Animation Commons Understanding Character Changes Based on Movements
GCC Academy
Hello, I'm Kang Ji-won, and I am teaching basic drawing
This time, I will be teaching you how to
express characters using posing
You will learn which poses and motions are appropriate for characters to take
according to their age, body type, and personality
I will be using characters from Studio Ghibli's animations
as examples
And we will also try doing some rough sketches
of motions that well represent characters
Motions and Connecting them to Characters
Last time was a crash course
on how to design a character
What kind of character design can express a character well?
Much information about a character comes from not just how they look, but also the poses they take
An actor can't call it a day after finishing makeup, they need to do the acting
This time, I will go over
the character design examples we skimmed over before
in more detail, focused on their movement
You will see how
vibrant emotions and movements
are applied in actual animation projects
which types of characters they are applied to
and how they are applied
First is a standing position
What is most important about a standing pose
is the angle of the shoulders and hips
and where that places the center of gravity
If you lean on one leg or put your stomach forward
your center of gravity will move away from the center of your body
The less centered the center of gravity is, the more relaxed the character will seem
and the more tilted the shoulders and hips will become
For the pose the character is in to be stable
the center of gravity should be near the raised side of the hip
If you're drawing a character that is just going about their day
As you can see on the right drawing
their shoulders and hips should be at a slight angle
for them to look relaxed
The second most important thing is where the feet are placed
When your feet are close together, you will look tense
and if they are far apart, your pose will feel stable
which in turn makes you appear relalxed
If I draw this person's silhouette
it looks very stable
A pose with the legs close together is one that requires strength
so it is a tense pose
If you look at the silhouette, it looks like an almond
in contrast to the pose on the right
which is the shape of a triangle
this pose feels like it has less support
Next is the back
Your back becomes straight when its muscles contract and it’s hunched when the muscles relax
Straightening a character’s back
has a similar effect to the poses on the left
Where the shoulders and hips are level, and the feet are close together
To make the back straight, the chest will also have to be straightened
So do the shoulders and stomach
All of those muscles need to be used
because the default state of our muscles
is a relaxed state
On the other hand, in the right-hand pose
The parts that are straightened out in the left pose
are relaxed because there are no muscles supporting them
This kind of pose will often be used
by elderly people, or sick or timid people as well
And it can be used
to express aggressiveness as well
That is because as the back bends
the head will naturally move forward
and bent legs are ready to move at any time
And the back also bends when someone is puffing up their body
This isn’t an aggressive pose, though
The back would bend more upwards
such like this
Anyway, the body will also slack
when a character is grumpy or disobedient
So a pose like this
can also be seen from badly behaving characters
Next is the angle of the upper body
When the upper body tilts backward, it signals that the character is avoiding the other person
If it is tilted forward, the character appears more active
What you should consider here is the overall silhouette of the character
That the silhouette is tilted means that
it is reflecting the character's movement well
So in order to prevent the drawing from becoming unnatural
make sure to outline the character first
In the case of a forward-tilting upper body
as I already mentioned many times
it represents interest or positiveness toward the other person
and a willingness
to cross social boundaries
This could mean either friendliness
or aggression and hostility
In contrast, if you are tilting backwards
it means that you are not only trying to avoid them physically
but also move away socially
Both poses can be used in situations of conflict
But for example, if someone with the left pose is on the brink of attacking
the backwards-tilting pose on the right
applies pressure to the other person
That is because the right pose causes the character to spread out their shoulders
and also open their chest
And their head also moves backwards
naturally causing them to look down
So this pose can also be used on a character that is gauging their opponent
Next let's look at some sitting poses
First is one with the legs stretched out
This usually means that the character is at rest
And if the legs are spread out the character will appear either almost too relaxed
or somewhat childish, since children usually sit like this
That you are stretching out your legs
already implies a casual situation
and if you spread your legs out
you won't exactly seem to care for appearances
The same effect does happen as well
if you do the same with slightly folded legs
but this pose is appropriate for any casual situation
probably because you don't take up as much space
Next is a squatting pose
If the upper body is leaning backward, it gives a relaxed feeling
