Animation Common Character Design Basics: Face, Body Proportions, Emotional Expressions
GCC Academy
Hello, I am Kang Ji-won and I will be teaching you about the basics of drawing
This time you will learn about the characteristics of different character types
and the concept of deformation
First, we will learn about physical characteristics
such as sex, age, and body type
Second, we will learn about emotions and facial expressions
And lastly, about basic expressions of emotion
using poses and gestures
Physical Traits of Characters
Last time, you learned the basics of drawing the human body
Most drawing books use a model-like white male body
with a 1:8 head-to-body ratio, as their standard
But obviously, not everyone looks like that
Young people can only be characterized as 'youths'
when compared to children and older adults
And slightly chubby people
will look 'fat' when next to skinny people
We can draw people with different physical characteristics
to make each of them look unique
You will also learn about the basics of expressing emotions
as well as the types and physical characteristics of characters
Before that, let's learn about the physical features of characters according to their type
First is characteristics according to sex
The biggest difference between male and female bodies
is how they curve
Male bodies have more muscle than fat
Compared to that, female bodies
will have a higher fat ratio
Which makes the male body consist of more straight lines
and the female body more of curved lines
The same applies to their faces For example, if there is a man and woman
who both have large jaws and large facial features
the woman's face will look rounder
I'll draw an example
Here's a person with a large jaw
and large facial features
If this person is a woman, the end of her jaw would be rounder
And her jawline would not curve inwards
but outwards, which makes it feel softer
This is the difference in jawline according to sex
Difference in body curves have to do with hormones
Next is the body Women generally have wider pelvises
which gives their torso the shape of an 8
Men's pelvises aren't as wide, so their torsos are straight
They don't curve inwards at the waist
If you want a character to have a curvy torso, you should make their hips wider
Women with narrower hips
will also have straighter torsos
Female bodies tend to store more fat at their thighs
and their muscles will also develop more
at the thighs and calves
so the lower parts of the body
In contrast, male bodies have more muscle at the upper parts
and fat will accumulate near their bellies
so the upper parts of the body are more developed
These characteristics
are determined mostly by where muscle and fat are
and that can differ according to genetics or occupation
Even if a character is female, if they work out a lot
their body might more resemble the one on the left
And the opposite may also be true
A man with a lot of body fat can look more curvy than straight
Next we will learn about characteristics according to age
The biggest factor that decides how old someone looks is the placement of their facial features
The younger someone is their philtrum, the space between their mouth and nose
their nose and jaw will be shorter and their forehead will be longer
In contrast
A fully developed adult
will have a shorter forehead and longer nose, philtrum and jaw
But the horizontal length of the eyes and nose are the opposite
The wider the eyes, nose, and mouth are, the older someone looks
Which is why a child's facial features are narrower
Let's take a closer look
A child about 5 years old or younger
will have a forehead as long as the rest of their face
Children also have more body fat, so they look rounder in general
Their eyes are also round
So to make a character who is a baby, you should take care to make the eyes
narrower horizontally, longer vertically, and rounder
An adult would have a wider eye
Characters with a 'cute' trait
also tend to have faces like this
They will especially have
long foreheads and chubby cheeks
Next is children five to ten years old
Their jaws have developed and they have a longer nose
But their eyes are still
longer on the vertical side
and their philtrums look short
since they're still a child
They also don't have much physical difference
between the sexes
Next is teenagers
Their nose and philtrums have gotten larger and longer
They don't look chubby anymore
and their facial bones have gotten longer so they look a bit mature now
The facial bones resemble that of an adult
but are comparably rounder
So to draw a teenager's face
you can take an adult's face and make the lines slightly rounder
This is the last age group
that has round facial lines in general
Teenagers' foreheads as well
are about as wide as those of adults
Next, young adults in their twenties or thirties
They have completely lost their baby fat
so the line of their cheeks curve inwards
Making lines curve inwards is the basic way
of expressing the lack of fat in a body part
For female characters, though
they will still tend to resemble the teenager's face here
or you could just make the jawline rounder
like this
From this age group and older
for men, whose faces change more rapidly
you should make sure their jaws
look sharper than those of younger adults
or teenagers
Next are middle-aged adults in their forties or fifties
They have lost even more fat in their face causing their cheeks to cave in
and more importantly, their skin starts to sag
just like this
The skin on their cheeks will have used to
