Evaluating the effect of motion and body shape on the perceived sex of virtual characters

In this paper, our aim is to determine factors that influence the perceived sex of virtual characters. In Experiment 1, four different model types were used: highly realistic male and female models, an androgynous character, and a point light walker. Three different types of motion were applied to all models: motion captured male and female walks, and neutral synthetic walks. We found that both form and motion influence sex perception for these characters: for neutral synthetic motions, form determines perceived sex, whereas natural motion affects the perceived sex of both androgynous and realistic forms. These results indicate that the use of neutral walks is better than creating ambiguity by assigning an incongruent motion. In Experiment 2 we investigated further the influence of body shape and motion on realistic male and female models and found that adding stereotypical indicators of sex to the body shapes influenced sex perception. Also, that exaggerated female body shapes influences sex judgements more than exaggerated male shapes. These results have implications for variety and realism when simulating large crowds of virtual characters.