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I am Jordan McGuinness. I am an animation student who’s drawn to both stop motion and 2D. My passion for puppet making has had me discover a love for crafting and experimenting with materials and I am keen to give all creative opportunities a try.

My drive for video making and drawing started when I was little and was inspired my artist father who would make short films himself. Another life long influence has come from the comfort I feel from nature and wanting to preserve wildlife. Animals have often starred in my creations and I hope to help people feel the same through my art.

My goal is to try all kinds of projects and not niche down until I have more experience.

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How to answer it and explore it

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﻿﻿Identify the 'problem?

﻿﻿Preliminary investigations
Has this already been done?

﻿﻿Research: Establish Theoretical foundations

﻿﻿Design solution | Form hypothesis

﻿How will I solve the problem?

﻿﻿Implementation | Experimentation

﻿﻿Evaluation and Conclusions

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How do the muppets anthropomorphise animals to give them emotion and personality?

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How do the muppets anthropomorphise animals to give them emotion and personality?

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What I noticed most was the use of body language to show emotion clearly despite the inability to have the eyes move or have eyebrows. The hair also added life into the character of miss piggy as when she would move. As it bounces, it gives us a sense that she is a diva due to the care in appearance. Lastly I believe the mouth also played a big part in the storytelling of emotions as the snout moving so low when she closes her mouth indicates a distaste about what’s happening but when her mouth is wide open it appears to look like a big smile.

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Muppet Songs: Miss Piggy and Danny Kaye - Cheek to Cheek

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In the film and the original cartoon it is shown that the animators found ways to make the marsupilami creatures expressive. These techniques were expressive eyes that can show frowning and happiness, body language, movements that are recognised by us to tell us how the character is feeling (example being when the female marsupilami did the snapping of the fingers and head swivel which we see people do to show sass and anger) as well as their ears that are primarily pointed upwards go down to show sadness and hopelessness.

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Pathe's and BUF's French Marsupilami film

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I really like how they have given the bird teeth, wrinkles and eyebrows to make it more expressive. It tells the audience how mischievous, manipulative and harmful social media ,represented by this creature, is.

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The Looney Tunes characters are perfect examples of making animals expressive using animation. Specifically with Bugs Bunny there is a lot to learn from. They have given him more human proportions and the ability to use his front paws like human hands which gives him a lot more visual clues to tell the audience how he feels. Like some other examples I have looked at, he has eyebrows that makes his face more emotive. Furthermore, his eyes take up a considerable amount of space on his face which is, again , unrealistic but is a lot easier to read for the audience.

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The horse has been given eyebrows, the eyes are in a different position to where they would be on a real horse and this is because it is more visible to show emotion through more human-like eyes. This is also why the pupils are unusually small for a horse, we will have less trouble knowing where he’s looking.

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This movie takes a more realistic approach to the look of these animals. The mouths and eyes look very normal to animals we know but the mobility of the mouth and brow bone lets us understand them better. They also have increased mobility in their joints so they can fight and act aggressive.

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I have come to realise that the most efficient way for me to learn how to make animals expressive through animation requires me to know more about their anatomy. To start me on this journey I have watched this video that informed me what makes up the anatomy of a dog. Once I know how to do this I will be able to alter it to make them more expressive for my animations.

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What I learnt from the How To Draw Dogs video

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What I learnt from the How To Draw Dogs video

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This video really helped me get a grasp of what is important to include and how their bodies function.

Here are drawings I did whilst watching the video to solidify the information in my mind and practice.

(I accidentally wrote the wrong month)

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I booked out 4 books from the library and they made me realise I need to understand anatomy and the skeleton so I can draw a believable expressive face to animate with. This is when I used the book “Facial Expressions A Visual Reference for Artists” by Mark Simon to help me understand and sketch from to learn.

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Marker and pencil drawing

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One of the key factors of an expressive face is the mouth shape. These are sketches I have done from this book to focus on that.