look like this, but now they sag slightly downwards
Because their skin has lost elasticity the ends of their eyes also curve downwards
and that causes noticeable wrinkles
The nose as well
also tend to droop downwards
The tip of the nose here
The skin on the neck sags like this
and the jaw looks like this due to skin
Before it would have looked like this
Most people
because the ends of their eyelids droop down as they age
will give a more gentle atmosphere
Next is elderly people, in their seventies or older
their eyelids sag completely downwards
and form a downward curve
The visible part of their eyes have gotten very small
Their actual eyes would be about this large
but the eyelids are obstructing them
The part around their eyes lose skin
and cave inwards
The number of wrinkles increase drastically
and the skin droops downwards like this
This is also drooping skin
Fat and muscle decrease
and there is basically no fat in their cheeks
Their nose also curve even more downwards
like a Roman nose
In comics and such, Roman noses are used very often
to express that a character is old
When drawing an elderly person
you should keep in mind that most curves will go downwards
The character should be thinner
and have thin and drooping skin
Next, let's take a look at the shape of the body
according to age
Children will have about a 1:4-5 head-to-body ratio
This drawing is about 1:4
A toddler like this
can have a 1:2-3 ratio
Babies in this age are chubby and don't seem to have muscle
But their body fat will not sag at all
Which is why when drawing them
you should take care to make their lines
look almost bulgy
in the shape of a C
Also, children tend to stand with their stomach outwards
so that they look like this when seen from the side
Their body lines will come down in a curve like this
then bend back inwards at their tummy
Sometimes, they haven't completely learned to stand yet
so their hips are pushed backwards
and their legs are bent like this
as they are standing
This pose can also be seen
from a lot of early Disney characters
such as Donald the Duck
or Jerry from Tom and Jerry
probably because it makes them look cute
Next is the body of a child
Children are sleeker than babies
especially at the limbs
However, they haven't gained any muscle
so they have barely any curves in their body
An adult character would have muscles like this, but we can skip that
I intended this example to seem about 10 years old
but if you wanted a child at about seven years old
You can see here that I used an S-shaped line
Instead of this
if you add a bit more body fat
the character looks more younger
Next is teenagers
From here, hormonal differences
cause the sexes to have different physical characteristics
One thing male and female teenagers have in common would be that they both develop at the shoulders and hips
They become longer than when they were children
And their body features
will gain more detail in general
You can see the wider shoulders and hips here
Young characters up to teenagers
have a lot of elasticity in their skin
so even if a body part has a lot of muscle or fat
it should be angled either horizontally or upwards
For example, this male teenage character
has calves that are pointing slightly upwards
Making features be angled correctly is important
for expressing vitality or youth
Now let's move on to young adults
Their skeletal structures are fully developed
and muscles and body fat are noticeably present
You can now draw details
of skeletal structure, muscles and body fat
that you would have intentionally left out beforehand
Next is middle-aged characters
They have gotten slightly shorter
and their skin begins to droop
Before this part would have curved like this
but now it points a bit more downwards
Contrary to when I expressed adolescence
Curves should be pointing downwards
You can see here that the parts covering muscle or body fat
are going downwards, the same can be seen at the legs as well
The muscles here also are located more at the lower parts
This kind of nuance is needed when expressing aging
Because skin begins to sag
wrinkles also begin to appear also on the face
And loss of elasticity in the skin
results in details such as bone and muscle structure becoming visible
Last is elderly people seventy years old or older
Their height decreases and their shoulders and backs are bent
which makes their heads lean forward
This is because they have lost the strength to maintain posture
And as we saw before
the sagging of facial skin from before progresses further
Skin also sags on places like this
They also almost completely lose body fat, so they are generally very thin
Like before, if you just pay attention to giving these downward curves
even if you don't add an enormous amount of detail
or even if you aren't drawing a skinny person
but decided to draw them to be stout
you can still make them feel old enough
For example
A chubby person of old age won't have an arm like this
Imagine their forearm as a water balloon
It sag downwards, like this
Next is characteristics according to body type
Skinny bodies have lines that curve inward
This is a skinny arm
The torso as well
can be drawn using inward curves
This body is a linear shape, with relatively few curves
The way the limbs stretch give a linear feeling
In real life, people as thin as this
will look even less curvy than this drawing
and in a completely straight line, like this
But for more effective expression in drawings
you can use a slight inward curve
Though in the case of someone in real life
