Body language and facial expressions; a design-based study of anthropomorphic, caricatured

or cartooned characters in CG animation

Lenka Bartošová

Master of Science Design and Digital Media

School of Arts, Culture and Environment

The University of Edinburgh

2011

Acknowledgement

I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Dr. Martin Parker, for his support, encouragement

and stimulating suggestions from the initial to the final level of my work on the

dissertation. I am heartily thankful to my second supervisor, Thaleia Deniozou, whose

willingness to help with any issue, fast replies at midnight and excellent tutoring helped

me in all the time of research for and writing of this dissertation. I would also like to

express my gratitude to John Lee, Jules Rawlinson and the DDM tutors for their guidance

throughout the program. I would like to acknowledge and extend my heartfelt gratitude to

Ali Murray for spending his time to significantly improve my animation by creating sound

for the movie, Graeme Arthur for weekly beer, chat and inspiration, Claire Meldrum and

Heida Vigfusdottir for their constant feedback, motivation and hundreds of positive emails,

Loukia Goni for having walks with me and my family without whom I would not be where I

am today. Thank you.

i

Abstract

I created a CG animation using 3D graphics software Blender 2.58a. I focus on the

animation part of the development process. I explain the ideas and principles behind the

characters design and their influence of my animation choices. Further, I reveal the

psychology behind their body language and facial expressions. I take a deeper look on the

facial muscle movement and examine the exaggeration and its effects on emotions of the

viewers. Finally, I describe different techniques I used for improving the quality and

enhancing the visual impact of my animation, such as camera angles or motion blur.

Keywords: Blender, CG, 3D, animation, heaven, draughts, devil, St. Peter

ii

DVD content

DVD contains four folders:

Main Movie . . . . . . video file with my animation

Essay . . . . . . . . pdf version of the dissertation

Bonus Videos . . . . . videos I am referencing in the text

Blend Files . . . . . . blend file I used for the animation

. . . . . . blender software for windows

. . . . . . blender software for macs

(blender software is a portable file and can be used to open the

blend file with the animation)

Please, watch the main movie before starting reading.

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Table of contents

Introduction 1

1 Animation ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Characters design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3 Acting ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

4 Animation patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

5 Facial expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

5.1 Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

5.2 Eyelids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

5.3 Blinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

6 Body language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

7 Enhancing emotional impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

7.1 Exaggeration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

7.2 Camera angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

7.3 Motion blur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

7.4 Fade in Fade out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

7.5 Dreamworks face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

8 Conclusion and future work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Bibliography 31

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Introduction

After watching a scene from a computer graphics (further only CG) animated movie

Kung Fu Panda (Osborne & Stevenson (2008)), I started an addiction for CG animated

movies. In this scene Oogway, an old turtle and respected Master of Kung Fu, blows the

candles while Shifu, a red panda, Master of Kung Fu and Oogway’s former student,

watches him with an unforgettable facial expression. What makes his face so special is the

combination of many emotions in the one act. His performance communicates confusion,

uncertainty, stress, fear, anxiety, concerns and I can clearly feel his inner battle whether to

ask Oogway about his mental health or rather not. I watched the movie several times and

every time I see this scene it makes me laugh. I attempted to create an animation which

would bring that much enjoyment to other people. I focused on the body language and

facial expressions for their ability to express emotions and inner thoughts more than

words. I noticed a lot of exaggeration in movements of CG animated characters. Despite

the exaggeration the characters look natural and realistic. Furthermore, with exaggerated

body language and facial expressions they even seem to communicate their thoughts,

feelings and moods more clearly to the audience. I decided to explore this power of

exaggeration and the expressiveness of non-verbal communication.

I created an animation short with two CG cartoon characters - a saint and a devil.

From models, through textures, armatures and lighting to the animation and editing of the

final movie files I used free open source 3D content creation suite Blender 2.58a. I

adjusted and created some textures in graphics editing program Adobe Photoshop CS5.

My animation idea is based on a myth derived from a religious tradition, where it is

thought that souls were met by St. Peter at the Gateway to the Heaven. St. Peter either

let the soul enter the Heaven or send it to Hell. In my narrative, a devil appears instead of

a spirit and proposes to Peter a game of draughts. The characters show several positive

and negative emotions throughout the play depending on their performance in a turn.

They express their feelings only through their body language and facial expressions as

there is no dialog. The whole movie lasts 3 minutes, 26 second and can be found on the

attached DVD in the folder Main movie.

1

Introduction

I divided the movie to several shorter videos based on the scenes and the character

appearing in that scene. The videos can be also found on the DVD in the folder Bonus

Videos. To help to indicate the scene each video has a number and a label with the name

of the character who appears in the video and a short description of the scene, e.g.

