StoneWalled? Then Start Climbing!

One Week Over Due

 After A meeting last week with Brian he recommended looking into Animation styles and aesthetics, Giving me an example of animation like Shrek or Madagascar by DreamWorks though at the time I wasn't sure what the difference was character performance wise.  Relating Madagascar toward Looney Toons gave a strong impression on what you would expect from both Films. However My attempts to research into the topic continued to produce no results regarding this exact topic but on the other hand I did uncover a journal on 3D motion Synthesis.  At first it seemed like it would relate to my search however the level at which is covers I can't even begin to understand,  The information given in the abstract alone flew over my head because I believe I am nowhere near the level to understand what it covers at this time. On the other hand the text I aimed toward techniques producing more realistic can natural looking animations which could be extremely useful later in this project or in the future when my knowledge base has expanded.

Due to my search into this topic turning out dry with my current keywords, Iv began to approach Animation Aesthetics from the media studies point of view mainly based toward the book Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics by Maureen Furniss. However I have had to order the book which has halted this pursuit at this time. Once the book has arrived I will then take the opportunity to pick apart its contents.

Mean while I have continued to explore literature involving character acting along with Chuck amuck by Chuck Jones, However many of the book's cover and relate to information which I have already read and at some times expand on these topics. This in some ways feels like I have begun hitting stonewalls in these areas and the only way to advance from this point is putting these theory's of acting and animation techniques into practice by conducting animation tests from this point. Some of the current books I am looking into are Action: acting lessons for CG animators by Kunder-Gibbs and Animated Performance by Nancy Beiman. 

Action: acting lessons for CG animators has a good topic into the history of acting which helps to uncover the development on how acting practice developed and the work of Constantin Stanislavski along with exercises in order to help animators get immersed into applying the techniques into both themselves and their characters. However other than this the books only reveals information which has been covered in books I have already encounter previously for example: Paul Ekman's studies into universal facial expressions & micro expressions and Rudolf Laban's  laban movement theory/analysis which are both topics which I have yet to explore.

 After finishing of Action: Acting lessons for CG animators I will most likely begin exploring facial expressions but I will also be considering Laban movement and Animation aesthetics/media studies in the near future. However I will soon prioritize testing the theory's that have been proposed to me in other books.