'Evolving Dissertation Question'

My Question at the moment is-

'To what extent can the scientific methods of predicting the movement and behaviour of extinct animals inform 3D fantasy creature development?'

However in a chat with John today we discussed the fact that this question has problems with the wording, it seems to be restricting me where it shouldn’t.

The use of the phrase 'creature development' sounds as if the focus of the project is character design rather than rigging.

We also discussed the fact that this also points towards my project being solely about the scientific side and not showing the involvement of creative techniques and technical difficulties that could arise. 

The 'extinct animals' seems to limit to ONLY looking at extinct animals, the palaeontology is a part of my dissertation but it is not the focus, also it is likely that the only related case study is ‘Walking with Dinosaurs.’

My project is also about the process of being given a character design, analysing and understanding it, and being able to pick it apart, distinguishing what animals/other influences could relate to how it would move and behave. It is also about being able to understand the needs of the animator. It’s about creating a credible animation and credible characters to draw in the audience and prolonging their suspension of disbelief.

Use of the word ‘Fantasy’ has automatic connotations to elaborate mythical animals but this isn’t necessarily what I mean by it. I’m talking about something that doesn’t exist in reality, something from the creator’s imagination, strange creatures or inanimate objects animated.

This one of the main reasons that we use animation, to explore ideas that don’t exist in reality, probably couldn’t exist in reality; and making them into a reality within the world, making it believable for the audience to get lost in.

So after this discussion we started to think about how my question could differ-

‘How is the study of real animal movement a vital process in rigging?’

‘How important is the study of real animal movement in the effective rigging of a 3D character with specific focus on fantasy creatures?’

‘To what extent can the study of animal behaviour and movement inform the development and rigging of 3D imaginary creatures?’

‘To what extent can the study of real animal movement aid in creating a rig capable of credible animation?’

But I feel that I shouldn’t be completely cutting out the ‘palaeontology part’ as it is still very important so we evolved to changing words that are too focused-

'To what extent can the scientific methods of reconstructing the movement and behaviour of animals, including extinct animals, inform imaginary creature rigging and manipulation for the purpose of 3D animation?'

'To what extent can the scientific methods of reconstructing the movement and behaviour of animals, including extinct animals, inform the rigging and manipulation of a (fantasy) creature for the purpose of 3D animation?'

At the end of our meeting we both felt that this was getting more towards what I’m aiming at although obviously the wording isn’t quite right, it’s not quite there yet but I’m keeping thinking about it and going to discuss it with other lecturers.