and because the center of gravity also moves backward
this pose has a relatively large silhouette
It looks kind of like a stretched out M
If the character is leaning forward instead
they will appear unconfident or lacking energy
This is a pose that's used often
Pay attention to the character's silhouette when using it
Next are sitting poses on chairs
Let's set the one with the legs close together
as our default pose
If the legs are spread out from there, the pose becomes impertinent
This pose is also often relaxed
so the upper body will lean backward as well
Children usually touch their knees together while sitting
So the pose on the left to the default is fitting for cute characters
And the two farthest on the left
appear cocky, similar to the rightmost one
And as you will know, crossing one's legs
isn't a very polite posture
And macho characters
will often take the second pose
The crossed-leg pose on the left highlights the curves of the body
so it can give off a charming or confident vibe
When drawing a character with their legs crossed
you should draw the leg that's crossed as if it were seen from the side
The one that is not cross
just slightly tilted from its normal position
Since the body is being seen slightly from the side
this leg can be drawn as seen from the front
So that's how you angle the legs
Next, on the upper right are crossed-leg sitting poses on the floor
This is traditionally a pose that people of higher social standing take
So it will appear cheeky or overbearing
To draw crossed-leg poses more easily, try imagining
a character sitting on a chair, then tilting their legs
So
tilt the legs like this
This is an easy way to do it
This is how it looks in 3D
This is the most basic pose
And if you put the legs more apart
or touch the feet together, the pose looks more playful, like a child
If only one leg is tilted to the side
This is a pose elderly women often take
And there's the pose where you kneel on both your legs
This pose will appear polite, in contrast to the crossed-leg one
It's also taken often in situations of defeat
This pose with both arms raised
is one that is used in time-outs
By the way, how do you draw a kneeling pose?
Picture one cylinder put upon the other like this
and connect these two sides like this
and you get a kneeling leg
Also, when someone is kneeling
where the thigh and calf meet
the flesh of the calf should be visible rather than the thigh
The calf is digging into the thigh
Next let's look at arm motions and gestures
Arm motions can directly communicate
what a character is saying
That's what we call body language
Most forms of body language
happen through the hands, arm, and upper body
And there are a lot of them
I'll only be going over some basic poses
and what nuances they give
First, when both arms do the same gesture
it will grab the other person's attention and can help convince them
When people give speeches, no matter how big their gestures are
both their arms will usually be doing the same thing
In contrast, if you look at the right
One hand is pointing and the other is opened as if explaining something
When both hands are busy like this
you can guess what state of mind the person is in
The more complex what the person is saying is
the more complex their gestures will be as well
But if they can explain what they're talking about
in a concise way
they will explain it step by step, like on the left
The gesture on the right
is more appropriate when
the speaker themselves are not organized
Next is how broadly the arms move
Look at the lower left corner
if the arms move broadly like before
even if we can't hear what this person is saying directly
we can derive from their movements that they're speaking loudly
and if they move in smaller movements like on the right, they will appear calm
Especially in comic books or illustrations
where there is no audio information
because you can't express directly that someone is loud
you will have to use visual information like this
And now, if you look to the upper right of the screen
Whether or not the elbow is touching the body
is the difference between these poses
If you take the same pose and put the elbow next to the body
it will look calm
and if the elbow is far away, it will look confident
Even though the elbows are tucked in and the hands are placed on the chest the same way
the bent wrists created by the tucked elbows
add an elegant touch to the gesture
On the right, however, because the elbow is far away from the body
the right shoulder is raised and the wrist is straight
and more of the arm's muscles are being used
which makes the character look more motivated
And lastly, on the lower right corner
the character has their hands put together
which makes them seem unconfident and timid
Motions that express hesitance
are also based on a pose with the hands together
Putting the character's hands close together like this
is effective for making them look like they don't know what to do
Next, let's categorize characters based on their poses
This categorization has to do with
the physical characteristics according to age group from last time
I had mentioned this a bit then
And this categorization also utilizes
the nuance that motions give, that we skimmed over at the end of the last video
Now, I don't mean
that each character type is always like this
but I will explain some typical character types
and their general characteristics, along with some examples
And the examples in this class