who has barely any muscle or fat
they could resemble the drawing very closely
Next, chubby bodies
Unlike before, the lines of the body curve outwards
I always say that you should
imagine the body in an S curve, with the curving parts located more at the upper part
But that's in order to give a spry feeling
We don't need to express that here
so you can just draw it in a bulgy way
So that's the kind of S-curve you should use here
You can think of it as similar to
how you draw the limbs
of a baby or toddler
Next is the fat body type
Body fat will usually accumulate most at the torso and thighs
like this
So the body will look overall like an almond
but wider at the middle of its length
What's different from a 'chubby' body is skin will hang down
If you draw this person's arm
in an outstretched position
If this is a skinnier person's arm
The fat person's arm would sag like this
kind of like a water balloon
Next is a muscular body
A muscular body will also have bulging parts
but it won't sag, because muscle is held in place
Think of before when I was explaining
how to express youth when drawing a body
You draw a limber S-curve
or a curved line that points either horizontally or upwards
This is how you express the solidness and limberness of muscles
But be careful not to draw it too much like this
Because then the character will end up like the Michelin mascot
Also, if you taper the waist a bit
the character will look like a 'big muscular guy' character
This isn't bad, but generally a muscular body
should look like an inverted triangle
to make it clear that it is a muscular character
at first sight, so I recommend
trying the general inverted triangle shape first
Emotions and Facial Expressions
Next let's learn about expressing emotions
and facial expressions according to the type of character
The most important part of the face when it comes to expressing emotion is the eyebrows
You can make most emotional expressions just with eyebrows
Angry faces, sad faces, happy faces
Or even something like this
In comics, these kinds of expressions are crucial
which makes the eyebrows even more important
The next important part is the mouth
the most direct method of expression, alongside the eyebrows
They can be used to laugh
cry
or be surprised
All of these can be expressed
with just the mouth and nothing else
You can see what kind of face they're making
So laughing, crying, surprise, and others can all be expressed with just a mouth
After that we have the eyes
They can express emotion the most dramatically
You might be wondering why
the eyes are not the most important way of expression
But when it comes to comical expression
the eyes are more effective when put together with the eyebrows
For example
there's a face here
with eyes like this
Can you imagine what kind of emotion it represents?
It could be a sad face
since sad faces will have eyes like this
But
It could also be a face of someone
that's going off on their temper, like this
Or let's go the opposite direction
and like this
It could be a very smug face as well
So what is more crucial for telling emotion is the eyebrows
The eyes are rather there to reinforce
the emotions the eyebrows are showing
Of course, eyebrows can be used on their own well enough
Let's try getting rid of these eyes
and replace them with a couple of dots
which are unable to give away any emotion
We can still tell what face this is
There are often characters in comics
with dots for eyes
They can be drawn like that because of the freedom of expression that the eyebrows have
Next, we have facial muscles
This is a more advanced part
One facial muscle is the zygomatic muscles, or the cheekbones
When they are raised, the face is mostly a smiling one
so most times when a character is smiling
their cheekbones become visible like this
This is one way of expressing that
Another way comics often use is this
which gives a more realistic smiling face
When the zygomas are lifted, the corners of the mouth
will naturally also move up
This is why people can usually tell that a smile is fake
because only the corners of the mouth move in a fake smile
Let's raise the corners of the mouth
and give this face a nose
The nose will become wrinkled when frowning
but it can also get wrinkled
when a character is smiling
specifically when the character is laughing very hard
It can also happen when the character is in extreme pain
or very angry
In those cases, wrinkles will also appear between the eyebrows
as well as the tip of the nose
Usually frowning faces
will feel like they are growling
thus reminds people of anger
Also, wrinkles near the eyes
so muscles near the eyes, per se
like the part under the eyes
another part is
the tip of the eyes here, where skin folds
and this, are all ways of drawing wrinkles near the eyes
These various facial muscles are crucial
for delicate emotional expression
Next let's take a look at how the face moves
when expressing major emotions
When someone is happy
their face will overall move upwards
The eyebrows rise
while making an arc
The skin under the eyes will also rise
And because of this
the shape the eyes make when we say someone's eyes are 'smiling'
is formed here
And the corners of the mouth
of course go up as well, this is a classic expression of joy
The eyelids also go up like this
And for the cheekbones
I said that if they don't rise and the mouth corners do that's a fake smile
To express real happiness and joy
the cheekbones should rise along with the other features
Next is anger
What is the most characteristic expression of anger?
