THE ARTIST JOURNAL (TAJ) VOLUME. 5, NO.

2, NOVEMBER, 2021

CREATING A 3-D AVATAR/ CHARACTER ON THE ANIMATION OF EFIK

FOLKTALE OF 'MUTANDA OYOM NAMONDO',
CROSS RIVER STATE NIGERIA
By

Ndem, Emmanuel Joseph

Department of Fine and Industrial Arts, University of Uyo, Uyo.
Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT
African folktales particularly, Efik folktales are on the verge of extinction due to modernization.
Though attempts have been made by animators in the area of digital storytelling and multimedia
technology to document and preserve indigenous folktale using 3 dimensional character in
animation which will help alleviate mental animation in learning situation, this may not have
been the case with Efik folktale. This study is aimed at creating a 3-D Avatar/ Character on the
animation of Efik folktale of 'Mutanda Oyom Namondo', Cross River state Nigeria. Data was
collected obtained through primary and secondary sources. The result of this study shows that the
creation of 3 dimensional avatar/ character on the animation of Efik folktale of Mutanda oyom
Namundo can help in alleviating mental animation for easy comprehension of the subject in
learning situation.

KEYWORDS: Animation, Avatar, Character, Mutanda, Namundo, Efik, Folktale

INTRODUCTION
The creation of 3-Dimensional avatar/ character is a very important process in the production of
an animation. The demand for 3-Dimensional characters in computer graphics can be found in 3-
Dimensional animated folktale production. Such folktale have been increasingly popular in the
past decade, with more than five films animated folktale film being released yearly. However, a
common criticism that has come up is that, most of these animated folktale projects some ethnic
group in Nigeria. In particular, they all exhibit the cultural tradition of the major ethnic group in
Nigeria which has become representative for 3-Dimensional animation. They employ a varying
amount and flavor of cultural objects for shape, motion, and lighting. The lack of ethno-visual
diversity has been identified years ago, and most production studios have since made significant
efforts to alleviate it by broadening the spectrum of cultural contents seen on screen.
The quest of bringing cultural diversity into 3-dimensional avatar/ character creation and
representation in 3-D computer animation bridges over the disciplines of art and technology.
From an artistic point of view, a major challenge is to define how the character should look when
animated. There is an enormous amount of inspiration and knowledge to be found in traditional
visual arts, but it is often unclear how these exemplars can be brought to life through motion in a
visually pleasing way. Once there is a clear artistic vision of creating or modeling the character,
the next challenge lies in the practical realization of this vision. The primary concern of this paper
is to enable and facilitate new character in 3-Dimensional animation of Efik folkale of Mutanda
Oyom Namundo with the development of new technologies and tools. This paper focuses on
using 3D computer animation techniques to create 3- Dimensional Avatar/ Character of a local
folktale in the South South (Efik speaking) of Nigeria

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Uncanny valley theory was applied in this paper to serve as the framework of which the style use
in creating the 3 dimensional avatar/character was based. The theory explained that, as the

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human likeness of the 3dimensional avatar/ characters increased, the familiarity increase as well,
however at some point the familiarity will drop drastically forming what is called the Uncanny
Valley. If the human likeness however increases even more the theory states that the familiarity
will rise as well (Prakash, A., & Rogers, W. A. 2015). When creating the 3-dimensional avartar/
character on Efik folktale of Mutanda oyom Namundo, it was decided early at first whether or not
to aim the design of the 3-dimensional avatar/ character for the peak before the uncanny valley or
the peak after. Seyama and Nagayama (2007) is of the view that at the peak before, the character
can be a stylized look, where the characters are clearly supposed to be humans, but because they
are highly stylized with exaggerated features they do not fall into the uncanny valley

THE EFIK PEOPLE AND THEIR FOLKTALE TRADITION

The Efik people formerly belonged to the South Eastern State of Nigeria; the region later became
known as Cross River State in 1976. Today, the Efik is an ethnic group in the present Cross River
State, Nigeria. In Efik society, there are many tales about animals, children, family structure
(especially the polygamous), men and their different levels of achievements and the society as a
whole. The tradition of storytelling in the Efik society is a process and an art. Tale sessions
normally include a very skilful narrator and his audience who are usually younger people,
although older people or age-mates of the narrator may sometimes participate passively as they
listen in. Every such session begins with the normal opening formula “Ekọñ ñke e e!” (by the
narrator) and “ñke ekọñ abasi” response by the audience. For a successful session, attention is
retained by ensuing rounds of riddles before the actual story for the night is told and sometimes,
to a more mature audience. Stories of bravery and conquest, where libation performances
dominate, are usually the overriding subject matter. Sekoni (2003) asserts that “the retention of
audience attention is however only attainable through the performer‟s manipulation of the
emotions of the audience ... manifested in the narrative-performance through the patterning of
narrative images or episodes” (142). The Efik audience by this manner, thus become an integral
part of the creative act in an oral performance” (Okpewho, 2003:180).

