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:

Mouth Shapes

To continue on from last week with the discussion about brows I wanted to move onto the next most expressive part of the face, the mouth. We first look at the eyes for attitude, but the mouth should complement the eyes and work with the rest of the pose. It has so much that can add to the expression and help convey so much character and personality.
(Remember, these are just things that have worked for me and not hard and fast rules. I am sure there are many other things that work too and lots of other things for me to still learn!)

For me, two things really stand out when I think about the mouth; Appealing Design and Specific Shapes. 

Appealing Design:

Appeal is such a elusive thing to obtain, but for me it is one of the most important elements in animation. You know when you get it right because it looks so good that you just can't look away from it! 

Animation wise, a film that I think oozes appeal is Disney's Tangled. Glen Keane and Jin Kim did so much amazing development work and design which I think really helped create some of the most appealing CG characters to date. 

These drawings are by Jin Kim for the Mother Gothel character in Tangled. The mouth shapes are really great and are so appealing to look at. 

I know that during the production of The Incredibles at Pixar, they look a lot at Disney's 101 Dalmatians for great mouth designs and lip shapes. This model sheet by Milt Kahl of Jasper is fantastic. It has tons of character and all the shapes have so much squash and stretch and fleshiness to them. 

I really like Shane Prigmore's model sheet for Coraline too. The mouth shapes have loads of asymmetry to them. 

When designing mouth shapes I am looking for straights against curves, for squash and stretch, for asymmetry,  for simplicity in the curves (even though complex mouth shapes can and should be used, its keeping the lines simple that makes it much easier to read) and knowing when to favour the upper or lower teeth. 

In CG, mouth shapes and quickly become really ugly. Sometimes this a problem of the model and how the rigging and shapes have been developed, but a lot of times it is also trying to over complicate the mouth or push it into poses that are trying to match real life ie. rotoscope it too closely rather than caricature it and reduce it to the essence of the design. 

Specific Shapes:

Everyone talks and moves their mouths in completely unqiue way, and the mouth should be unique to the character that you are working on. At Animation Mentor we are given a library of mouth shapes to work with on the character, Bishop. My advice which is the same advice from my mentors at Animation Mentor is; don't use it! 

The library is default/stock and completely lacks character. In many cartoons the same few mouth shapes are used over and over. This is the same with the library, it looks robotic and formulaic. The mouth shapes need to be designed for every dialogue scene based on who the character is, and how he or she is feeling at that moment. 

Just take a look at any great film or watch yourself in your video reference and you will be amazed at the crazy shapes! Designing good and appealing shapes is hard, but loads of fun too and it adds so much to the character and personality of the scene. A hick might talk out the side of his mouth, an angry woman might pout, a tough guy might talk through his teeth with very little lip roll. 

A character that is loads of fun to watch for expression and mouth shapes is Peter Lorre (he also has an awesome voice!) Just take a look at these great mouth shapes! This is all from The Maltese Falcon (I am planning on animating a shot from it very soon). 

I really liked this one of Burl Ives. I did a shot with a kindly santa elf and watched a fair bit of Burl Ives for inspiration of the mouth shapes for that piece of animation. 

This is great too - Robert Ryan talking out the side of his mouth! 

Wow! Look at this for crazy:

A movie a love to watch for really specific expressions and mouth shapes is The Odd Couple with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon (two of my favourite actors).