Unexpectedly, it took me quite a long time just to settle on the characters I wanted to use for my final shot. I knew that it had to be a fight scene, because the tiger shot, its cartoon counterpart, revolves around martial arts. I decided it should probably be a real fight this time rather than one person practicing or using a punching bag, to maintain interest and add differentiation. I chose the following reference:
Now, the only issue with this reference is that the men are clearly trying carefully not to hurt one another, and therefore are moving with no real force. This is okay, I have faith in my ability to incorporate that, and the slow movement gives me a clearer reference to study from. I decided that the fighter who flips the other one should be painted as the “protagonist”, and set to work casting characters.
Kachujin was an easy choice, she fits the theme and looks realistic while still being outfitted in sort of a fighter-esque costume. But from there, I hit a bit of a wall. Though I had four choices, I was hesitant in picking any of them, deeply considering audience bias and how certain rigs may affect my data in opinion polls.
I didn’t prefer the first samurai, as I assumed that the heavy armor may take away from the animation work itself and prevent me from being able to show off the work that went into it, and unfortunately, the rig for the fourth samurai did not work very well.
The second samurai would be perfect, except for the fact that he’s portraying a villain, and I’m hesitant to cast this character as such due to race-related biases and discomfort that the audience may feel while watching such a clip. Anything that may skew my data due to sociological factors couldn’t be used as trustworthy material.
Which brings us to the real issue I struggled over. I really preferred to cast Eva as the antagonist here, but had to accept, to my dismay, that I simply couldn’t without sacrificing the solidity of my study.
I wanted to use Eva because her costume fits the theme while staying cyberpunk-y, sort of a Street Fighter vibe, thus setting the shot apart from expectations of having to stay culturally and historically accurate. Eva as a rig would be amazing to use, with lots of controls in the hair and every accessory on her body, as opposed to the unmovable accessories and hair on both Kachujin and all the samurai. I wanted so badly to have Eva’s long braid whip around during the fight. Unfortunately, she is simply too sexualized to use for the purposes of this project. For one, I plan to collect data from a broad age range, and her outfit is simply not suitable for children. In the same vein, I fear that this character may sway audience opinion in favor of this shot for reasons other than the animation itself, especially as the fight would involve two women.
I considered for a while using her anyway and using this as an intentional factor in whether adults require animation to appeal to their sensibilities to be considered less juvenile, but it felt like the kind of thing that would require a whole separate, vast study. Perhaps related to what Mariana is studying, which I believe centers around whether audiences of animated films require their female characters to be feminine and conventionally beautiful. It’s an interesting subject worth further consideration.
That left me with Samurai Three.
I came very close to using Samurai Three, but ultimately decided that he, too, must be rejected for the same reasons as Eva: an adult audience may view a woman wrestling a shirtless man from a different lens than they would a faceless, heavily armored guard.
And so it was with much deliberation that I settled back on Samurai One. The good thing about him is that he’s got clear “bad guy” vibes, as well as being objectively “cool”, thus adding interest as well as putting Kachujin in the protagonist seat.
These rigs are both, I assume, Advanced Skeleton, which gives me a lot of flexibility in movement, but unfortunately both lack controls on their hair and accessories, as I’d mentioned earlier. Kachujin herself has no facial rig.
I could rig the accessories myself, but I am nervous about doing so, as the skeletons are already so complicated.
Conclusion: my outlook is hesitant. Also, I expect this shot to take a decent amount of time, as it involves two characters, is required to be realistic, and runs for a full ten seconds. This may be a challenge.