Moraingy (Moringue)

Moraingy (Malagasy) or Moringue (French) is a weaponless, bare-fisted striking style of traditional martial art that originated during the Maroseranana dynasty (1675-1896) of the Sakalava Kingdom of western coastal Madagascar. It has since become popularised throughout Madagascar but particulalrly in coastal regions, and has spread to neighbouring Indian Ocean islands including Reunion, Mayotte, Comoros, Seychelles and Mauritius.

Participation in this form of combat was originally limited to young men, allowing elders to judge their physical fitness and strength whilst providing an opportunity for the youth to gain prestige and test their abilities. Today, while the average age of participants is still between 10 and 35, young people of both genders may practice the sport.

Moraingy matches must, by tradition, be accompanied by music (often salegy) to induce a trance-like state in the fighters and participants, contributing to the spiritual and communal experience of the fight. As part of this experience, participants typically engage in dances during and between the matches that are meant to provoke the supporters of the opposing party, while the crowd cheers and jeers loudly.

Moraingy is considered a half-distance or long-range fighting sport with punches predominating but with some kicks permitted. Types of punches include straight punches (mitso), hooks (mandraoky), downward slanting punches (vangofary) and a punch similar to an uppercut (vangomioriky). Defenses include guarding and sidesteps, but neither the attacks nor defenses are standardised, creating higher variability among individual fighters and between regions than in international boxing.

The Reunionais form of moraingy is less violent and more inspired by the choreography and acrobatics of Brazilian capoeira than the original Malagasy form. The use of jumps and stomping makes it spectacular.

Video:

Meeting with Ryan, week 2

Question asked:

Does the questionnaire need to be featured in the dissertation?

Answer: Should be, it's part of the methodology.



The methodology is how you test the practical. The practical, questionnaire, results (presented data), changes made due to questionnaire, will be put in the methodology. It shows progress. Perhaps I could also do a second questionnaire or evaluate the characters myself after the first round of changes, or use other people's opinions again.

It's ok to have rough concepts to present to people and have them judge then produce more refined concepts or paintings.

Plan/ draw out methodology, perhaps in a powerpoint or word document as it will be easy to change and add to.

Having a clear idea of intro, abstract, methodology and conclusion will make the lit review easier.

Methodology and lit review should be roughly the same length of around 2000 words, as a guide.

Taekwondo

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art which is a blend of the indigenous Korean fighting styles of taekyeon, gobeop and suak, with influence from foreign martial arts such as kare and Chinese martial arts.

There is emphasis on speed and agility. Kicks also seem to be the main focus.

In games:

Juri from Street Fighter:

Juri by Alexnegrea 

Chae Lim from KOF:

Baek Doo San from Tekken: 

As can be seen in the games, the clothing does not necessarily represent the fighting style , however a few characters have the South Korean flag on the clothing somewhere. 

Muai Thai

Muay Thai originates in Thailand and uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. It is known as "the art of eight limbs" because it is characterised by the combined use of fists, elbows, knees, shins, being associated with a good physical preparation that makes a full-contact fighter very efficient.

Many martial arts are known for their emphasis on kicking, like Taekwondo. However, Muay Thai emphasises kicking with the shin, which is a lot more painful than kicking with a foot.

Below are some images depicting Muay Thai:

Muay Thai in games:

Lost saga, Muay Thai characters, male and female: 

Lee Sin (Muay Thai skin), League of Legends: 

Sagat, Street Fighter:

Adon from Street Fighter:

Joe Higashi, Fatal Fury and KoF:

Hwa Jai

King from King of Fighters and Art of Fighting:

Zack from Dead or Alive: 

Bruce Irvin from Tekken 

Whilst these are not all the characters that appear in games, many other looks similar or their designs do not suggest that they practice Muay Thai, such as Jax from MK. As can be seen from the designs of these game characters, the majority are very similar and are based on the traditional Muay Thai dress. This is something to consider.

Meeting with Ryan, week 1

Questions that were addressed: 

Feedback on initial draft of questions for questionnaire:

Do you consider this design memorable? 

Is the design effective in conveying a sense of personality from the character? 

In your opinion, what works well in the design? 

Best and worst design elements?

What type of genre do you think this character fits into? 

Does the backstory fit with the visual design? 

Is the visual design alone strong enough; would you recognise the character easily if they were presented to you outside of their game world? (Does the character have enough unique identity?)

What is meant by: "narrative concept within which you can explore character design in a more focused, iterative manner" (feedback from pre-production portfolio).

Feedback:

Serious work on questionnaire will be in the next few weeks. 

Instead of having open questions, give options to choose from so that it is easier to limit the incoming data. Options for genre and design elements, e.g what works well? Hair, clothing etc.

Need to be able to produce visual data from the questionnaire. (This I am unclear about so will address it again next week)

Consider changing or rethinking the wording of the dissertation title, "appealing" instead of "memorable", what defines a memorable character? Perhaps it is too big of a topic to deal with. Might be better to stick with what makes for an appealing, or successful, character design? 

Following on from the point above, it is not always just the design that makes the character successful, it is also the game. Character designs such as Lara Croft aren't very visually interesting, yet are iconic due to the character itself as well as the game franchise. 

Look into pre-production artwork for games. 

Whilst life drawing classes are good practice, I do not have to go to classes and can learn from studying anatomy. This may be a better idea so I can better my understanding of how the body moves, so I can make my poses look more realistic when it comes to drawing my characters. 

Consider photo manipulation to aid in the creation of quick poses. Photobashing. 

"Narrative concept" can be like a story or something already existing as a concept. I decide to interpret this as a genre, so it limits me more, but not too much. 

Capoeria

Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics and music. It was developed in Brazil mainly by West African descendants with native Brazilian influences. Below are some videos and reference images I have collected so I can design as character for a fighting game that practices Capoeira.

http://vip.abril.com.br/seu-crescimento-em-jogo/

I really like the above poses as they exhibit what Capoeira is about, emphasis on the legs and arms/hands. 

Videos for reference:

Capoeira in games:

Fatal Fury, Richard Meyer and Bob Wilson (immediately below):

Eddy Gordo, Tekken: 

Christie Monteiro, Tekken: 

Elena, Street Fighter III:

Lost Saga Capoeira characters:  

Momoko from King of Fighters:

From my research into Capoeira, it seems that most people or characters are depicted shirtless and wearing loose trousers that are accompanied with a belt. The trousers are typically white or some sort of green or yellow to reflect Brazil.

I was thinking, instead of keeping with the usual depictions, as they lack originality, I could mix the common clothes with Brazilian costumes (see below) to create something more interesting as well as overtly Brazilian.