AGI Studio One - Week 3 - Related Works

This week was a lot of theoretical research and setting the groundwork for the practical exercises in the folio. The research was centred on identifying different ways in which emotion is expressed through movement, gathering some ideas about what techniques or direction I could take in exploring emotive movement in my own work. I then looked at some animation examples to see how some of the ideas might be/have been applied practically.

Pernilla Larsson - Discerning Emotion Through Movement (2014)
This research paper by Pernilla Larsson from the University of Gävle, Sweden. It is a study of the role body language plays in portraying emotion in animation. The study is separated into 2 parts - theoretical background, and practical application. The first section looks at concepts relating to psychology of emotion, the reading of body language, and the history of body language and animation
 

This paper was helpful because it specifically linked fundamental animation techniques with the theories of body language and communication, providing ideas not only on the aspects of body movement (posture, pace, weight, etc.) that convey emotion, but the devices animation can employ to communicate these.

Howl’s Moving Castle, Hayao Miyazaki (2004)
Howl’s Moving Castle is 2D animated film (mix of traditional and digital) from Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki. It follows Sophie, a young milliner from a nation caught up in war who, after an encounter with the mysterious wizard Howl, is cursed by a malevolent witch and transformed into a 90-year old woman.
 

Miyazaki is renowned for his ability to communicate strong and profound emotion through his characters and animated work, with each of his films possessing this common quality. Howl’s Moving Castle is specifically relevant to my project as a central plot point of the story is the transformative power and external, physical manifestations of the heart.
I initially chose this related work to study because my intention for week four’s studio was to experiment with animating fire and various ways fire could communicate emotion. I decided the character of Calcifer would be a good example to study.

Downloads:

Download File: larsson-discerning-emotion-through-movement.pdf