Is Animating Different Genders All That Complicated? Part 1

2014 was a year that held a lot of controversy for animated female characters. One of the earliest was Disney head animator Lino Disalvo, quoted as saying “Historically speaking, animating female characters are really, really difficult, because they have to go through these range of emotions, but you have to keep them pretty and they’re very sensitive to — you can get them off a model very quickly. So, having a film with two hero female characters was really tough, and having them both in the scene and look very different if they’re echoing the same expression; that Elsa looking angry looks different from Anna being angry.” This sparked a lot of arguments about expectations of women and female character, and that it is silly to limit your animating capabilities to keep a character looking 'pretty'.

I found an example of someone using the Mery rig, a character that looks similar to Disney's 'pretty' 3D characters, cycling through expressions. They have animated a wide range of characters, matching more with expressions that male characters may use than Disney females. The animator spared no thought for if this keeps the character looking pretty, and I think it works much better to show extreme emotions. Most people will decide whether or not they consider the character from first seeing the model; adding any expression that makes their face more/less pretty will, in most cases, just serve to emphasise the action or personality than the character, which to me is much more important than trying to conform to outdated societal expectations on an animated character.