user starts going cross-eyed, is 0.5-meters (Oculus now recommends a minimum distance of 0.75-meters). Beyond 10-meters the sense of 3D stereoscopic depth perception diminishes rapidly until it is almost unnoticeable beyond 20-meters. So the perfect distance would be between 0.5 meters to 10.0 meters to display the content.

when combining together these information above regarding the field of view and distance this would be the general diagram:

Adjusting it for a more realistic scale relative to the user, and project into 3D to allow for vertical annotation the diagram would look like this one (I have added our scenario where the player would be in front of the seagulls and being one seagull himself/herself). -This VR storyboard allows us to position objects relative to the audience in 3D space, while still being able to convey sequence, motion, and interaction.

how to storyboard transitions between environments: in VR they are going to use the teleport tool so the transition is going to be through a button.

Deformation of the screen to simulate the player view

Seaside environment storyboard

Sky storyboard

Pier storyboard

Research comedy genre in games (interactive comedy)

Comedy in video games

When using this genre in games, especially interactive ones, developers should not focus about “funny games” but they should be more interested in talking about comedy in games since humour is a very subjective topic. Comedy is a genre with form and structure and adheres to certain rules: it makes use of irony, contrast, suspense and poetic justice. The creation of comedy in games should be more objective allowing us to create more complete and diverse comedic experiences. A challenge that might be faced when creating comedy for video games is timing which is the key to successful delivery. But how can the game developers execute a well-timed joke when the player is in control of the moment by moment in progression of the game? The answer is take control away from the player. Much of the comedy takes place in cut-scenes, dialogue or context-sensitive action prompts, scripted moments. The player puts down the controller and enjoy a short comedy sketch layout for them. (developers remain in control of the timing in these way and the player still feels connected to the game). However in this way the player interaction is disrupted.

A rather innovative solution to the problem of comedic timing in an interactive medium is structuring the timing around the player and not the character – the real world and not the game world. Jokes that react to the actions and feelings of the player rather than the events taking place within the game fiction (a start button for instance).

“How do we create interactive comedy?”. How do we build comedy into the gameplay? How do we create comedy that could only be created within an interactive medium? What does interactivity fundamentally add to the tradition of storytelling?

The big gap between Films and Games is that, at least from the development phase point of view, the development team may try to predict the actions of the player and may even program responses for each possible eventuality, but it remains true that the game doesn’t “know” what you are doing. The game acts then as a “blind storyteller” in this way creating one of the essential dynamics in comedy: the straight-man.

For comedy-in-absurdity to work, there has to be an established baseline of normality that the agents of absurdity are deviating from. If absurd things are happening in an absurd world to absurd characters, they are no longer “unusual”, per the rules established by that world, and thus, the comedy is lost. A straight-man is required, a character acting as an audience surrogate, reacting to the absurd in the way that the audience would in that situation. It could also be the setting. An otherwise sane setting can play the foil to the absurdity of its inhabitants. The Straight-man is often portrayed as reasonable and serious, while the other one is portrayed as funny, less educated or less intelligent, silly, or unorthodox When the audience identifies primarily with one character, the other is often referred to as a comic foil. The blind storyteller as straight-man dynamic allows for magnificent reality-breaking. The player, the only agent in this dynamic cognizant of the rules that govern reality outside of the game, can exploit the game’s artifice to produce moments of hilarity played, by the game, entirely straight-faced. 

What Makes Games Funny?

