Big Hero 6 - Character Test

Exclusive: Big Hero 6 Character Studies from WIRED on Vimeo.

Big Hero 6 has a lot of main characters, and as such they all have different personalities. This is very important to show in your animation to make sure that your characters are all actually interesting, well rounded and unique.

The video above is a great example of showing different characters' personalities just from their body language. Of course, their design and dialogue and actions will tell you a lot about them, but body language and mannerisms are something that are harder to control and can give away things about the character that they don't intend on broadcasting or don't realise.

I like how you can see that Baymax tries to be careful but clumsy, whereas Hiro acts like a complete teenager and Tadashi is much more polite but then makes himself comfortable. Aunt Cass acts much more responsible, in a housewife sort of way but then lets her self relax when everything is done. Gogo doesn't waste any time, just rushing in and settling down in a much more casual teenager with disregard for manners, or at least isn't worried about doing things 'properly'. Wasabi takes in his surroundings before then honing in on food and then stretching out. Honey Lemon, immediately draws attention to people she know, standing in the way of the door. She keeps her back straight and walks in a way that makes her seem sensible and sophisticated, which continues on to when she sits down and then takes up more space on the able with her bag. Fred is multitasking, implying that he is a busy person, or just procrastinates a lot - he doesn't even look up when he sits down, and then gets overexcited when sitting down, so he doesn't pay attention to his surrounds that much.

I think that this is a great exercise to do, even when you are still exploring your characters. It is definitely something I would enjoy doing in the future.