A expressão corporal e a evolução da animação em personagens inanimados

Abstract

The evolution of cinema has been followed by technology that is providing more and more opportunities for achieving new ideas and new forms of storytelling. Thanks to recent improvements in computer graphics, it is possible today, through special effects, to create new opportunities to create something that the writer imagined and that years ago were impossible to accomplish. Along with film, feature animation has also been following these new discoveries, improving their narrative and their way of expressing themselves. All this evolution is demonstrated through a series of characters of different types like animals or inanimate objects, that are able to demonstrate human feelings over the story, in ways increasingly more convincing. Characters, who supposedly could not express feelings of happiness, fear or compassion, like a car named Lightning McQueen, now has the personality of someone that is the best and that is good at everything he does. Or a fish named Dory that is very friendly and has memory problems. These are some examples of the evolution of animation techniques and technology which helped animators to express all these features through the characters. But none of this would matter so much if it were not for the actings of the main characters, the center of everything. In addition to the director and the entire technical production, there are artists who use a description called "Body Expression," which aims to show all the emotions and feelings that the story has to pass through the actors. Like in a movie or a theater show, it's the actors who show us all the feelings in their actions. Thanks to the body expression of the performance of the actor in the film, we can feel and see the entire message created by the producers of the film/animation. This dissertation has as main purpose the study of body language and its way of conveying emotions and feelings that are used in movies and animation over the years. It is intended to meet part of their origin and how it has evolved over time through the development of technology that provides increased challenges and new ways for an animator / actor to prepare to act / interpret actions of supposedly inanimate beings.

Date of Award	7 Aug 2014
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Sahra Kunz (Supervisor) & Ricardo Megre (Co-Supervisor)