Games are, by nature, comedic even extremely serious dramas can become comedic by allowing the player to do things that go against their style, therefore there are different scenarios for comedy to develop in interactive games:

• Finding humour where the developers did not intend it – any effect the player can have on the world can let them do or create something humorous; (unintentional, inherent comedy)
• Humour through story and narrative – one way to include humour is via the story; however not make everything into a joke since that comedy is based on contrast and when everything is funny nothing stands out.
• Chaos an mayhem are often hilarious – comedy from chaos is about the unforeseen: it can appear unplanned and they offer a possibility of abrupt explosive failure.(fail must be fair although, sudden death can be frustrating and no fun).
• Humour through gameplay – it relies on unexpected and unique interactive gameplay elements that serve to illustrate the joke (compared to spoken lines, which are non-interactive): a vital point is that you have to actively perform something and get a reaction. Another expedition could be to re-purpose regular game actions for other actions makes it funny, and having characters remarking upon them as the wrong actions.

There are a lot of straightforward ways to make a game more comedic. These elements stated above can be used to engage the player with comedic elements, instead of just having funny things appear. Actually while we where in the meeting we thought of some interactive elements for the player to have in the meantime of the game since we considered the active role of the player essential for the overall experience.

Seagull, props models (assets)

Seagull 1 model adjustments

In our second meetings I received some feedbacks on the model of the seagull I had made: overall was good, however they suggested me to create a wing that would resemble a human hand with fingers, since that in the game there will be some actions involving the seagulls grabbing objects.

In order to use the wings as hands, the feathers should have at list a feather looking thumb but not necessarily five fingers/feathers: the bones of the wing are too specialised for flight to become a hand, but feathers feathers could be used as fingers -this would make look the wing still looking like a wing but having hand-like functions. I thought I could use the primary wing feathers to use as fingers. Moreover when grasping something or gesturing the wing would look like a humanised wing, but still looking like a bird wing when flying. I was inspired by animations where bird characters can bend their wings forward like arms, something that is physically impossible in real life.

This is the new design I have created and that I will use as a reference when modeling it.

New design:

rendered model

I was not happy with how the right paw turned out so I duplicated the left one and merged it to the other leg to have them look the same

Seagull 2 model

Just like I did fro the other model I have used the model sheet to use as a starting point to model the second seagull

Once I have aligned the poly to the image both from a side and front view I have separated the two legs creating new edge loops and deleting the faces I did not need

I worked on the details of the “feathers”/skin at the root of the leg using the vertex of the model

I have created the eyes extruding and then deleting two faces at the side of its head:

From a sphere I have created a pupil and using another sphere using the top faces as the upper lids and the bottom faces as the bottom lids. I have also assigned to the pupil a white blin texture and a black one for the pupil to make them reflect light as eyes would.

I after worked on the paws creating some edge loops and moving them to make them resemble the seagull one.

Final rendered picture of the second seagull

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I after created a scene using an infinite background and adding some are lights with yellow, pink and blue tints to see how the two seagulls looked together.

Props

Other than modeling the objects present in the script I thought we may use some props I previously modeled and textured.

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List of props that need to be modeled according to the first part of the script: fries and single fries, ice scream, sand shovel.

Rigging

I have used this video to use as a basic process to start and rig the seagulls model which helped me to understand better how to create joints for the rig, how to combine them together, how to bind the geometry with the joints and how to create IK handles for the wings.

Seagull 1 Rig:

I have first created the joints according to the model, birds bone structure and the actions useful for the animation in the game.

For the wings joint I have created one first and after mirrored it to the other side.

I after unified the geometry and the rig together to make the model move along the rig using the bind skin tool

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Once I started exploring the model movement range I have noticed that the rig I had previously created for the hands/feathers was not working at all so I had to start again creating more joint this time to make the fingers curl.

Leg problem rig IK handle to bend:

Skin weight for the leg where I painted the area that I wanted to be affected by the joint movement.

I have added some controls to use for the fingers joints: since the joint transformation could not be frozen I created some nurbs circles to better identify the joint and most of all to animate them after since after I parent them to the joint I was able to froze their transformation so that when animating their position could be easily turned to zero.

I adjusted the rig by unbinding it first from the mesh and working only on the rig.

I added an IK handle for the knees and some costumed controls as well.

