Computer-generated Animation Research Articles

Development and preliminary evaluation of a tele-rehabilitation exercise system using computer-generated animation.

To evaluate the safety and acceptability of a newly developed tele-rehabilitation exercise system using computer-generated animation. The participants comprised a convenience sample of 38 diverse individuals in Experiment 1 (15 healthy young people, 16 healthy older people, 5 patients with stroke, and 2 patients with respiratory disease) and 18 healthy older individuals in Experiment 2. Experiment 1 assessed safety in terms of cardiopulmonary vascular aspects and risk of fall, and Experiment 2 assessed treatment acceptability via a subjective evaluation. All participants completed the same exercise program. The safety assessment was conducted using heart rate (HR) and saturation of percutaneous oxygen (SpO2), measured before and after exercise. In addition, the occurrence of falls was assessed. For the acceptability assessment, the participants answered five questions (three-point Likert scale) after the exercise program. The safety assessment indicated that HR and SpO2 changed from 70.5±10.2 beats per minute and 97.8±1.3% before exercise to 87.6±13.6 beats per minute and 98.2±0.9% after exercise, respectively. In addition, all participants completed the exercises without experiencing any falls. In the acceptability assessment, the score reflecting continuation desire was the highest of the five items examined (2.71±0.46). In contrast, the adequacy of exercise intensity had the lowest score (1.29±0.57). The present system was confirmed to be safe, and the participants were motivated to continue the exercises. Future developments should incorporate a function to enable participants and medical staff to adjust exercise intensity according to individual physical function.

Accepting Human-like Avatars in Social and Professional Roles

Humans report perceptions of unease or eeriness as humanoid/android robots and digital avatars approach human-like physical resemblance, a phenomenon alluded by the Uncanny Valley theory. This study extends the discussions on interactions and acceptance of digital avatars with findings from three experiments. In the first, perceptive evaluation of actors in clips from computer-generated animation and a live-action version of the same movie was examined. In the second experiment, we considered short clips with highly realistic digital avatars to measure recognition ability, the extent of eeriness, and specific physical features identified as unreal. The fixation area and pupil size variation recorded using an eye tracker were analyzed to infer attention to the body, face, and emotional response, respectively. Building on these findings, the third experiment looked at acceptance in roles requiring human skill, empathy, and cognitive ability. The results show that based on perceptions from physical attributes, the eeriness scores diverge from the uncanny valley theory as human-likeness increases. The realistic CGI and mocap technology could have helped cross the valley. Visual attention inferred from gaze behavior was similar for live-action and CGI. At the same time, we observe pupil size changes reflecting emotions like eeriness when the avatars either talked or smiled. Proficiency and acceptance scores were lower for roles requiring complex social cognition processes, such as friends and judicial decision-making. Interestingly, real-life stereotypes of gender roles were transferred to digital avatars too. The findings suggest an ambiguity in accepting human-like avatars in social and professional interactions, emphasizing the need for a multi-dimensional approach when applying the uncanny valley theory. A detailed and contextual examination is imperative as technological advancements have placed humans closer to co-existing with digital or physical android/humanoid robots.

Technology on trial: facilitative and prejudicial effects of computer-generated animations on jurors’ legal judgments

ABSTRACT The current study explored how a computer-generated animation (CGA) illustrating a defendant’s version of events affected jurors’ judgments in a mock second-degree murder trial. We hypothesized that mock jurors who viewed a CGA illustrating the defendant’s testimony would be more likely to acquit compared to those who viewed static visual images or did not view a visual aid, and that this effect would occur regardless of whether the narrative depicted in the CGA was corroborated by pertinent testimonial evidence. In this 2 (testimony congruence: incongruent vs. congruent) x 3 (testimony modality: no-aid vs. static visual aid vs. computer-generated animation) between-subjects design, undergraduate students (N = 238) read a transcript from a fictitious trial and heard the defendant’s testimony in one of three modalities. Across congruence conditions, participants were significantly more likely to acquit the defendant when his testimony was accompanied by a CGA (OR = 5.08), compared to a static visual aid or with no-aid. Our results suggest that CGAs may have a disproportionate impact on jurors’ judgments compared to traditional forms of demonstrative evidence. Whether this impact is facilitative or prejudicial, however, depends on whether the content of the animation is congruent or incongruent with other case evidence.

