Introduction
For this task I will be explaining the characteristics and anatomy of human and animal forms. I will be using examples of characters from games that I have played and using them to support my explanations.
Characteristics
Firstly I will explain which each of the characteristics are:
- Size - Size refers to how big the character is, it also includes the height and width of the character too.
- Shape - The shape refers to what type of shape the character is, male and female characters will have different shaped body.
- Skin - The skin of the character will depend on one thing really, whether it is human or an animal, if it is an animal it will have very different skin to that of a human, for example a snake has scales where we humans just have normal skin.
- Hair - In a humans case hair could be used to tell whether the character is male or female because generally speaking most females have long hair and most males have short hair.
- Fur - Fur is the hair equivalent for animals and is one of the main defining characteristics of mammals.
- Movement - This refers mainly to the style and speed that the character is moving, if a human they will be moving mainly on two feet in contrast to an animal where they mainly use their 4 legs to move.
- Facial Features - This refers to the various facial features a character has, such as, nose, eyes, eyebrows, mouth, lips, ears etc and how they move to convey feelings or emotions. You should be able to tell a persons mood by how their facial features react.
- Sex and Gender: Sex is the biological definition of a person, eg. male or female. Gender is much different because a male can act feminine and these characteristics would fall under gender.
I will start by looking at the characteristics of Harley Quinn from Batman: Arkham City. I will be looking at all of the points made above.
- Size: As you can see in the picture above Harley Quinn has a typical female height and she is off the thin side when talking about her width.
- Shape: Harley has got an hourglass figure shape, I also feel that she has a mesomorph figure shape as she is thin around the waist but has a big bust. The picture below shows the difference between Ectomorph, Mesomorph and Endomorph body types.
- Skin: Harley has got typical human's skin and there isn't much to say about her skin because it does not define her character.
- Hair: In Akrham Origins she has blonde hair because this is the same whenever we have seen her character in previous games or comic books. Her hair doesn't change.
- Fur: Fur doesn't apply to Harley Quinn.
- Sex: Harley is a female, this is shown by her hair, she has blonde hair and usually in pigtails which is a female hairstyle. She also has female parts such as breasts and also a female voice which all point to the fact that she is a female.
- Gender: Although Harley is a female biologically I feel that she is very manly in the way she acts because she is very violent using all the weaponry she has to her disposal, but in contrast to this they way she moves she is very feminine.
- Facial Features: The main facial feature of Harley is the fact that she wears white face paint over her face then heavy eye shadow. She has does this ever since she met the Joker and this is why she still does it now, another reason is that she doesn't want people knowing her true identity. She also has a small nose which is typical of females
- Movement: As you can see from the video below Harley moves very womanly and acts very femininely. In the first cutscene in the video below she does a twirl to show Batman her outfit, the fact that she does a twirl is obviously very feminine and also points to the fact that her personality is feminine also.
Animal
Animal characters are very different than human characters, I will now be looking at Spyro the Dragon to compare and contrast the characteristics to Harley Quinn.
Size and Shape: Spyro is relatively small compared to humans, and compared to other known dragons from games, but he is quick and nimble and this is because of his shape, he is thin and athletic. Another reason to why he is small is because he is young in the first of his games.
Skin: Instead of skin Spyro has scales, and it is purple, I think its purple because its a bright colour and was used to attract children to play their games, and also because he is a cartoony dragon it doesn't have to be realistic so the colour I don't think is a problem.
Sex and Gender: After research Spyro is defined as a male and I feel that he is very masculine also, he breaths fire which I think is a very masculine trait. The way he attacks his enemy also gives off that he is a male and not a female.
Fur: Does not apply to Spyro as he has scales.
Facial Features: Spyro only has eyes, nose, mouth and eyebrows that resemble them of a humans facial features, he also has horns which make him more of a fantasy creature than a real life one.
Movement: Because he is young he cannot fly very well so when he flies he sometimes wobbles mid air, this goes along with that he is young in the game. He walks on all fours which is different from humans. The video below is the opening 6 minutes of the first Spyro game, this shows of his flying and walking movements.
Skin: Instead of skin Spyro has scales, and it is purple, I think its purple because its a bright colour and was used to attract children to play their games, and also because he is a cartoony dragon it doesn't have to be realistic so the colour I don't think is a problem.
Sex and Gender: After research Spyro is defined as a male and I feel that he is very masculine also, he breaths fire which I think is a very masculine trait. The way he attacks his enemy also gives off that he is a male and not a female.
Fur: Does not apply to Spyro as he has scales.
Facial Features: Spyro only has eyes, nose, mouth and eyebrows that resemble them of a humans facial features, he also has horns which make him more of a fantasy creature than a real life one.
Movement: Because he is young he cannot fly very well so when he flies he sometimes wobbles mid air, this goes along with that he is young in the game. He walks on all fours which is different from humans. The video below is the opening 6 minutes of the first Spyro game, this shows of his flying and walking movements.
Anatomy
In this part of the task I will explain the anatomy of a human form, I will do this by using examples of human skeletons and muscle systems.
There are many types of bones and joints in the human skeleton, the pictures below will show them all.
There are many joints in the human body, they are there because bones united with one another a number of ways, there are many different types of joints and I will go on to explain and give examples of these.
- Immovable: These joints consist of an interlocking of bones along their saw-tooth edges, an example of this joint would be in the skull where there is two structure joints that you cannot move.
- Slightly Movable: There is only one example of this joint and it is in the spine joints where there is fibro-cartilage which acts as a cushion between the bones.
- Freely Movable: There are many different examples of freely movable joints, and these are as follows:
- Plane: This joint is where the bones glide face to face and it happens in the wrist joints and ankle bones.
- Hinge: This joint happens in the elbow and the knee joints, the same principle applies to when you lift a lid off a box.
- Ball and Socket: This joint provides the freest possible movement by means of a spherical head set in a cup like shape. It also has pivot rotation. An example of this kind of joint is in the Hip.