2. Peter - Eye rubbing. In the text I am referring only to the numbers of the videos.

Furthermore, the DVD includes some scenes which I did not use in the movie but remade

them and few live reference videos.

2

1 Animation ideas

Looking for short animated movies I came across Heavenly Appeals1 (Lisbe, 2009), a

Ringling College of Art and Design student work. The story happens in heaven which

inspired me to make my movie in heaven as well for several advantages of this space.

First, I did not need to build any background properties. Second, I did not need to change

the lighting for indoor and outdoor scenes as the scene stayed the same throughout the

movie. Third, it supported the feeling of unreal, cartoon environment.

The focus on body language and facial expressions led me to an idea of a movie

with a game as a main topic. During any play people tend to express myriads of emotions

as they are winning or loosing (probably with only exception of a poker game). I intended

to have my characters seated so that I can focus on their body language and expressions

of the upper body. The seated position allowed me to leave out the walking cycles and

other moves of the legs. Their adjustments would also be time consuming and

unnecessary for researching my topic. Therefore, I searched for games where the players

do not have to move.

I found a five-minute animated short film Geri’s game2 (Pinkava (1997)) present in

Pixar Short Films Collection - Volume 1.The main character Geri, an elderly man, plays

chess against himself. By moving from one side of the chessboard to the other he

becomes each of the players in turn. To distinguish the players he changes his personality

and puts on or takes off his glasses. Even though I could use some of his mimics and

gestures I did not as I imagined different personalities for my characters than both Geris

have. This movie helped me to decide on my camera angles for the turns of each

character and the distances between camera and the subject.

1Heavenly Appeals is available to watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYq_35xJtFY.

2 Geri’s game is available to watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nTZfWiqRzc .

3

2 Characters design

Every character has a different design which gives him/her a unique set of body

language and facial expressions. Of course, there exist universal movements but the

design makes the reactions special for the character.

For example the characters Luxo and Luxo Jr. from Luxo Jr.3 (Lasseter (1986)), the

first film produced by Pixar Animation Studios. John Lasseter was just learning how to

make models so he chose the easiest object on his desk: an architect’s lamp. [1]

Even though these characters does not have faces, arms nor legs, their body language

persuades me that the lamps have a soul and are alive.

Figure 2.1: Luxo and Luxo Jr. from Luxo Jr. (Lasseter (1986))

The way they move and the actions they perform mirrors their emotions and

personalities. Luxo Jr. resembles a child. His jumping around and playing with the ball

displays the joy and playfulness. His reaction on squeezing the ball truly reflects sadness

and made me as a viewer really sorry for him.

Another example represents Eve from Wall-e (Stanton (2008)) by Pixar or the pillow

from Beauty and the Beast (Trousdale & Wise (1991)) by Walt Disney Animation Studios

(though this is a classic 2D animation). Eve is designed as a robot in shape of an oval with

3 The story of Luxo Jr. and his ball can be downloaded from iTunes or watched online at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGxoui3IFS0.

4

2 Characters design

two lights instead of the eyes which forms the whole face. Her head is separated from her

body which allows the body and the head to shake or rotate thus give more movement.

Her body language in the movie seems simple due to the limited design but feel powerful -

body shaking when she laughs, bending the head to express sadness.

Figure 2.2: Eve from Wall-e (Stanton (2008))

The pillow, a transformed dog, jumps around Beauty and the Beast when they

descend the castle stairs together and wags the tassels as if it was his tail. This action of

the pillow makes it look like a real dog and shows its happiness. Basically, all the

transformed servants of the Beast are inanimate objects. Lumiere the maitre d’ hotel

transformed into a candelabra, Cogsworth the majordomo turned into a wooden table

clocks, Babette the housemaid transformed into a feather duster, Mrs. Potts the head of

the castle kitchen turned into a teapot and her son Chip turned into a teacup. Despite

being objects, all these servants express themselves as humans thrugh the moves. The

servants possess eyes, mouths and some of them nose which allows them to show their

intentions and thought more clearly. But with face or without, these characters show that

the movement tell the story not the appearance.

5

2 Characters design

Figure 2.3: The transformed servants from Beauty and the Beast (Trousdale & Wise (1991)):

Cogsworth, the dog, Mrs. Potts,Chip, Babette and Lumiere.

I focused on the characters with minimal design which can be expressive enough to

interpret the feelings without saying a word. But after gathering more information,

watching these movies and observing these characters, I realized that not the design but

the animation connects the viewer with the character. Without the right moves Luxo and

Luxo Jr would be just regular lamps, Eve would be just an white oval and all of the Beast’s

servants would be only inanimate objects.