are going to be characters from Ghibli Animation Studio's works
Ghibli's animated characters
are famous for being
relatively realistic in body structure
and yet having very detailed movements
as if they were living people
When studying vibrant characters
it helps very much
to look at Ghibli characters
Now first, let's look at poses according to age group
First are children
Children by default put their stomachs forward
even while walking, and so walk with a toddle
Toddling occurs
because someone isn't in full control of their body
and it can be emphasized by putting more weight behind their steps
Which is why
children can be explained as inexperienced in balancing their body
Let's look at the character on the upper left
His legs are almost straight, but they're slightly bent towards the side
One characteristic of children is their O-shaped legs
so it looks more natural
for the legs to be bent slightly when they're sitting on the floor
They'll sometimes even be unable to keep their arms and legs together
that is in the case of an even younger child
Babies, when leaning forward
will also put their arm back to balance themselves
For example
like this, with one arm behind them
Their legs are bent like this
And for behavioral traits, they keep putting their hand to their mouth
Those are some characteristics of babies
Putting everything in their mouth is a habit of babies
And they are also still figuring out how to use their hands
so when holding a pencil or spoon
they will hold it as if grabbing it with their first
Add details like that to make them feel more like actual babies
The character on the right isn't from a Ghibli work
but from one of director Makoto Shinkai's works
called 'Mirai of the Future'
You can see that he's grabbing the straw with his fist
and the hand that's holding his backpack in the first cut
is also in the shape of a fist
These are details that express
the clumsiness of babies
Next we have older children
Children are active, free, and have limber bodies
This is the most active stage of life
However, children's bodies are still not developed
so they don't stand as straight or rigidly as adults
It's better to make their movements and poses
somewhat flappy
What does that mean?
Where an adult would be standing completely straight
a child will have more drooping shoulders
like the standing illustration on the left
their hips will be slightly tilted
their arms will hang more limply
you can add more details like that
If the child appears too rigid
they might look like they're trying to look like an adult
And, another word that can explain children is playfulness
Like on the illustration, putting their feet on the sofa arm
or even lying down on the sofa with their feet on the backrest
Or they can have poses that utilize
the limberness and lightness that only children have
Standing upside-down against the wall
those are the things that can make a character seem like a child
These kinds of details
can sometimes can even be more important
than details in drawing
Next we have young adults
Young adults should be expressed
focused on their strength, vitality, solidness, and good balance
Because young adults have barely aged
but are not clumsy anymore either, they can be seen as a kind of a default state
So you might think, is there anything more to express about them?
But if there is something
to emphasize about young people
I think that it's their physical solidness
They don't have to be completely rigid
but the way they're standing has to be stable
Let's look at the example on the screen
The lower body is stable, with straight legs
and it's a good idea to very slightly tilt their upper body and hips
Because the lower body has to do with stability
The lower body can stay rigid
and that gives the upper body some freedom
to give the character a natural looking pose
such as putting one hand on their hip
or leaning against a wall
Next is middle-aged people
Middle aged people have their own characteristics
Because their bodies have recently began aging
Each step or standing position has weight behind it
Their core, muscles, abs and such
don't move as freely as before
so their bodies aren't as pliable
To express this rigidness
you can make the shoulders and hips almost parallel to each other
You can see that the characters in the example
have their shoulders and hips barely tilted
They lack vitality in their movements
so their legs are often unbalanced
but their arms will have more strength behind them to compensate
Which may sometimes give them
an intimidating feeling
Lastly, there are elderly people
Of course, elderly people are bent slightly forward
This is often because their backs are actually bent
but even if they aren't, lack of strength makes the body lean forward
Their center of gravity will also be out of place
If they become too unbalanced
they will require the help of a walking stick or such
Because of this, elderly people typically balance themselves
either with a stick, or by putting their hands behind their back
Because they are physically weaker
it's a good idea to make their movements strained in general
If you imagine a younger person struggling from fatigue
that can help with picturing how older people act
Next are poses according to body type
People with long bodies have longer strides
so they walk as if they are leaping between steps
If a tall character walks very rigidly
it could look even unnatural
like they are made out of sticks
which is why they will sometimes purposefully be drawn in an unbalanced way
