Body Language Analysis

For this part of the module, I have conducted both primary and secondary research to help me discover the persona for my character.

Primary Research 
For the primary research, I have video recorded two volunteers to assess their body language and facial expressions during different situations. This should help when it comes to animating my character as I can interpret these gestures and implement them in my final model.

Figure 1 shows an evil smile. As you can see, the person's eyes have creased up and got quite dark. The chin and the jawline is more pronounced than usual as well. These can all be taken into consideration for implementation in the final animation and model. 

Figure 1: Evil grin 

Figure 2 shows laughter. When someone laughs, they have crows feet appear by the sides of their eyes and they may even close their eyes when they laugh. Laughter lines appear around the mouth too and the person's body tends to relax when someone laughs (see the shoulders). When someone laughs evilly, they may be less relaxed in the shoulder area.

Figure 2: Laughter

Figure 3 shows frustration, which is very common with villains. The eyes and eyebrow position are the main areas that show someone's frustration. Sometimes, the mouth may hang slightly open.

Figure 3: Frustration

Figure 4 shows a scary looking smile. You would rarely see someone pull this face unless they were messing around however with a villain, they commonly pull perculiar faces to "scare" the target audience. A good example of this is Dick Dastardly and Muttley.

Figure 4: Scary smile

Figure 5 shows a normal smile. As you can see, the person's eyes have creased up in the corners, however their eyes are quite wide and shiny, indicating happiness. Smile and laughter lines also become more apparent around the mouth and sometimes the teeth are on show.

Figure 5: Smile

Figure 6 shows an "oops!" face, usually when you have accidently done something wrong. This could be handy because maybe the villain has "accidently on purpose" done something to an innocent party. This would display an element of cheekiness. "Oops!" is usually characterised by the lips folding inwords and the rest of the features looking fairly neutral. Occasionally, the eyes may appear to bulge slightly.

Figure 6: Oops!

Figure 7 someone thinking. When someone thinks, their eyes tend to be smaller and they could begin to frown. Frown lines appear on the forehead and sometimes the mouth twists. In the case below, the mouth is slightly hanging open. 

Figure 7: Thinking

Figure 8 shows someone pouting. The key here is the lips, as they are pushed out along with the jaw bone and the chin. The person's shoulders tend to sag down and have a general "down" and fed up feeling.

Figure 8: Pout

Figure 9 shows someone concentrating on something. Feautures tend to be fairly loose, though the eyes seem to be really focused on something.

Figure 9: Concentration

Figure 10 shows a lips closed smile. Similarly to the other smiles mentioned previously, the person's eyes have creased up in the corners and their eyes are wide and shiny. Smile and laughter lines have again become more apparent around the mouth.

Figure 10: Full front face smile

Figure 11 shows a surprised face. Typically, the eyes widen and the eyebrows are raised. This can be combined with the "Oops!" face to produce an interesting effect.

Figure 11: Surprised

Figure 12 shows someone who is anticipated and is waiting for something to happen. Biting of the lip is a very common way of telling when someone is on edge.

Figure 12: Anticipated

Figure 13 shows a person's eyed closed with their tongue out. The purpose of this image is to show how important the tongue is at converying different emotions and messages. When talking, the tongue is used a lot to pronounce various different phonemes. When someone closes their eyes, the eyebrows lower.

Figure 13: Eyes closed, tongue out

Figure 14 shows someone with an angry face. Their features crease up, the eyes and eyebrows slant downwards slightly and the skin tone becomes slightly red. This face will be used especially in my project because the majority of villains are angry characters who have a "problem" with someone or something to make them the way they are. The lip has been slightly pouted in this image however occasionally, the mouth becomes more of an "o" shape. Again, the person's body language can come across quite fierce, with the shoulders arching upwards.

Figure 14: Angry

As a conclusion, my primary research has made me consider facial muscles and their vital role in getting across emotions and expressions. Futher secondary research will be conducted into the more scientific part of how muscles can display emotions.

Secondary Research 
For the secondary research, I have looked online for videos which may help explain why particular gestures are related to certain moods and emotions. I can use this to aid me when characterising my model as it is a villain and want to be able to find ways to suitably represent that to the target audience. I watched a video called "The Human Animal - The Language of the Body" by Desmond Morris and he describes how different day to day gestures are interpreted differently depending on their culture.

What is a gesture?
A gesture is an act or body movement which displays someone's character, motion and mood. (The Online Oxford Dictionary, 2012)

Common gestures
Common gestures include a handshake, the OK hand sign, thumbs up and thumbs down and the "crazy" hand signal, which will be discussed in this section.