WHAT IS ANIMATION?
The word animation means “liveliness”, “vivacity”, that is, the condition of being alive (Collins,
2016:1). According to Goel D and Upadhyhay, both lecturers in the department of Commerce,
Aryabhatta College, University of Delhi, the term 'animation' comes from Latin word 'animate',
which means to bring life to or to invoke life (Goel D. and Upadhyhay, 2017). Alade S.M,
Folarinmi S.A and Odejobi O.A (2015) opined that animation is a Latin word called 'Anima'
which means 'soul'. Simply put, to animate is to give life to inanimate objects, drawings, and
images. In fact, animation is the rapid display of sequence of images to create an illusion of
movement. In graphics technology, it is the creation of artificial moving images. Originally,
animation was derived from the Latin Animationem, meaning “living” or “breathing”. This has
significance because animation is often referred to as being alive or in movement. This means
that animation etymology has deep meaning and speaks to what these images really are (Wilson,
2010:1).
3-D Avatar/ Character
The history of character design and modeling dates back to the beginning of storytelling. Each
story had one or more characters. However, they weren't initially displayed in a visual form such
as an illustration. Each character had its own characteristics and usually a brief description of its
appearance. Characters are an essential part of all story based mediums, like books, films and
video games. The characters of an animation are the story heroes, they deserve significant
attention to appear appealing and original. So creativity and innovation in designing the
characters is one of the basic rules for a successful result (Beni, 2014).

Character is a display of the weaknesses, strength, and the bad characteristic of a character.

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Character is the main factor for a film and animation. The character design also playing major
role to adapt the storylines, and the mood for an animation film. Therefore, creating good
characters that fit the medium's needs is very important, and the process should be given plenty of
resources like time and manpower during the project. However, undeniable to say, the character
development, design and modeling still in low level. Character design is the second most
important criterion after the story lines. According to (Faryna Mohd Khalis, 2016) a character is
considered a success when it is believable to the audience even though it does not exist. The
character must to be raw, unique and fresh. A stereotyped character or a weak identity usually
fails to attract the audience. Characters are not necessarily human figures. They also be presented
in other figures like animals, floras or object.

Dahlan et. al (2019) opined that, to create a good character design, there must have been some
form of research and evaluation of the character. It's very helpful to create a good character
design that meets the target audience. The visual impact of the avatar/ character also play a good
role in making a good animation. The color can help to communicate to the audience the
personality of the character.

Modeling in Animation
Modeling is the process of creating a three dimensional representation of any object, from
humans and animals to machines and natural environments (Ovrick 2017). These 3D objects are
constructed from a collection of vertices, edges and faces, creating a polygon mesh. A polygon
mesh is the surface of an object that defines the shape of every 3D object. In simpler terms, the 3D
meshes are formed by polygons, which are usually triangles or rectangles that fit together to build
the whole object. Plate 1 shows an example of a 3D object which is formed by triangle shaped

Plate 1. Differences between a vertex, edge, face and a polygon (Khan 2016.)
Ovrick (2017) in his article about 3D modeling states that 3D modeling is usually split into two
groups; organic and hard surface modeling. Organic modeling is used, as the name suggests, in
organic forms such as characters, plants and other natural objects in the environment. Hard
surface modeling comprises of objects such as vehicles, buildings and anything that is
constructed.

Character Design Model

Character is a display of the weaknesses, strength, and the bad characteristic of a character.
Character is the main factor for a film and animation. The character design also playing major
role to adapt the storylines, and the mood for an animation film. However, undeniable to say, the
character development, design and modeling still in low level. According to (Faryna Mohd
Khalis, 2016). Most indigenous Efik animators are lacking a sense of identity in producing
animated character design. Character design is the second most important criterion after the story
lines. According to (Faryna Mohd Khalis, 2016) a character considered a success when it is

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believable to the audience even though it does not exist. The character must be raw, unique and
fresh. A stereotyped character or a weak identity usually fails to attract the audience. Most
characters are not necessarily human figures. They can also be presented in other figures like
animals, floras or object. The characters in animation may be considered as successful character
because the audience believed they exist in real world. The character that cannot be rigid into the
human form, can be replace with object, food and animals.

The need for Creating a 3-Dimensional Avatar/ Characters for Efik Folktake of Mutanda
Oyom Namundo, Cross River state
Considering the current technological innovations and advancements in the society today, there
is every need to create 3 Dimensional Avatar/ characters of Efik folktales. Some foreign fairy
tales have been modified in this form and developed into cartoon films which have been imported
into the country and Nigerian parents especially those of Efik extraction have bought these
foreign animated content for their children‟s leisure time. Unfortunately, this development has
enabled many children of Efik ethnic group to exploit the foreign attitudes which are embodied in
those cartoons and neglect their own Efik cultural values which are embodied in Efik folktales.
This has also impacted negatively on some Efik children. To salvage this situation, Ikwubuzo
(2008: 53) posits:
Developing our indigenous folktales into cartoons designed for children instead
of building up a repository of foreign cartoon films for our children in our homes.
Nigerian filmmakers can begin to think in this direction. With their rich creative
talents exhibited in various film productions they can develop cartoon films that
are based on our animal tales. They can be made to compete favourably with
imported ones.

