Carefully Constructed Yet Curiously Real: How Major American Animation Studios Generate Empathy Through a Shared Style of Character Design

Animation ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malou van Rooij
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Great Success ◽  
Uncanny Valley ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Animated Films ◽  
Character Design ◽  
Perceptual Realism ◽  
Inside Out

Contemporary computer-animated films by the major American animation studios Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks are often described as evoking (extremely) emotional responses from their ever-growing audiences. Following Murray Smith’s assertion that characters are central to comprehending audiences’ engagement with narratives in Engaging Characters: Fiction, Emotion, and the Cinema (1995), this article points to a specific style of characterization as a possible reason for the overwhelming emotional response to and great success of these films, exemplified in contemporary examples including Inside Out (Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen, 2015), Big Hero 6 (Don Hall and Chris Williams, 2014) and How to Train Your Dragon (Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, 2010). Drawing on a variety of scholarly work including Stephen Prince’s ‘perceptual realism’, Scott McCloud’s model of ‘amplification through simplification’ and Masahiro Mori’s Uncanny Valley theory, this article will argue how a shared style of character design – defined as a paradoxical combination of lifelikeness and abstraction – plays a significant role in the empathetic potential of these films. This will result in the proposition of a new and reverse phenomenon to Mori’s Uncanny Valley, dubbed the Pixar Peak, where, as opposed to a steep drop, audiences reach a climactic height in empathy levels when presented with this specific type of characterization.

scholarly journals Effect of congruence between sound and video on heart rate and self-reported measures of emotion

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 621-631
Author(s):  
Sebastián Calderón ◽  
Raúl Rincón ◽  
Andrés Araujo ◽  
Carlos Gantiva
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Bimodal Stimulus ◽  
Emotional Dimension ◽  
Valence And Arousal

Most studies of emotional responses have used unimodal stimuli (e.g., pictures or sounds) or congruent bimodal stimuli (e.g., video clips with sound), but little is known about the emotional response to incongruent bimodal stimuli. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of congruence between auditory and visual bimodal stimuli on heart rate and self-reported measures of emotional dimension, valence and arousal. Subjects listened to pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant sounds, accompanied by videos with and without content congruence, and heart rate was recorded. Dimensions of valence and arousal of each bimodal stimulus were then self-reported. The results showed that heart rate depends of the valence of the sounds but not of the congruence of the bimodal stimuli. The valence and arousal scores changed depending on the congruence of the bimodal stimuli. These results suggest that the congruence of bimodal stimuli affects the subjective perception of emotion.

scholarly journals Patient Clothing as a Healing Environment: A Qualitative Interview Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 5357
Author(s):  
Seon-Ju Kam ◽  
Young-Sun Yoo
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Response ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Medical Center ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
University Hospital ◽  
Hospital Environment ◽  
University Hospitals ◽  
Pattern Design ◽  
Qualitative Interview Study

Patients’ emotional responses to the hospital environment can be considered as important as medical technology and equipment. Therefore, this study investigated their experiences to determine whether the pattern using hospital identity (HI) elements, a widely used design method for patient clothing in university hospitals, can affect their emotional response and contribute to healing. It aimed to identify whether controlling the motif characteristics, arrangement, and spacing in this pattern design, and the direction between motifs, could be a method to design patient clothing for healing. To investigate patients’ emotional response and suggestions for patient clothing design, an interview-based qualitative approach was used. In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 patients discharged from Kyung Hee University Hospital Medical Center (KHUMC), Seoul. The interview questions consisted of two parts. One part featured questions about participants’ emotional responses to the medical environment and their latest patient clothing experience, and the other featured questions about their emotional response to, and suggestions for, the healing expression of pattern design using HI. The results confirmed that the motif characteristics, arrangement, and spacing, and the direction between motifs, influenced patients’ positive emotions and contributed to the healing effect. Therefore, when the HI elements of a medical institution are applied in the design of patient clothing with the characteristics of a healing design, patients perceive this as providing stability and comfort. The design of patient clothing becomes a medium that not only builds the brand image of medical institutions, but also enhances the quality of medical services centered on patient healing.

