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Q&A How to describe something visual in preparation of said visual?

You are writing a script (screenplay) for a visual display; I'd follow (roughly) the format of a script. For this particular question, you are looking for "Personal Direction" (of an actor) and the...

posted 6y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:29Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37604
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T09:22:31Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37604
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T09:22:31Z (almost 5 years ago)
You are writing a script (screenplay) for a visual display; I'd follow (roughly) the format of a script. For this particular question, you are looking for ["Personal Direction"](https://www.storysense.com/format/parentheticals.htm) (of an actor) and the standard would be to specify what you want in parentheses after the name, before the speech. Although you might like a more concise format than the standard script format.

The standard script format is specifically designed with very wide margins and double spacing so a page of dialogue will require about 60 seconds to film; and overall the duration of the film in minutes will be approximated by the number of pages in the script. That may not be important to you in a game; and you can always stopwatch reading the lines out loud, or going through the motions of acting out your scene, to get an idea of how much animation will be required to render it.

> Girl (sarcastic): Noooooo! How could you tell?

As you will see at the link, you can use more than a word, often whole sentences are used. As in a script, with **no** parenthetical, the expression to use is up to the actor and director; in your case that would be whomever is rendering your video. In your position I would make a point of deciding in each case; sooner or later _someone_ has to decide.

> boy (amused): Sounds like someone's angry.  
> girl (sarcastic, amused): Noooooo! How could you tell?

EDIT: Here is a [list of 100 one-word facial expressions](https://www.filmmakerforum.org/scripts/1655-facial-expressions-words-great-script-writing.html) you might find useful.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-07-13T13:19:51Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 8