Assessment of technology integration based on patent analysis — Three archetypal case studies: Computer generated animation, regenerative medicine and computer tomography

We introduce a method to assess whether a technology fits into one of three integrative concepts, analogous to those applied to academic research, namely mono-, multi- or inter-disciplinarity. This is achieved by identifying the main International Patent Classification codes allocated to a given technology, here referred to as a collection of patents, and by measuring the interconnections of those patents through citation network analysis. We have tested the potential applicability of the procedure with three case studies: ”Computer-generated animation” technology, “Regenerative Medicine” technology, and “Computerized Tomography”. The scientific contribution of our work is to provide a methodological framework and corresponding indicators for decision-makers and historians of technology to assess how interdisciplinary a technology is at a certain interval of time.

Vection induced by low-level motion extracted from complex animation films.

This study examined the contributions of low-, mid- and high-level visual motion information to vection. We compared the vection experiences induced by hand-drawn and computer-generated animation clips to those induced by versions of these movies that contained only their pure optic flow. While the original movies were found to induce longer and stronger vection experiences than the pure optic flow, vection onsets were not significantly altered by removing the mid- and high-level information. We conclude that low-level visual motion information appears to be important for vection induction, whereas mid- and higher-level display information appears to be important for sustaining and strengthening this vection after its initial induction.

Costume Designer/Everything: Hybridized Identities in Animation Production

Costume Designer/Everything:Hybridized Identities in Animation Production Lauren Boumaroun (bio) As the oft-repeated mantra of costume designers goes: successful costumes are invisible. A costume designer's goal is to create costumes that seem like natural extensions of the character and blend seamlessly with the story world, calling attention to themselves only in service of the narrative or director's visual style. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule, but generally costumes are meant to go unnoticed by the audience. Consequently, the designers often go unnoticed by the audience as well. This paradox of invisibility that plagues costume designers magnifies when the costumes are digitally mediated and no longer appear as real clothing, as in an animated film or television show. But if the costumes are not real, is a costume designer even necessary? The short answer is yes, a costume designer is always necessary. Audiences make assumptions about characters based on their appearance, and "before an actor speaks, his wardrobe has already spoken for him."1 In many regards, the clothes are the character. They cannot be chosen thoughtlessly—they must be an external representation of the character's interiority. Yet most animated films do not have a costume designer per se, at least not until the 2000s. With recent innovations in digital technology comes an unprecedented level of realism in animation, which has necessitated an equal level of verisimilitude in the look of the characters' clothes. For Disney's animated feature Frozen (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, US, 2013), art director Mike Giaimo called on designer Jean Gillmore to help him create costumes for the film's characters. As Gillmore explains it, the distortions that characterized hand-drawn animation were seen as "part of the charm of the original moving art." However, costumes in [End Page 7] computer-generated (CG) animation must appear real or they will be distracting. Garments with a "plastic quality" are "not acceptable to the human eye/brain, and a disconnect happens."2 Similarly, for the 2012 Pixar film Brave (Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, US), simulation supervisor Claudia Chung was in charge of all aspects of grooming, costuming, and shot simulation. Using real wigs and costumes, her team developed algorithms to mimic the natural movement of hair and clothing. Chung created digital patterns and, using Pixar's proprietary software, "sewed" them together so that they looked and moved realistically when animated on the characters. Chung's training is not in costume design but in computer science. She recalls bringing in a live-action costume designer for The Incredibles (Brad Bird, US, 2004) but found that "the concepts help but the process doesn't." The tricks and tools used by live-action designers to create costumes did not translate to digital construction, so the role has since been filled by Chung on Pixar films, including Ratatouille (Brad Bird, US, 2007) and Up (Pete Docter, US, 2009).3 While the contemporary digital media landscape has certainly increased the necessity for detailed, realistic costumes, the creation of real clothing for animated content is not an entirely new phenomenon. Early Disney films used rotoscoping, an animation technique that began in the 1940s and required live-action reference footage. Frame by frame, film was projected onto glass plates so the images could be traced by animators. Drawings were manipulated as necessary, but the live-action references enabled animators to create fluid movements that looked realistic.4 The reliance on filmed footage meant that live-action reference models needed to be dressed in the costumes of their animated counterparts. This is how they created Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, US, 1951). Eleven-year-old Kathryn Beaumont, who provided the voice for Alice, also served as a live-action model for the character. Wearing the signature blue dress, white apron, and long, blonde wig, Beaumont performed all of Alice's adventures for the camera and provided a foundation for the character's emotions and physicality.5 Even if nobody is credited for the work or referred to as a "costume designer," someone created costumes for those reference models to wear. And those costumes served as blueprints for the animated images in the finished product. The practice...