I separated the eyes from the main mesh so that it would be easier to control their rotation. As for the eye lids I created two joints to be attached to them and allow me to move them to animate an eye blink, one for the upper lid and one for the low lid.

I have adjusted the hierarchy of the rig by putting everything “ruled” by the joint on the hips: before the joint in the head was at the top, however the balance of a body would be the root of a character so I made sure that every joint of the rig was in the hips joint. I have downloaded a simple rig to better understand the hierarchy.

I also created the controls for the eyes and the eye lids

Moreover I added an attributed to the fingers/feathers using the set driven key tool to make them curl when is set to 1

Rig ready

This week I had an induction on how to use the VR oculus equipment. We thought that since it may help to visualise the objects in the scene, learning how to use some apps for VR might be useful. We tried in particular tilt brush, a room-scale 3D-painting virtual-reality application and explored its potentiality. We figured that realising a storyboard in VR other that a more “traditional” one can help plan the project better as well.

During this weekly meeting we sort out many aspects about our project:

• The Animation dynamics: We are going to have specific action for the seagulls, however when they are not doing any specific actions they would still be making some sort of saucing (just like characters in game do)
• The script and the game should be 5 minutes long
• Players would play the game as if they were birds: with wings instead of hands and paws instead of legs; these are not going to be animated since the player to move in the scene would use a “teleport” that would bring him or her directly to the next environment.
• How the models scaling and animation in Maya are adaptable to Unity environment: for animations we are going to have single files where the seagulls are going to do simple actions (e.g. jump, side to side) and after we are going to import them individually in Maya; regarding the scaling, it won’t be a problem if the models are too big since through Unity is going to be easy to adjust them in the right size.
• We finalised the first version of the script and comment it altogether so we could start the storyboard.
• I have showed the model of the first seagulls that I have created and they suggested me some changes I could apply such as the wings looking more like a human hand with feathers functioning as fingers since the seagulls are going to grab objects in the story.
• Tilt Brush: Tilt Brush is a room-scale 3D-painting virtual-reality application which we thought we may use to create our storyboards directly in the VR space – I have also tried it out since one the team member brought along the VR equipment to have an idea on how it works.
• We also established the next tasks to work on until next meeting:

I am going to be focusing on the storyboard based on the script, doing a research in comedy genre in games according to the project brief, since it might be useful for the overall tone of the VR game. I am also going to make the adjustment and finalise the first seagull model and create the second seagull model as well as some props models also according to the script. After the seagulls models are done I will try to rig them.

Environment Design

Since we started working on the script for some sketch ideas for the Seagulls interactions I thought it might be a good idea to create some designs where this comedy sketches are set in order to make it easier to model the environment props and scenes firstly which may help the Previs stage. The first design is based upon a dialogue the two seagulls have in the rear part of a restaurant where they have a dinner just like it happens in the Disney movie “Lady and the Tramp”: we thought that it might be a funny situation and it would fit perfectly with the comedy genre on which this project is an adaptation of. The design inspired by Brighton’s pier is also an idea for a setting; we thought that there could be an interactive moment with the person playing in the virtual reality environment where one of the seagulls would steal an ice-cream from him/her and the second seagull would apologise for him saying that when he is hungry he becomes cranky (Brighton seaside is a well known spot where seagulls tend to steal food from tourist and locals).

Story Script

Idea Generation for VR Collaborative 

Environment changes to city

*At the bin outside Italian restaurant, there is a table filled with oddities and piece of trash such as pizza crush and crushed coke cans * 

*The two Seagulls get to the rear part of the restaurant where they find an Italian set dining table *

Seagull two “Don’t say I never think about you”

Seagull one “how you set up the table?”

Seagull two “A couple of raccoons owed me a favour”

*Lady and the tramp situation-like where they end up eating the same spaghetti noodle and there is an embarrassing moment*

. Seagulls mistaking modern art for trash. 