Analyzing Beauty and the Beast, the design of the Beast rose my speculation about

making unappealing characters appealing. The Beast resembles a giant lion with sharp

teeth and claws. Inspite of this look, the animators made him look like a sweet caring

being. His facial expressions often show shyness or confusion and his body language

displays his stubbornness. These and other clues of his non-verbal communication made

me symphatize with the Beast and let me forget about his scary appearance.

I found various other movies starring unappealing creatures who proved to be

positive throughout the movie. Shrek, an ogre and the main protagonist of the

Dreamworks Animation Studio’s tetra-logy - Shrek (Adamson & Jenson (2001)), Shrek 2

(Adamson, Asbury & Vernon (2004)), Shrek the Third (Miller & Hui(2007)) and Shrek

Forever After: The Final Chapter (Mitchell (2010)), does not resemble anything to

sympathize with. Nonetheless, his performance evokes empathy. The animators

transformed a rat and a mouse, long-tailed rodents who make some people scream from

6

2 Characters design

fear and generally disgust humans, to adorable pets in Rattatouille (Bird & Pinkava (2007))

and The Tale of Despereaux (Fell & Stevenhagen (2008)). Or Eva, a huge monster created

from

different parts of human bodies glued together, and the hunchbacked evil scientist’s

assistant from Igor (Leondis (2008)) behave in a way that leaves no doubts about the

good in them.

Figure 2.4: Igor and Eva from Igor (Leondis (2008)) and Shrek from Shrek (Adamson & Jenson

(2001))

Having in mind these unappealing characters, I decided to design two characters,

one appealing and one resembling a beast. I created St. Peter and a devil.

According to a Christian belief, Saint Peter is one of the Twelve Apostles who keeps

the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. He decides whether the soul deserves to enter the

Heaven or descend into Hell. Having in mind this myth I chose St. Peter to be in my

heaven rather than an ordinary angel. I looked for images of this apostle and adjusted the

design to my cartoon style. The majority of the pictures show St. Peter as a white haired

older man with white beard wearing a long robe. I remade St. Peter to a younger version

with no beard as the beard would hide the mouth area and make the smiles, smirks and

other mouth movements less expressive. I kept the white slightly curly hair, the robe and

the unthinkable halo.

7

2 Characters design

Figure 2.5: Real St. Peter and my Peter

My inspiration for the devil came from the ogres from the series Disney's

Adventures of the Gummi Bears (Block, Vitello & Zaslove (1985-1991)). I borrowed from

them the idea of pointed piggy nose, few sharp teeth and big ears so that the devil’s

neutral facial expression may seem scary or unfriendly. With this design I could have tried

to achieve similar results as the animators of Shrek and the other 'ugly' characters - make

him appealing regardless of what the design inclines.

Figure 2.6: An ogre from Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears (Block,

Vitello & Zaslove (1985-1991)) and my devil

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3 Acting ideas

There are thousand of movements which can express a certain though or a feeling,

e.g. nervousness - from feet (foot tapping) through hands (cracking the knuckles,

wringing the hands) to the face and the eyes (constant changing the direction of the eyes

look, sweating on the forehead). Different personalities would use different movements to

express their inner thought and mental state. Nervousness for confident person can be

just tapping with the hand on the knee and for shy person it can mean sweating on all

over the face and wringing the hands. These are the reasons why it was important for me

to realize at the beginning how the characters act and react according to their

personalities. Then I had to adjust these preferences to the situations they faced.

To get an inspiration for the acting ideas Mike Stern, mentor at Animation Mentor

and an animator at DreamWorks Animation, advises to imagine how would other

animators animate the character. [2] To research that thought I searched for film

references where the characters faced similar situations as my characters occur.

The first scene with the image of Peter on the bowl following camera shot of real

Peter with the same face as on the image was inspired by first episode of first season

from British sitcom The IT Crowd (Linehan, Boden, Fuller & Wiltshire (2006-2010)). I

found this idea entertaining and used a modified version. Peter might seem frozen but I

intended to give the audience opportunity to realize the similarity between the image on

the bowl and the expression on Peter’s face. In this case I led the amusement take

priority over naturalness.

Figure 3.1: Denholm Reynholm in The IT Crowd episode 1 season 1 (Linehan & Fuller (2006))

9

3 Acting ideas

When I planned the acting choices, I had several ideas in my mind for one scene.

