CHARACTER EXPRESSIONSIn animated film, TV and Music videos

Why study expression in animation Because I am planning to do an

animated music video I’ll need to show a lot of expression with my animated figures.

Study other music videos as well as films will help me to understand how to achieve this effectively.

Avatar the last AirbenderAlthough I am planning to do stop motion for my piece I have deiced to study 2D animated expression as 2D animated project are known for their strong facial expressions in their characters so maybe I learn a thing or two from 2D animation and reflect that in my work.

In this screen shot we see Azula is upset because at this point she is imagining her deceased mother talking to her about how she controls people with fear. We can see how Azula is feeling upset from the scrunched up face and her lips which are turned down.

Azula brakes down

Here Azula is angry at her hair which is getting in the way of her face. Through the strands of hair we see her eyes under her angered eyebrows and her mouth in a grimace, all connoting that Azula feeling anger.

Azula Breaks down

Here we see Hama bloodbending, she seems sadistically pleased with her power. We can tell this from her eyebrows being angled downwards over her eyes (symbolizing anger) but there is a smile on her face (symbolizing happiness) . These two facial expressions together makes the audience feel uneasy as they know that Hama is not all there.

Katara Learns Bloodbending

Here we see Katara upset. We know this as she is crying and her mouth is open expression her sadness. Although this is a simple expression it is an effective one as many people recognize sadness.

Katara Learns Bloodbending

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a stop motion animated film. Studying how expression is used here will help me to understand how I can use expression in my stop motion animated film.

We can tell Bean’s son is happy to see his Dad on the telly as his eyes are wide and his mouth is in a small smile. But the fact that he is pointing at the telly as he in mid laugh suggests that may be his dad is doing something stupid.

Bean’s son sees his Dad on the Telly

From the wide eyes and mouth we can see Badger is shocked at what he sees. The picked up ears also add fear to the characters facial expression.

Badger sees the wolf

From Ash’s foror brow and alter eyes we tell he is concentrating on the break in whether Kristofferson’s wide eyes and timid stare shows he's afraid of what's to come.

Kristofferson and ash break in

From Mrs Foxes glare as well as body language (her hands on her hips) we can tell she is annoyed at her husband for stealing from the farmers.

Mrs fox catches Mr Fox stealing

Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel This is an animated music video and so studying it can help me to understand how music videos show emotion through animation.

Peter high eyebrows and huge smile shows he happy to see this train.

Train

Peters wide eyes and high eyebrows suggest he either really happy or surprised but because we can’t see his mouth we can’t really tell.

Trumpet

Because we can see Peters face in this screen shot we can tell that Peter is surprised. His mouth is in a ‘O’ shape which, with the wide eyes and high eyebrows, tell us that Peter is surprised.

Roller-coaster

Here we can see Peter is in pain because one of his eyes is closed and the other is wide open showing his shock on impact also that his mouth in a grimace and teeth closed which shows how painful the sledgehammer is.

Clay Peter