Haaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeee

Hahaha, did you fall asleep waiting for the sloth to finish expressing it's expression of happiness? Remember my previous post, where I talked about exaggeration? Now this is the perfect way to exaggerate this scene and it makes it even funnier.

Going through some of my posts, I've gone clueless on what to post for my next lesson/guide about animation. Went into discord to brainstorm with a friend of mine, and she came out with "Make a GIF of me feeling sad, happy, shocked, frustrated, etc".

Now that was a brilliant idea! And No, I did not create a bunch of GIFs of her face expressions. Sorry :P but I've realized that I've yet to talk about the importance of a character's expressions. How important it is to highlight your expressions effectively.

Highlight your actions, story & emotions CLEARLY to your audience

In my previous post about exaggeration, one of the tip to judge whether "It is too much is when it becomes confusing". This is the same rule of thumb when you're trying to highlight your expressions.

It is very important that your audiences are able to within a split second able to identify and read clearly your facial expression. Audiences are always directed to the face of the character FIRST. Then only the overall pose that the character is in. In this manner, the pose becomes a catalyst that reinforces the overall emotions and idea of the scene. The pose becomes secondary, not to say it's not important but if your expression doesn't read clearly, the message still won't be delivered across. Even if the poses are perfectly done.

The main subject will always be the expression

Now this is where it gets a little bit technical. I understand that people have told me to keep my post light because the many users here are not animators. I would try to do my best and keep it as layman as possible. There is a fundamental idea for when you're animating the expression.

Never ever complete an important expression while transitioning between poses

Here's the tip.

You can, however stage the key expression before OR After the head turn. Always highlight your expressions when the character is at it's least movement.

AFTER head turn

Staging the expression before or after presents very different way of approaching a scene. Take this scene for example. Mike Wazowski from Monster's Inc highlighted that he fully understands and agrees to what he needs to do next. Now this shows that Mike has thoughts running through his mind before agreeing. This gives the character more life actually. Just by showing Mike turning away to ponder, shows the in-between thoughts and when he finally figures it is the best option, he nods his head.

BEFORE head turn

Now, if we were going to highlight the main expression before the head turn. This would be a good example. When Ratatouille, hears and sees the lights switches on, he immediately hold that main expression of being surprised. Realizing that someone was standing behind him, only then he turns his head.

Now, this two ideas on how you can properly highlight your expressions is definitely much more interesting than when the expression is completed in the middle of transitioning to a pose. Remember, always highlight your expression when there is least movement. This is to allow audiences to read what you're trying to show clearly.

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Just remember! Main expression, BEFORE or AFTER transitioning. NEVER in between. I hope that you've learned something from this post today. It is a simple trick to give your character the full potential it deserves.