Seagull one “I’ve never seen garbage set up so well”

Seagull two “But this is the latest installation by one of the most prominent artists of the moment”

Seagull one “It still looks like garbage to me”

Seagulls aiming on humans with a point system

Seagull one “Last year I almost got the second place in the Seagull Shooter Championship I would have arrived first, but a sudden gust of wind saved my last victim”

Seagull two “Don’t be discouraged, this year there will be more calm wind”

These sketches are some ideas we could use to set our narrative and create funny moments for the player to witness: these sketches are based on the comedy created by Joshua Barkman in his comics: we took cliches of seagulls (seagulls stealing food, seagulls eating garbage, seagulls pooping on people) and turn them into comedy sketches. As you can see from the script above we first describe the context in which the sketch is going to take place and after there is the dialogue , which will after be the speech bubble displayed in the VR environment.

Animation Testing with reference videos

For the animation, since it would not be displayed as a normal 3D animation (no videos start to end) but in a virtual environment and there would not be no voice over nor lip-sync, the way we plan it varies from what we are normally used to and we should adapt the animation to our needs. In our first meeting we decided the way the sketch are going to be represented and we are going to use speech bubbles just like it happens in comics, so that it would be already clear that we are referring to a comedy sketch, The seagulls would move similarly to how they move in real life in a “jerky” way.

With an a rig that we found online I tried to animate it trying to recreate some movement that the seagulls themselves would do in the VR; in this case I did a walk cycle followed by the seagull looking directly to the camera, which would be the player, from very close.

Characters Models

In order to animate the seagulls model in Maya I have created a character model sheet to have a reference for the character. Here follow few screenshots from the modeling process in Maya:

I first used a simple polygon and tried to make it match with the model sheet I hd previously drawn which depicted seagull 1 first in profile view and also front view with his wing spread out.

After having created the main body using the side view of the character, I after used the front view reference image and adjusted the model to it adding the legs too; I also started model the wing using another polygon shape following again the reference image.

I also extruded the faces at the end of the legs to create the paws using the study I carried on seagulls: they have webbed feet with three fingers pointing out at the edges.

Using a diamond shape I used the vertices to create the beak of the seagull: I have separated the top from the bottom in order to be able to animate the open and closed mouth after.

I after created the eyes socket to position two spheres (one small and one bigger) to use as the Seagull’s eyes: I assigned them a blin material and after I selected few faces of the sphere and make them darker to simulate the eye pupils.

I finally assigned to the different body parts a colour and rendered a picture in Maya using a directional light to show it to my team members.

The Camera Sequencer gives you tools to layout and manage camera shots, then produce rendered movie footage of the animation in your scene. You can start to layout shots in Maya, using different cameras angles and movements and in the camera sequencer window editor chance order of the shots and even export them together using an ubercam which will function as one camera incorporating all the cameras you have worked with so far. The editor resembles the one of After effects or any video editing software from the Adobe suite. Even for large scenes, you can produce movie clips to achieve real-time playback.

In the camera sequencer editor you can create the shots, assign them a camera and decide which frames to include in the shot too.

After I have experimented with the scene provided to us by the teacher, I came up with a very simple idea of representing a crowd marching in the mountains and created some cinematic shots to explore the tool in Maya.

Overall I think that this is a very interesting tool that might come in handy when producing the Previs for our project directly in Maya, especially for visualise the transitions there are going to be between one environment and the next within the narration in the Virtual Reality space.

This week lecture covered camera movements and composition: after analysing the theory I will be trying to apply this knowledge to the VR immersive project I am part of.

Just as it happened for a good book and a mesmerising painting, films have their unspoken language too, they communicate with a visual language which is used by directors to plan their movies, since from how a camera is placed it can tell a particular story. there is a “Shot Dialogue” since the most basic unit of a film is a shot. Each shot can mean something on their own.

Composition in storytelling

Composing an image is an incredible process that concerns where we place our subjects of interest and why they are positioned there through a simple shot we are able to tell a story and convey emotions: composition is a technique that can infuse meaning as well as visual splendour. It has the ability to attract audience attention the important thing is what should they be looking at, and how to you get them to look at it.

