Entropy of Linkography: Evaluating the Creativity of Short Animation

There are important research issues surrounding the best methods for evaluating creativity of animation. This study proposed an approach to evaluate the creativity of short animation by adopting Linkography. This article reported the results of two experiments performed to test this approach. In study 1, participants identified as impressive a set of images drawn from a short animation. These images then represented moves on Linkography. Next, the interrelations between images were recognized as links on Linkography. The creativity of a short animation was determined by entropy, which was calculated by links. Results of study 1 revealed that entropy of Linkography had a high correlation (.86) with the evaluation scores obtained through a questionnaire, thus confirming the adequacy of using Linkography as a tool in evaluating the creativity of short animation. In study 2, an experiment was conducted to adjust entropy calculation. The study results showed that there existed alternatives for adjusting this calculation to reflect better the irregularity of ideas, which serves as an indicator of creativity. Further studies are needed to test the generalization of the present findings.