Monday 9 December 2013

A study into cave paintings ( source http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/chauvet_cave_paintings.php)

The Chauvet Cave is one of the most famous prehistoric rock art sites in the world. Located in the Ardeche region of southern France, along the bank of the river Ardeche near the Pont-d'Arc, this cave was only discovered as recently as 1994, happened upon by a small team of cavers led by Jean-Marie Chauvet. Chauvet Cave's importance is based on two factors: firstly, the aesthetic quality of these Palaeolithic cave paintings, and secondly, their great age. With one exception, all of the cave art paintings have been dated between 30,000 & 33,000 years ago. In 1998, the eminent French prehistorian Dr. Jean Clottes headed the first research team in Chauvet Cave, under great security.
 
Chauvet Cave Art Paintings
For the former director of prehistoric antiquities for the Midi-Pyrènèes region of France and scientific advisor on prehistoric art to the FrenchMinistry of Culture, this security proved to be of vital importance - as the results of the Carbon 14 dating of the cave paintings started to emerge from the laboratories (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de Environnement, Gif-sur-Yvette, France, Centre de Datation par le radiocarbon de Lyon, France, and the Research Laboratory for Archaeology, Oxford, UK), controversy and heated debates flared up as many entrenched and pre-existing conceptions were turned upside down.
 
The fact that these cave paintings were executed so skilfully yet so deep within prehistory has forced us to abandon the prevailing view that 'early art was naive art'. Not only is the Ice Age art of the Chauvet Cave extremely old, it is also very extensive and highly varied. And one other factor intrigued prehistorians around the world eagerly awaiting news from the research team; the Chauvet Cave and its Paleolithic paintings were more or less perfectly preserved.
 
Hundreds of cave paintings of animals have been recorded, depicting at least 13 different species, including those which have rarely or never been found in other Ice age paintings. Rather than the more usual animals of the hunt that predominate in Palaeolithic cave art, such as horses, cattle and reindeer, the walls of the Chauvet Cave are covered with predatory animals - lions, panthers, bears,owlsrhinos and hyenas. As one would expect, there are no human figures, except at the very end of the lowest and farthest gallery in the Chauvet cave system, where there appears to be a female figurine - the legs and genitals of a woman - attracting the attention of the one other human figure - the lower body of a man with the upper body of a bison, now referred to as 'The Sorcerer'.
THE WORLD'S OLDEST CAVE ART PAINTINGS?
With such a cave as Chauvet, there is the danger of treating it as a separate and sanitised unit. Dr Jean Clottes is keen to emphasize that a decorated cave, whatever its importance, can only be understood in its particular setting and context. It is located in a landscape whose characteristics influenced the ways of life and the beliefs of Palaeolithic people. Indeed, its art originates in the myths and practices of these people.
 
Chauvet Cave Art Paintings
The importance of the
Chauvet Cave, can only be understood in its particular setting and context
But in another sense, a sanitised unit it must be. Chauvet has been locked down. It is as secure as Kentucky's Fort Knox. More people have been to the summit of Mount Everest than inside Chauvet Cave. The steel door at the entrance, the airlocks, and the steel gantries to protect the floor are there to protect. For Chauvet, this is more preservation than conservation. Jean Clottes is emphatic; Palaeolithic cave paintings represent a practice that existed for an extremely long period of time, but it is an art-form that can never be recreated, even though the artists were our ancestors, and we look like they would have looked, and we share the same size brains.
 
This cave art was based upon and rooted in a cultural experience - an overall belief system which persisted with little change for over twenty millennia, ending only when the Ice Age finally drew to a close - which is obviously totally alien to the one that the majority of us live in today. Because Chauvet was found intact, a major priority for Jean Clottes' scientific team was to avoid the situation painfully learnt at Lascaux.
 
Chauvet Cave Art Paintings
The cave paintings of Chauvet
represent a practice that existed
for an extremely long period of time,
but it is an art-form that
can never be recreated
In a complex of caves in the Dordogne region of southwestern France, the cave paintings of Lascaux are estimated to be up to 20,000 years old, consisting primarily of large animals, once native to the region. However, since the year 2000, Lascaux has been beset with a fungus, variously blamed on a new air conditioning system that was installed in the caves, the use of high-powered lights, and the presence of too many visitors. As of 2006, the situation became even graver - the cave saw the growth of black mold. In January 2008, authorities closed the cave for three months, even to scientists and preservationists. A single individual was allowed to enter the cave for 20 minutes once a week to monitor climatic conditions. Fortunately, the Lascaux Cave Paintings Symposium held in Paris in 2009 has secured the future of Lascaux.
 
