Tying the Face Together

Based on my last two posts about the brows and mouth, I wanted to talk about tying it all together and getting the face to feel more fleshy and the parts all working together.

Getting it too all work together:

Something that really stands out to me in Disney 2D animation is how well the facial expressions are designed so that all the parts work together. When I first started dialogue shots at Animation Mentor, I found in my own animation there seemed to be a tendency for the top and bottom halves of the face to feel quite separate. 

So I asked one of my mentors about this, and he said; "Make sure you get the entire face involved". What I found that meant was that all the muscles in the face are connected and when you make an expression on your own face, or on your character, all the parts are effected by each other. 

I recently bought a little camera that allows me to shoot slow motion video up to 1000 frames per second. The quality is really low at that speed (and its too slow anyway for facial stuff), but at 240fps it looks great. I recorded a line of dialogue with me acting out the words so that you can see how much is going on in the face and will be the basis of what I am talking about (don't laugh at me!)

Slow Motion Video Reference at 240fps

So this is how I have been trying to get that feeling more into my work. Remember, I am still just learning this stuff too and I am sure there are many other ways to do this. None of these things are rules, but just things that I have found has worked for me along the way. 

The brows and upper eyelids:

When the brows press down or stretch up they seem to have an effect on the upper eyelid. This eyelid is pushed and pulled into shapes by the brow. 

This however does not mean that the eyelids must always follow the brow, quite often they can lead the action prior to the brows movement.

The mouth corners and cheeks and bottom eyelids:

As the mouth corner raise in a smile the cheeks also push up under the eyes. The same happens when the mouth corners drop, the cheeks drop too. In CG animation I have found you can copy this animation from the corners the cheeks and scale it down to make sure they are related (and some instances delay it by a frame too).

When the cheeks raise and lower the seem to push and pull the bottom eyelid as well. In a big smile the bottom eyelids would push up and the same in a big scream the cheeks pulling down would also pull on the bottom lids. 

The jaw and nose:

As the jaw opens and closes it also seems to pull and push up on the nose. Go on, try it! No one is watching. Hold your finger against your nose and open you mouth and you will feel the nose pulling down. 

All of these things combined can really make you facial animation feel much more fleshy. Have the skin being pushed and pulled, squashed and stretched and making sure these elements are all effecting each other really makes it all feel tied together. 

A great example of all of this working in animation can be seen in the Disney film, 'Tangled' (I know, I keep showing it, but damn, the animation is so good!) This shot is of Mother Gothel:

The Eye and Mouth Zipper AKA Making them Sticky:

When watching a lot of live action and animated footage frame-by-frame something that really stands out is how the eyelids and mouth seem to be naturally sticky. Once they are closed together they seem to want to stay that way so that when they opening it feels like you have to really pull them open. 

I know some CG rigs have an eyelid or mouth zipper control, but unfortunately on Bishop from Animation Mentor it does not and we have to do it manually. (Which actually helps when learning how this effect works - so its a good thing!)

Eyes:

As the eye opens, one section is chosen to pull open first. The lids lift up and then one part pops open before the rest following in a zip like action. Take a look at this great example from Ratatouille:

Mouth:

The same thing happens with the mouth. Usually it is the middle section of the mouth that pops open first and then is followed by the outside edges. But if someone is talking out of a certain side of their mouth you can open the edge first as well. 

There is an extra part of the mouth and eye pulling action that also needs to be explained. The lids and lips need to feel like they are stretching and pulling prior to unzipping. In the mouth this is done by pulling the jaw open, but keeping the lips closed and having the corners and lips pull down as seen in the diagrams above. 

Head Squash and Stretch:

Finally, something that I think really helps to make all of this tie together again is a small amount of head squash and stretch. Some rigs allow the top and bottom parts of the face to be handled separately, but even with rigs like Bishop a global squash or stretch can add a lot too. 

