Character Poses
Updated: Jun 2
30th of May 2026
In this unit, I will explore the roles of body language, facial & eye expressions, and learn their importance and utilization in animation.
BODY LANGUAGE
Body language is a form of non-verbal communication that enables illustrators and animators to convey a character's role, personality, and emotions. If making the right choices, we can create a narrative that conveys the character's feelings, thoughts and intentions while also emotionally connecting with the audience. Understanding body language and maximising it in our work is critical. Live-action referencing can be a great tool in this, and it has been around for many years in the animation industry, dating back to Walt Disney's Snow White production (1937). Acting out scenes can be a great help in studying movement and articulation and achieving realistic movement.
Realism is very important; however, exaggeration can further develop the animation process and can emphasize the storyline. If the depiction is too subtle, it can leave too much room for misinterpretation. Exaggerating the body language can eliminate subtlety. The following Disney characters are great examples of this.
The first exercise was fun with the Flour sack rig created by Joe Daniels, available for free on Highend3d. The brief was to experiment with the flour sack and to create poses suggesting mood and emotions. Exaggeration was very helpful with this task as the object could be easily squashed and stretched in a cartoony style, and conveying different emotions.
For the next exercise, I was required to create six body poses to communicate different situations. The rig I used is called the Jamal rig, created by Alorema Rigs, and it is available free for personal use. It is a great rig with many control curves. The only issues I had were applying texture to the rig. This is something I need to invest time in to improve.
FACIAL EXPRESSION
While body language is a great tool for conveying a narrative, facial expression is an outstanding way of communication. By itself, it can tell a story, emotion and intent, making it a primary instrument. The use of facial expression can be seen throughout art history, used by artists to convey idealized characteristics and, over time, realistic emotions.
According to the Fundamentals of Character Design (by Randy Bishop, Sweeney Boo, Meybis Ruiz, Cruz, Luis Gadea, 2020), the cheek, the nose and the forehead are all secondary features of facial expression. They interact with the rest of the face, but by themselves, they are less expressive. The eyes, the brows and the mouth are all primary features as they are the most expressive; however, they can be further emphasized by the secondary features.
While facial movements are very expressive, they can be harder to read in cartoon characters due to their simplified features, and easier with figures following realism. However, reference studies are critical in achieving an effective animation.
EYE EXPRESSION
AAs earlier mentioned, the eyes are the most expressive features, adding authenticity to characters. Convincing eye movement can communicate emotions and inner thoughts. The eyes, the pupils, and the brows can supremely communicate by themselves alone. Sparkling eyes, rapid movement, lifeless gaze can all suggest different emotions and a psychological state, while manipulating empathy or dislike.
Studying eye expressions and portraying a character's emotions effectively is crucial in an animator's work. This idea is reinforced by Walt Disney's advice that an animator should always spend most of the time on the eyes, since they attract the audience's gaze, much like in human interactions.
In the following exercise, I will work on a short animation with the Jamal rig. The brief is to sit him in a car, set the camera on his face while he turns his head facing the camera and changing his expression following a blink. For the car, I found Delorean by Craylette on Turbosquid. It is a very cool 3D model available for free.
I started with the blink in seven frames. Frames 1 and 7 were in the same position, and frame 3 was the closed eyelid position. The rest of the frames were the in-betweens. At first, the character still had a lifeless stare, so I had to add overlapping motion to the lower lid and to the muscles above the upper eyelid, including the eyebrow. Offsetting some of these muscles helped to achieve a more realistic movement.
When the blink was ready, I carried on with the rest of the action. Jamal made a head turn between frames 1 and 13 with one blink starting at frame 7, so the head motion is more natural. This is supported by the theory that blinking makes animated characters look alive (Animation Mentor, 2019). The character holds his gaze for about 1 second, then slowly turns back to pay attention to the road. The next motion is a surprised, even shocked, facial expression signifying that something is happening in front of him. I started with the eyes first, focusing on the upper and lower eyelids, which was followed by the eyebrows, to give more movement to the facial muscles. As the lip is also a primary feature, it was logical to include it in the action and further emphasize the scared reaction. At this point, the character was still too stiff, so I acted out the situation to see what else could be done. I realized that there was a need for further motion on the lower side of the face and around the mouth. Also, naturally, a person in this kind of situation gets a bit tense and pushes the body into the chair while also having motion in the neck. The Jamal rig has many control curves to experiment with and try to achieve a more realistic movement.
References:
Bishop, R.D., Boo, S., Cruz, M.R. and Gadea, L. (2020) Fundamentals of Character Design: How to Create Engaging Characters for Illustration, Animation & Visual Development. Worcester: 3dtotal Publishing.
Kelly, S. (2019) ‘Blink for a reason: Acting advice from ILM lead animator Shawn Kelly’, Animation Mentor, 23 July. Available at: Animation Mentor article
Thomas, F. and Johnston, O. (1995) The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. New York: Disney Editions.
Williams, R. (2002) The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles, and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion, and Internet Animators. London: Faber & Faber.
Wood, E. (2023) ‘A history of the smile in art’, Barnebys Magazine, 17 May. Available at: Barnebys
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