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Articles 1 - 21 of 21
Full-Text Articles in Art and Design
Acceleration Skinning: Kinematics-Driven Cartoon Effects For Articulated Characters, Niranjan Kalyanasundaram
Acceleration Skinning: Kinematics-Driven Cartoon Effects For Articulated Characters, Niranjan Kalyanasundaram
All Theses
Secondary effects are key to adding fluidity and style to animation. This thesis introduces the idea of “Acceleration Skinning” following a recent well-received technique, Velocity Skinning, to automatically create secondary motion in character animation by modifying the standard pipeline for skeletal rig skinning. These effects, which animators may refer to as squash and stretch or drag, attempt to create an illusion of inertia. In this thesis, I extend the Velocity Skinning technique to include acceleration for creating a wider gamut of cartoon effects. I explore three new deformers that make use of this Acceleration Skinning framework: followthrough, centripetal stretch, and …
Game-Based Learning: Building Competence In Visual Literacy Through Simulation, Carol Record
Game-Based Learning: Building Competence In Visual Literacy Through Simulation, Carol Record
Theses
Game-based learning is an ideal experiential learning framework for introducing the critique process to reduce student anxiety and create competence in visual literacy and self-assessment. Critique, the assessment, and analysis of one’s work is an essential step in any creative process. It is an integral part of art school. However, it can also be a source of high anxiety for new students. This paper discusses the importance of critique, the challenges associated with teaching critique, and the benefits of utilizing game-based learning. Examples of game-based learning solutions are explored, including the development of, and response to, Lumen, a card game …
Physical To Virtual: A Model For Future Virtual Classroom Environments, Stephen J. Fink
Physical To Virtual: A Model For Future Virtual Classroom Environments, Stephen J. Fink
Masters Theses
Virtual reality is a technology that has seen unprecedented growth since the turn of the century with increasing applications within business, entertainment, and educational applications. As virtual reality technologies continue to develops and markets expand, the world may see an increased demand for virtual classrooms: virtual environments (VEs) that students may access through immersive virtual reality technologies to receive guided instruction, conduct simulations, or perform tasks typical in a classroom setting. While many studies document how virtual reality is beneficial to educational processes, there is little discussion on how virtual environments should be architecturally designed. Thus one may hypothesize that …
Visual Communication – A Designer’S Guide To Reaching Target Audiences, Timothy Lerch
Visual Communication – A Designer’S Guide To Reaching Target Audiences, Timothy Lerch
Theses
Visual communication is the cornerstone of graphic design. All graphic design projects communicate a visual message. As with all forms of communication, visual communication is a two-way street. For a message to be effective, a designer must understand how to reach their audience. Scholarly design programs focus primarily on visual cues, while marketing programs focus on in-depth audience analysis and consumer behavior. This creates a problem for designers as they complete their degree program and enter the job market, particularly if they intend to seek freelance work. This guide is innovative because it presents components of visual communication from perspectives …
Playfair Axiom, Alexander Bakos
Playfair Axiom, Alexander Bakos
College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations
This game seeks to bridge nuanced gameplay with more expansive themes of existentialism, life, and death. I attempt to bridge these concepts together through the mechanics and visuals, both of which play an integral role to one another. Through consistently evolving imagery that increases in complexity from a gameplay perspective I seek to elicit a reflective and emotional response from the player. My attempts with the project are to allow players to draw their own conclusions on what the greater meaning of the game is as well as what each individual component in the game could represent. Oftentimes, the subtleties …
Meowster Thesis, Xiaojing (Monica) Fan
Meowster Thesis, Xiaojing (Monica) Fan
College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations
Meowster Thesis is a game about cats, loneliness and what it means to be alive. It is also what keeps me alive thru isolation during Covid-19 pandemic.
Street Art: The Gallery Of The City, Mia Pinzelik
Street Art: The Gallery Of The City, Mia Pinzelik
University Honors Theses
This project will look to better understand the culture and community of Portland street art, the unique aspects of the art form, the kinds of people participating in street art culture, the difficulties they face, and what defines this specific Portland subculture in 2020. The goal of this project is to compile this research into a board game illustrating a general overview of the process and experiences of street artists in Portland.