Eliminating the ideas which were not expressive enough left me only with one option for

each scene. However, the scene where Peter rubs his eye (video 2) was my second

attempt for that scene. Initially, Peter rubbed his nose - video 32 shows this outtake. After

watching the nose rubbing I decided to change Peter’s performance to more accurate act.

Rubbing nose did not make much sense after he blinked several times. I remade it to eye

rubbing with intention that something might have fallen into his eye, or he has waken up

and cleaned the sight.

When Peter wakes up (video 8) I prepared two variants for his performance. One

that his reaction would be quick as he wakes up frightened from the sudden sound.

Another possibility was to make him wake up slowly like he was in a deep sleep and now

has problems to jump straight to the reality. Reflecting on these two alternatives, I

finally chose the second one. Everybody is different. Some people wake up straight after

the alarm rings, some people raise the hand searching for the alarm, tap it and repeat

several times till they manage to wake up. I imagined Peter more like the sleepy type so

the second option fits his personality better.

Lifted4 (Rydstrom (2006)), another movie from Pixar Short Films Collection -

Volume 1, inspired me for the scene where the devil realizes he lost against Peter. This

short movie shows a little alien trying to summon a sleeping human through a laser

beam to the alien ship. Bigger alien sits next to him and judges his performance on a

paper. The little alien does not do well in the test and loses his temper. He starts to

show his anger with clenched fists, shaking and lowering his body. This body

movements indicate that he is going to loose the control soon and let the emotions out.

It also creates the tension and expectation about the following action. Therefore, to

evoke this anticipation my devil shakes and lowers his body before he hits his fists on

the table and disappears (video 25).

From the first time when the devil appears, I wanted to expose his crazy attitudes.

Who would use the dirt from the ear to draw? Continuing his performance with a big smile

4 The whole movie Lifted can be watched online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK9D6DfRtgk&feature=related .

10

3 Acting ideas

on his face I intended to display his positive character. To connect that craziness with

positivism in the last scene, when he loses against Peter, I needed to show his anger

accordingly. As his performance in the movie does not incline any aggression, I kept his

reaction strong but neutral. He disappears before he looses the control (video 25).

Figure 3.2: Little alien from Lifted (Rydstrom (2006)) and the devil

The king Harold’s poses from the beginning of the Shrek Forever After: The Final

Chapter (Mitchel, (2010)) movie inspired me for Peter’s expressions when he first sees the

devil. The king and the queen of Far far away travel to Rumpelstiltskin, a dwarf who could

have freed their daughter in return for their kingdom. They carriage comes through a

witch village, a dirty and nasty place, where the king several times expresses his disgust.

These expressions appeared to be useful in my scene where the devil tries to get the wax

and dirt from his ear to draw the draughts board. Peter reacts with disgust and surprise.

Figure 3.3: King Harold from Shrek Forever After: The Final Chapter (Mitchel, (2010)) and Peter

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4 Animation patterns

Animation artists approach the process of making an animation based on the scene,

style of the movie, the era when the story happens, directors desires as far as animation

styling but most importantly on the character’s personality. [3] As Ken Duncan, an

animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios and owner of Duncan Studio, mentioned in the

interview for Animation Podcast, to create a believable character, animators have to

imagine the circumstances and tune in to the character’s thoughts and reactions as if they

were these characters. Remembering and using other people behaviour in certain

situations may also contribute to the realism of the performance. [3]

The animation patterns include staring to the mirror at the face, observing and

analyzing other people movements and behaviour, visualising concepts on paper and

trying different shapes, shooting live action video reference. However, animators are not

limited to the real world. They incorporate imagination and exaggeration to the final

movements as this may improve the emotional impact and make the characters more

alive. [3]

I started the preparation part of the animation with mirror and a timer. I needed to

time how long does it take me to perform certain action. Using this technique did not

seem very accurate. I changed from one pose to another in the time of hundredths not

seconds and to time that change was impossible. I also needed to identify the main poses

of my performance which I could transform onto my characters to Blender. Having the

right main poses, the graphics software would calculate the movement between them. So

the only challenge left was to create smooth natural moves with the right timing.

I tried to shoot a video reference which gave me opportunity to observe all the

moves my body and face does along with the time. Even though none of my video players

can show the frames of a movie in hundredths, the video reference enhanced my precision

of the main poses and speed up my animation process. Recording myself also allowed me

to express exactly the emotions and behaviour I wanted for the characters as well as to

adjust the right camera angles to my shots.

12

4 Animation patterns

As an example of my live reference videos I included few samples on the DVD. One

video reference entails the scene with the devil trying to get the wax from his ear. The

reference video has number 28 and the animation made following it has number 9.

