Facial Animation! (BSSD)

This week on "Blogscape Smackdown" we visit the expressionate beauty of Facial Animation. This is yet another key component in animation, as it delves into how much life you can give a subject with a few facial features. Dana Boadway-Masson explains how Facial Acting is imperative to a good animation as it reveals what the character is thinking and how a thought process folds into this. The analogy of a computer is used with reference to an "input" (stimuli causing the reaction) and an "output" (reaction).

Her next topic addresses blocking facial expressions; how to use and how many. She alludes to the KISS method (Keep It Simple, Silly!) and explains how to break a shot down into main emotions and how to flow through them. The example of Benedict Cumberbatch is used to show how much emotion can go into a single sentence. The raw power of his facial acting allows him to employ such emotion in such a short amount of time. Enveloping this into your animation can really bring it to life! Timing this can be challenging, but just keep in mind when your character is reacting and how you would react under these situations as well.

Next, we revisit the Ball animation as an example of what /not/ to do for Emotional Hangtime. If there's a shift in force in your animation, don't forget to include some time for the emotions to change! The example used to relate to emotional hangtime is the bouncing ball's squash segment. This part is slower at the top and bottom due to the shift in gravitational forces. As we've gone over before, the lack of the transition makes your animation look robotic, and this applies to ANYTHING ELSE YOU'LL EVER DO IN THIS FIELD. To avoid this when working in the notion of facial acting, pose to pose animation is your best bet. Try reacting to what the character is reacting to, and process the different types of emotions you'd feel in that scene. Then flow through them with adequate timing and BAM! There ya go.

It's commonplace for animators to have a mirror beside them to have a "check" of their facial expressions in order to make sure they are accurate to what you're portraying. Dana brings up Dialogue blocking and how it's important in the way that the animator themself cannot edit this. They can only work around it. She goes on to point out that with precision, a majority of your dialogue can be done using only jaw movements! Exaggeration is key here and using the eyes and brows of a character can amp up the level of creativity to explore within your piece. Zohbugg has some great references for these- they're used throughout the blog to give an example.

Utilizing an order of operations will help a lot in framing your emotions in animation. They say that the eyes are the focal point, and anything else follows right behind. bringing these details to a key can level up your expertise in mastering animation.

My thoughts on this topic are that facial acting is KEY to any great feature! Someone may be able to act with their body or voice, but the face is likely the most expressive thing on screen and you don't want to look like a plain crusty bagel, do you? You may aim to be a Blueberry bagel, or even an Everything Bagel! Don't let those invisible walls of your mind hinder you from progressing. Break through and live strong.