Probably the eyebrows
making this V-shape
Like this
This V-shaped expression of rage
will feel very aggressive
like this
In contrast
another type of anger can be expressed this way
This is mostly an expression of contempt
And if the eyes are here
the eyelids will go down like this
And the part between the eyebrows
will also move downwards, as the eyebrows make a reverse V shape
This is not just skin sagging
but rather there are muscles behind the skin
This is the reason
that an angry person's eyes become like this
Like so
This half-moon shape of the eyes
are made because of the descending skin
And now between the eyebrows
They become scrunched, of course
The skin below the eyes
will also become wrinkled
It will feel kind of like this
And the corners of the mouth
and the nose will also become wrinkled
on the upper parts, like this
Next is sadness
Sadness makes the facial features go downwards overall
And when lines curve downwards
they will naturally give a sad and depressing feeling
Aside from the feeling that curved lines give
sad faces in real life will have downward curves
For example, the eyebrows curving like this, in a reverse V
The corners of the mouth will go down
The ends of the eyes as well
Basically all of the facial features will move down
except for the spot between the eyebrows
Next is surprise
Facial features will get bigger
like the eyes, and the mouth as well
which will cause the jaw to move down as well
causing the nostrils to become wider vertically in turn
The eyebrows will move upwards in surprise
The next emotion is boredom
A bored face is more of an expressionless face
Boredom doesn't cause much change in the eyebrows or face
Only the eyebrows move down slightly
to create a perfect half-moon with the eyes
If you distinguish the irises, it would look like this
Also, the basic face that I made has a bit of cheekbone
It would probably be good to send this down a bit
The mouth is straight, as well as the eyebrows and eyes
They're only slightly different from a relaxed face
If this was where the eyebrows were
they just move slightly down
to feel more linear
There of course plenty of other ways
to express emotion than just creating a scheme like this
You can also try mixing these faces
to create ones with different emotions
When you apply those emotions to a character that becomes their personality
Let's try making a character with a personality
Here's a reverse V-shaped pair of eyebrows
Because it gives off a sad vibe
if we set this as the default face for the character
we can create a sad-looking character
How exactly should we go about that?
First, set the character's eyebrows
to look like this from the beginning
As we add details, we could create
a sad, elderly character
This character looks like this by default
Let's create a second character
Round curves on the face express joy
Let's draw a upward pointing curve like this
for the eyebrows
and the cheekbones as well
A character with rising facial features like this
will be a positive and lively character
Next, upside-down V-shaped eyebrows express anger
so a character with these eyebrows as the default
will seem to have a hot temper
You don't even need an angry mouth like this
Even with a closed mouth
this character looks hot-tempered enough
And because round eyes express surprise
if we make a character with these eyes
we can make them look like a cowardly person
Also, mixing emotions
can lead to the creation of unique characters
Let's combine angry eyes and eyebrows
with a smiling mouth
This character somehow looks very reckless
like they're ready to do something bad
Now, if I try adding an angry mouth
to the sad character from before, it doesn't feel sad
but feels rather like a irritable and troublemaking character
Now let's take out the angry mouth
and give this character a smiling mouth
and upward-pointing eyes instead
Now this character looks somewhat troubled
All of the character types I mentioned can used not only for designing characters
but for simply expressing emotions
And this way of designing characters, with default emotions
if you watch the animated movie 'Inside Out', for example
is good for creating characters
with strong personality traits
Expressing Character's Emotions with Poses and Gestures
Now, I'll show you how to express emotions
using poses and gestures
Motions have to do with the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves of the body
The sympathetic nerves activate the body
when you feel excitement or fear
Which is why gestures that come from excitement and tension are connected
In contrast, the parasympathetic nerves relax the body when you are resting
Because they awaken the body
sympathetic nerves cause the muscles and heart
to become very tense
On the other hand, parasympathetic nerves cause both heartbeat and muscles
to become less tense and relax
The perfect state to fall asleep in
This is connects to gestures
that are passive and relaxed
Now, let's explore body movements corresponding to different emotional expressions
First is the head
It makes the character look active when it heads forwards
If it's jerked back, in contrast
and put between the shoulders
This is seen as passive or a sign of refusal
Like so, where the head is relative to the body
shows how active or passive someone is
Next is the tip of the jaw
If the jaw is lifted, the person's eyes will look downwards
which signals that the character is looking down at whoever is in front of them
giving them a sense of authority
or making them look arrogant
If their jaw is pointed towards their body
their eyes will point upwards
What kind of situation could this be?