These elements above all contribute to make your composition better express and convey the desired message. In order to highlight an action, a movement or even a character creating a frame within a frame may be an efficient expedition: using lines in perspective that converge to a point where usually the character is placed; to help the composition not only windows or doors can create a frame every object can serve as one.

The control that a director can have on a scene can be categorised into artificial (the control of the aesthetic and where we should be looking) and primal (where power dynamics lies- what subject holds more weight in the narrative at that moment in time in reference to other people or environments)

“The size of an object in the frame should equal its importance in the story at that moment.”

Alfred Hitchcock

Composition does not have to be focusing on the one shot it can be a cumulative effort whose meanings emerge over the course of a film: just like in the narrative it can witness some evolvement and development taking different directions and intentions. However in order to achieve a better composition in a scene filling the frames with elements is not compulsory: even the lack of props or characters can convey meaning by reducing the amount on screen the director can create unique moods, less can be more.

When the camera frames a scene it make different moments either to follow the actors on the screen or to showcase a frame. Movements and Composition should be working hand in hand since when the camera is not static the lines and composition details of a frame may vary altering the overall meaning and power of it. They also help enhance one another showing an element at fist and then panning to reveal other elements.

Overall composition should carry meaning displaying emotions not only visual appeal.

Composing Movement

Akira Kurosawa implemented the movement in his film composition at his advance: he used natural movements of the elements, for example showcasing rain or fire that may reflects the characters state of mind, he also made use of group movements with which you can enhance emotion having crowds movements since it “feels bigger”. Regarding its use of the movement of the individual every characters has certain movements that make them distinctive to the eyes of the audience, this movements are also exaggerated e.g. when a character is sad and ashamed it stands down. He is also famous for his fluid camera moves: each movement created and narrated a story having a beginning a middle and an ending in it. He also has this characteristics of editing using cuts on movements and they would end up appearing to be very subtle almost invisible.

He understood that is the visual stimulation that hits the audience and that this various movements should “cooperate” with each other to create compelling compositions.

How David Fincher Hijacks Your Eyes

David Fincher visual style in his film is very distinctive this also depends the way he uses camera movements: the camera matches exactly the velocity of the moving character in the frame, what this moments achieve is to lock the audience in into the behaviour of the character: he makes you enter in his reality. Behaviour holds a very important role in this process since it can tell a lot about a character and its personality and feelings, in order to create an emotional bridge between what the character feels and make it accessible to the audience. Is not a coincidence that the word “emotion” itself carries “motion” in it since emotion express themselves physically.

What is Cinematography?

Cinematography comprehends how directors show an action within a scene: is all about communicating with the viewer. Even though

cinema is a language and like language you must learn how to speaks all the elements that are part of cinema.

Cuts & Transitions

Cuts and transitions are an important and dynamic aspect of editing in a film production process. The most basic edit that you can do is the cut going to one shot to another. But the are may other cut types: the cutting action- cutting to one scene to another when the subject is still in motion; the cut away- cutting to an insert shot of something and then back; the cross cutting- where two scenes are intercut to establish continuity; the match cut- that uses elements of one scene in the transition to the next scene; the fade in and out- when one scene closes with the image disappearing (fade-out), then transitioning into the next scene, which slowly comes into view (fade-in); the smash cut- abrupt transitions; the l-cut- in which the audio from preceding scene overlaps the picture from the following scene.

Which ever cut, transition or editing you may choose is when and how you use them to tell your story.

How can this be applied to the immersive project using VR?