Figure 4.1: Live video reference and animation according to it

Another reference displays the part in video 10, where Peter shows disgust and pulls the

bowl of cereals closer to him. The video reference for disgust is in video 34 and the

following action of pulling the bowl is in video 35. The last video reference has number 36

and shows Peter’s eye rubbing from video 2.

Comparing the video references and the videos from the animation, one can notice

that I added movements and exaggeration, and used a lot of imagination in the acting

performance of the characters. I believe these additions make the performance more

persuasive and amusing.

According to Mike Gasaway, mentor at Animation mentor, moving almost everything

(brows, upper and lower lids, cheeks, lips) out of their initial position makes character’s

facial expressions different than normal. And the character seems more alive. [4]

Moving the facial muscles of the devil were much more challenging in the

comparison to facial moves of Peter. Peter's head resembles a human being but the devil

has piggy nose, sharp widely distributed teeth and flapping ears with pop-earrings.

Because of the sharp teeth I had to find appropriate amount of mouth corners movement

in order to show the right smile and the right amount of the teeth for an emotion. I

adjusted the ear moves without any special intentions and purely to add more motion to a

scene.

13

4 Animation patterns

I found Mike Gasaway’s way of animating true not only in facial animation but also

in the body movements. When I first created the scene with the devil laughing and

rubbing his hands, the devil seemed still, not real. Even though in my video reference I

was not moving other parts of the body than hands and arms, this moves on the devil did

not seem natural. I had to make a new video reference with much more exaggeration

without loosing on the authenticity. I added moves to the shoulders, hips and ribs and

changed the smile. To compare the scene before and after, I put both videos on the DVD.

Video 29 shows my first attempt and video 22 the second attempt with added movements.

When I first made the shot where Peter changes the black color of the cereals back

to the original one, I did not move his fingers after the color changed. The stable position

looked unnatural so I re-rendered the scene with added movement to the fingers. The

new movement made the scene much more interesting and again confirmed the idea of

moving everything. The old video without finger moves has number 31 and the new video

with added movements has number 26.

The scene in the end of the movie, which shows video 23, where Peter nervously

nibbles his fingers and his eyes scans the playing board searching for a solution,

incorporates movements of almost every part of the body. His head and the eyes turns

right and left along with the hand in his mouth, the other hand slightly rotates with the

head, his shoulders raise up and down, the mouth and lips moves as he bites his fingers.

When moving almost every part of the body the movement might not be realistic

but the result seems to me definitely more alive than limited movements due to realism.

This overuse of the moves also make me feel characters emotions easier.

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5 Facial expressions

A key clue revealing characters' emotions might be their facial expressions. Some

expressions may be misinterpreted but there are six basic expressions which reflect same

feelings in every culture - happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, anger. [5] I included

all of these six emotions and more in my movie. The well known animation studio Pixar

collaborates with the experts in the field of emotion research, Paul Ekman, University of

California, San Francisco and Dacher Keltner, University of California, Berkeley. [6] Despite

their precision in muscle deformation, Pixar characters often show highly exaggerated

reactions. These exaggerations display the emotions giving them more influential power

and reveal character’s personality more clearly. Furthermore, highlighting the extreme

emotional reactions and eliminating the smaller muscle movements rises the sensation in

the story. [6]

Following their example, I focused on the right deformation of muscles and the

extremes in exaggeration of the reactions. To create facial expressions with according

muscle movements, I applied the outlines of researchers from Cornell University,

Department of Neurobiology and Behaviour, Ithaca, NY, who have generalized the cues for

the six basic facial expressions suggested by Ekman (table 5.1). [5]

Expression Motion cues Examples in my animation

Happiness • raising and lowering the

mouth corners

15

5 Facial expressions

Expression Motion cues Examples in my animation

Sadness • lowering the mouth

corners raising inner

parts of the brows

Surprise• arching the brows

• widening the eyelids

in order to expose

more sclera

dropping the jaw

slightly

Fear • raising the brows

• opening the mouth

slightly

16

5 Facial expressions

Expression Motion cues Examples in my animation

Disgust• raising the upper lip

• wrinkling up the

nose bridge

• raising the cheeks

Anger• lowering the brows

• pressing the lips

firmly

• bulging the eyes

Table 5.1: Six basic emotions, their motion cues and picture examples

5.1 Eyes

As stated by Shawn Kelly, co-founder of Animation Mentor and senior animator at

Industrial Light & Magic, in the book Animation Tips & Tricks, body language in animation

represents the most important element of an acting performance in a medium to wide

shot. [7] If the shot directly displays the face of a character, audiences first look will be at

the character’s face, more precisely the eyes. [8] Whole body movement supports the

message an animator wants to communicate. Gestures help to express emotions clearly

and emphasize a point. The movements of the eyes, mouth, and facial muscles create a

17

5.1 Eyes

connection with the audience. People want to identify with the characters, feel their

emotions and live their story with them through the screen. Their focus will be therefore

on the eyes as there is no part of facial expression more important in communicating

sincerity and credibility. [8]

The direction of the eyes may incline if the character is lost in his/hers thoughts or

focused on the activity. Pupil dilation shows excitement and make character more realistic.

