Technique Arms The Imagination Developing An Acting Theory Best Suited For Motion Capture Performance And The Creation Of A Virtual Character

“The untrained body, like the sculptor\u27s marble, can express nothing but its own limitations” (Lust 70). As acting styles have changed through the years, corresponding schools of thought have arisen to prepare performers for their unique challenges. Perhaps the goal of producing a “gripping performance,” one in which the audience is truly invested, has remained the same since the time of Thespis. How one arrives at this desired result, however, has varied greatly through the ages. Techniques, not surprisingly, tend to build on previous theories, beliefs and practices. Étienne Decroux’s corporeal mime technique builds on the teachings of Jacques Copeau, but as a result, takes the art form into a radically new direction. Vsevolod Meyerhold studied with Stanislavski, learning his inside-out approach to performance, and, with biomechanics, creates a performance technique that turns Stanislavski’s approach on its head. The point is not that these theorists developed something that undermines the previous work, but that they built their theories from knowledge of older techniques. In essence, these theorists learned from the past to prepare for the future. Advancements in film technology have dramatically changed both the nature of film, and performance, itself. Computer-generated characters and environments are becoming more commonplace in film due to the flexibility they provide in composing shots, and the relatively low price tag that comes with them. Technology still can’t replace the subtlety that comes from a human performance, so currently, actors find themselves in the unique position of having one foot in the real world and the other foot in the virtual world. The motion-capture process, or moCap, is the best example of this unique relationship. By placing sensors at key joints on an actor’s body, their performance can be tracked by a computer and then directly applied to a computer-generated model (Hooks 30). In a iv sense, it’s digital puppetry. Because only the movements are being recorded and not the actor’s physical appearance, performers can play parts that are not necessarily their physical type or even their own species. Director Peter Jackson cast Andy Serkis to play a forty-foot-tall ape in the 2005 remake of King Kong, and thanks to the motion-capture process, the result is a perfect blend of live acting and computer-generated graphics. The relatively low cost and flexibility of this process has made it available, not just to filmmakers in Hollywood, but also to the independent market. I am currently directing a feature length film that utilizes both computergenerated backgrounds and virtual characters accomplished through the motion-capture process. This production has been in the works since I started graduate school. As I learn more and more about specific acting techniques in class, I am always looking for something that I could apply specifically to motion-capture performance. Currently there is little research on the topic and certainly, there’s no specific acting theory that applies to this medium. In this paper I hope to formulate an acting technique that is tailored for the field of motion-capture performance, building upon theories of the past. Further study in this technique will better prepare future performers in this field, as well as provide insights for directors new to the medium. The following three techniques in particular, each with their emphasis on an outside-in approach to acting, will provide the basis for this theory: Meyerhold’s biomechanics; Decroux’s corporeal mime; and Edward Gordon Craig’s uber-marionette concept. I will provide detailed sections on each one of these approaches, discussing the theoretical sides of each, as well as specific exercises students in these schools are asked to perform. Next, I will provide a detailed section on the motion-capture process, discussing how it works and the challenges it presents to performers. Finally I will apply each one of the three theories to the motion-capture process, v finding points where the theories apply and also where they fall short. By choosing specifically what applies to the moCap process from each one of the techniques, we will be left with a new theory that specifically relates to virtual performance. This will not only serve as an invaluable guide to both future performers and directors entering the field of motion capture, but will hopefully be the beginnings of an acting theory that can bring performance education programs into the 21st century. Working in the virtual realm requires a performer to use his imagination, but having training and knowledge in theories of the past will mean the imagination is not the only thing actors have to work with

The Animator: The 26th Society for Animation Studies Annual Conference Toronto June 16 to 19, 2014