So considering everything stated above, camera movements, editing and cinematography in general are an essential part in cinema and in particular in films. Our project consists in a person taking part in the Virtual Reality environment and witnessing a narrative involving two seagulls talking to each other (even with the player) and probably even having an acting role in it. I think that cinematography rules and notions cannot be applied in the “traditional way” since everything would be seen in variable perspective of the player, however these notions can be applied to the Previs stage to better visualise the development of the narrative and the positioning of the various characters, props and environments in the VR environment. In this regard the camera movement, even if in this case is employed slightly differently, can have a “common ground” which is attract the audience or, in this case, the player: the player must be included in the narrative, not just in an interactive way but also visually. For example we decided that the dialogues between the seagulls are going to be displayed using speech bubbles to resemble the comic style of which this project is an adaptation of but also to clearly show to the viewer what the seagulls are saying. Moreover, in the same way dynamic and movement is important to achieve a better composition, the dynamics in which the actions will take place in the VR will have an important role. Even though we are not producing a short film or video material but an immersive experience instead, there are going to be some sort or “transitions” between one comic sketch and the next where the player would have the possibility, by doing some action, to change scene along with the characters in the virtual reality environment.

In this moodboard I have created I picked films and comics that might be reliable to get some inspiration for our project since they all involve anthropomorphic birds with emotions and expressions proper of human beings. They are the following:

• Angry birds: it previously was a video game which was then adapted into a film and a tv series. The most inspiring aspect is that they took inspiration for their character designs from existing birds using their features to exaggerate and amply them into they cartoon adaptation. The Yellow Angry Bird, for instance, is an American Goldfinch.  In the game, it’s special ability is to have sudden short bursts of speed. 
• Finding nemo, in this Disney movie, they are portrayed as greedy, single-minded eating machines who only shout one word: “Mine!”. Seagulls briefly appears also in the prequel “Finding Dory”. Similar to the seagulls in the film, seagulls in real life are also known for being a very opportunistic bird that will approach people trying to obtain their food in urban locations. They can also be aggressive when trying to obtain food, so in some places feeding these birds is not only discouraged, but also illegal. This is an aspect we wanted to add income of the comedy sketches we are writing to include in the narrative. The seagulls’ design is based on Feathers McGraw, the antagonist penguin from the Wallace and Gromit short “The Wrong Trousers”.
• Rio, in this film the main character Blu is a completely domesticated – and flightless – bird who has lived his entire life indoors, so he has strongly human features and behaviour and his knowledge over what humans study comes to help in a few scenes to help solve problems he encounters; since he has never lived with other birds his movements can be an inspiration for our Animation process considering they would be more “human like”.
• Spies in disguise, in both this film and Rio the Character designer Sang Jun Lee worked in these two projects here he contributed in the character design process for the birds, so conducting a research over his work would be very useful. The three other pigeons which don’t talk differently from the character dabbed by Will Smith represent different aspects of pigeons: as the Directors say themselves “Crazy Eyes is like that gnarly pigeon that you see in the city eating garbage (which can be inspirational for one of ours Seagull characters). Lovey is those cuddly ones that you see huddled up on the top of rooftops and Fanboy is the one that you see always following somebody else so they each represent a type of pigeon.” This process was very useful in order to differentiate them from the human character trapped in the pigeon body. Crazy Eyes is distinguished by his unfocused green and blue eye which is a feature that may work for one of our seagulls the childlike looking one.
• Joshua Barkman comics of seagulls; obviously I have also include the comics on which this project is based on which is “False knees” I especially gathered these sketches including seagulls since their will be useful to generate some ideas for sketches that we are going to write for the narrative; what is useful is the dynamic of this jokes: there is always a clever seagull talking to a more clumsy seagull and the difference between them is what create the comedy and make people laugh, which is what we want to achieve.

We wanted to include in the storyline both seaside and city environments since that nowadays seagulls can be easily found in both. Brighton is the ideal place to set our narrative: it has the seaside side where it can be difficult to eat in peace since you always have to be on alert because a seagull may appear from nowhere and steal you food (idea for a sketch) and it also has the city environment where is easy to find them peaking from the garbage (starting from this I thought that a funny idea may be to create a sketch where they have a “Lady and the Tramp” kind of situation where they have a dinner outside of a restaurant eating some garbage from that same restaurant and ending up find themselves slurping up the same long noodle for instance.

