I discovered an amazing singer today, Ute Lemper. Her ability to act transcends words and languages. She sings in German, English, French and Yiddish, but her body movements, facial expressions and gestures carry the bulk of the meaning in the songs. For example here is a song made famous by Edith Piaf…
…check out the hand gestures, body poses and facial expressions in this one…
Too often in animation, we use “canned” gestures and facial expressions that are symbolic of emotion without actually expressing it. We plan out the poses carefully to hit all the bases and lose all sense of spontaneity. There’s a lot to be learned from studying performers like Ute Lemper who have a direct connection between their emotions and their movement.
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