Discerning Emotion Through Movement : A study of body language in portraying emotion in animation

Animators are so often taught more about how to perfect their animations than toconsider what it is that makes the animation come alive. They work away withprinciples and physics, sometimes completely overlooking a characterscommunication tools. The following thesis is a study of emotive expressive bodylanguage and its purpose in animation. The project studies various angles of bodylanguage, in an attempt at summarizing key features that could work as guidelinesfor animators in the future. It deals with the role of body language in animation andwhy it is necessary for a more realistic feel in the animation. As well as the brieflymentioning the 12 animation principles, on their necessity and faults in the matter.The thesis is divided into a theoretical investigation and a practical experiment. Theintention was to create a set of key features for the use of as tools and guides forfresh animators to understand and translate emotion into their animations. Theresults indicate the power of body language and its versatility as a tool, puttingemphasis on why it ought not to be neglected