Next step was starting working on the characters design and concepts to use to after model the seagulls to include in the virtual reality environment. I started by using some real life reference pictures and carrying out a study of the main pictures of this intriguing animals. As I noted in this picture beneath, I have noticed that they tend to a have a quite flat head, their neck is quite thick, their eyes are small and mean and kind of soulless (ready to attack), their beak is sharp, they have grey wings and a big body which can be stylised into a half circle when I draw its structure I even noticed that on their body they don’t have very defined feathers; the legs are characterised by very pronounced knees and thin legs.

So starting from real life I started to stylise and draw some characters ideas using the outcome of my observation and their “normal” actions and expressions. I also included some sketches involving some expression that I may take in consideration for the final characters.

I After tried to create a more precise characterisation for our main two characters based also on “false knees” seagulls personalities and the outcome of the moodboard as well as the study on features proper of seagulls:

He is characterised by a really flat head and his distinctive feature is his eyes which are unfocused and of different dimensions, he has a slightly bigger body and paws.

This second seagull on the other hand, has a more “pointy” head (pointing out the fact that he has a brain, smaller body and paws and his eyes are more expressive and “active”.

I thought it might be useful to create an expressions concept for both seagulls since eyes and eyebrows are essential to interpret characters feeling and better understand and defining their personality as well.

Comedy genre

The comedy genre humorously exaggerates the situation, the language, action, and characters. Comedies observe the deficiencies, frustrations of life, providing fun and a momentary escape from day-to-day life. Comedy is a performance of light and humorous character with a happy or cheerful ending which may also lead the audience to reflect on serious life matters. Just like Joshua Barkman does in his comics, by taking every day circumstances for the animals we see around us in urban areas, like raccoons, rabbits, and various species of birds, and applies absurdly humorous conversations or thoughts adding a degree of seriousness to them but using comedy lighten them. 

Comedies usually come in two general formats: comedian-led (with well-timed gags, jokes, or sketches), which resembles more with Joshua Barkman’s comics, and situation-comedies that are told within a narrative.

Even though comedy is aimed for making people laugh another aspect of it is to make people reflect and has a degree of seriousness in it as if the division between them becomes blurred. Humour can be considered as a copying mechanism a way to express serious subjects but with the excuse of keeping it light.

Comedy Duos

“I think the thing that people love about double acts is it reminds them of their two best mates down the pub, or the relationship they have with their best mate,” Dominic Wood.

A comic duo in theatre and cinema indicates two actors where they comedy act relies on their asymmetric relationship (meaning they look different from the way they look to the way they act) which is intended to stress their differences in a grotesque way. They do tend to have some common features: they usually have the same age and they share the same ethnicity and profession, however their sketch usually highlights their differences especially referred to their personalities.

In cases of comedy duos one of the two comedians (once the leading comedian) impersonates the strong, volitional figure, and is depicted as a serious, reasonable and totally reliable person, while the other (usually the shoulder) is painted as a often rude figure, unintelligent or coarse, however funny and comical to excess for the hesitancy and embarrassment shown within the gag or sketch staged. The comic actor who plays the ‘serious’ role within the couple, must not necessarily be devoid of a sense of humour. In fact, often the laughter is aroused by the reply of this actor to a joke provided by the shoulder.

• Lauren and Hardy

One of the earliest duos to find success, Laurel and Hardy were a study in contrasts in many ways. They began working as a duo on-screen so early their first films were all silent shorts. However, their career carried on for decades, delighting fans of slapstick humour and helping to bring the comedy duo as a concept to the big screen. They made more than 100 comedies together, with Laurel playing the bumbling and innocent foil to the pompous Hardy.