Review: Petra Cortright: Niki, Lucy, Lola, Viola, Ben Jones X 8 and Casey Reas: Linear Perspective

Petra Cortright: Niki, Lucy, Lola, Viola DEPART FOUNDATION LOS ANGELES JULY 9-SEPTEMBER 19, 2015 Ben Jones X 8 ACE GALLERY BEVERLY HILLS JULY 11-SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 Casey Reas: Linear Perspective CHARLIE JAMES GALLERY LOS ANGELES SEPTEMBER 5-OCTOBER 17, 2015 For the post-internet generation, using appropriated content is commonplace. The proliferation of images, sounds, texts, and fashions available online has come to be regarded as the subject matter of daily life and always there for reuse. In an interview with Marisa Olson for Rhizome.org, Christiane Paul remarked on the practice of many artists working in the digital medium: They may create online projects but they might also do object-based art, paintings or sculptures that are deeply informed by or use elements of the net or its language, which is what the term postinternet tries to capture.... (Sadly I now frequently see postinternet used as a catchy term for art made by anyone born roughly after 1985 or for a sensibility characterized by an uncomplicated reverence for fame and success.) (1) Post-internet has in many ways become a kind of catch-all phrase for artists working in the digital realm, or making mixed-media works from appropriated sources. This broad use of the term pushes it past the breaking point, where it becomes so open-ended as to be meaningless. A better definition of post-internet art is that it not only uses the internet as a point of departure, but that it is technology (software/computer) dependent. The work of Los Angeles-based artists Petra Cortright, Ben Jones, and Casey Reas can be examined in this light. All have recently created large-scale installations of projected imagery, and while their projects are conceptually and visually diverse, they are all aware of the importance of an immersive experience. Their use of software in creating an aesthetic aligned with the principles of abstraction also ties them together. The subject of Reas's installation Linear Perspective at Charlie James Gallery was the mass media: newspapers, broadcast television, and social networks. The title piece, Linear Perspective, is Reas's latest software-based work, an ever-mutating collection of images from the front page of the New York Times in 2015. In the digital age, what does the front-page photograph connote? In the printed edition, it refers to the image above the fold that is used to sell the paper. Reas repurposes and digitally manipulates one image each day that is representative of that day's headline news. In the darkened space, elongated digital brushstrokes emanate from a fixed point at the edge of a large wall, moving across it to create a shape reminiscent of a sideways funnel or an old-fashioned hearing aid. Each stroke reveals a new abstracted and distorted version of the original, and their accumulation will become a visual archive of the year. Reas adds to the work daily and plans to do so until the end of 2015. The silent computer-generated animation offers no critical or insightful perspective on the imagery or its content as it gracefully glides across the wall. Reas's custom software distorts the original rectangular shape of the source image, morphing it into a narrow wavy horizontal stroke. In two complementary monitor-based works, rather than use one image per day to represent a year, Reas created software-generated animations from all the images in a single day's edition. Titled Today's Ideology and accompanied by each edition's date (July 19, 2015) and (August 23, 20/5), these generative works cycle through the images, forming an ever-changing pattern of horizontal and diagonal brushstrokes or stripes. These pieces are Reas's first to use readable, recognizable, imagery. Also included in the exhibition were past works that used broadcast media as source material, transforming those signals into abstracted compositions. …