These Preston Blair drawings from the book 'Advanced Animation' really explain this well:

Animating Brows

I really love watching the brows on people in both live action movies and in animation. One of my mentors at the online animation school, Animation Mentor described them as the shoulders of the face. Its something that have been much more aware off when doing my planning for a shot. I will do an additional video where I don't worry about the lip sync and just act out the lines in my brows and eyes. 

There are 2 films that really stand out to me when I think about great brow animation; Ratatouille (which I think is still one of the most well animated CG films ever made) and more recently with Puss in Boots (which blows my mind animation wise as well), especially the Humpty character as he is all head! 

I try to approach the design of my brow shapes based on them being one of 2 categories, Voluntary or Involuntary expressions:

A) Voluntary expressions: This is an expression where the character is choosing to make that expression like when you are judging someone or have a questioning look on your face. They tend to be more complex in shape and are more asymmetrical. They are more controlled in movement and timing wise can be over more frames. 

B) Involuntary expressions: Expressions like surprise and disgust that you don't have control over. They tend to be simpler in shape and are more symmetrical. These expressions are faster time wise and sharper in their movement. 

Generally though, the shape change is quite fast - brow movements tend to be much sharper than other body parts. They almost always lead the movement of the head/body parts. This way, you will read the change because if it is during the body or head move you will miss it and it also makes the character look like he or she is thinking. 

Ratatouille

In Pixar's Ratatouille the character Anton Ego really stands out to me for facial animation. He is very reserved in his body movements with tight gestures of the hands and small body weight shifts. However you think of him as quite a cartoony character in that his facial animation is very broad. 

This shot of Anton Ego has 6 main brow shapes or "ideas" as seen in the images below. They don't change constantly, but are kept alive and are involved throughout the acting by flexing or squashing within the current shape. This way they keep moving, but they don't change so much that they complicate the performance. 

I really like in the first few eyes darts and how the brows support these movements. When he looks left, the outer and middle parts of the brow drop a little as the pupil moves away from the screen right part of the eye. 

I love the transition between frames 236 and 249 where not only do you have the brows leading the body/head move, but the inner brows are leading the outer part of the brow movements. So you get that lead and follow. Normally you would not want to do that any more than 1 frame. 

But what I like so much about this transition is that rather than going from pose A to pose B there is a breakdown in there. This gives it a bit more overlap and arcing shape in the movement as well. If you had of just gone from pose A to B without the breakdown it would have felt like the the brows were just rotating. 

So its important to add breakdowns in the bigger brow shape changes just like you would in a body or head movement. 

To finish off the move it has a really nice overshoot and then settles back down into a shape that is not as intense as the overshoot with an ease in which works well as that ease in is there to really as an effect to scare the guy. So its quite a controlled movement. 

Puss In Boots

I love this shot for two reasons - the facial animation on Humpty is amazing and.... its got the "ooooooh" cat! Haha! 

The brows in this shot are used so well to really support the other movements in the face and too get the sadness and internal struggle across with the little twitches and changes. 

Like the Anton Ego shot where his eye darts where supported by small shifts in the brow shape, at the start of this shot Humpty blinks and there is a small compression in the brows to show the skin pulling down over the eyes which really keeps everything connected and adds to that fleshy feel. 

At frame 26 you can see the inner brows leading the body movement and expression change where they go down first. The brows then tense up and move down even further at 39 to really help sell that face compression with the mouth and cheeks. 

I love the little staggered drops between frames 63 and 80. Adds some texture to the movement, but also helps to show that internal thinking and struggle going on inside the character. 

The brows lead again going up at 81 before the head. They lead by 2 frames here before the head comes up on 83-84. 

All the little twitches and movements at the end are great as well. He is starting to break down and has a really nice involuntary feel to it. 

Anyway... hope this all makes sense! Let me know if you have any questions. And remember, this is just stuff I have observed and found that has worked for me when animating, but I am sure there are many other great ways to do all of these things too.