FACIAL EXPRESSIONS | JOY (sly smile)

3/1/2016

Take That! A Sly SMILE Enhanced by Good Character Design

Credits: Kung Fu Panda 3, based on characters created by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox, 2016

This animated movie still is a great example of good character design and effective rigging. Kung Fu Panda's expression is the Sly Smile (P. 228-229) in my book, “The Artist’s Complete Guide to Facial Expression” -- a combination of a frown and the closed-mouth smile. The panda uses two eye strategies that only exist in the world of stylized characters: the hyper-alert eye (extra eye white shows above and below), and the unibrow, where the function of eyebrow and eyelid are combined in one brow-mass shape. The key is to occlude the upper eye so that the eye white (and iris) are obliquely cropped. Having the expression so much stronger on one side than the other is effective with less intense faces like this one, where the expression is being “demonstrated” as much as felt. The black surround makes the all-important eye shape read with extra clarity, always a good thing.

1 Comment

vidmate link

1/29/2022 04:57:25 am

anks f sdcor sharing the article, and more importantly, your personal experience mindfully using ou cdcs sdcr emotions as data about our inner state and knowing when it’s better to de-escalate sv by taking a time out are great tools. Appreciate you reading and sharing your story since I can certainly relate and I think others can to
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So many faces. So many ways to express emotions. Faigin examines facial expressions in movie stills, cartoons, fine art, illustrations and photographs and shares his insightful analyses in his monthly blog.

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