To infinity and back again

In 2011, Pixar Animation Studios released a short film that challenged the contemporary characteristics of digital animation. La Luna (Enrico Casarosa) marks a pivotal shift in Pixar's short film canon by displaying hand-drawn artwork and man-made textures. Widely considered the innovators of computer-generated animation, Pixar is now experimenting with 2D animation techniques and with textures that oppose the clean and polished look of mainstream American animation. This article aims to outline the significant technological developments that have facilitated an organic aesthetic by suggesting that nostalgia dictates a preference for a more traditional look. It will also argue that this process pioneered by Pixar has in turn influenced the most recent short films of Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Design in Motion: Introducing Science/Animation

As the joined yet distinct terms in our title indicate, this special issue seeks to foster dialogue across boundaries that often keep the fields, disciplines, and practices of science and animation separate. walls that separate scholars from makers and theorists from practitioners, that divide work in fields such as film studies and science studies from each other, and that isolate the sciences from the humanities are not respected in the messiness of real life and actual work. While collaboration often goes unrecognized within formal disciplinary or industrial practices, people in these areas depend on the work being done in the others, whether that work serves as the object of research, suggests new ways of imagining (and imaging) the future, or supplies new tools to bring those imaginings into being. We think it is time to create new avenues for revealing and translating the work that is done in these divided but not separate spheres.And we are not alone in recognizing this crossover. Discussions of visualization in news media and science journals regularly depict the scientist and the artist joined in a common task. Take, for example, a recent guide to visualization techniques published in the journal Nature. Its authors write that The spectrum of techniques that we briefly survey represents a broad and deep continuum in which scientific and artistic minds can unite to better engage audiences ranging from peers to students and from grant reviewers to the general public.1 But the crossover is also indicated in such trends as maker culture, whereby art/science projects regularly traverse multiple spheres, and film festivals, such as New York City's one-week Imagine Science Film Festival, now in its seventh year.2 Scientific visualizations are ubiquitous throughout our entertainment media landscape as well. Television programs ranging from House M.D. to specials on the National Geographic Channel regularly feature 3-D in which the camera penetrates into the body and moves through its interior spaces. Blockbuster films such as Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012) show bodies disintegrating to their molecular components, and video games such as Nano Assault propel the player through the body's veins in a chase to eradicate a killer virus.3 Filled with compositions created using digital paintbrushes, these visualizations approximate what a microscope capable of illuminating the 3-D structures and movement of microcellular components might reveal, if only such a machine existed.4 Such visualizations are not confined to the entertainment industries; they are also used for educational purposes, on pharmaceutical companies' websites to explain how drugs work, in medical apps for tablet computers, and in biology courses to convey understandings of cellular processes.5 Databases of such are easily accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.6Within newer digital forms of media, scientific get sutured seamlessly into live-action imaging, blurring the distinction between what the camera records and what a computer generates. integration of computer-generated animation techniques into most other forms of media, coupled with many scientists' reliance on computer modeling as a means of conducting research, has led to an increased blurring of the visual cultures of science and popular media. With the rise of big data as a mechanism for characterizing phenomena whose dimensions exceed human perceptual capabilities, animation has become even more integral to the practice of scientific visualization in the twenty-first century. Many of the resulting animations are not perceived as such in any traditional sense; instead, they are part of a complex media ecosystem where distinct separations between photographic, animated, and computational modes of representation cease to exist. These changes provoke questions that have not yet been sufficiently answered: How are computer-generated reshaping the practice of scientific research in the digital era? …

Behind the Scenes: A Study of Autodesk Maya

Automation lies at the centre of many debates surrounding computer-generated animation. Rarely used as a neutral term, it is frequently a marker of changing practices somehow outside the control of human users of technologies, often threatening the terms on which agency is founded. This understanding of automation and computer animation software can be complicated by insights from software studies. Accordingly, 3D animation software Autodesk Maya is explored through a methodology that places an analysis of the visual organization of the user interface alongside interviews with users of the software, in particular modellers and animators. Discussion of the interview material is framed through Noah Wardrip-Fruin’s ideas on expressive processing and Adrian Mackenzie’s account of software and agency. The argument put forward is that users experience the automation of software via their interactions with the user interface, and that inputs generated through human users and automation counterpoint rather eclipse each other.