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I went to see this film at the cinema on Friday the 19th October and this was a great movie to take inspiration from. The emotional tale meant the animals had to successfully express themselves in a way that was convincing and inspired empathy from the audience. The character designers took a different approach to do this compared to other examples of animated animals as they limited the anthropomorphism. The proportions are all true to the species and they don’t use the feathers on Bright Bill as fingers like they do in Rio but still has the body language that works and increased believability.

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First attempt at animating an animal expressively 

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First attempt at animating an animal expressively 

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Using the audio of a clip of a real police officer, I wanted to see if I could animate an animal with the offended expression that reflected the real person’s feelings.

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I visited the library and looked at this book to research how birds are built so I can animate them better and more expressive 

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I visited the library and looked at this book to research how birds are built so I can animate them better and more expressive 

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This book I picked up from the library was a huge help in making me understand what makes up a face and shows the feelings most clearly

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Looking at the concept art and development of zootropolis helped with understanding anthropomorphising animals in a fun and believable way. The anthropomorphising helps visually explain to the audience and makes the characters more relatable and therefore easier for the audience to read their emotions.

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This book was great at helping me understand how to incorporate fluidity into my illustrations of animals

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Based on tutor and peer feedback, I was advised to look at Jim Carrey as examples as he has a very « elastic » face.

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Based on tutor and peer feedback, I was advised to look at Jim Carrey as examples as he has a very « elastic » face.

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These are my sketches based on images of him drawn digitally in procreate.

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Experimental animation. Trying to animate a dog expressively 

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Experimental animation. Trying to animate a dog expressively 

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The audio is from “Choreography” from the iconic Movie White Christmas. Animated on the app Procreate dreams. I played with eyeshape and mouth shapes along with the positioning of the head to give that posh and aristocratic feel to the character.

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going up close to better understand animals and build up from first hand knowledge and experience of seeing animals.

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Studying cats. I decided to sketch them in ink pens to commit to the lines and force myself to not shy away from making mistakes to better my skills and learn from them.

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Based on what I learnt from the book and my sketches, I drew this attempt of a cat with a happy or excited expression and I believe there is a great improvement since my previous try’s at drawing felines.

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sketching animals to familiarise myself with drawing animals in different poses.

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Exploring expressions with a character I designed. I have altered the reality of how a beak can actually move to fit the exaggeration needed to clearly show emotion.

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Branching out again and drawing a quick study of a raccoon.

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Animating cat face based on what I learnt and then incorporating methods that show expressive emotions.

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Animating cat face based on what I learnt and then incorporating methods that show expressive emotions.

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Based on all my research I have began animating a bird showing the different expressions using the techniques I observed in books, animations and real animals.

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Continuing My cat animation to include another facial expression

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Continuing My cat animation to include another facial expression

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Reference list

Amid Amidi (2017) The Art of Pixar Short Films. Chronicle Books.

Blaise, A. (2023) ‘How to draw dogs’, YouTube.

Blutch (2023) Lucky Luke vu par.... - Les Indomptés. Lucky Comics.

Cuncic, A. (2023) 5 tips to better understand facial expressions, Verywell Mind. Available at: https://www.verywellmind.com/understanding-emotions-through-facial-expressions-3024851.

Cats and Dogs (2001). Warner Bros.

Hultgren, K. (2016) The art of animal drawing : construction, action analysis, caricature. Kettering, Oh: Greenpoint Books.

Lasseter, J. (2016) Art of zootropolis. Chronicle Books.

Rio [Animation] (2011). 20th Century Studios.

Robertson, B. and Dreamworks Animation (2014) The art of

Paik, K. and Pixar (Firme (2007) The art of Ratatouille. San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books.

Penguins of Madagascar. San Rafael, California: Insight Editions.

Simon, M. (2008) Facial expressions, babies to teens : a visual reference for artists. New York: Watson-Guptill.

Stromae (2015) Stromae - carmen, www.youtube.com. Available at: https://youtu.be/UKftOH54iNU.

Sur la piste du Marsupilami [ Franco-Belgian CGI animated/live-action comedy] (2012). Pathé.

The Wild Robot [Animation] (2024). Universal Pictures.

Wilhelm Ellenberger et al. (1956) An atlas of animal anatomy for artists. New York: Dover Publications.

