How to Animate the 6 Basic Emotions like a Professional?

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    Basic Emotions like a Professional?

    What makes animation so powerful? The ability to highlight and conceal emotions. Animators animate emotions via expressions, gestures, and body movements, a few to name. But, if you’re a beginner, knowing where to start can be tricky. But don’t worry; that’s exactly why we’re here.

    Learning is part of the process. As an animator, your constant drive to improve is what can make you successful. So, if you’re also on your way to learning how to animate basic emotions, you’ve landed at the right place. In this post, we’ll cover creative tips and tricks from expert animators for you to animate the 6 basic emotions like a pro.

    Emotion#1 Happiness

    First comes the universal facial expression: Happiness. It looks the easiest but, it’s hard to pin down. Before animating a typical happy face, here are the four basic aspects you must keep in mind.

    Intensity: Think about where your character lies on the degree of happiness. For example, contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, joy, etc. This might assist you to map out the entire process ahead.

    Specificity: Every character is unique with a specific gender, cultural background, and age. So, when animating a character, remember that no two people can be the same.

    Context: What lead up to the happy situation you’re animating? Surely context matters. Props, outfits, and sets are the most effective ways to convey context.

    Mixed feelings: We usually feel happiness in combination with other emotions. For instance, pride and relief. So how should you portray your character’s happiness mixed with other emotions? Let your creativity and experiences play this part.

    Emotion#2 Sadness

    How you animate sadness depends on your character and story. According to expert animators, contrast, as well as a change in body movement and facial expressions, is the best way to portray sadness. The transition from one emotion to the other such as sadness is where all your creativity lies.

    To hold the attention of your viewers, here’s what you need to do.

    • Eyes are windows to the soul. Thus, the eyes of your character must be reflective
    • Slow down the character’s movement
    • Focus on the expressions and movements such as quivering, raising eyebrows, tears, etc.
    • Lastly, make your viewers care and empathize with your character

    Emotion#3 Fear

    To animate fear in your character like a pro, consider the type of fear you want to portray. Generally, there are two types of fear. First, there is the fight or flight fear. This is the form of fear in which the person’s body language and facial emotions plainly show more extreme outward hints or signs.

    Second, there’s the fear that comes from within. This can include phobias such as the fear of spiders or snakes. Outward hand and body gestures, as well as facial expressions, are also displayed in these forms of phobias.

    Next, design stances and moods that state how your character should be feeling in response to their present situation. Enlarge the pupils in response to a sudden shock, for example.

    Emotion#4 Anger

    Now comes Anger, the emotion every person can relate to. Anger intrigues us all and grabs our attention. As an animator, you must grab such an opportunity and deliver an emotionally packed performance that the audience craves.

    Anger can range from annoyance and slow burn to a full explosion of aggression. Whereas, the physical gestures may involve finger-pointing, screaming, stomping, fist-shaking, violence, and more. The way the animator depicts the action revolves around the scene and the character’s personality. So, read the character, locate the trigger moment, animate, and keep the audience hooked.

    Emotion#5 Disgust

    Disgust is usually shown by a frown, squinting eyes, cheeks pushing up, and furrowed brows. To show your character in disgust, consider the below aspects before you step into the animation studios process.

    Asymmetry: It adds life to facial expressions. Depending on the scenario, should your character flinch or simply turn away from the disgusting object?

    Over-acting: Don’t overdo the emotions. Exaggerating emotions and expressions can feel fake. Instead, your character must feel the emotion and react honestly.

    Intensity and timing: Think about the right intensity and correct timings. Is the reaction in response to tasting something horrible? Or is it a sudden realization of a terrible story?

    Thus, no matter what the situation, animate while also not trying too hard to convince the audience.

    Emotion#6 Surprise

    Finally, there are a lot of scenarios where we feel surprised. For example, hearing something unexpected is different from the surprise that comes with the opportunity to meet an old friend. Similarly, an encounter with a ghost will feel entirely different. Thus, how you animate each situation must be unique.

    One pro tip is to look for examples of people being surprised in similar situations. Moreover, look for poses, expressions, movements, and timing that may be relevant to what you’re producing. The eyebrow stretch, forehead wrinkles, widen mouth, raised eyebrows, jaw drops, etc. all work together to show a character in shock.

    Final Thoughts

    We hope that you will find and learn something useful from the tips above. All these can benefit you in one way or the other. So, start practicing and experimenting!