Is body language as obvious as it is on cartoons?

Post Reply New Topic

On cartoons I find body language very easy to read, is it really this obvious to NTs in real life?

Body language runs the gamut from stuff that's obvious to most people to stuff that most folks (ie NTs) need training to recognize. A lot of body language registers on you, but unconsciously (you get some vibe from someone but don't know why). NTs can misread others.

Body language is far from obvious to me . Especially if it's something that needs to be processed in real time .

No. In animation a character's movements are always exaggerated, even when they are copied from real human movements like in vintage Disney cartoons, so that it will be easy for viewers to understand them. Being a cartoonist myself, this is what I learned from reading about animation.

Cartoon characters tend to be caricatures---or at least have caricaturized elements to them.

Their "body language" reflects this----an exaggeration of what actually occurs. Much less subtle than what actually occurs.

In cartoons, everything is exaggerated, usually for comic effect. It's interesting, though - watching cartoons can lead to associating certain movements (body language) with meaning, and then sometimes being able to recognize the subtler, smaller corresponding movements that people make in real life.

The old 'Pink Panther' cartoons did not apply voices - just these very hilarious, clever plots- with composer Henry Mancini's music complementing each scene thoughtfully!

I find in some of the new animations the character's facial expressions are much more active than how humans use facial expressions in real day to day life. It gets to the point where it annoys me, like every miniscule detail of each face muscle has to be expressed in an exaggerated way. In older animations and cartoons, the facial expressions were easy enough to read but were not exaggerated.

I like the drawings of this guy if it comes to this: https://www.schisslaweng.net/
The stories of course aren't as great. (And sorry it's German only.)

In real life most of body language is more subtle of course but some of it can be quite obviously too. Most NT women are much better at reading body language than average men are. NTs get it often unconsiously emotional. I get it rationally only.

But I did improve a lot since I began with trying to read body language. Just imagine yourself at the position of a person that you are watching and ask yourself what would cause you to be just the same way that the person is that you are watching. After a while you'll improve a lot with guessing it right and the way that people are becomes much more obviously to you then.

_________________
I am as I am. Life has to be an adventure!

Unless someone is really good at faking it, people can sense ones mood based off of body language.

There’s been many times in the past where I’ve made it obvious to the people around me that I had a crush on someone.

I can sometimes be reasonably good at reading body language by using what I have read and studies in a quite mechanical way. However it never really makes sense to me.

Cartoons are much easier to read. They make no more sense that in real life though.