Body language

Body language is a form of non-verbal communication, which consists of body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. Humans send and interpret such signals almost entirely subconsciously.

well thats how wikipedia describes it, body language is something im gonna need to swat up on if im going to be successful at this module. It is a key description of reading a humans feelings and mind set, so it will no doubt be of help for this module. getting to know and understand body language better can help me interpret my characters persona and mood much better on screen and will be of benefit in everyday life as a bonus.

Body language is the unspoken or non verbal communication that goes on in every Face-to-Face encounter with another human being. It tells you their true feelings towards you and how well your words are being received.

It varies between 50-100 percent of our message is communicated through our body language. A simple roll of the eyes or hand gesture may be all it takes to convey 100 of what we mean, no words, no tone, only 7-10 percent is an attributable to the actual words we use in a conversation.

below is a good diagram of some people showing various signs of body language:

its instantly apparent to see the mood and feelings of each of the people in this photo. just the placement of hands and body posture instantly tell you weather the persons confident, relaxed, happy or sad. with the addition of facial expressions and eye contact its easy to build up a characterization of yourself on screen which can be applied to our 3d characters in the development stages.

Physical expression

Physical expressions like waving, pointing, touching and slouching are all forms of nonverbal communication. The study of body movement and expression is known as kinesics. Humans move their bodies when communicating because, as research has shown, it helps "ease the mental effort when communication is difficult." Physical expressions reveal many things about the person using them. For example, gestures can emphasize a point or relay a message, posture can reveal boredom or great interest, and touch can convey encouragement or caution.

The images convey a few classic body language examples which can be of really good use when visually showing a characters mood and feeling on screen. these can all be applied to a character when animating in 3ds max to help me convey the persona of my 3d character effectively.

the list below is a quick breakdown of non verbal communications (body language) delegated to each part of the human body, a good bit of information in reminding me ho you can use the hole of the characters body to express subtle or over the top moods and expressions on screen.

This research will prove invaluable when coming up with my characters persona and giving him attributes to emphasis his personality, and also ideas and techniques to use when animating him later on in the module to make sure his personality comes out on screen.