2D 핸드 드로운 애니메이션과 3D 컴퓨터 애니메이션에서의 액팅(acting) 스타일 비교 -클로즈-업을 이용한 감정표현을 중심으로-

2000년대 초를 거치면서 리얼리티 기반의 컴퓨터 그래픽스의 발달과 함께 서구를 중심으로 메인스트림 장편 애니메이션은 핸드 드로운(hand-drawn) 방식에서 점차 3D 컴퓨터 그래픽스 사용으로 변화됐다. 전통적으로 드로잉 방식의 애니메이션은 원, 삼각형 등 단순한 형태로 추상화 된 캐릭터들의 독특한 움직임에서 다른 예술장르와 차별화되는 미적 고유성을 찾았다면, 컴퓨터의 사용은 그 움직임의 자동화 방식과 리얼리티 지향의 그래픽으로 인해 그와 같은 애니메이션의 미적 특성을 저해한다는 논란이 있어왔다. 3D 컴퓨터 그래픽스의 제작방식의 도입은 애니메이션의 액팅 스타일에도 많은 변화를 가져왔다. 우선 실제 인간의 운동 메커니즘과 유사한 리깅(rigging)방식을 보면 3D 캐릭터의 액팅 스타일의 변화를 추적해 볼 수 있다. 핸드 드로운 애니메이션의 경우 캐릭터의 머리카락, 옷 등은 소품이 아닌 캐릭터의 일부로써 액팅을 했다면, 이제 머리카락, 옷 등은 시뮬레이션 되기 때문에 애니메이터에겐 오직 캐릭터의 몸만이 액팅 대리물이 됐다. 다음으로 애니메이션의 특징이라 할 '스트레치 앤 스쿼시(stretch and squash)'의 과장된 움직임을 매체의 특성과 관련해 생각해 보면, 한 프레임씩 수작업으로 그려지는 바, 미세하게 나타나는 선의 떨림은 피할 수 없다. 이 떨림은 묘한 미적효과로도 기능하지만 동시에 이를 감추기 위해 과장된 움직임은 필연적인 것일 수도 있다. 이와 다르게 수학적인 움직임 계산으로 매끄러운 움직임의 표현이 가능한 소프트웨어의 사용은 다소 이분화 된 액팅 방식을 보인다. 기본적으로 사람과 같은 움직임에서 과장 된 제스처로 액팅하거나 또는 정적이며 절제된 동작으로 감정을 연기한다. 또한 z축의 깊이 공간을 추가되고 캐릭터를 직관적으로 움직임일 수 있는 컴퓨터 그래픽의 편리성은, 뛰어난 드로잉 아티스트를 넘어 뛰어난 연기 지도자가 될 것을 애니메이터에게 요구 한다. 특히 캐릭터의 감정표현과 관련해 디지털 테크놀로지의 새로운 표현양식은 애니메이터에게 액팅의 유형과 관련 넓은 선택을 제공한다. 이는 애니메이션에 있어 동작 위주의 액팅 스타일에서 내면적 감정 표현으로의 연기 영역의 확장을 의미한다. Around the turn of 21st century, there has been a major technological shift in the animation industry. With development of reality-based computer graphics, major American animation studios replaced hand-drawn method with the new 3D computer graphics. Traditional animation was known for its simplified shapes such as circles and triangle that makes characters' movements distinctive from non-animated feature films. Computer-generated animation has largely replaced it, but is under continuous criticism that automated movements and reality-like graphics devaluate the aesthetics of animation. Although hand-drawn animation is still produced, 3D computer graphics have taken commercial lead and there has been many changes to acting of animated characters, which calls for detailed investigation. Firstly, the changes in acting of 3D characters can be traced from looking at human-like rigging method that mimics humanistic moving mechanism. Also, if hair and clothing was part of hand-drawn characters' acting, it has now been hidden inside mathematical simulation of 3D graphics, leaving only the body to be used in acting. Secondly, looking at "Stretch and Squash" method, which represents the distinctive movements of animation, through the lens of media, a paradox arises. Hand-drawn animation are produced frame-by-frame, and a subtle change would make animated frames shiver. This slight shivering acts as an aesthetic distinction of animated feature films, but can also require exaggerated movements to hide the shivering. On the contrary, acting of 3D animation make use of calculated movements that may seem exaggerated compared to human acting, but seem much more moderate and static compared to hand-drawn acting. Moreover, 3D computer graphics add the third dimension that allows more intuitive movements - maybe animators no longer need fine drawing skills; what they now need is directing skills to animate characters in 3D space intuitively. On the assumption that technological advancement and change of artistic expressionism are inseparable, this paper compares acting of 3D animation studio Pixar and classical drawing studio Disney to investigate character acting style and movements.

