Pose design in animation is everything. Just one simple pose can show someone who a character is, what they like, what they do, and how they act. In this video, Dan, a professional animator, explains just how important poses can be and the controversy regarding Overwatch (a video game)'s character, Tracer, and her initial pose.
Before discussing Tracer's original pose, Dan goes on to talk about the basics of posing. Even a character without hands, a face, or even a human-like body (such as the magic carpet from Aladdin) can be posed in such a way to convey different emotions. In any animation you see, you'll find that the characters are always moving from one pose to the next, whether it be dramatic poses or simple ones. But what is it that makes a good pose? A good pose is clear, instantly readable, has proper physicality, is visually interesting, has a strong line of action, and conveys character.
In Tracer's case, she's known to be friendly, silly, heroic, and caring. Most heroic characters like her are given poses to show what they would look like after winning a battle, as most of the characters did in this game. However, the pose she was given was her standing backwards, looking over her shoulder, with her butt clearly being the main focus. Most people argued that this was "out of character" for her, and that she shouldn't be sexualized like that. Blizzard, the creators of Overwatch, looked at the pose again, and agreed, designing a brand new pose for her. Now she looks more in-character, and although her butt is still rather standout-ish, it's a much better pose than before.
Over-sexualizing characters in animations and especially video games, has always been an issue, more for female characters than males. Most fighting games where girl characters are involved, they're usually given outfits or armor that shows way too much skin or is clearly overly sexualized. There's nothing wrong with making attractive characters, but having them wearing near to nothing in a fighting game is just not realistic. If a woman is to go into battle, and this applies to anyone really, you wouldn't want any skin to be showing because, in reality, you would be injured much easier! While on the other hand, male characters are shown in full armor, and usually aren't given any super attractive features besides huge muscles.
This has always bothered me, even though I'm not a huge gamer or animation buff, I don't believe it's right that female characters are more sexualized than males, or are sexualized at all. I'm here to play a game or watch a movie, not watch some girl fight someone else with hardly any clothes on. Truthfully, I learned a lot from watching this video, and I'm thankful that the characters in Overwatch aren't as sexualized as most, and that Blizzard took the time to change Tracer's initial pose.
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