Character Movement Design to Depict Joy and Fear in 2D Short Animated Film Weeping Wings

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-603-1_13How to use a DOI?

Keywords

2D Animation; Character Movement; Facial Expression; Emotion; Body Gesture

Abstract

This study focuses on the design of character movements in the 2D animated short film Weeping Wings to portray emotions of joy and fear through a nonverbal visual approach. The background of this research stems from the social issue of sexual harassment, which is presented without dialogue, making facial expressions and body gestures the primary means of communication. The purpose of this research is to design the movements of the main character to represent emotions in an expressive and communicative manner, while also emphasizing the importance of nonverbal animation in conveying emotional messages to the audience. The methods employed include the study of facial expressions, emotions, and body gestures, along with the application of three animation principles: Anticipation, Exaggeration, and Secondary Action. This process is supported by reference observation, acting exploration, and the implementation of digital cut-out animation techniques using Toon Boom Harmony software. The findings indicate that the application of animation principles combined with theories of emotion, facial expression, and body gesture successfully creates realistic, expressive, and communicative character movements. The scenes in which Rara feels happy and afraid demonstrate clear differences in expressions and body language, effectively strengthening message delivery. These findings affirm that designing character movements through a nonverbal approach can enhance the audience’s emotional experience of the story, while also highlighting the significant role of animation as a medium of visual communication in addressing social issues.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Crisansyah Achmadi
AU  - Dominika Anggraeni Purwaningsih
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/04
TI  - Character Movement Design to Depict Joy and Fear in 2D Short Animated Film Weeping Wings
BT  - Proceedings of the International Moving Image Cultures Conference (IMOVICCON 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 155
EP  - 164
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-603-1_13
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-603-1_13
ID  - Achmadi2026
ER  -