Evaluation of the Framework

The main aim of this thesis is to extend the existing shape grammar to generate a set of harmonised characters through the application of the five levels of analysis: morphology, lexicon, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. The generation of new characters should be harmonious in their design and appropriate to their environment. These generated humanoid characters should also show harmony in their anatomy, with relevant body components and shapes appropriate to their habitat and attributes. Finally, their characteristics and behaviour should also be in harmony with the other members of their family.

This section attempts to analyse the generated harmonious characters with respect to human perception in design. Norman (2004) explains that advances in our understanding of emotions and affectation have implications for the science of design. In assessing any product design humans apply three levels of design: visceral, behavioural and reflective. The first level is visceral and focuses on the overall appearance of a design. This is the first thing that comes to audiences’ mind

when they first see a product design. It is what that design looks like to them. This level is fast: we make rapid judgments of what is good or bad, safe or dangerous, and send appropriate signals to the muscles (the motor system) and alert the rest of our brain. It is concerned with character appearance. The second level is behavioural and is concerned with design function. This is the next step of brain processing. After seeing an appearance of a design, we start to think about its function. A good looking design character with bad functional components cannot convince audiences to believe and appreciate its design. The emphasis on accomplished behaviour is to create a design which encompasses both appearance and function. The reflective level is about self-image and personal satisfaction from our experiences. After seeing a shape and understanding the function of a given design, we determine our own overall impression of the product. The behavioural and reflective levels, however, may be very sensitive to experience, training, education and culture. Norman claims that the best designs come from following a cohesive theme throughout, with a clear vision and focus (Norman, 2004).

We shall apply the above levels to our generated characters. At visceral level, the appearance of our humanoid characters is related to their humanoid anatomy and corresponding habitat which is related to the morphological, syntactic and semantic levels. The humanoid anatomy is the first important configuration of basic shapes, shape rules and context which deliver a sense of what the character is to an audience. Character functions are divided into three sets: terrestrial, subaquatic and celestial. Terrestrial characters are designed with core components that are required for them to live on the ground. Legs and feet are necessary for activities such as walking, running, jumping, etc. Subaquatic characters, instead of having walking body functional components, have been designed with fins and tails to function appropriately in their environment. Similarly, celestial characters have wings attached to their bodies to assist in their flying ability. Characters have fulfilled the

behavioural level by having their specific functional components to suit their design

purposes. Character habitat defines where a character lives and this affects the configuration of the humanoid anatomy. Any missing important body component (e.g. a humanoid without a head) or unbalanced body proportions (e.g. head larger than torso) or inappropriate set of limbs for a given habitat (e.g. fins for a terrestrial humanoid) will result into a failed design. Humanoid anatomy and its relevant

habitat contribute heavily to the cohesion and coherence in character design. The

reflective level requires a consideration of design colours, texture, material,

characteristics and behaviour. This level is difficult to evaluate objectively because it is based on the audience’s culture, personal experiences and self-satisfaction which influence their expectations from a given design object. To bring some objectivity to the design of humanoids the implementation has applied design principles regarding colour, texture and material harmony. Grammar shape rules provided unity, balance and rhythm for the personality and behaviour of the humanoids. This was achieved at pragmatic level. Applying genetic algorithms helped generate a realistic feeling for the audience and suggest that the humanoid members of a given family are compatible and exhibit an agreeable set of features and personalities, and thereby they belong to the same world or same story.

This thesis has extended shape grammar from the two initial levels, namely vocabulary and transformational rules to five levels, namely morphological, lexical, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic levels. This extension has allowed us to design harmonious and contextual humanoid characters. Harmony has been achieved by including rules related to the principles of design, colour theories, shape proportion, and human perception in design, in particular the visceral, behavioural, and reflective levels. Visceral and shape proportion were applied at syntactic level to ensure that all shapes were created following the harmony criteria. Behavioural and principles of design were applied at semantic level to ensure that body components reflected unity and assembled in a meaningful way and appropriate to their habitat and environment. Principles of design, shape proportion, colour theories, and reflective were applied at pragmatic level to create characters with attributes, characteristics, and behaviour in harmony with other members. The new harmonised shape grammar has generated a set of harmonious parents for the terrestrial, subaquatic, and celestial humanoid species. To generate offspring, this thesis has applied genetic algorithm with a fitness function which selected members whose chromosomes complied with the principles of design. Only those harmonious new offspring were selected to produce the next generation. Finally, these chromosomes have been converted into MAYA parameter and have successfully generated a population of harmonious members for the three species.