The level of eyelids indicates the mood, emotions or feelings. [9]

The eyes of my characters point at the playing board or to each others eyes. Their

look is straight and clear most of the time as both of them focus on winning the game. I

did not take any close up shots of the eyes which would be the only camera position

where the pupil dilation could be noticed. I left the pupil dilation for later experimenting

and focused on the bigger image of the face.

5.2 Eyelids

Every character has its own neutral pose of the eyelids which represents relaxed

position. Upper eyelids usually sit on top of the pupil and the lower eyelids below the iris.

Different emotions change the state of the eyelids due to the reactions of muscle

movements. [10] Based on the animation instructional videos by Ugur Ulvi Yetiskin, an

allumni of Animation Mentor school, I moved the eyelids in order to display the emotions

and feelings such as excitement, where the upper eyelids widen so that the sclera can be

seen (video 9), or sleepiness/boredom, where the upper lids partly covers the pupil (video

5).

5.3 Blinks

Except that blinking provides moisture to the eye and protects the eye from irritants

it signals re-focus and thoughts separation. Generally, blinks make character more alive

and bring realism to the scene. [11] To bring these patterns to Peter's performance, he

18

5.3 Blinks

blinks a lot in the beginning of the movie. First, when he looks from side to side like

waiting for someone (video 3). Second, when he taps with his fingers on the table and

rolls his eyes from side to side (video 5).

The first scene with Peter, when he starts blinking and then rubs his eyes (video 2)

shows the eye irritation. When Peter wakes up he blinks frequently to re-focus in response

to a change in the vision (video 8). The devil's blinks when he tries to get the wax/dirt

from his ear (video 9) are caused by separating his thoughts - Am I deep enough? Do I

have enough wax on my finger now?

The blinks rates vary by individual averaging 4-16 times per minute. When

concentrating on an object or an activity the blinking rate decreases to about 3-4 times

per minute. [11] Playing a board game one needs to be focused. Therefore Peter and the

devil do not blink in the scenes where they play the draughts.

The one eye blink in the end of the movie (Figure 5.3.1) may indicate several

options - something has fallen to Peter's eye, it is Peter's way to say good bye or maybe

Peter inclines that he cheated. The ending stays open and it is up to the viewer to decide

which option he or she believes.

Figure 5.3.1: Peter's one eye blink from the last scene

19

6 Body language

Actions of a character may uncover his/hers personality. But each personality has

certain body language which reflects the characteristic features. Slight back arching,

hunched shoulders, head bending and slow uncertain body movements of Victor, the

groom in Corpse Bride (Burton & Johnson (2005)), resembles shy personality, lack of

confidence and low self-esteem. [12] His eyes looking often down or on the sides not

directly to the eyes of the person he speaks to support his humble behaviour. Although

Corpse Bride is a puppet animation the principles and effects of non-verbal communication

obviously remains the same in any movie or in the real world.

Figure 6.1: Victor from Corpse Bride (Burton & Johnson (2005))

On the contrary, Astrid, young dragon warrior girl from the movie How to train your

Dragon (DeBlois & Sanders (2010)), almost never relaxes her body. She always stands

straight with focused look in her eyes. This body postures symbolize for me high self-

confidence, clear mind, concentration and brave.

20

6 Body language

Figure 6.2: Astrid from How to train your Dragon (DeBlois & Sanders (2010))

My characters, Peter and the devil, sit and don’t move their bodies from initial

positions. Therefore, to show their personalities I had to focus on the movements of the

torso, arms, hands, fingers, head and facial muscles.

I wanted to make the devil look self confident and in control of the situation so

he always sits with straight back, chin slightly up and head high (Figure 6.3). If the devil

looks at Peter he does direct eye contact. Despite him being a devil, I did not intended

to make him seem evil. The opposite is true. The devil is cheerful, open and friendly. To

indicate these traits I kept the trunk of the devil’s body open and exposed. [13]

21

6 Body language

Figure 6.3: Example of devil's straight posture

On the other hand Peter tends to round his back and avoid the eye contact. This

posture makes him less self confident as the devil. Personality treats of a saint person

entail deference and humility. To indicate these characteristics Peter often clasps his hands

(Figure 6.4) or places one hand on over the other. [12]

Figure 6.4: Example of Peter's body language to show deference and humility

Peter also often leans forward with shoulders raised or bend his back and shoulders into a

rounded shape to indicate hostility and anxiety when he seem to be loosing the game.

