Laboratory Animation Productions: Strategies to Produce Customizable Animations to Be Used as Materials for Experimental Research on Media

The interventional experimental method is a standard method for investigating the effects of media on children. Due to budget and time constraints, researchers use the lowest priced methods to create visual content to be used as stimuli in the research. Surveys and correspondence with researchers have been used to examine experimental research conditions and limitations. I studied recent animation industry technologies and developments to create a cost-effective animation production track compatible with experimental research conditions. This thesis shows that animations can be produced in a way to meet experimental psychology research. Due to its use of motion capture facilities, motion libraries, ease of use, and expertise in quickly creating simple animations, I found Adobe Character Animator to be advantageous for creating laboratory animations. Image generating capabilities of AI programs can also accelerate the preproduction phase. It takes 80–253 hours to make 12 minutes of 2D digital animation in an academic animation lab. The animations could then be stored in an online library to be available to other experimental researchers without extra cost or time.