Expression Research #2 - Body

Expression through body language can be as important as facial expression when done correctly - especially if the character in question is lacking a face!

With the characters I have looked at so far, we can see that they all have a wide array of expressions conveying big, over exaggerated emotions. As mentioned before, we as humans pick up on these very easily and relate them to ourselves.

Looking at the characters I have already reviewed, we can see see how body language is easily used.

Here is the rabbit, taking up what I would describe as an embarrassed pose. This is quintessentially a feminine pose, but works well with the comedy factor this animation has, a good thing to keep in mind as I am working to a very similar brief. Something else that is interesting is how well this works even with the massive proportion differences to a human body that the rabbit has. If we outline the main features of this pose, we can look into them in more detail.

In this VERY basic outline, we can see how some simple movements can create this feeling of emotion and expression that is easy to understand. The first biggest thing I notice is how the rabbits left leg is bent and he is standing on his tip toes. This seems very important to this expression, and I don't think it would be such a clear expression without this. This goes for the rabbits right hand as well. It is very stereotypical to this pose and makes it clear.

Apart from the standard, human like limbs, the rabbit obviously also has a big pair of ears atop his head, as you can see from my outline image, these are also used in this pose, these are flopped down on top of the rabbits head, to give what I would describe as a deflated impression on how he is feeling. The use of ears like this seem like something good to remember when creating my character.

This research has shown me how expression through body language is not regulated to realistic human anatomy, and how a character such as the rabbit is able to function normally with very big arms and tiny legs, something that I may touch on in my own character design as it seems to fit in well with the comedy aspect of the brief.