Adding Personality to Fantasy Creatures : Using animal motion references

Abstract: Fantasy creatures are an essential part of many games, but while there are several studies focusing on body language and how expressive gaming companions may enhance the player’s experience, creatures and animals are rarely the focal points. Personality is closely related to believability, which is what most game developers work towards hence believability may improve the gaming experience. The purpose of this paper was to explore how the personality of a fantasy creature would be perceived by the observer when using different animal motion references. A 3D-model was created and animated in three different styles using motion references from a cat and lizard. A survey with Likert-scales was then formed with the intention to evaluate the animations. The participants in the survey were assigned one of the three animations to rate statements regarding personality and believability. Rather than a certain type of animal being associated with a certain type of personality, the result suggests that it was mainly certain motion cues and postures that affected the participants’ ratings. The study was deemed to be insufficient for a reliable result. In the discussion part, there are ideas on how the study could be improved with the aim of continuing the research to gain a clearer insight into the subject of personality and creatures.