ABSTRACT
Animated characters are commonly used in children's television, movies, and applications. Artists seek to create characters that maximally engage their audiences and tailor these characters carefully. In order to examine the relationship between stylistic elements of animated characters and the target ages of their audiences, we performed a series of qualitative and quantitative studies. By using existing media, we determined that characters created for younger children have larger head height, larger eye height, and rounder eyes than those created for older children. However, we found no systematic differences by age when we had children express preferences for existing characters or create their own characters. These results suggest that current artistic trends do not accurately reflect the character design preferences of children.
- Diane S. Berry and Leslie Z. McArthur. 1985. Some components and consequences of a babyface. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 48, 2 (1985), 312.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Tom Geller. 2008. Overcoming the uncanny valley. IEEE computer graphics and applications 4 (2008), 11--17. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Melanie L. Glocker, Daniel D. Langleben, Kosha Ruparel, James W. Loughead, Ruben C. Gur, and Norbert Sachser. 2009. Baby schema in infant faces induces cuteness perception and motivation for caretaking in adults. Ethology 115, 3 (2009), 257--263.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Bruce Gooch, Erik Reinhard, and Amy Gooch. 2004. Human facial illustrations: Creation and psychophysical evaluation. ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 23, 1 (2004), 27--44. Google ScholarDigital Library
- R. Dale Guthrie. 1976. Body Hot Spots. van Nostrand Reinhold.Google Scholar
- Eckhard H. Hess. 1970. Ethology and developmental psychology. In Carmichael's Manual of Child Psychology. Vol. 1. Wiley, 1--38.Google Scholar
- Katherine A. Hildebrandt and Hiram E. Fitzgerald. 1979. Facial feature determinants of perceived infant attractiveness. Infant Behavior and Development 2 (1979), 329--339.Google ScholarCross Ref
- John C. Liggett. 1974. The Human Face. Stein and Day.Google Scholar
- Leslie Z. McArthur and Karen Apatow. 1984. Impressions of baby-faced adults. Social Cognition 2, 4 (1984), 315--342.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Scott McCloud. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Tundra, Northampton.Google Scholar
- Joann M. Montepare and Leslie Z. McArthur. 1986. The influence of facial characteristics on children's age perceptions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 42, 3 (1986), 303--314.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Joann M. Montepare and Leslie A. Zebrowitz. 1998. Person perception comes of age: The salience and significance of age in social judgments. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 30 (1998), 93--161.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Masahiro Mori, Karl F MacDorman, and Norri Kageki. 2012. The uncanny valley {from the field}. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine 19, 2 (2012), 98--100.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Edward Schneider, Yifan Wang, and Shanshan Yang. 2007. Exploring the uncanny valley with Japanese video game characters. In Proceedings of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) 2007 Conference, Vol. 546549.Google Scholar
- J.M. Tanner, M.J.R. Healy, R.D. Lockhart, J.D. Mackenzie, and R.H. Whitehouse. 1956. Aberdeen growth study: I. The prediction of adult body measurements from measurements taken each year from birth to 5 years. Archives of Disease in Childhood 31, 159 (1956), 372.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. 1995. The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. Hyperion.Google Scholar
- James T. Todd, Leonard S. Mark, Robert E. Shaw, and John B. Pittenger. 1980. The perception of human growth. Scientific American 242, 2 (1980), 132.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Leslie A. Zebrowitz and Joann M. Montepare. 2008. Social psychological face perception: Why appearance matters. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2, 3 (2008), 1497--1517.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Eduard Zell, Carlos Aliaga, Adrian Jarabo, Katja Zibrek, Diego Gutierrez, Rachel McDonnell, and Mario Botsch. 2015. To stylize or not to stylize?: The effect of shape and material stylization on the perception of computer-generated faces. ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 34, 6 (2015), 184. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Designing Animated Characters for Children of Different Ages
Recommendations
The Impact of Ethnically Matched Animated Agents Avatars in the Cognitive Restructuring of Irrational Career Beliefs Held by Young Women: Diverse Findings from Four Randomized Clinical Trials
The Believe It! program developed and evaluated by was the first interactive, multimedia, psychological-education intervention deployed on the Internet. In a controlled study, the authors reported that the ethnically diverse cartoon models were ...
Voodoo: A System That Allows Children to Create Animated Stories with Action Figures as Interface
Interactive StorytellingAbstractDolls, employed as tangible interfaces, have the potential to provide an easy to learn interaction device that allows children to animate virtual characters in an intuitive way. We assume that dolls and action figures are more compelling, easy to ...
The Impact of Ethnically Matched Animated Agents Avatars in the Cognitive Restructuring of Irrational Career Beliefs Held by Young Women: Diverse Findings from Four Randomized Clinical Trials
The Believe It! program developed and evaluated by was the first interactive, multimedia, psychological-education intervention deployed on the Internet. In a controlled study, the authors reported that the ethnically diverse cartoon models were ...
Comments