And because their arms are also long
they can reach further than others
so you can use more swinging motions
This is something that tall people in real life do
they will sometimes be slightly bent over
Leaning on one leg or bending both legs are poses that also fit tall people well
Next are short people
Short people usually feel stable when standing
with their legs apart
And because they're short, they often move more actively in larger motions
rather than passively
This causes them to lean forward more often
Next we have people with fat bodies
The example is a raccoon character
so their joints are reversed
but Studio Ghibli often give animal characters
human-like characteristics as well
so from how I see it, this character
reflects how bulky human characters act very well
Firstly, fat people's bodies will shake as they move
and in order to balance themselves
they will often lean slightly backwards
Like this, for example
this is how that looks
This applies to characters
that have no muscle
and whose bulk consists of body fat instead
they have to lean backwards to balance themselves
So naturally they put their stomachs forward
They can't put their arms as close to their torso so their arms are slightly spread out by default
But when they are spreading their arms out
their physical characteristics are more apparent
so it is easier to emphasize that they have large bodies
And they may bend their knees more slowly when sitting down
to protect their joints
Next is muscular people
Muscular people may also waddle when walking
if they have way too much muscle
This is apparent in people who work out a lot
they will have a swaggering gait
That is one characteristic
And people with lots of muscle
have no reason to stay hunched
To make their muscles stand out more
you should draw them in poses that look confident
with opened shoulders and puffed out chests
Their arm motions will be larger as well
Muscular people, due to their muscles, will stand with their arms further away from their torso
so more straightened up than normal
Aside from that, a pose with the arms crossed
is appropriate for expressing the volume of the upper body
so it is especially useful for drawing muscular characters
Next is small characters
By small, I mean characters
with bodies that don't look strong
The radius of their movements are smaller
so they make gestures with their hands rather than their arms
Their hands will come together more often, and their shoulders are hunched
These are poses we can see often
from people who lack muscle due to inactivity
I put a child character as the example here
because child characters can be categorized as small as well
Small characters will use gestures
often used by shy or timid people
Next we have some poses according to personality
Because people's personalities
work organically
many personalities will have overlapping characteristics
So someone who has one trait
is likely to have ones related to that as well
First are poses that express confidence
Confident people use their arms more
and lean their upper body towards the other person
And they tend to keep their head up
and look straight at others, like in this example
Their movements are clear and strong
and their shoulders and chest are straightened out
On the other hand, unconfident people have small movements
so their hands will be close together
and use small gestures
They will be hunched, avoid making eye contact
their hands might be in their pockets
and their heads will be slouched down
Next is the amount of energy
Energetic people use their limbs in a rackety way
It's appropriate to draw them in exaggerated faces and gestures
Calm people, in contrast
won't shift much from their default straight pose
and their movements get to the point
For example, if they're on a phone call
they will stand straight with the phone to their ear
And when they're looking at a watch, they will stand straight while lifting their arm
Those kind of restrained movements fit calm people well
You can see there's a clear difference
from the energetic character, who won't keep their limbs idle
Next is degree of freedom
Relaxed characters tend to have loosened poses
like the character on the left
But that does not mean there's much strength behind their movements
When sitting, they will cross their legs
or lean on the chair more
Their head will often be at an angle
Their shoulders are opened up, but there's no strength being put into them
so the shoulders will sag slightly downwards
But a rigid character, like on the right
has linear movements, and stand straight
They might cross their arms, have them behind their backs
or put both hands on their hips
Their heads will look straight forward, or look slightly down
The freedom of characters like on the right may also make them appear charming
Because charming characters are slightly relaxed
their shoulders and hips will be at an angle
So their center of gravity will be slightly out of place
which is very similar to the poses of relaxed characters
Leaning on one leg or leaning on an object
are poses that can also appear attractive
I used the example on the left
because it can represent both charming and free characters
Next is the level of elegance
First we have elegant characters
Their body will tend to have smooth lines
They stand up straight, but that doesn't make them appear rigid
Their motions are small, and they use the tips of their fingers often
as you can see on the left
Then we have rough characters
