Introduction
From today I will start to write my graduation thesis. I was very excited when I said that, because in the last course I found that writing a thesis can give me a lot of new knowledge.
Process
Luke asked us to send him the subject of our choice. I think I prefer to study animation now, and I was influenced by this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dga-UqdBR8&list=PL_gkozPbnygDLYPxMH8F9ZVi9ETa_vV0R&index=14
So I want to study the influence of character’s personality on animation.
In the end, his reply to me was:
Your topic is a good one however I think the title needs some work. Maybe something like “How character affects performance within animation”. The main bulk of your research can be looking in to the different elements of a characters personality and how this will change the animation to portray this. The costume, the back story, the hair, any scars, the scene scale, if this a stylised character, is it mythological. All this comes in to play when designing a characters personality in its animation. Another good example other than zootopia is kung fu panda. You have a panda which usually walks on four legs, walking on two. He also is larger than all the other animals when in reality pandas are smaller than lions etc. he also is able to move fast which again Pandas do not do. All these traits have been thought through long before the film even begun production. This is the sort of thing you can research. The design of a character and its reflection of personality through animation. That c ould be the title for the thesis even.
I think Luke’s suggestion is particularly cool, and it provides me with more research directions. However, after a long time, I found that I wanted to study game animation more than cinematic animation. I wanted to change my theme, so I asked Luke again. Even though he was no longer my tutor at that time, he still answered patiently. Up my question.
So the topic of my thesis is roughly decided, how characters perform in game animation, this is just a temporary name. Probably I want to study what a good game animation is like and how the game characters should perform.
The next step is to practice! I reviewed Lawrence’s four thesis courses again, learned the detailed format and specific content of the thesis, and took notes. To be honest, it was a bit confusing. The following is a useful website that I recorded in the PPT, even if I didn’t use it. In the thesis, I can also learn a lot of knowledge:
https://www.citethisforme.com/citation-generator/harvard
https://www.theanimationblog.com/
https://www.disneyanimation.com/publications/?
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/animation/
https://grizandnorm.tumblr.com/
https://www.creativebloq.com/
https://animateprojectsarchive.org/writing
Thanks to YU, she shared her notes with me! Thank her very much!
Conclusion
Now that I have a topic and know how to write a thesis, I should start looking up materials next! Here I want to thank Luke. Although he is no longer my tutor, he has let me gain a lot of animation knowledge in the MA course. His patience has improved my animation skills quickly. I also hope that I can become an excellent and patient animator like him.