Are the "Boys" at Pixar Afraid of Little Girls?

Abstract Christian Metz’s observation that "a film is difficult to explain because it is easy to understand" (69) appears particularly evident when one is teaching an undergraduate course on the animated feature films of Disney and Pixar. In a recent class taught in Chicago,1 many students were taken aback when they learned that the course involved historical, sociological, and theoretical framing and analysis. The students, it turned out, expected little more than discussions of the animated films’ plot events, some character and stylistic analysis, and the role of hand-drawn versus computer-generated (CG) animation in a film’s popular appeal. In addition, a refrain began to emerge--namely, "I love Disney films, but I never thought of them as being ideological." In some instances, I sensed a hint of disapproval that the course would subject Disney and Pixar to the kind of analysis that might require students to reevaluate much-loved films associated with cherished memories of childhood. I reiterated the argument I make every time I teach the course, best encapsulated by Giroux and Pollock, that the pleasures of scopophilia notwithstanding, "it is as important to comprehend and mitigate what gives us pleasure as it is to examine what elicits our disapproval" (xvi). I also make no apology for sharing those pleasures, however mitigated those may be by my own position as a film scholar (and as a parent).

Simulation for pre-visualizing and tuning lighting controller behavior

We present a computer graphics simulation framework to pre-visualize and tune the parameters of an advanced lighting controller for a given illuminated environment. The objective is to show that the simulation framework makes it easy for a user to predict the controller's behavior and modify it with minimal effort. Our methodology involves off-line pre-computation of lightmaps created from photorealistic rendering of the scene in several basis lighting configurations, and the subsequent combination of these lightmaps in a video game engine. We demonstrate our framework in a series of experiments in a simulation of a conference room currently under physical construction, showing how the controller can be easily modified to explore different lighting behaviors and energy use tradeoffs. The result of each experiment is a computer-generated animation of the lighting in a room over time from a single viewpoint, accompanied by estimated measurements of source input, light sensor output, and energy usage. A secondary objective is to match the simulation as closely as possible to a real physical environment with physical electric light sources and sensors. We demonstrate this calibration in a highly controlled lighting research environment, showing how measurements of source and sensor specifications enable the output of the virtual sensors in the simulation to match the outputs of real sensors in the physical room when applying the same control law in both cases. Our research is aimed at both lighting designers seeking to quantitatively predict real-world controller behavior, and control algorithm researchers seeking to visualize results and explore design tradeoffs in realistic use cases. Furthermore, these simulation tools can aid in the benchmarking of candidate daylighting and lighting control algorithms for a given space.

The Influence of Angle of View on Perceptions of Culpability and Vehicle Speed for a Computer-Generated Animation of a Road Traffic Accident

Some early research examining the use of computer-generated animation (CGA) in legal settings [e.g., Kassin, S., & Dunn, M.A. (1997). Computer-animated displays and the jury: facilitative and prejudicial effects. Law and Human Behaviour, 21, 269–281] has suggested that whilst this type of evidence can be beneficial, it can also exhibit a strong prejudicial effect upon estimations of plausibility and accuracy. To address these problems, Feigenson and Dunn propose a number of key areas for further exploration and this experiment examined the extent to which a different angle of view can affect people's perceptions of culpability [Feigenson, N., & Dunn, M.A. (2003). New visual technologies in court: directions for research. Law and Human Behaviour, 27, 109–126]. Results indicated that, when viewing an animated sequence depicting a two-vehicle automobile collision, the three viewpoints presented (overhead, facing and internal) had a significant impact upon these judgements. No differences were found for estimations of vehicle speed. The results suggest that caution should be taken when presenting such evidence in court to address the potential for CGA to bias judgements depending upon the angle of view presented.