It would probably be when gauging others' reactions
which means that the other person is in a higher position
or the character is in trouble
The location of the jaw, so where the head is pointing
represents social or psychological standing
Next we have the back and chest
when your chest is spread out
it expresses activeness
In contrast, if your back is hunched
you will look less active
There's this saying, "Keep your chest up"
When your chest is spread out, you look confident
But if your back is hunched like this
you're not very confident at all
So, how spread out the back and chest are expresses how confident you are
Next is the arms
When the arms are spread outwards it represents literally the spreading out of something
It also means that your gestures get larger
What does that mean?
It means that the expression of emotion is stronger as well
In contrast, if the arms are bent inward what situation would that be?
The character could be a bit shy
or twisting in embarrassment, like in this drawing
Otherwise
they could be shrinking in fear
For example, a situation like this
where the character is clutching their arm with the other
These are gestures
that are signs of hiding emotion
In other words, arms show
how much emotion the character is willing to show
Next is the legs
If a character's knees are bent slightly forward
that means they're getting ready to move
This is also linked to the tension from before
In contrast
If someone is standing still and straight
that means they're not prepared to move
So standing straight represents a state
of not being ready nor required to move
so a calm state
This pose is a tense one
where the character can move at any time
It would be taken in a tense situation
Last is the direction of the shoulders and hips
Here are the shoulders, and here are the hips
If they are in a straight line, this is how it feels
The most natural position is on where
the shoulders and hips are facing slightly different directions
By natural, I mean a state where someone
is not tense, and completely at ease
An example would be when leaning on some railing
Most relaxed standing poses will resemble that
This pose has its center of gravity aligned perfectly with its center
But if a pose is too relaxed
the center of gravity will shift
For example, let's imagine
a student standing in front of a teacher
If the student's shoulders and hips are in a straight line
the student will be in a completely straight posture
And if the student's center of gravity is out of place
and their shoulders and hips are tilted
their posture will be crooked
Then the student will give off a disobedient vibe
If you're standing in front of your teacher in a completely relaxed pose
then you won't be much of a model student
But in a situation
where you don't have to adhere to any authority?
You can stand freely
in a natural way
So the position of the shoulders, hips, and center of gravity
represent how physically and emotionally relaxed the character is
Now that we know how it works
let's look at some examples of how to express emotions with poses
First is fear
A character that is afraid has an overall shrinking posture
And how would the character's head move when expressing denial?
It would shrink towards the body
The head is hiding between the shoulders and the arms are hugging each other
Does this person have any confidence right now?
No, none at all
So their back is hunched
And how are their legs?
Fear is a tense emotional state
And what did tension mean?
It means that the body is getting ready to move
so it can run away at any time
Which is why this person's knees are bent forward
so they can get ready to run
Next, expressing surprise
Surprise will naturally contain a bit of fear
because the fact that a character is surprised means that they don't have
any control over the situation at the moment
Which causes the character to shrink a bit
and their head to stay between their shoulders
And while the shoulders are hunched, other body parts are stretched out
Why would a tense pose have straight limbs?
"Don't the legs have to get ready to move?"
"This person doesn't look ready to move at all!"
