A Sense of Drama - Frame-by-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Traditional Animation Techniques - page 116

It is critical that the audience has empathy and a vested interest in what your
character will do next. If you do not explore these emotional avenues, then
you will lose your audience. Allowing your characters to appear to think, have
an emotional response, and react with action gives them a kind of life that we
understand. So much of that thinking and emotion can be read in the eyes. It
is critical to bring the camera close and allow enough time for your character
to think. This makes them real in the eyes of the audience. The close-up is
certainly the animator's friend. These shots can have a huge impact on the
story and require the least amount of work. A few blinks, the darting of the
eyes or a slight squint can carry a scene with great emotional power. We do
understand the attitude of a person from his or her body language. Is this
individual energetic, depressed, or nervous? We can read this immediately,
because the body is large and consistent in its form, but the eyes confirm
the true emotional state. Since we cannot hear the character think, we
become more involved in the film by starting to project our thoughts on that
individual, based on the situation and our understanding of the character.
We may be right or wrong. It does not matter. What is important is that we
participate in the storytelling through our projections and caring, and that is
good filmmaking. This focus on the eyes explains why early film actors and
stage actors would wear heavy eye makeup to highlight their eye expressions.
The audience in the auditoriums needed to see what their eyes were saying.
Two sources to study regarding the use of eyes are Chuck Jones's topic Chuck
Amuck , where Jones writes about eyes and timing being at the heart of a
thinking animated performance. The other source is a wonderful 1928 silent
film by Danish-born Carl Dryer, The Passion of Joan of Arc , where the whole
emotional storyline is expressed through the actors' eyes.
Fig 8.6 a shot of a series of eyes in the six universal emotional expressions.