Clinical assessment of freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease from computer-generated animation

The current ‘gold standard’ for clinical evaluation of freezing of gait (FOG) in Parkinson's disease (PD) is determination of the number of FOG episodes from video by independent raters. We have previously described a robust technique for objective FOG assessment from lower-limb acceleration. However, there is no existing method for validation of autonomous FOG measures in the absence of video documentation. In this study we compared the results of clinical evaluation of FOG from computer-generated animations (derived from body-mounted inertial sensors) during a timed up and go test with the ‘gold standard’ of clinical video assessment, utilizing a cohort of 10 experienced raters from four PD centers. Agreement between the 10 clinical observers for scoring of FOG from computer animations was more robust for the relative duration of freeze events (percent time frozen; intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.65) than number of FOG episodes, and was comparable with clinical evaluation of the patient from video (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.73). This result suggests that percent time frozen should be considered (along with number of FOG events) to better convey FOG severity. The ability of clinical observers to quantify FOG from computer-generated animation derived from lower-limb motion data provides a potential approach to validation of accelerometry-based FOG identification outside of the clinic.

Efficiency of aggressive and submissive visual displays against environmental motion noise in Jacky dragon (Amphibolurus muricatus)

Despite variations of environmental noise, signals are designed to be effective and conspicuous over an appreciable distance. In particular, visual signals must be perceptible against interference caused by natural elements, such as windblown vegetation. We examined the efficiency of aggressive and submissive displays to elicit behavioural responses from observers in the Jacky dragon (Amphibolurus muricatus) across relative environmental noise. Both displays have been reported to play an important role during social interactions in this species. We conducted two video playback experiments that utilised a high-resolution computer-generated lizard animation to produce social displays that were embedded within simulated windblown vegetation. First, we compared the efficiency a full aggressive display action pattern (comprised of a tail-flick, backward-forward arm wave, and push-up body rock) to a slow arm wave submissive display, against identical background of windblown vegetation. Second, we compared the tail-flick (alerting component) to the slow arm wave across three varying natural conditions, in which the vegetation behind the displays acted as simulated noise: calm, typical, and windy. We found that aggressive displays were more efficient to elicit an observer's response than submissive signals. Furthermore, the tail-flick display is more efficient than submissive displays across a range of natural variation in windblown vegetation movement, but both signals remain efficient in the face of environmental motion noise. Our results suggest that constraints from the environmental background scene play may have a critical role in the evolution of signal design used in Jacky dragon communication.

The influence of vehicle model and colour on assessments of speed and culpability: the case for (and against) Computer Generated Exhibits (CGE)

Computer Generated Exhibits (CGE) are frequently deployed in legal contexts under the rubric of demonstrative evidence, i.e. to facilitate juror comprehension. However, a number of legal and academic commentators have suggested that the nature of the computerised moving image could exert undue prejudice on decision makers, e.g. judge and/or jury. The current study aimed to assess the manipulation of vehicle characteristics (make and colour) when a road traffic accident was presented in the format of a computer generated animation (CGA). In experiment 1, two groups of subjects watched two different makes of car, a Range Rover Sport and a Volkswagen Touran in a black-and-white format; no significant differences emerged over vehicle model with regards to vehicle speed or overall responsibility for the accident. Experiment 2 presented the same vehicles to four groups of participants in full colour, with the cars in contrasting red or beige; significant differences emerged with regards to culpability for vehicle make only. The findings could have implications for the format and style of CGE used in legal settings.

Aesthetics and Design in Three Dimensional Animation Process

Since the end of the 20th century, animation techniques have been widely used in productions, advertisements, movies, commercials, credits, visual effects, and so on, and have become an indispensable part of the cinema and television. The fast growth of technology and its impact on all production industry has enabled computer-generated animation techniques to become varied and widespread. Computer animation techniques not only saves labour and money, but it also gives the producer the option of applying the technique in either two dimensional (2D) or three dimensional (3D), depending on the given time frame, scenario and content. In the 21st century cinema and television industry, computer animations have become more important than ever. Imaginary characters or objects, as well as people, events and places that are either difficult or costly, or even impossible to shoot, can now be produced and animated through computer modelling techniques. Nowadays, several sectors are benefiting from these specialised techniques. Increased demand and application areas have put the questions of aesthetics and design into perspective, hence introducing a new point of view to the application process. Coming out of necessity, 3D computer animations have added a new dimension to the field of art and design, and they have brought in the question of artistic and aesthetic value in such designs.