• Totò e Peppino

They were one of the most well known Italian comedy duos in one of their films “Totò, Peppino e i fuorilegge” (1956) they even pay a tribute to Lauren and Hardy since its plot follows the one from Lauren and Hardy’s film “Sons of the desert” (1933). They were two actors from Naples when they were making movies together in the duo Totò was the lead and Peppino the shoulder: Totò had a really expressive range of facial movements and Peppino had a face of good-natured person.

• Lillo e Greg

Lillo and Greg are one of the most loved and talented contemporary comedy couples in Italy: an irresistible duo that for years has held the bar on TV, at the cinema, in music and on radio. Greg shoulder Lillo has the leading role. However the two roles in this case are not the traditional ones because the comical aspect of Lillo is very accentuated his role as a victim. 

• Shrek and Donkey

In Animation this Comic duo is one of the most famous among the animation movies: Shrek being the hero is grumpy and hot-tempered, but is also caring and brave and Donkey has some annoying traits, flightiness and occasional cowardliness, however he is a good-natured, golden-hearted, sweet, and euphoric character. He is a deeply caring and loyal friend who will stick by his best friends side and be supportive of them through thick and thin, especially Shrek. What makes them work so good together is they very different personalities but also the fact that they are both outcasts at first.

This week we had our first meeting as a group, where we established our role within the projects and the concept behind it. We first confronted the two briefs from both courses (MA 3D Computer Animation and MA Virtual Reality) and we shared some ideas on the narrative of the project since we know that it should be structured as an immersive group media prototype based on an adaptation of a cartoon which in our case would be the comic “False knees” by Joshua Barkman. We after agreed before our next week weekly meeting we should research into the comedic genre and will argue how this genre reflects in our adaptation through the characters, storytelling, content, design, technique and style. The author often features creatures found in Ontario, such as squirrels, birds, racoons, however we are going to include in the virtual reality environment some Seagulls since they are notoriously considered to be as an aggressive species of birds and many animations are featuring them, moreover the author has made some comic sketches we could use to get some inspiration create our own sketches and puns.

Us from the MA 3D Computer Animation will work on both the characters, the seagulls, and environment concept, development, modeling, rigging and texturing and the members from the Virtual Reality course will work on the development of the virtual reality environment first concentrating on the script writing in Unity showing us also how it would work (we planned a session were they would show us how to “move” within this environment to to get a better understanding on how to include the 3D models in it. We are all included in the research of the comedic genre. I think that the collaboration within this two fields can be very interesting and that all together we can archive something innovative and original.

I will try to find some examples of previous animations including seagulls or birds in general to get inspiration from as well as reading some comedy sketches from the author itself so that I can create a mood-board out of it. We agreed that the narrative should include two main seagulls with distinctive personalities since that in comedy genre a “duet” dynamics is really functional such as the famous comedic duo of Laurel and Hardy where Laurel would play the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy’s pompous bully features. The person playing and having the control in the virtual reality environment word be living the experience in first person impersonating an actual bird witnessing the puns next to the other birds at their same levels.

Esme and I tried to think of some narrative coming up with the script involving the two birds in different environments: we thought of some plot set in the city of Brighton since we can the seaside and the pier settings as well as the city one were in the last few years has been largely populated by seagulls. We are also going to create some storyboards and animations out of it to better visualise our Animation Process. We thought that also some PreVis animation and scene settings planning may help for the visualisation process and to see how it would work within the environment of VR.

In our meeting we agreed on sharing all our ideas on a platform to get the update from everyone’s development which is Miro a digital whiteboard that makes it easy to collaborate with others. The software allows you to create notes and designs, move things around, and communicate through embedded video calls or online chats.

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOTsXnB8=/?invite_link_id=529926724090

Esme and I, since we are from the same course and will work on similar tasks for this project, we thought it might be useful to have a pallet page to share our progress.

https://padlet.com/esmeduncan99/kc04ozilhwg9bs8q