The Bradshaw Foundation's role to discover, document and protect ancient rock art, cave paintings and rock engravings around the world demonstrates the range of protection that is both available and possible, falling somewhere between 'preservation' and 'conservation'. From the tight security of Chauvet to the guided tours of Niaux Cave. From the on-site Tuareg guide at the giraffe carvings of Dabous to the controlled access of the Yinchuan World Rock Art Museum and Preservation Park at Helankou in Inner Mongolia.
 
Chauvet Cave Art Paintings
Dr. Jean Clottes
And what of the meaning of the cave paintings? The problem is when the culture and its stories and traditions responsible for the art have long since disappeared. On the other hand, in 'World Rock Art' [2002]Jean Clottes explains other hazards of interpretation:
 
'In instances where these traditions survive, we have no way of knowing, when native informants elucidate an image for us, whether the art really means what they say it means. Their understanding can be influenced by various factors - by their gender or status, for example; and they may modify their explanation of the art when speaking to outsiders deemed unqualified to share meanings so sacred or secret. And when dealing with art for which no ethnological data are known, our predicament is worse still. What appears obvious may not be obvious at all. Does a painting of a bird depict an eagle, a supernatural spirit, or a shaman whose soul has taken flight? Is a bear really a bear, or a human transformed?'
 
'Some archaeologists think that it is impossible to know what rock art means and that the researcher's role is to study motifs and techniques, try to date the works, establish as far as possible whether these images were structurally linked, but not attempt to interpret them. From their point of view, we are faced with a choice: either say nothing at all about meaning, or make up stories that might seem interesting but would lack any objective, scientific basis.'
 
'Others feel that it is a pointless exercise to pursue classifications that lead only to dry statistics, or to establish the existence of general structures - relationships among different types of images - that we can perhaps record but not explain. They are right. Faced with the twin dangers of pursuing an arid intellectual exercise, on the one hand, and indulging in baseless fabrications, on the other, we must steer a careful course. In doing so, in spite of the undeniable difficulties we might face, there are ways to approach the study of meaning in a rigorous and scholarly fashion.'
 
World rock art clearly has a multiplicity of meanings. The art may be the affirmation of a presence, marking natural borders and traditional territory, such as the rock art of Helankou in China. The art may be a testimony, to a belief or a practice, such as creation myths and initiation ceremonies, such as the Bradshaw paintings or the Coso petroglyphs. It may seek to influence the world and the course of life through the paintings, such as the Wandjina paintings of the Kimberleys in Australia. Rock art may be associated with shamanism, where the painting was a favoured way to come into direct contact with the spirits of the supernatural world, such as the San paintings of South AfricaJean Clottes' latest book 'Cave Art' explores the themes, the possible meanings and the numerous interpretations, establishing that even if none of the hypotheses can be accepted in their entirety, each still played a part in bringing about a better understanding of Palaeolithic art.
The anatomy of humanoid zoomorphs in games
Brief
Problem Statement
Zoomorphic characters in games sometimes lack believability due to anatomically impossible features.
Games of the fantasy genre that portray zoomorphic creatures focus on delivering a compelling design for such characters often with exaggerated features which would make them stand out. However although these characters look interesting from an artistic point of view, at often times they lack believability from an anatomical and functional standpoint detracting from the games immersive experience.
User
The user for this product would be a company creating a game in the fantasy genre such as Blizzard Entertainment’s MMO “World of Warcraft” which would feature creatures such as Minotaurs, Centaurs, Satyrs, etc. The characters should be designed to look and function in a believable way in order to create a more immersive experience for the player base
Product
The final product will consist of a video showcasing 3D models of cat, wolf and bull humanoids accompanied with an animation of how the skeleton of each animal would have to evolve in order to support a bipedal stance. 
Analysis and Research summary
The creation of the final product will require a study into how zoomorphic entities have been perceived and portrayed throughout history in order to uncover how the expectations of the audience for the authenticity of such creatures have evolved; a study of believability in game characters in order to assess the audience opinion about the outstanding features that should be present in the design of the models; research into human and animal skeleton and muscle structure and distribution, as well as the theory of human evolution which can be used as a template for how the features of the animals would have to change in order to support bipedal functionality.
A study of the depictions of humans and animals in mythology

Some of earliest representations of zoomorphs are petrographs, one of the most famous sites of this form of art being the Chauvet cave in France. One of the pieces that stand out is The Venus and the Sorcerer which contains a depiction that seems to be a human body with the head of a bull. There is a debate whether these primitive pieces of art are depictions of the surrounding world or have some deeper religious meaning generated by the shamanistic beliefs at the time. The Bradshaw foundation’s website (2011) features a section where it describes expeditions into the cave and the conclusions these haves generated. Dusan Boric (2007) speaks about the meanings of these paintings and their religious motifs.