Animating justice?

The recent case in Puglia, Italy, surrounding the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, has raised some important questions over the use of computer generated animation (CGA) in legal setting...

American Puppet Modernism: Essays on the Material World in Performance (review)

Reviewed by: American Puppet Modernism: Essays on the Material World in Performance Robert J. Vrtis American Puppet Modernism: Essays on the Material World in Performance. By John Bell. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008; pp. 292. $95.00 cloth. Peter Schumann, the director and founding member of Bread and Puppet Theater, believes that puppeteers like himself have traditionally occupied an outsider’s place with respect to “high” art in Western theatre tradition. In American Puppet Modernism, John Bell notes that Schumann has reveled in the “low” and even “ridiculous” position that his work occupies, since the puppeteer can use it as strategic footing for political critique. While this status has benefited companies like Bread and Puppet, it has also fostered conceptions of puppet theatre as an insignificant performance genre—silly children’s entertainment at best. Bell’s book complicates the idea of what a puppet is and how it speaks about the culture in which it performs, thus providing an opportunity for the reader to reconsider puppet theatre’s significance by seriously considering what Frank Proschan termed “performing objects” (a term encompassing all things that take part in a storytelling process or that represent ideas). This critical exploration into American object performance yields many insights into the way material objects speak about and work within our increasingly materialistic culture. Bell examines several compelling moments of material performance. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth-century with traveling panoramas, he then delves into several incarnations of object performance in the twentieth century. The book ends with a discussion of the implications of nascent motion-capture technology in the twenty-first century. These analyses are incisive and provocative investigations into the ways that objects tell stories about the culture that produces them, an intriguing and accessible read for artists and scholars interested in a historical perspective of the material world in performance. Bell begins by expanding his definition of “puppet” to encompass a spectrum of “performing objects,” which allows him to consider such material objects as marionettes, hand-and-rod–style puppets, cars, televisions, and computer-generated animation. Having established a broad horizon of possible material, he focuses on particular practitioners in specific historical moments. Through close examination of the methods and materials used in their performing objects, Bell reveals how the performance of objects reflects, enhances, or subverts the cultural narratives shaping modern American identity. In this spirit, an early essay places John Stevens’s The Sioux War Panorama, which toured Midwestern towns during the 1860s and ’70s, within the mythic history of American expansionism. Showing a succession of painted images (including depictions of westward-bound settlers, Abraham Lincoln with his cabinet, Sioux leaders, conflicts between Native peoples and troops under the command of Colonel Silbey, and the mass hanging of Sioux prisoners), the panorama and Stevens’s accompanying narration told a story of the inevitable taming of the American West. Bell describes how the panorama invoked recognizable American figures in a way that elevated them to hero status, while at the same time reinforcing a conception of Native Americans as dangerous “savages” in need of civilizing, through bloody enforcement if necessary. By framing, confirming, and glorifying the violent process of westward expansion, so that the spectators felt that they were part of a larger American myth, the panorama edified the settlements it visited. Any investigation of object performance must include Edward Gordon Craig’s provocative “The Actor and the Über-marionette,” and indeed Bell expertly disabuses the common misconception that Craig’s theories demand erasure of the living actor in favor of nonhuman actors. He also traces Craig’s influence on emerging puppet modernism in America, beginning with the Little Theatre Movement. As Bell explains, Craig inspired many artists in the Movement who wanted to explore the possibilities of masks, puppets, and other performing objects in contexts of serious artistic exploration: puppet theatre for an adult audience. The example of Remo Bufano, a puppeteer who came out of the Little Theatre Movement hoping to make space for puppets in performance, helps Bell to allay misgivings about [End Page 131] what may appear on first glance to be a call for an actor-free theatre. “In Bufano’s vision, puppets and actors will share...