Platforming Gamification As A Means Of Engagement In Employee Recruitment And Onboarding, Samuel D. Lipson
Platforming Gamification As A Means Of Engagement In Employee Recruitment And Onboarding, Samuel D. Lipson
Management Undergraduate Honors Theses
Gamification, generally understood as the application of game elements and design concepts in non-game contexts, is a field of academic study and multibillion-dollar business tool whose popularity is growing as a means of employee engagement, education and training, and talent selection. While there are companies that attempt to gamify separate processes within the employee life cycle, no company exists that gamifies the stages surrounding talent selection: attraction and recruitment of applicants and onboarding of final candidates. To this end, this thesis proposes a software and consulting company, GameON Business Solutions, that will work with small and medium enterprises to expand …
Finding Personality In Animation, Jarrett Mcgill
Finding Personality In Animation, Jarrett Mcgill
Undergraduate Honors Theses
There is a difference between making something move and bringing something to life in animation. The animation principles work together to bring out character that is only visible with memorable movement. Given how the entertainment space has changed and grown over recent years, it is arguably vital for characters to be unforgettable for franchises to survive. This creative thesis explores how personalities are interpreted in animation by viewers and creators, and a workflow to bring the personalities to the forefront in the piece. Three distinct characters will be animated with the same set of animations to showcase how a personality …
For|Rest, Jes Klass
For|Rest, Jes Klass
College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations
In for/rest, players navigate a world built around an interpretation of the liminal space of grief. Glitching, blinking roots are all around an otherwise grey, empty space and as players destroy these roots they gradually resaturate the landscape. Each time a root is destroyed, the player will watch it disintegrate in front of them while some form of animal or plant spawns in the root’s stead. On rare occasions, instead of a plant or animal, a human will phase into the world as a root disintegrates. This human, Charlie, roams around the forest and offers the player a chance to …
Abandoned Spaces, Anthony Tate
Abandoned Spaces, Anthony Tate
College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations
The goal of this project is to show how color can display an emotional connection to the environment. How colors can be portrayed to human emotions without telling the audience. As well as having the audience imagining what kind of economy that used to be in the environment. The objective is to create a game that will tell a story from the environment and how colors are used to help tell a story of the environment. This thesis project is a game that attempts to show how colors can be related to emotions.
Designing An Interactive Theatre Game With Dynamic Asynchronous Play, Ardian Amiti
Designing An Interactive Theatre Game With Dynamic Asynchronous Play, Ardian Amiti
College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations
This project proposes the use of asynchronous narrative mechanics and dynamic elements of gameplay to further the player’s sense of interaction with characters and the environment of the game, inspired by interactive theatre performances such as Sleep No More. The player plants seeds in a garden which is maintained by several Non-Playable Characters, influencing both the environment and the narrative. Scenes occur according to the state of the garden, but do not wait for the player to be present. Plants grow and wilt as time passes. Sometimes the player cedes control as the characters tend to or cut down plants, …
Critical Modding: A Design Framework For Exploring Representation In Games, Kenton Howard
Critical Modding: A Design Framework For Exploring Representation In Games, Kenton Howard
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
In this project, I created a framework for exploring problems with representations of marginalized characters in video games called "critical modding." The main goal of this project was to provide a method for addressing issues with portrayals of queer characters in video games through modification of a game's narrative and gameplay systems. I also created a video game prototype called Life in the Megapocalypse as a digital tool for engaging in critical modding. In addition, I created classroom assignments based on the game prototype aimed at helping people learn more about problems with portrayals of queer characters in games through …
The Impact Of Art Style On Video Games, Eric Sarver
The Impact Of Art Style On Video Games, Eric Sarver
Honors Undergraduate Theses
The focus of this thesis is to explore the impact of art styles on video-games. This was done so that I could contribute something more to the digital media industry regarding this topic, and show people unique data sets that may help guide them in the right direction if they are looking for answers to questions they may have about art styles and their impact on the success of games. This was done through a study that was conducted via an online survey, where results were taken from student participants over the age of 18 in the GAIM program at …
Cares, Labors, And Dangers: A Queer Game Informed By Research, Amy Schwinge
Cares, Labors, And Dangers: A Queer Game Informed By Research, Amy Schwinge
Honors Undergraduate Theses