in contrast to elegant characters
They might stand
with their legs bent and wide apart
in an O-shape
kind of like this
which gives them a rugged impression
Their shoulders are straightened out, and they waddle as they walk
Their gestures will also be large
This division is also related to characters' body types
Elegant characters tend to be skinny
while rough characters will be more muscular
Finally, there is level of aggression
Aggressive characters will often clench their fists
Their shoulders will be raised from tension
and as you can see on the left, they will lean towards the other person
The more your back is bent and your head is positioned forward
the more ready to fight you will look
However, if you open your shoulders and position your chest forward
your head will naturally move backward
and you will end up looking down at the other person
For example
like this, and in this case
your hands
might go into your pockets
That's how it feels
Because the character's shoulders are open and chest puffed up
their head naturally looks slightly down
which can intimidate other people
This is what I said an aggressive character looks like
in the last lesson as well
On the other hand, passive characters don't have tension in their shoulders
so the shoulders will create a soft downwards curve
Their hands will be together
or they will have one hand touching their hair or on their chest
Those are gestures that keep the hands close to the body
Because of that, their movements
are smaller, using mainly their hands
And though their upper body is straightened out
that does not mean they are rigid at all
They don't move that much
so as you can see on the right example
the character is holding a letter at chest level
but they aren't moving their head down
or holding the letter closer to their eyes
They're simply looking down with their eyes
This kind of movement
gives off elegance, as well as softness
Breaking down and writing down
each movement like this
and analyzing what characteristics they have
which situations that they would fit
will help you apply them in your work
when drawing characters
Now let's look at a few poses
that are stereotypical for certain occupations
You can see what job a person has from their attitude and actions
So, keeping in mind which movements or actions
that people with certain jobs make
will help you give more flair
when drawing them
than when you don't consider their occupation
First we have police officers
They will often be blowing a whistle
or talking into a walkie-talkie
or be saluting
I have two examples here
Police officers, because of their job
will generally not be physically relaxed
Their waists will be straight
and so will their legs
So rigid poses fit them well
Also, their elbows
will be far away from their body
Since they have to react to things immediately
they will be active rather than passive
And they shouldn't look weak
which is why it's better to use poses
where the elbows are far from the body and the shoulders are straightened out
Of course, it's okay for them to look
somewhat like they're in their daily lives
And apart from standing poses
when police officers are in their cars
or looking into a vehicle
such as like this
their poses might become crooked
When they're catching drunk drivers, for example
Next we have military officers
Their legs will be straight, with their heels together and they will often be saluting
And even when sitting, soldiers
will have straight upper bodies, with their hand in fists on their knees
Those are representative of people in the military
Soldiers don't exactly have a characteristic
but are rather so rigid in attitude and pose
that their rigidness itself is their characteristic
Unlike police officers, they have no casualness at all
Their shoulders are tense and straightened out completely
So are their backs
Their chest will be puffed out
And their feet will be at a 45-degree angle
These kinds of rigid behavior
are what represent soldiers
Next, in the complete opposite, we have blackguards
These characters with poses
that represent all kinds of unruliness
So poses like the loosened up ones we saw before
with relaxed bodies and angled heads
Their shoulders are straightened out, but are also sagging
Even when sitting, they will cross their legs
or squat on the floor like this
And they will also show roughness
such as standing with their legs slightly bent and far apart
and walking in a stumbly way
are characteristics of these characters
Forward-leaning head, bent back
Legs wide apart and squatting, crossed legs
Those poses give off contempt very well
which makes them look more like bullies or blackguards
And because they don't have any set outfit
Even if a character is in a suit, if their pose is that of a bad guy
then they will look like a bad guy well enough
Acting that Represents the Character
Finally, let's do some rough sketches
to learn how to draw moving characters
There are three important steps
First is compressing the character
into three to four keywords
such as personality, emotion, physical appearance, or occupation
Second, thinking of points to highlight out of those characteristics
Third, draw the character, taking care to stress those characteristics more
These three steps are all you need
If I had to compress it down to one sentence
it would be "make sure to express the keyword well"
That is why it's helpful to practice using characters with strong characteristics
For example, using a still cut from a drama or movie