Evidence from young children regarding emotional responses to music

2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 581-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven John Holochwost ◽  
Carroll E. Izard
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Future Research

AbstractJuslin & Västfjäll (J&V) propose a theoretical framework of how music may evoke an emotional response. This commentary presents results from a pilot study that employed young children as participants, and measured musically induced emotions through facial expressions. Preliminary findings support certain aspects of the proposed theoretical framework. The implications of these findings on future research employing the proposed framework are discussed.

scholarly journals Clinician Emotional Response Toward Narcissistic Patients: A Preliminary Report

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annalisa Tanzilli ◽  
Antonello Colli ◽  
Laura Muzi ◽  
Vittorio Lingiardi
Keyword(s):  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Psychological Functioning ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
Theoretical Orientation ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Narcissistic Personality Disorder ◽  
Assessment Procedure ◽  
Narcissistic Personality ◽  
Therapist Response

Patients with narcissistic personality disorder are among the most difficult to treat in therapy, especially for their strong resistance to treatment and several difficulties in establishing a therapeutic relationship characterized by intimacy, safety, and trust. In particular, therapists’ emotional responses to these patients can be particularly intense and frustrating, as reported in the clinical literature but rarely investigated empirically.The aims of this preliminary study were: 1) to examine the associations between patients’ narcissistic personality disorder and distinct therapists’ countertransference patterns; and 2) to verify whether these clinicians’ emotional reactions were influenced by their theoretical orientation (as well as gender and age).A national sample of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists (N = 250) completed the Therapist Response Questionnaire (TRQ) to identify patterns of therapist emotional response, and the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200 (SWAP-200) to assess personality disorder and level of psychological functioning in a patient currently in their care and with whom they had worked for a minimum of eight sessions and a maximum of 6 months (one session per week).From the complete therapist sample, we identified a subgroup (N = 35) of patients with narcissistic personality disorder, and we found that this personality pathology was positively associated with criticized/mistreated and disengaged countertransference, but negatively associated with positive therapist response. Moreover, our results confirmed that the relationship between patients’ narcissistic personality disorder and therapists’ emotional responses was not dependent on clinicians’ theoretical approach (as well as their age and gender).These findings are consistent with clinical observations, as well as some empirical contributions, and have meaningful implications for clinical practice of patients suffering from this challenging pathology.

scholarly journals Language, Form and Emotion in James Joyce’s Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man: A Literary Analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 158
Author(s):  
Robert S.P. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Literary Traditions ◽  
Language Form ◽  
The Relationship

James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man has fascinated readers for more than a century and there are layers of psychological meaning to be found throughout the novel. The novel is the perfect vehicle to discuss the relationship between form language and emotion as Joyce deliberately manipulated the emotional response of the reader through innovations in form and language, departing dramatically from previous literary traditions. This paper attempts to take a fresh look at the novel from a psychological perspective and seeks to examine underlying conditioning processes at work in the narrative – particularly the concept of associative learning. Understanding emotional responses to different stimuli is the bedrock of psychological investigation and 100 years after the date of its publication, Portrait of an Artist presents remarkably fresh insights into the human experience of emotion. Despite its age, Portrait of the Artist contains many contemporary psychological insights.

scholarly journals Pussy power

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-184
Author(s):  
Kai Huang ◽  
Elena Nicoladis
Keyword(s):  
Galvanic Skin Response ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
First Language ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Skin Response ◽  
French And English ◽  
Taboo Words

Some previous research has suggested that words in multlinguals’ first language, particularly taboo words, evoke a greater emotional response than words in any subsequent language. In the present study, we elicited French-English bilinguals’ emotional responses to words in both languages. We expected taboo words to evoke higher emotional response than positive or negative words in both languages. We tested the hypothesis that the earlier that bilinguals had acquired the language, the higher the emotional responses. French-English bilinguals with long exposure to both French and English participated. Their galvanic skin response (GSR) was measured as they processed positive (e.g., mother), negative (e.g., war) and taboo (e.g., pussy) words in both French and English. As predicted, GSR responses to taboo words were high in both languages. Surprisingly, English taboo words elicited higher GSR responses than French ones and age of acquisition was not related to GSR. We argue that these results are related to the context in which this study took place (i.e., an English majority context). If this interpretation is correct, then bilinguals’ emotional response to words could be more strongly linked to recent emotional interactions than to childhood experiences.

scholarly journals Application of Computer Graphic Technology in Animated Scene

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Changyong Zhu ◽  
Yunyun Wang ◽  
Jiaxin Tang
Keyword(s):  
Computer Graphic ◽  
Scene Design ◽  
Animated Films ◽  
Character Design

Animated scene design directedly refers to other styling design besides character design, which plays extremely important role in animated films. Scenes usually vary with plots of story, highlighting atmosphere and style of animation. Therefore, design of animated scene conveys characteristics of both technology and art. This article illustrates the specific application of computer graphic technology in animated scene, featuring the animation, the man on the stage, made by self.