The 2014 Society for Animation Studies conference hosted by Sheridan College was from June 16 - 19, 2014. As Animation Studies continues to develop as a discipline, the dialogue that has opened up between more traditional academic research into the field and what we might call ‘industry-facing’ or applied research has become more important. The critical study of animation from within higher education institutions like Sheridan represents one of the many areas in which the industry can grow. Every SAS conference has its own distinct tone and flavour because we are truly international in our membership and we devolve conference organization annually to the host institution. This means that this year’s conference is strongly allied to Sheridan’s industry focus – not least with Corus warmly welcoming conference goers to their HQ for parts of the conference. SAS provides such a welcoming environment for new members, and a terrific forum to discuss animation from a multitude of perspectives. It is within this fertile and nurturing atmosphere that we decided to focus our conference on the animation artist. As a tribute to all artists whose efforts fuel our work, and in the spirit of the centenary of celebrated National Film Board of Canada animator, Norman McLaren, the 2014 SAS Conference is named “The Animator”. Keynote speakers included Scott Dyer, Executive Vice President, Strategic Planning and Chief Technology Officer, Corus Entertainment Charile Bonifacio, Animator, Arc Productions Ltd, Canada Professor Paul Wells, Director of the Animation Academy Loughborough University, UK Michael Fukushima, Executive Producer of NFB’s English Animation Studio National Film Board of Canada Panel Discussions McLaren Legacy Panel: The Centenary Year - Nichola Dobson, Terence Dobson, Kaj Pindal Stop Motion, From Local Community Members - Chris Walsh, Bret Long, Nora Keely, Mark Mayerson Conference Twitter account: @AnimatorSAS2014https://source.sheridancollege.ca/conferences_anim/1000/thumbnail.jp

The Quest for Life and Intelligence in Digital Puppets.

