EXPRESSIONS: Expressions and Emotion

ex·pres·sion 

n.

1.  a manifestation of an emotion, feeling, etc., without words

2. Something that expresses or communicates:

These are the relevant definitions of the word expression in relation to this project.

Expressions are a key part of communication between humans. Sometimes, especially in film and animation, an expression can speak louder than any words ever could, as facial expressions are a universal thing, everyone can understand the basic emotion behind a smile or a frown.

It can sometimes come down to single wrong expression in a movie/animation that can throw off the viewer completely and make them unable to be sympathetic to the characters or engage with the character at all.

Expressions are such a vital part of communication that combinations of symbols and letters have become a common part of communication on the internet and through SMS. It can be hard to understand a person's exact tone or meaning through just text alone so some internet and phone users will add faces to help get their point across.

For example:

Happiness = :)
Sadness =  :(
Excited = :D
Confused =  6_9

These are but a view examples, there are thousands upon thousands of combinations that can be used to express oneself in this format.

Nic Cage uses his face here to aid his use of sarcasm.

Nic Cage expressing concern, this is evident thanks to the position of his eyebrows.

Nic Cage expressing happiness, he must have got asked to be in another film.

Nic Cage expressing confusion. Probably because somebody said they DIDN'T like Con Air.

Nic Cage expressing deep thought through his facial expression and also the position of his hands.

Gordon Ramsey expressing anger, made all the more prominent by his actions along with his face.

Animals can seem as though they expressing themselves in very amusing ways. We take advantage of this in animation a lot, though in a live action shoot, it would be impossible for the cat to convey all the needed expressions and so digital editing would be required.

 Cartoons allow for a much more exaggerated expression, which can potentially be comical or tug at your heart strings.

Amusement and Disappointment 

             Frustration and Sadness

Excitement and Anger

Here are six images I drew of the same character expressing six emotions for practice. Position of eyebrows is very important, as well as the shape of the mouth. For added effect I can change the position of the shoulders as well, for example, someone who is angry might hunch their shoulder.

Here I tried to vary the movement of lines to express the character's anger.

And here I have tried a combination of exaggerated movement to express the character's anger and yelling.