In order to learn more about creating wonderful characters, I decided to look into reference for expressions and actions that show a particular mood or need. Humans are usually quite easy to work out. We are naturally programmed to understand what certain facial shapes and muscular movements mean. Arched eyebrows downwards into the bridge of the nose usually means anger - we don't have to look at the whole face to understand that! Hands on hips can show impatience, sexual desire, playfulness and so forth. But how do animals show their own variety of needs, wants, and desires?
I think observation is key. Having a pet dog or cat may reveal that not all animals (just like humans) show the same emotional responses across the board. Take my pet budgerigar for example. The past four other budgies I have had in the past have all shown anger by pushing their feathers in sharply, opening their beaks slightly as if ready to attack, and have given off a distinguishing "chunter" as we call it - or shrill chirp to ward off threats. However, our most recent bird makes these same same noises when she is excited for attention and wants to be petted. She will do this constantly until you take notice of her! Animators must generalise I guess, as stereotypes play such an important role in creating a mutual understanding of a particular personality or lifestyle, you can't always be correct in animating a "cat that doesn't do what cats are meant to do" - unless the whole narrative revolved around that and it is made clear to the audience. Regardless, we must understand animal behaviour in order to create successful, comforting creatures!
This Doggie Language chart found on Photobucket by an artist named Lili Chin is a fine example based around someone's beloved Boston Terrier, Boogie.You can see that dogs appear to be quite expressive in the way they share emotion. Every pose near enough is original and distinguishable from the next. However, let's see what happens when we look at that of a cat's...
Despite this image being quite flat and simple, we can see that the main focus of emotional energy for a cat seems to be the tail. In fact, I was always told as a child to watch a cat's tail in order to understand its mood. Now I see why. Lili Chin has done a vast array of illustrations showing off Boogie's many thoughts and feelings. Looking into emotion as well as this and doing small studies of animals (I will try with both animals and humans) as she has done will build up an understanding of character as an animator and allow for more accurate results. Knowing your subjects' actions well is a good advantage for creating deep and emotion-evoking pieces as you can then exaggerate (like she has shown below that she appears to to know her pet so well, she can make up what he is thinking) a character's emotional responses without them being too unnatural or unrelatable.
Lili's blog is a great place for all things dog-related. A great place for animation reference as it has a cartoon feel and oozes appeal! (Visit Lili's Blog - Doggie Drawings)
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