rather than a regular photo
You could also use a movie poster
The example I'm going to use this time
is actor Jung Woo-Sung from a poster for the movie City of the Rising Sun
Even without watching the movie
someone could easily guess what situation this is
or what kind of character he is playing
A slightly unruly young man
If you had so say it in keywords, you would call him free and rough
and his age is that of a young adult
He also seems somewhat aggressive
Though personally I think he looks hunched here because it's cold
and not because of aggression
Now on the right is
a very quick sketch I made in advance
Let's take a closer look while I draw over this
The head is facing slightly down
And if I draw the eyes in this pose
they will glare upwards
The head is also at an angle, so from the facial expression and eyes
we can give a disobedient feeling
Also, the shoulders are slightly angled and bent
So are the hips, and let's draw where the knees will go
The elbows as well
Now let's try drawing along these guides
As you can see, the character is leaning slightly forward
Leaning forward like this
And because the elbows are a bit far away from the body
The overall silhouette of the arms and upper body
should be enlarged a bit
with more curves than the original photo
And inside the arms as well
I'll give curves to
and we have the general upper body
Now let's give more details to the arms
It's not even giving details, but shaping them
And the lower body should also look rugged and rough
It could be because he's not walking on a stable floor
but his legs are in a slight O shape
Which is why I'm going to
make the space between the legs wider
and use that to draw the outside silhouette as well
If you think of how the lines will go
as you draw, the drawing will become much more detailed
And mark where the knees are, and the legs are complete
All we have to do now is add the details
You can go about that however you want
If you're doing a simple sketch in under one minute, this is all you need
This is an enough level of detail
Just add the hands
to show that the wrists are bent, and most of the fingers are not visible
This level of expression
is enough for a one-minute sketch
The legs as well
I'm going to just draw the clothes a bit
Because the wind is blowing towards the left
the character's clothes should billow this way as well
You could just sketch over the photo
But analyzing what the character's actions mean beforehand
and drawing in a way that expresses that
will result in a more life-like sketch
That's it for the example sketch
Now let's summarize what we learned this time
First, we learned which actions
are typical for which age groups and body types
We looked at some keywords according to age
and learned what motions fit those keywords
Second, we learned about characters and motions
according to personality or occupation
We learned how each personality
affects certain parts of the body
And we also looked at some movements
that are typical for certain jobs
And finally, we looked at what points are of note
when drawing moving characters, through a rough sketch
We characterized the character using a few keywords
and sketched an existing character by highlighting those characteristics
Congratulations on completing another lesson
Connecting Motions and Characters Standing position Important aspects of a standing pose: Angle of shoulders & hips, center of gravity
The more angled the shoulders & hips are, the unstable the center of gravity gets The more forward the upper body leans, the active the character
Sitting position Sitting with straight legs looks relaxed Crouching position looks unconfident Sitting with legs wide apart looks disobedient
Arm motions & gestures Symmetric arm motions gather attention, asymmetric motions distract
Larger arm motions feel loud Elbows close to the body appear calm
Traits of Characters Poses by age group Baby: Stomach forward, unbalanced, curious, hand put to mouth, grabs objects with fist
Child: Active, free, light, limber, undeveloped body, playful Young adult: Strong, vitality, firm body, balanced, stable legs, leaning upper body
Middle age: Rigid, weighted movement, easy attitude, strong arms, awkward pose Elderly: Bent forward, center of body moves, cane, hands behind back
Poses by body type Slender: Large steps, swinging limbs, crooked pose Short: Energetic movements, upper body leans forward
Fat: Body shakes, Upper body leans backward, arms spread out Muscular: Stumbles, spread out shoulders, puffed chest, legs spread out, big motions
Small: Small movements, gestures using hands, hands are often together, shoulders hunched
Characteristic Traits Poses according to personality Confident: Large arm motions, leans forward, strong movement Timid: Small motions, hands together
Energetic: Exaggerated faces and gestures Calm: Gestures are to the point, restrained, straight Free: Relaxed, crossed legs, large but weak motions
Strict: Stands up straight, crossed arms, rigid head, hands on hips or behind back Elegant: Smooth lines, uses ends of hands often
Rough: Bent and wide apart legs, stumbles Aggressive: Fists clenched, back bent and head forward
Soft: Shoulders sink, hand on chest, hands stay close to body
Acting that represents the Character Drawing movement in a rough sketch Summarize the character into keywords
Find characteristics to point out Draw while reinforcing highlights Use scenes from dramas or movies with strong characteristics