Digital Anmation Practice: Body movemant and language.

Body movement or body language is just as important as facial expressions in characterizing an animation. The movement of the character can express the personality of a character and the emotions the character is feeling. After watching Seans brief piece of acting this morning I began to understand that different emotions alter the position of the arms, head and body as well as the movement. The speed of a walk also changes depending on the mood of a person. A good example of this is when a character appears angry then the arms will be out and firm, the walk is fast, head down, large steps and hunched shoulders. A character who is happy would have more movement in the body and arms with a high head and jumpy steps. The body language can also reveal the gender of a character and the age. An old lady would typically have a hunched back and take small steps where as a child character would be more active doing quicker movements.

When i did the animation of the character walking into a room and putting a box on a table i needed to take into consideration the age of the character, size of the character, weight of the box and the emotions the character was feeling. I decided that the character would be pleased to have the box therefore the character needs to interact with the box to show their excitement. the characters body language when walking and carrying the box would also need to express the emotion. However the box is heavy so my animation concentrates more on how the characters body moves due to the weight of the box. the body is hunched over to add to the weight of the box. The arms are mostly straight and when the character lifts the box there is a large amount of effort and anticipation. The character shuffles when it walks suggesting the box is heavy. i struggled with the door opening and closing but from what i had learnt last week with timing i eventually animated a realistic door movement.