THE CONTRIBUTION OF 2D ANIMATION IN DIGITAL GAMES WITH A TANGIBLE INTERFACE

• Autor(a) principal: Caruso, Ana Paula Macedo
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/11110/1910
• topic: 2D animation; interactive animation; video games; Tangible User Interface; Storytelling

When animating characters, the animator’s role resembles the one of a puppeteer – by controlling the characters, s/he translates concepts into movements. Her/his work will give form to the characters’ personalities and unfold the stories’ atmosphere. Rhythm, timing, intensity, etc. rely on how the animation is done. That is true for linear animation. But in interactive animation – animation for interactive media such as video games – the role of puppeteer is granted to the player. The animator is responsible for creating the structure which ensures that the player is in control. Usually, such control comes through the use of joysticks or touchscreen interaction, but it can also take innovative forms. That is the case of Mobeybou, a storytelling video game in which this work is based. In Mobeybou, we present the player with an unusual way to control the characters – a Tangible User Interface (TUI) – and increase the depth of the players’ role by transforming them in storytellers. This also changes the way we animate the game, and adds new levels of complexity to design and development. Our goal, with Mobeybou’s animated content, is to offer the player enough creative freedom to compose narratives, but due to limitations of time and human resources we had to narrow the range of elements and possible actions with restricted action libraries. To evaluate the impact of the animated content in the creative process we have tested Mobeybou with children, ages 5 to 14, in classroom and summer school context