[13]

22

7 Enhancing emotional impact

7.1 Exaggeration

On the one hand exaggerated poses might not only evoke stronger emotions but

also bring life and energy to a scene. On the other hand over exaggeration can leave the

viewer with a feeling of unnatural performance. [14]

Aaron Gilman, mentor at Animation Mentor and an animator at Weta Digital, wrote

an article on drawing the line on exaggeration. He suggested that the exaggeration is

more welcomed in cartoon animation than other types of animation (e.g. creatures like

dinosaurs or robots like transformers). [14] Other animation styles than cartoon style

might require more precise moves to feel natural and exaggeration would lower that level

of realism.

I strove for cartoon style which enabled me to push the exaggeration to its

maximum. As Gilman mentioned, with other styles this needs to be carefully adjusted to

the overall animation style. I applied a lot of exaggeration to the performance, mainly in

the eyes animation. The eyelids of both characters often open more than naturally

possible which can be seen mostly in the beginning of my movie. Video 4, 5 or 8 capture

this eye exaggeration on Peter and video 9 on the devil.

Peter’s mouth corners in video 23 when he finds out how to win the game rise too

high but their level emphasize the smile and make the reaction more visible.

Even though the devil puts his finger too deep into his ear (video 9), the action

seems to me still believable. This position of the finger also makes his performance more

amusing.

The sclera in Peter’s blink in the first and the last scene (video 1 and 27) exposes

too much but it goes very well with his facial expression. This wide eye opening make the

face more interesting and humorous.

I believe the exaggeration in cartoon animation plays crucial role. Cartoon style

desires the exaggeration as it makes the performance stimulating and entertaining.

23

7.2 Camera angles

The relationship between the camera and the subject may provide not only

interesting viewpoints but also influence the viewer’s opinion on what is happening in a

scene. [15] To add this influence, emphasize characters reactions and to test what their

impact might be I experimented with varieties of the most commonly used camera angles.

Throughout the movie I used a lot of Eye level camera angle, the real world angle,

where the position of the camera appears to be in a human observer’s sight direction. This

neutral shot does not have any special emotional impact. [16] But the camera position

allowed me to show Peter and the devil as if the audience sit opposite to them.

Figure 7.2.1: Eye level camera angle

Low angle increases height of the subject. The added height gives the object

impression of being more powerful or dominant. Psychologically, this domination may

inspire fear and insecurity in the audience. [16] I shoot both of my characters from this

angle but I made the low angles for the devil sharper than for Peter. With this lower angle

I intended to strengthen devil’s dominance in the game and make him frightening in the

last scene when he disappears.

24

7. 2 Camera angles

Figure 7.2.2: Low camera angle

High angle to the contrary tends to make camera subject smaller, and less

significant or scary. [16] I set this angle in the scene where the devil rubs his hands as a

prediction of winning (video 19). Lowering the head, direct eye contact with the audience

and the brow emotion signal evil thoughts in the devil’s mind. I used the angle here to add

the scary effect to the devil’s performance.

Figure 7.2.3: High camera angle

25

7. 2 Camera angles

Bird’s eye view shows a scene from directly above. I used this unnatural point of

view for dramatic effect when the devil transforms the color of the cereals to black. The

bird’s eye camera view also enabled me to clearly show the position of the cereals, dark

and light pieces, and the motion of Peter's final move on the playing board.

Figure 7.2.4: Bird’s eye view camera angle

Figures 7.2.1, 7.2.2 and 7.2.3 demonstrate the camera angles - eye level, low angle,

high angle respectively. When deciding on the camera angle in the scene showed in the

images I compared these three pictures. The last one with high angle seemed to be the

most effective to leave the scary feeling I wanted to achieve.

7.3 Motion blur

Adjusting different camera angles may enhance the viewer's experience. Simulating

the speed with motion blur can contribute to the realism of a scene thus strengthen the

experience as well. No rapid body movements occur in my animation as both my

characters sit all the time. But the devil performs fast gestures three times. Every time his

hands and arms move faster I added the motion blur to the scene. Figure 7.3.1 displays

the scenes with motion blur. First devil pose records his first appearance on the screen

when he waves at Peter (video 9). Second pose shows him rubbing his hands (video 22).