Performers and artists wishing to make collaborative improvisations using three-dimensional computer graphics will encounter the following difficulty: the animation process lacks the functionality required for spontaneous, serendipitous, real-time interaction. While human motion capture makes such real-time interaction and the corresponding spontaneity possible, it lacks the expressivity required for non-realistic characterisation. My practice-based research study proposes digital puppetry as a solution to this problem. My focus is on credibility as opposed to realism: the expectation is that the characters will behave in a puppet-like manner as opposed to manifesting the aesthetics – in terms of both movement and visual design – found in human actor-based motion capture and three- dimensional animated cartoons. The practical element is motivated by three imperatives: to improvise, to collaborate and to perform live. The primary question this study sets out to answer is: Is it possible to achieve the same spontaneity and animation[1] in digital puppets as it is with tangible puppets and, if so, what are the mechanisms involved? Unable to find a three-dimensional computer graphics digital puppetry software and hardware solution, I have devised what I call the GLOPPID[2] method, where GLOPPID is an acronym for Goniometric[3] Live Organic Performance Puppetry Improvisation Digitalia. The GLOPPID method comprises an artistic approach and a practical solution in the form of a Human Digital Puppetry Interface. It uses off-the-shelf three-dimensional computer animation software, which I have incorporated into a pipeline customised to suit my creative process. This pipeline is configured to transform ready-made computer graphics models into digital puppets that can be used as collaborators, thereby allowing the performer to experience the same kind of spontaneity as is possible in physical puppet performance. My thesis asserts that it is possible to improvise with digital puppets, and I have devised my own solution in order to do this. I argue that the real-time, improvised manipulation of digital puppets offers creatively advantageous opportunities for spontaneity and expressivity. My research presents the technique of digital puppetry as an expansion of what I call the pro- puppetry thesis – the idea that puppets have dramatic advantages over human actors. It also contributes to the ontological discourses surrounding the Human-Machine Interface (HMI), trans-embodiment, the post-human, the illusion of life, and cybernetics. In addition, it explores how algorithms can be used in the arts, particularly in performance (see Kleber & Trojanowska 2019, p.101). It makes a timely contribution to the pool of knowledge, because I see digital puppets as zeitgeists – apt vehicles for human hopes and fears surrounding the digital and existential angst that is part of the fabric of 21st-century life. The professional digital puppetry practice undertaken and discussed in this study requires both general, transferable human-machine interacting skills, and the specific digital puppetry skills necessary for project phases such as rigging and manipulation. This practical approach prioritises the physical, as opposed to the psycho-physical. Informed by the theories and practice of human dramatic technique practitioners such as Decroux and Lecoq, it takes the basic building blocks of movement identifiable in the segmented anatomy and rotational articulations of the actor-as-puppet, rod, glove and string puppets, and configures them in their digital counterpart in order to accentuate the odd by means of atypical combinations, economy of motion, and asymmetry. My approach is underpinned by the idea that a puppet is uninhibited or influenced by its own ego, backstory, or emotions. Nevertheless, these properties are present in a channeled, and therefore changed, form that emanates from the Human in the Loop, namely, the digital puppeteer. In digital puppetry, the protagonist is a digital puppet operated by a human who is embedded at the core of the activity, and who simultaneously witnesses their own emotional responses as they are acted out in front of them. My work demonstrates that non-realistic, expressive approaches to movement performance derived from human physical theatre techniques (including theatre clowning), combined with the use of algorithm-assisted techniques of rigging and manipulation, mean that the puppets are not under the complete control of their puppeteers. Instead, their rogue nature and irrationality enables digital puppets to satirise and subvert notions surrounding computer-generated imagery and artificial general intelligence, while avoiding exile in the “uncanny valley” (Mori 1970). In this study the term puppet is used both literally and metaphorically. Deployed literally, puppet refers to a figure or object that is manipulated in real time in the presence of a puppeteer, in both tangible and intangible material formats. The term is used metaphorically in the sense that a puppet can be seen as an analogue of a human being that acts as a mirror, reflecting aspects of the human condition or predicament. My work expands upon an understanding of the quest for ‘life’ in physical puppets and the corresponding development of their ur-narrative – as described by Kohler & Jones (2009, p.346) – and extends this to include digital puppets. By combining the concept of this quest with Rokeby’s idea of technology as a “prosthetic of philosophy” (2019, p.107) and with the notion of art as a mirror, I explore how distinctive features present in digital puppetry practice can be used to express truths about being human. The work employs a practice-as-research methodology that provides moments for reflection during the creative process, and reflection on the creative outcomes: reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. The thesis can be expressed in the form of the following formula: Extemporising with puppets + the ur-narrative of puppets + art as a mirror + technology as a mirror = a pro-digital-puppetry thesis on HMI, AGI + what it is to be human [1] The term animation used here refers not to the techniques of incremental, frame-by-frame posing of characters, but to the act of bringing them to life. [2] ‘Gloppid’ is also the name of a glove-puppet character invented for an ecologically-based travelling show performed during the 1980s (Childs 1988). [3] Goniometric refers to the measurement of the range of motion in a joint

TRANSFORMING THE BEAST: THE THEATRE LABORATORIES OF THE “DISNEY RENAISSANCE” 1984-1994

This study investigates the ways that theatre professionals brought significant changes to the Walt Disney Company, from 1984-1994, in a period affectionately referred to, in popular discourses, as the “Disney Renaissance.” These individuals, including Peter Schneider, Linda Woolverton, Howard Ashman, Alan Menken, Bob McTyre, Ron Logan, Rob Roth, Matt West, Stan Meyer, and others came from Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theatres, and local theatres, and represented a wide-cross section of theatrical disciplines, including production management, stage management, playwrighting, musical theatre, producing, directing, choreography, and design. In their respective Company divisions, such as animation and theme parks, they worked to transform their area of the corporation into theatre laboratories, where a series of experiments occurred. These tests challenged the lines of demarcation between theatre, animation, and theme park mediums, between the individual and the collective, between marginalization and the mainstream, and between spectatorship and participation. In 1994, these efforts culminated in the production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. Through a combination of archival evidence and interviews with the surviving subjects listed above, my findings demonstrate a direct link between their theatrical knowledge and practices to the rapid growth and unprecedented financial, popular, and critical success, which the Walt Disney Company enjoyed during this era. Written in a year of Covid-19, when the American theatre industry was decimated, this dissertation tells the stories of theatre makers who, over thirty years ago, ventured into the non-theatrical contexts of Disney and transformed the culture, values, and ways of doing things at the large Company, making it a more collaborative, more empathetic, more innovative, and bolder place than it was before. In this way “Transforming the Beast” refers not only to the pivotal moment of Beauty and the Beast in on film, the theme park stage, or Broadway, but the value of theatrical knowledge in transforming a large entity like Disney to do better as a business, as a creative space, and as a collective of people