Bros., W. (2009) Bugs Rules, www.youtube.com. Available at: https://youtu.be/BX1ljYx3g3k

Dk Publishing (Firme and Smithsonian Institution (2016) Everything you need to know about birds. New York, New York: Dk Publishing.

Muppets, T. (2018) Muppet Songs: Miss Piggy and Danny Kaye - Cheek to Cheek, YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/UMz3Y30VFZI?si=RILHBAmaVmCfjDHv

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I have looked at real life ,animated and anatomical examples to best understand in what ways is it most effective to animate animals expressively. What I have learnt is that are some key ingredients to form a successful animal with readable expressions. The first of which is the most obvious, the windows to the soul, the eyes. The eyes should be larger than real life examples and/or placed in a more central position to be easier to be seen at one time. Eyelids can offer the shapes that eyebrows also insinuate but push it further and tell the story and the size of the pupils can determine love or horror. Bigger will appear loving and small pupils can be perceived as horrified or crazy as just a couple of examples of this technique.

I’ve seen examples like in “The penguins of Madagascar” a big contrast in colour between the eyebrows and the fur or feathers they rest on. The fact they are so distinguishable make it easy to understand how they feel. However, for some other characters, like the penguins themselves, their brow bones are animated in a fluid way that mimics the use of eyebrows and are just as effective and is a good way to keep design believability for an animal character but keep them expressive.

Furthermore, the choice of making things more fluid such as their beaks may break the laws of nature but it gives more life to their physicality which adds another dimension to their expressions. This means they can smile or sulk or shout or seem sheepish. This is a brilliant tool for the storytelling.

Lastly, I noticed in all examples I looked at that posture and body language are vital to the answer to my question. These hints that we subconsciously pick up on is the first step to knowing what the character is feeling. “Ratatouille” was a great example. As I flicked through the art book I saw how important this element was due to the obstacle of trying to make rats that are so similar appear distinctive and individuals with their own thoughts and emotions. The laidback, slumped nature of Remy’s friend had the young and mature audiences guessing that that must mean he is lazy and that in comparison, Remy must be driven, outgoing and curious.

So the solution to my question “How to make animals the most expressive using animation?” Is clever use of anatomy. You must primarily focus on eyes and eyebrows, alter reality to gain fluidity and use body language to carry it all through.

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To further my understanding and show what I have learnt, I decided to make another animation. This time really focussing on the body to make the visual story telling really present. I used body language such as the big deep breath for the yawn as well as the head nuzzling up into its wing to show that the barn owl feels tired and is trying to get comfortable to sleep. I looked at real images of barn owl’s yawning to be accurate and be immediately understood by the audience. I showed my animation to a peer and he said “It looks so snuggly and tired, so cute”. I view this feedback as a great success as this means I achieved my goal to make an animal be expressive using animation and it was well received.

I animated this on Procreate dreams.

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Here is an example of one of the images I used as reference for my animation.

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I received Tutor and peer feedback during my presentation to draw people as if they were an animal to understand how to translate certain traits and expressions onto an animal character.

This is my first attempt to try this suggestion.

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Looking at the key tellers of facial expressions and how to use them to my advantage.

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This immediately makes me think of Sebastian in The Little Mermaid when he’s shocked and his jaw drops.

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Why do I want to research this?

I want to learn how to animate animals in an expressive way because facial expressions are an important part of non verbal communication and without it, you may not get the whole story( Arlin Cuncic, MA, 2024).

This makes acquiring this skill as an animator vital. Animation is very often targeted to all ages and also very young children. At the stages when a child is learning and developing, these expressions can help them get a better grasp on situations, emotions and feelings such as empathy. Which will, in turn allow them to learn how to react to them.The visual tellers are what make it work. Evidence of this is seen in pantomimes. Pantomimes like much of theatre use over acting; it allows the vast audience to collectively understand what is happening.

The reason I wish to focus on developing this technique of animation with animals is because of the vast appeal animal characters have. Anthropomorphic or not, they are the typical choice for characters in children’s media and I think this will pay off for me to gain this knowledge and have it really for my professional industry portfolio.