Byzantine Biography

2020 ◽  
pp. 529-546
Author(s):  
Martin Hinterberger
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Point Of Reference

This chapter studies direct and indirect influences of classical and late antique biographical forms and contents on Byzantine biographical writing. Both the main characteristics of Byzantine biographical writing and the richness of forms and contents become clear. The influence of the vita/bios on other (even non-biographical) genres and the concomitant biographization are noted. Biography has to be interesting, edifying, and entertaining. ‘Adventures’ are an important element as is the constant movement of the heroes. Indeed, a recurrent topic is the hero’s flight and other people’s pursuit of him. It is remarkable that there are so many biographies of people from the provinces who came to Constantinople for various reasons. Constantinople itself is an important point of reference in many biographies, as is the emperor or the patriarch. Education and learning, too, play a significant role. The specific characteristics of Byzantine biography, however, still remain vague. A lot of further scholarly work needs to be done before the art of biography can be properly understood.

Monsters, Synch: A Taxonomy of the Star Voice

2018 ◽  
pp. 144-164
Author(s):  
Christopher Holliday
Keyword(s):  
Film Performance ◽  
Structural Importance ◽  
Animated Films ◽  
Animated Film ◽  
Character Design ◽  
Multi Media ◽  
Sound Technology ◽  
Film Sound

This chapter proposes that the ascription of star speech (as a dynamic sound form) to the computer-animated film’s puppet performers contributes to the effect and impact of their many screen performances. This chapter takes the star voice to be a unique instrument of performance that lies at the cornerstone of computer-animated film acting, and begins by implicating the potency of the star voice within wider industrial discourses. These include local dubbing practices, sound technology, and the multiplication of star sound across a range of consumer and multi-media products. The formal and structural importance of the star voice to computer-animated film performance is illustrated through the work of prominent film sound theorist Michel Chion and his work on synchresis, a neologism produced out of the combination of “synchronism” and “synthesis”. By extending Chion’s account, this chapter uses descriptors derived from synchresis to outline three prominent synchretic unions operating at the level of character design. A significant innovation here is the development of a taxonomy of the star voice as it is inscribed formally into computer-animated films—anthropomorphic, autobiographic and acousmatic synchresis—which give new precision to the analysis of star voices in animation.

The role of musical priming in brand recall

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 1112-1131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Levrini ◽  
Cristian Luis Schaeffer ◽  
Walter Nique
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Response ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Physiological Measures ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Brand Recall ◽  
Online Sales

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to analyze whether musical priming induces greater recall of brands and, second, to study the emotional priming effects of music, in comparison with non-emotional music, including gender comparison. Design/methodology/approach Through the utilization of neuromarketing tools and protocols (quantitative and qualitative), the study explores facial eltromyography (EMG) capabilities and skin conductance responses (SCR) measuring consumers’ emotional responses. Findings The findings show that at least, 40 percent of the total sample recognized a musical priming effect. The study measures the emotional response to musical priming as positive. Emotional video recognition was much higher in females. Both the self-report and physiological measures support the notion that emotional background music can elicit emotional responses in consumers. Research limitations/implications The research measured emotional response to musical priming without testing how these responses influence consumers’ attention and overall behavior. Practical implications The five senses, especially hearing, play an important role in the purchasing decision process and in the individual customer experience. People become aware of the products and brands that surround them and make their choice. In terms of digital trading activities and online sales, increasing physiological understanding of musical priming reactions may mean that, for companies, selling low-end online goods may be economically worthwhile to cooperate with platforms such as Spotify or iTunes to select individual users. Social implications More research is needed in priming process techniques in order to better understand how primes activate knowledge in the consumer’s mind. Understanding this process will inform marketers how close a prime needs to be to a target to have an effective influence, as well as when marketers should be concerned about negative priming effects. Originality/value At the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that music priming is analyzed in terms of self-report and physiological measures From the measurement’s perspective, the results reaffirm that physiological and self-report measures capture different levels of information. While SCR and EMG capture real-time subconscious responses, MAN scale self-report data provide information regarding how cognitive effort, in terms of intensity and valence, affects brand recall.

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