That's what you might think
but a 'surprised' pose only lasts for a moment
so about one or two seconds
while the character is still paralyzed by surprise
So this character is not getting ready to move
but rather, their muscles are already moving in surprise
and the peak of that movement is the surprised pose
That is why the character's limbs should be stretched out
in order to show the extent of their body movement
But surprise can be represented with other poses as well
If what caused the surprise is in a lower relative to the character
their chest would become puffed out
because the character's torso leans backwards
causing both the chest and back to stretch out
And the character's arms and legs will also move backwards
The character would then end up landing on their butt
If what caused surprise is above the character
Opposite from before, the character will become completely hunched up
Next is anger
Anger is characterized by aggressive poses
The upper body, including the head, will head forwards
And the fists will be clenched
Arms under tension are typically better posed like this
rather than extending outward like that
I said before that when the head moves forward, that represents activeness
When we express anger, we become active
But one thing different from the norm here
is that though normally, a hunched back means the person is shrinking
But a person with a hunched back and stretched out shoulders
is like an animal puffing out its body to intimidate
And you can also see that the knees are bent forward
This is because the character is getting ready to move
in the case of anger specifically, to attack
The arms can either completely stretched out
or bent with their muscles being flexed
Next is sadness, and sadness is droopy
The body moves downwards overall
There is no support being given to the head, so it droops forward
This is different from the 'active' position from before
where the chest would also move forward
as if showing interest to whatever is ahead
The back is bent, because the character is not very active
and the arms also head inwards
the body is tilted toward the front
Because when our bodies have no strength
they will tilt forwards
You can think of it as similar to the expression of fear, where the character hunches forward
Lastly, there is joy
The body, especially the arms and legs will stretch outwards
which is very appropriate
for expressing joy
And finally, let's take a short look at poses according to personality
Combining the theories of expressing emotion we just learned
I created some characters and represented their personalities
using poses and physical characteristics
First is an authoritative character
His shoulders are straightened out
and the shoulders, chest, and upper body are all puffed up
This is the character's silhouette
The lower parts of the body
so the legs, are a very linear shape
You have already learned that
straight lines give an authoritative feeling
One gimmick of 'higher-up' characters
is that they don't do the dirty work themselves
They stay in their chairs most of the time
So they are not ready to move
That's another reason this character's legs are straight
We feel more tension from people who are tense themselves
than from loosened people
And authority should make others tense
So, this character's shoulders, hips and center of gravity
are also in a straight line
Next is a bully character
What pose would a bully take?
First, the character's shoulders and hips are in a very distorted position
And his center of gravity is out of place as well
Next we have an active character
Her upper body is angled forward
And her legs are bent, getting ready to move
This type of character design
can be seen in a lot of old American cartoons
This kind of expression
was most often used for animal characters
That is because old American cartoons
were focused on slapstick comedy
Now let's look at an introverted character
His body heads inwards and downwards
His shoulders are hunched, and his limbs curl inwards
And his head is pointed downwards
Creating a perfect stereotype
of a timid character
Now, you have learned about facial expressions and poses that represent personality
Let's summarize what we learned this time
First, we learned how to draw
different physical characteristics
The way the body curves according to sex
and the different physical characteristics according to age
We also learned ways to make distinct different body types
Second, we learned how to express emotion
using poses
We learned that the way different parts of the body point
give different nuances to characters' actions
And learned about gestures that express emotions
Congratulations for making it here
Characteristics by type of person Characteristics by gender Male: Muscle〉Body fat = Straight, narrow pelvis, straight waist, upper body development Female: Body fat〉Muscle = Curved, wide pelvis, 8-shaped waist, lower body development
Characteristics by age Younger people have shorter nose, philtrum, jaw and longer forehead The horizontal length of eyes, nose, and mouth decide how old person looks
Body fat decreases with age, making body less round Skin elasticity decreases with age, causing skin to sag
Body type Thin body has inward curves and overall linear body More body fat makes more C-curves More muscles makes more S-curves and rigid body
Emotion & facial expressions Important features: eyebrows, mouth, eyes, facial muscles Movement of face by emotion Joy: features move upward
Anger: V-shaped eyebrows, wrinkles form Sadness: features move downward Surprise: features become wider vertically Boredom: features become linear
Expressing emotion using poses and gestures Important expressions of emotion Shoulders hunched when shrinking, such as in surprise or fear
Upper body and head point forward to give active or aggressive feeling Unstable center of gravity or tilted shoulders & hips give disobedient feeling
Body sagging downwards gives passive feeling, such as sadness or lethargy