I made three chapters for my thesis:

Chapter1: The concept and importance of facial expression in animation.

In the first chapter, I will explain the concept of the facial expression and why it is important in animation.

Chapter2: Differences and cultural backgrounds of the expressions of Chinese and Western animated characters

In the second chapter, I intend to divide it into two parts. In the first part, I will list some differences between the expressions of Chinese and Western animated characters. In the second part, I will explain in detail the causes of these differences, such as the cultural differences between China and the West, and the influence of these differences on personality and expression. There is also the influence of traditional cultural elements, such as Opera and Western opera. Finally, I’ll talk about the use of humor in animation.

Chapter3: How to interpret cultural differences in animation creation

In the final chapter, I will explain the importance of the story script to character development. Then, compare some animation works, such as American animation that uses Chinese elements, Kung Fu Panda and Mulan, and some Chinese animation works that are relatively successful in recent years, such as Birth of the Demon Child Nezha. Finally, through a series of comparisons to concluded that how to depict the expression of the characters through their the cultural background, especially in the early conceptual design and key frame design in production.

I have made my decision of the thesis in term3 which is study Cfx and Vfx and find out how they can use in the Unreal engine, also discuss about how Unreal engine5 will change the future of game and fiml production. I chose this title because my FMP was making the muscle system by Ziva, annd wanted to put it in Unreal engine to do the real-time rendering eventually. However, I changed my mind for the FMP, I want to do the animation instead of muscle system. Therefore, the title of my thesis needs to be changed as well.

In the period of doing the task from the Chinese company Cococartoon, I met a quite insteresting problem. They asked me to try to use the principles of American animation to process into oriental character’s performance. I think this is not a very easy to do, and this is also a topic that can be extended for discussion. After all, the difference between the East and the West has existed since ancient times. People in different places have different ways of communication, and their expressions and movements are also different.

Therefore, my initial idea is to study the expression of Chinese and Western cultural differences in animation works. But the culture difference is a big area including relationships, values and beliefs, customs and habits, social institutions, language, etiquette and festivals, etc. I’d like to narrow my research to a specific area, something to do with animation.

In animation, facial expression is an important element in conveying your message, as is language and body movement. These factors can be exaggerated in animation and show different effects than in real life. Based on my experience living in the UK and watching a lot of American and Chinese cartoons, I think the difference in expressions will be more obvious. So I decided to start with that.

The topic of my thesis will be ‘Research on the differences between Chinese and Western cultures in the facial expressions of animated characters‘. My initial idea is I will be mainly focus on comparing the differences of facial expression between the Chinese and western people and explore how they express them in the animation works.