HQ
becomes the life of the party - HQ Network
Systems holds a big bash every year where all
the people related
to the operation come from around the world to celebrate
their success and get motivated for the coming year.
This year, they had their own mascot, a live, interactive
guy who changed from the logo into the life of the
party.
Converting
the logo into a character was an easy process for
the artists at Live Animation, taking only a few days.
The art of
creating animated cartoon characters has been practiced by creative producers for many years, primarily in
the form of cel animation, the tedious process of painting
one frame of film or video after another until the
project is done.
Computer-generated
3D animation is much different, and for high quality
film or video, work is still done on a frame-by-frame
basis. Many thousands of hours went into the production
of the first feature length animation using all computer
graphics, "Toy Story," and all who have seen
it call it incredibly entertaining and fun to watch.
Audiences didn't seem to care whether an animation
is created by painting cells or rendering graphics;
they are more interesting in the storytelling and engaging
aspects of the characters.
With performance
animation, characters are created as 3D computer-generated
objects, but they are given "life" by actors
who control their behavior and speech from behind the
scene. The actors can make the characters talk in real
time, and the resulting cartoon can be recorded on
the fly to video tape or it can been watched by an
audience that can interact with the character, some
thing that a cel animation could never do.
 Because the
animated character is controlled by a performer, but
generated
by a computer, the character can resemble anything
that an artist can dream up, with only a few limitations.
It doesn't really matter if the cartoon or animated
mascot has three eyes, two mouths or is a talking clock,
as long as the animation program can run efficiently
with the Face Tracker, the character can be brought
to life.
In fact, that
is one of the most exciting aspects of performance
animation; the possibility of exploring character design
and integrating it into interactive multimedia that
serves a purpose.
The first
question we ask when someone wants a new character
is: "Who is the audience?" As presentation
specialists, we know that the best presentations are
done with the audience in mind, first and foremost. "Great" characters
are great because they are loved by a certain describable
group of people.
 Once we decide
who will see the character, we need to decide
what message needs to be shared,
and what are the goals of the presentation. Much of
this work in research and writing accomplishes giving
the character
a "voice," which could be revealed in attitude,
accent or behavior. For presentations involving promotion
and/or marketing, actors can be trained to deal with
the basic line of the company and then they can improvise
and interact, to make the experience of talking with
the 3D character seem more lifelike and real.
In fact, one
of the things that we try to do in the presentation is to get the audience to suspend their disbelief and
accept that the cartoon is as "alive" as
a real person. As actors get better and better at this,
the character reaches out past the video screen and
earns credibility for itself and the company or products
it represents.
 The process
of creating the artwork can proceed in a variety of
ways. In some cases, existing artwork and drawings
of mascots can be easily converted to 3D shapes, ready
in a few days for setting up the animation controls.
Other times, it might be most effective to actually
create a 3D sculpture in clay or plaster, and then
go to the computer from there. Line drawings and
storyboards are still the first step in preparing
what will eventually
be a 3D animated mascot or character.
If you'd like
to talk about how your idea can be turned into a custom
character, let us know. It's our favorite thing to
do. |