Queerness as a quality has a permanent fluidity. Videogames as a medium are continually evolving and advancing. Thus, queer games have a vast potential as an art form and research subject. While there is already a wealth of knowledge surrounding queer games my contribution takes the form of both research paper and creative endeavor. I created a game by interpreting the queer elements present in games research. My game reflects the trends and qualities present in contemporary queer games, such as critiques on empathy and alternative game-making programs. This paper details what research inspired elements of my game as well …
Effectiveness Of Digital Interactive Experiment In Learning Outcomes And Engagement, Matin Salemirad
Effectiveness Of Digital Interactive Experiment In Learning Outcomes And Engagement, Matin Salemirad
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Despite some ongoing debates over the positive or negative impact of digital games, educational games are powerful tools to increase engagement and improve learning outcomes. Scientific concepts about the weather are complicated for younger learners and deep learning often requires long-term cultivation. This thesis presents a novel interactive educational simulation called the Science of Meteorology with Interactive Learning Experience (SMILE). In it, students interact with a touchscreen monitor to change weather conditions and learn about clouds and weather science. The relationship between engagement and learning outcomes and the effectiveness of the experience is evaluated using a formal user study. Online …
The Technical World Of Warcraft, Derek Hampton
The Technical World Of Warcraft, Derek Hampton
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The Technical World of Warcraft explores the various technical instruction elements of World of Warcraft, more specifically observing issues faced by players who take on content at the highest level. The thesis raises the problem of the in-game technical documentation being utterly ineffective for the aforementioned players, causing them to create their own technical documents. While observing the environment found exclusively within the game, research from Jennifer DeWinter and Ryan Moeller, Mark Chen, Sarah Bishop, and more, is used to analyze the game's instructional elements from a critical angle. Several job listings from other major game development companies are also …
Representation Of Death In Independent Videogames: Providing A Space For Meaningful Death Reflection, Alexander Boyd
Representation Of Death In Independent Videogames: Providing A Space For Meaningful Death Reflection, Alexander Boyd
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
This thesis examines the unique representation of death in independent videogames. Specifically, in three titles: That Dragon, Cancer, Spiritfarer, and A Mortician's Tale. These three games break traditional norms of death in video games and how death is presented in other more traditional mediums. These unique perspectives are more concerned with the personal and societal side of death, the reflection, and confrontation of our mortality. Each game is a stand-out example of a growing trend in independent titles coined as "death positive" games. These types of games are made with the intent to approach death differently, potentially providing comfort to …
Combat Music, Usability, And Presence In Video Games, Jedidah Wong
Combat Music, Usability, And Presence In Video Games, Jedidah Wong
Honors Undergraduate Theses
The interactive nature of video games offers players unique playthroughs of the same game. Choices made during gameplay, despite going through the same narrative story, create a journey that differs from other players. Music can help support a player's connection to the game's characters and narrative while also providing information to the player to guide their decisions. Ludomusicological studies in the past have shown how music can support a game's narrative, while also serving to inform players of changes in game states. The usability function of music, while crucial in this overall sonic experience, is not the sole purpose that …
The Hidden Secrets Of Historical Artistry, Jennifer B. Musser
The Hidden Secrets Of Historical Artistry, Jennifer B. Musser
Honors Undergraduate Theses
When I began developing the video game concept for my thesis, I realized that I was one of the kids that grew up in a society where video games took prevalence over historical artistry. I, however, was unaware of the hidden secrets that resided in the art and how much they contribute to the video games I enjoy playing today. This thesis aims to provide the younger generations with an engaging and stimulating way to experience historical artistry, more specifically the Italian Renaissance, without having to consult a history book. I aim to provide enough detail on multiple aspects of …
Immersion's Relationship To Enjoyment In Gaming, Ronald Ray Eddy
Immersion's Relationship To Enjoyment In Gaming, Ronald Ray Eddy
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The term immersion has become ubiquitous in descriptions of entertainment activities, including theme park attractions, virtual reality experiences, video games, and more. In nearly all cases, an expectation is that immersion in an activity is a desired outcome. However, this implication is challenged by a lack of research into the relationship between immersion and enjoyment. A further challenge is presented by the lack of a consensus among researchers regarding a precise definition of immersion. This dissertation explores the immersion-enjoyment relationship by first examining the construct of immersion itself, followed by an exploration of the myriad concepts surrounding immersion, including engagement, …