Coraline

Coraline (Henry Selick, 2009) is stop-motion studio LAIKA's feature-length debut based on the popular children's novel by British author Neil Gaiman. Heralding a revival in global interest in stop-motion animation, the film is both an international cultural phenomenon and a breakthrough moment in the technological evolution of the craft. This open access collection brings together an international group of practitioners and scholars to examine Coraline’s place in animation history and culture, dissect its politics, and unpack its role in the technological and aesthetic development of its medium. More broadly, it celebrates stop motion as a unique and enduring artform while embracing its capacity to evolve in response to cultural, political, and technological changes, as well as shifting critical and audience demands. Divided into three sections, this volume’s chapters situate Coraline within an interconnected network of historical, industrial, discursive, theoretical, and cultural contexts. They place the film in conversation with the medium’s aesthetic and technological history, broader global intellectual and political traditions, and questions of animation reception and spectatorship. In doing so, they invite recognition – and appreciation – of the fact that Coraline occupies many liminal spaces at once. It straddles the boundary between children’s entertainment and traditional ‘adult’ genres, such as horror and thriller. It complicates a seemingly straight(forward) depiction of normative family life with gestures of queer resistance. Finally, it marks a pivotal point in stop-motion animation’s digital turn. Following the film’s recent tenth anniversary, the time is right to revisit its production history, evaluate its cultural and industry impact, and celebrate its legacy as contemporary stop-motion cinema’s gifted child. As the first book-length academic study of this contemporary animation classic, this volume serves as an authoritative introduction and a primary reference on the film for scholars, students, practitioners, and animation fans. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com

Coraline

Coraline (Henry Selick, 2009) is stop-motion studio LAIKA's feature-length debut based on the popular children's novel by British author Neil Gaiman. Heralding a revival in global interest in stop-motion animation, the film is both an international cultural phenomenon and a breakthrough moment in the technological evolution of the craft. This open access collection brings together an international group of practitioners and scholars to examine Coraline’s place in animation history and culture, dissect its politics, and unpack its role in the technological and aesthetic development of its medium. More broadly, it celebrates stop motion as a unique and enduring artform while embracing its capacity to evolve in response to cultural, political, and technological changes, as well as shifting critical and audience demands. Divided into three sections, this volume’s chapters situate Coraline within an interconnected network of historical, industrial, discursive, theoretical, and cultural contexts. They place the film in conversation with the medium’s aesthetic and technological history, broader global intellectual and political traditions, and questions of animation reception and spectatorship. In doing so, they invite recognition – and appreciation – of the fact that Coraline occupies many liminal spaces at once. It straddles the boundary between children’s entertainment and traditional ‘adult’ genres, such as horror and thriller. It complicates a seemingly straight(forward) depiction of normative family life with gestures of queer resistance. Finally, it marks a pivotal point in stop-motion animation’s digital turn. Following the film’s recent tenth anniversary, the time is right to revisit its production history, evaluate its cultural and industry impact, and celebrate its legacy as contemporary stop-motion cinema’s gifted child. As the first book-length academic study of this contemporary animation classic, this volume serves as an authoritative introduction and a primary reference on the film for scholars, students, practitioners, and animation fans. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com

2016-2017 Course Catalog

2016-2017 Course Catalo

2013-2014 Course Catalog

2013-2014 Course Catalo

2015-2016 Course Catalog

2015-2016 Course Catalo

2012-2013 Course Catalog

2012-2013 Course Catalo