A handshake is commonly a very good way to tell how friendly someone is being towards another. Some people choose to just hold the hand, whilst others shake more vigorously. Some people go on top whilst others go underneath. In various different countries across the world, they have their own form of hand shake (See Figure 15 below).

Figure 15: Hand shake

The hand gesture signfied below (See Figure 16) means OK or "alright" in some countries (such as the United States of America and in the United Kingdom) however it has other meanings in different languages. In France it means nil or zero.

Figure 16: "OK" Hand sign

The middle finger is commonly used in the Western countries as an insult, for example "up yours" and "screw you". In this case, it actually represents an erect penis. In other countries and more commonly worldwide, it can also mean contempt (See Figure 17 below).

Figure 17: Middle Finger

When someone pulls a thumbs up gesture, it means good luck, good, OK, positive etc. It can be done sarcastically however to mean the opposite, therefore other gestures and emotions have to be considered as well (See Figure 18 below).

Figure 18: Thumbs Up

When someone pulls a thumbs down gesture, it means bad or negative. Similarly to the thumbs up gesture, it can also be done sarcastically however to mean the opposite, therefore other gestures and emotions have to be considered as well (See Figure 19 below).

Figure 19: Thumbs Down

A horned hand gesture varies in meaning depending on the position of the fingers. In some countries, the hand signal is a sign that the person making the gesture is part of the Occult. This is characterised further by using the left hand. When used as a method of swearing, the left hand is also pointed towards someone. With the thumb pointing outwards, it represents the god of Witchcraft (raptureready911, n.d.). When the right hand is used, it refers to the Rising Moon sign in America. Conversely, in Italy the hand represents the "bull" and implies that their wife has strayed away (See Figure 20 below).

Figure 20: Horned Hand Gesture

The signal that people usually give to someone when they think they're crazy is a finger pointed to the head and rotating the hand in a circular motion, like inserting a screw. The phrase "screw loose" originated from the cotton and material making factorys back in the 1700's. If there was something not quite right with any of the material produced, they would state that there must have been a "screw loose". Since then, the term has been used widely to describe someone who is crazy or not quite right in the head.

However, it has to be noted that the method of rotation affects the overall meaning. If the finger is rotated backwards, it does indeed mean that you think someone is crazy. But if the finger is rotating forwards, it can mean that you think someone is intelligent (See Figure 21).

Figure 21: Crazy hand signal

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References

Morris, D., 1994. The Human Animal - The Language of the Body. [video online] Available at: <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3323021761394989726> [Last Accessed: 03/05/2012]

Neatorama, 2008. List of common terms and phrases and where they originated from. [online] Available at: <http://www.neatorama.com/2008/08/07/origins-of-familiar-phrases/> [Last Accessed: 03/05/2012]

 raptureready911, n.d. Description of horned hand gestures. [online] Available at: <http://www.raptureready911.com/id13.html> [Last Accessed: 03/05/2012]

raptureready911, n.d. Image of horned hand gestures. [image online] Available at:
<http://www.raptureready911.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/handjpg.jpg>
[Last Accessed: 03/05/2012]

 Research Access, 2012. Thumbs down image. [image online] Available at: <http://researchaccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ThumbsDown.jpg> [Last Accessed: 03/05/2012]

 Rubynerd, 2011. Thumbs up image. [image online] Available at: <http://www.rubynerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/thumbs-up.jpg> [Last Accessed: 03/05/2012]

 SteSet Services, 2012. Crazy or screw loose hand gesture. [image online] Available at: <http://www.simplybodylanguage.com/images/crazy-gesture.jpg> [Last Accessed: 03/05/2012]

 The Online Oxford Dictionary, 2012. Definition of the word "Gesture". [online] Available at: <http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gesture> [Last Accessed: 03/05/2012]

Virgin Media, 2012. Ok hand sign image. [image online] Available at: <http://www.virginmedia.com/images/a-ok-sign-431.jpg> [Last Accessed: 03/05/2012]

Wikimedia, 2012. Handshake image. [image online] Available at: <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Handshake_(Workshop_Cologne_%2706).jpeg/170px-Handshake_(Workshop_Cologne_%2706).jpeg> [Last Accessed: 03/05/2012]

Wikimedia, 2012. Middle finger image. [image online] Available at: <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f4/Gesture_raised_fist_with_middle_finger_lifted.jpg> [Last Accessed: 03/05/2012]