26

7. 3 Motion blur

Third pose is from the part when he realises that Peter has tricked him, clenches his fists

and smashes them on the table (video 25).

Figure 7.3.1: Motion blur - waving, hands rubbing, table hitting

7.4 Fade in Fade out

In the first scenes of my movie I separated Peter's movements with fading in and

out of a white screen. My intention with this effect was to add the graduation from being

awaken to fall asleep and simulate the time flow. Similar time effect was used for example

in the movie Sherlock Holmes (Ritchie (2009)). When Sherlock recapitulates some

situations from past events a short white light appears on the screen to change the scene

from present to the past.

7.5 Dreamworks face

The best known anthropomorphic characters probably come from big screen cinema

movies or television series. The facial expressions of these characters differs as differs

their personality and style of an animation but many of them share one facial expression.

This popular facial expression, which can be seen mainly in promotional materials of a

movie but also in the movie itself, is so called Dreamworks face. [17] One eyebrow raised

and crooked. One mouth corner upturned forming an asymmetrical confident smirk. Deep

27

7. 5 Dreamworks face

look into the camera or other characters eyes. The face shows incredible confidence and

inclines that there is something sneaky on the character's mind.

Dreamworks face is not exclusively used in Dreamworks Animation Studio movies

and the facial expression could have been spotted in marketing materials even before

Dreamworks existed. [17] I decided to use Dreamworks face to follow this trend and be

up to date. When the devil changes the color of the cereals to black his face forms

Dreamworks face. As a promotion of my characters I have included these facial expression

of them on the cover page.

Figure 7.5.1: Examples of Dreamworks face (from left to right): Buzz from Toy Story (Lasseter (1995)), Coraline from Coraline (Selick (2009)), Skipper from Penguins of Madagascar (Darnell & McGrath (2008)), James P. “Sulley” Sullivan from Monsters Inc. (Docter, Silverman & Unkrich (2001)), Flynn from Tangled (Greno & Howard (2010)), Mr. Incredible from Incredibles (Bird (2004)), Fiona from Shrek 2 (Adamson, Asbury & Vernon (2004)), Scamper from Igor (Leondis (2008)), Gru from Despicable Me (Coffin & Renaud (2010))

28

8 Conclusion

I have created the CG animation using Blender 2.58a, the free open source 3D

creation suite. I followed the information from the top resources available to me. For

modeling the characters I adapted the principles from Stop Staring Facial Modeling and

Animation Done Right by Jason Osipa, which served me mostly as a guide to face. 3-D

human Modeling and Animation by Peter Ratner and Introducing Character Animation with

Blender by Tony Mullen helped me to model the bodies accurately to my visions.

Furthermore, I implemented the work flow of the famous CG artist Steven Stahlberg for

head modeling and creating its topology as he outlined in d’artiste: Character Modeling:

Digital Artists Master Class.

For creating scene properties, environment, textures and lighting I employed

techniques from several online articles, forums and tutorials of CG artists. For the

animation I searched for the information from the industry experts from Animation Mentor,

An Online Animation School, who are as well animators from world-famous animation

studios such as Pixar, Dreamworks or Walt Disney. Their free webinars, electronic books

and their Tips and Tricks blog along with the interviews with animation gurus from

Animation Podcast presented the main stream of my animation knowledge.

I believe I have done sufficient research in the given time to create a decent

animation. Despite gathering all the information several technical misconception of

animation principles may occur in my animation. Mainly because, as I have learnt, the

learning of animation starts from the poses of the body, the weight of objects, and then

advances to the facial expressions.

Furthermore, I have noticed several technical and design issues occurring in the

animation. During the creation of the animation I faced problems with mesh deformation

and eye movement. The eyes went through the eyelids. To fix that I moved them further

to the inside of the head. This fix causes gaps between the eyes and the eyelids which can

be noticed in some shots of the devil. The devil’s clothes overlap at times with body mesh

and Peter’s clothes break slightly in the shoulders area. The blur of the image on the bowl,

which is due to close camera position, look odd comparing to the high visual quality of the

rest of the objects. The texture of the cereals does not seem so realistic nor cartoon and

29

8 Conclusion

does not fit the scene very well. The motion blur effect may be confusing mainly in the

last part before the devil disappears which may seem as an error.

Despite all these issues I believe the animation demonstrates fairly good

understanding of modeling, texturing, lighting the scene, body mechanics and animation

principles. Moreover, the acting performance seem to communicate the personalities and

emotions through the body language and facial muscle movements clearly and may show

some stimulating facial expressions.

30

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