Use a ready-made set of poses (postures) to express body-language

In any movie, each character has a body language that reflects its social status, attitude and mental state. Most of the postures (non-verbal signals) are well-defined in the theater world.

See a research paper here , and an instructional video here .

Also, across the Globe, 22 postures and 42 hand-gestures are used.

So why not have a named set of postures that can be assigned to any character?

Suppose that the screenplay requires a king (an alpha male character) to say something to a fearful peasant. The animator uses a drop-down menu to assign a suitable posture, and then fine-tunes it to suit the surrounding terrain and objects. (For example, the King places a leg on a boulder to strike a masterful pose, and rests one hand on his sword, and shakes a fist in the air to show his anger....The peasant cowers in response.)