Greek mythology also contains numerous depictions of hybrids portraying them as the result of breeding between deities or humans with different animals. Pottery and bas-reliefs as well as other forms of art from that time depict creatures such as the centaurs or the minotaur which resemble fusions of features from different species. The website theoi.com (2000-2011) offers information about the lore surrounding such creatures.

Another depiction of such beings comes from ancient Egyptian religion. Some of their gods resembled humans with features (usually the heads) of animals of that time. The Gods image could have been inspired by animals which were associated with different events. For instance Anubis, associated with death and the afterlife had the head of a jackal which is a scavenger ( a creature that prefers to feed on corpses rather than hunt it’s pray ) .

 

A study of believability in game characters
This area will focus on a study of what features of a character are most required in order to convey authenticity. Jesse Schell (2007) speaks about characters on both an aesthetic and functional role and avoiding the “uncanny valley” (a phenomenon where a character looks human but behaves in a counterintuitive way ). Petri Lankoski and Staffan Björk  (2007) speak about non player character behaviour in games using examples from Bethesda’s” Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion”.
A study of the evolution of human and animal anatomy
This study will focus on the evolution of the human skeleton and muscle mass from the four legged prime ape to the bipedal stance we have today. The development of the human skeleton would serve as a template that could be applied to the animals that would be portrayed as humanoids. This will contain among other changes modifications to the pelvis in order to sustain the weight of the upper body, the thumb, and redistribution of the muscle mass in a way that would allow for a natural range of movement.
Choice of tools/techniques/approach
For creating the zoomorph models I will use 3D studio max for the low polygon modelling and the unwrapping. The high Polly meshes will be created using Mudbox . For baking the normal from the high Polly I will use xNormal. Once I have a normal map of desired quality I will use it to generate an AO map using NDo2 or Crazybump. The AO will serve as a template for the diffuse texture which will be used as a starting point for the specular map. The skeletons will be modelled in a similar way and I will use a series of scale and freeform deformation morphers to animate them. Some of the bones such as the ribcage could be made from one solid mesh with an opacity map in order to maximise efficiency
I prefer to use this workflow as it allows a lot of flexibility in tweaking the models and textures at any point. xNormal is very easy to use and produces very clean normal maps.
 I find sculpting in Mudbox very good for creating detailed organic meshes and the software is easier to use than others.
The workflow is based mostly on my personal experience with different pieces of software and I consider it is the one I am most comfortable with. However the workflow might change if I find a way that is more efficient or a piece of software that works better than the ones I am currently using .

Design specification
For the design of the creatures I will start by creating the skeleton for each of them. This can serve as reference for the proportions of the creature model.

This is a reference image of a human and ape skeleton featuring their pelvises.
The ape skeleton could be morphed into the shape of the human one by scaling some of its bones, as it has a similar structure.

Cat skeleton.

Bull skeleton

Wolf skeleton
Using the ape to human skeleton modification as template for acquiring a bipedal stance, a similar method could be applied to these animals by widening the hips, elongating some of the limb bones, shortening the neck and reducing the size of the skull, reshaping the rib cage and the position of the shoulder bones and clavicles, repositioning the vertebras into an “S” shape, reducing the size of the vertebral spines and finally changing the structure of the front legs in order to create a structure similar to the human thumb.
The creature models will be created separately using the proportions from the bipedal creatures as reference for the distribution of the muscles. 
 
Product development plan
For the development of the product I have chosen to finish my research on the aforementioned areas and then move on to start the development of the models and write the report at the same time so that I may record my progress more efficiently.
This chart shows the time periods I have allocated for each of the tasks. After the research is done I will leave myself 2-3 hours a day for creating the models and writing the report. However the time I have allocated per day might change depending on how the work is advancing.

Reference
Jesse Schell “The Art of Game Design” (2007)
P 310-312
Petri Lankoski & Staffan Björk (2007)
Gameplay Design Patterns for Believable Non-Player
Characters

P 416-421
Dusan Boric (2007)
Images of Animality: Hybrid Bodies and Mimesis in Early Prehistoric Art
P 89-99
Aaron J. Atsma, New Zealand(2001-2011)
Theoi.com
Images
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivSUykRbiBP9TTq0ycqES36cuHBi4x5V2CdQroH7giO4l3c4WevluWTLSVgvQHw8LaXZ_0ASmFBjk2sUsJtiT1jP3KTZ_wZsxPOoAxPUkbpg7DMkmNSkGtLWbC82aIFqsoh-Bk1h0ZM34/s1600/cat-skeleton-A.jpg
http://wolvessoldierspack.webs.com/a_Skeleton.jpg
http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/386259565/Exquisite_bull_skeleton_for_students_and_doctors.jpg




Initial Refference of human and animalanatomy


Human Skeleton


Different examples of animal skeletons

Cat



Bull 

Wolf

A comparison between human and animal muscle system





Comparison between human and chimpanzee locomotory systems