Ikwubuzo‟s view above reveals that the contributions of talented Efik filmmakers are really
needed in revitalizing the Efik folktales. In our society today, it is very clear that all aspects of
human endeavour and experience are digitized. Efik folktales should not be left out. Since Efik
folktales are communally owned, that is, nobody has copyright over them, they can be retold in
more exciting ways. Obi – Obasi as cited in Usman (2013: 40) agrees thus, “Folktales can be
retold in any fanciful way as nobody has copyright over them”. Therefore, scholars should think
in this direction.

Methodology
The study adopted qualitative research method based on the studio practice-led approach. Cross
River State geographical area was chosen for the study. This is based on the fact that “Mutanda
Oyom Namundo” has its setting in Cross River State of Nigeria. The primary sources of data are
first hand information. The study obtained data from sketches, photographs, observation and
indigenous movie of efik content. Literary materials was sourced the University of Uyo library
and the Ibom e-Library. It was also sourced from Internet and Exhibition Catalogues.

Method of Data Analysis/ Studio Practice

Among the characters of the Efik folktale of Mutanda Oyom Namundo, this paper focused on
creating a 3 –dimensional avatar/ character of the major character, Mutanda, who happened to be
the king of Bokondo. The folktale centers on the bravery shown in the quest to recover Namundo,
the lost son of king Mutanda,

Concept and Sketches: Before creating a character, the concept idea and sketches must been
produce by concept artist. According to (Plata, 2013) the main objective of reference is to start
the operation of 3D concept design for the characters.. According to (Monsta, 2016) the concept
idea must been produce before staring the animation. The characters made must be in accordance

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with the concepts that have been designed. Figure 2 shows the character and sketching character
based on reference.

Character Modeling: Making the 3d character model for Efik folktale is using Primitive
Modeling techniques. The process uses several modeling techniques such as translation, scale,
rotation, mirrors, extrude and loop cut so that the character model is formed according to the
basic character design. Figure 3 shows character model process.

Figure 3. Wireframe view showing the Character Model Process

Texturing: The texturing process plays a very important role in the making a 3D object looks
real. Texture creation is done by using Adobe Illustrator CC 2017 with utilizing the UV mapping
feature to create a surface pattern of 3D objects. The figure below shows texturing process of
character.

Fig. 4. Texturing Process

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Character Rigging: Rigging is the process of adding bones to a character or defining the
movement of a mechanical object. It is central to the animation process as it will show how a
character appears when deformed into different poses. Adeyanju (2015) states that rigging is
basically a digital framework bound to 3D mesh. This process uses an armature which is a real
framework that can consist of many bones. A controller such as Inverse Kinematics (IK) is
needed and the union between rigs or bones with characters is called skinning.
The rigging process involves creating the skeleton, adding skin to the skeletal part of the body
and then attaching the different parts together. Using Blender software, the creation of skeleton is
done by selecting animation on the drop down menu, from the skeleton menu and clicking on
joint tool followed by clicking on the part in which the skeleton is required.

Fig. 5. Adding Bones for the Character Rigging Process

Rendering: The rendering phase marks the final stage of preparing the 3 dimensional avatar/
character for use. In rendering of the 3-dimensional avatar/ character, the shadows,
reflections, ambient occlusion are rendered out as different passes for later compositing. The
format for a rendered 3-dimensional avatar/ character is JPEG.

Fig. 5. Quad view of the final 3 dimensional Avatar/ Character

CONCLUSION
Most people of Efik society have the propensity to understand any message that is sent through
visual means better, than those that is sent through text or sound. This is due to the fact that there
is the possibility of not everyone being able to read or hear but there is that tendency that

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everyone can understand and interpret whatever they see. Therefore, there is the need to create
3-dimensional avatasr/ characters on the animation of Efik folktale of Mutanda Oyom Namundo.
This can help to alleviate the problem of mental animation thereby creating easy comprehension
and pass lessons across to the audience as well as enhancing the Efik cultural heritage. In this
work, Blender 3d, and Adobe Photoshop cs6, were used in creating 3d avatar/ character on Efik
folktale of Mutanda oyom Namundo. Ability to create the avatar/ charcater indicated that the 3
dimensional avatar/ character satisfies some basic criteria expected of Efik folktale of Mutanda
Oyom Namundo. This study is determined to repeat the creation of 3-dimensional avater/
character for other Efik folktales and extend this work to cover edutainment software
applications for not just the Efik people to learn more from their local culture, but for others too to
learn from efik culture. The 3-dimensional avatar/ character created on the Efik folktale
animation of Mutanda Oyom Namundo also gave strength to the animated folktale by alleviating
the problem of mental animation that characterizes oral and written form of Efik folktale in
learning situation.

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