Blog Posts - GARY FAIGIN

FACIAL FEATURES | The Eyes (wide open)

9/1/2016

Eyes WIDE OPEN all the time : Pros + Cons

The origin of the Hyper-Alert Eye (the stylized character pose where the upper eyelid is continually raised) is ultimately based on the human face. Under certain circumstances when we are both happy and excited (look at the faces of major league athletes who have just made a game-winning hit), the smiling mouth is accompanied by eyes with lots of white above the iris, the result of super-abundant emotional and physical energy.

In my book, I classify this expression as the Eager Smile (top, left). Whatever name you give it, this particular pose has inspired thousands of cartoon versions, where artists have found the smile/wide eye pattern to be highly effective in creating character appeal. It has been a popular animator’s strategy for decades, with Bugs Bunny (top, center) and Mickey Mouse, the pioneers, and Woody (top, right), a more recent and very successful successor.

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS | Drawing is Seeing

8/15/2016

Your SKETCHBOOK is your Critical Visualization Tool

Drawing on my imagination, I create pictures of expressive faces in a multitude of scenarios.

I recently read this wall text at the National Gallery in London about two extraordinarily-accomplished 19th c. French painters: "Degas met Ingres in his youth and was told by him to 'draw lines, young man, and still more lines, both from life and from memory.'"

I agree. Drawing in a sketchbook provides an immediate, and satisfying, medium for recording the world, and for experimenting with new pictorial ideas. For me, I like to draw people in railroad stations, cafes and in parks; I like to imagine people I have never met and to animate their faces with lively or deadpan expressions; I also like to use my sketchbook to invent places that have never existed, but which might make good subjects for a more finished drawing or painting.

FACIAL FEATURES | The Eyes (wide-open)

8/1/2016

Eyes WIDE OPEN : Demented vs. Cute

Stylized faces resemble their human counterparts, but the rules that we use to analyze them are very different.

In this mug shot of a convicted mass murderer, the Hyper-Alert Eye is disturbing and demented-looking; hardly cute and appealing like the matching expression on the face of Tweety, a beloved stylized character. The essential elements are the same in both faces: hyper-alert eyes (upper lid raised above the iris), slight smile with pursed lips, raised eyebrows and eyes slightly out of alignment (staring off into the distance). But our emotional response couldn’t be more different.

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS | SADNESS (grief)

7/15/2016

Photo Personifies GRIEF of Dallas Police Shootings

Slate Magazine ran a collage of front pages from different newspapers featuring an identical photograph, under the headline, “The Intern Who Took the Defining Photograph of the Dallas Shooting”. Out of the thousands of images coming from this tragic news event, what made this photo of a grief-stricken police officer comforting a colleague "the Defining Photograph?” Is Slate even right?

FACIAL FEATURES | The Eyes (wide-open)

7/1/2016

Eyes WIDE OPEN : Weird for People, Normal for Cartoons

Anyone who spends time analyzing faces notices very quickly that we have a double standard when it comes to expression. When we observe a realistically-depicted human face, we have a fine-grained, rigorous way of determining the mental and emotional state of that face, based on what are often tiny actions in the “hot spots” of the eye, brow, and mouth. If we conclude, on the other hand, that the depicted face is Sentient, but Not Human (i.e. stylized), we are liable to see almost any configuration of eye, brow and mouth as plausible and readable, as long as there are cues present which indicate an expression (open mouth, raised brows, etc.)

FAIGIN FACE BOOK | 8th translation just pubished

6/15/2016

New! CHINESE Translation

Available in China from Taobao. Use these key words to locate the book: 面部表情完全指南

Translated into Croatian, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Thai, and now, Simple Chinese...经过近三十年，加里· 費金的经典參考书“面部表情完全指南” 将在本月以简体中文出版。此书被從事计算机图形行业的艺术家，建模師和骨骼𣕧切工作人員視為权威指南。本书组织精密，易于使用, 首先以個別的面部肌肉展示出指定的表情，再歸納成六种基本的人类情感：悲伤，愤怒，喜悦，恐惧，厌恶和惊, 每一种情绪的显示逐步增加强度。費金详细的表情情绪演譯亦附有明确的说明文字，額外的草图和完整的画作补充。此书也包含了打呵欠，畏缩，和其他身体反应的附录。

"面部表情完全指南"是面部动画师，建模師和骨骼𢱌切工作人員"必须拥有”的，本书曾被用于创建标志性人物如"指环王"的“咕噜”和"哈利·波特"中的"多比”和“克利切”

"感谢创建这样一个开创性的工作，此书在VFX社区及我们的职业生涯中已成为不可缺少的一部分!" 人物創作TD主管

"你的书是我职业生涯的一个助推器。非常感谢你" VFX 特效总监

"美丽的作品。我相信我们的面部造型部门的每一位工作人員都有你的参考书" CG建模

想了解更多关于作者加里 · 費金以及他与CG动画工作室咨询工作，请访：garyfaigin.com/cg-animators

"Read More" for English translation

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS | ANGER (extreme)

6/1/2016

Anger - It's all in the EYES

Credits: "Gollum" in the live-action trilogy of "The Lord of the Rings," written by J.R.R. Tolkien and directed by Peter Jackson; produced by WingNut Films and The Saul Zaentz Company and distributed by New Line Cinema; 2001, 2002 + 2003.

Not only is anger dependent on the eye/brow interface to be recognized (there is no such thing as an angry mouth without angry eyes and brow), the wideness of the eyes controls the intensity of the anger.

Here the enraged Gollum is based on the excellent posing of the Glare, the eye configuration that creates the angriest possible face. The Glare is the combination of the upper eyelid being raised to its maximum height (note both the angle of the outer upper lid edge – more vertical than normal- and the fact that the lid line goes well above the iris) with the radically descended brow, clipping the inner edge of the iris. The grimace-like mouth appears sinister entirely based on the angry eyes; by itself it would just be a failed attempt at a smile (not wide enough, and too much display of the lower teeth). My book was a reference for the LotR team in NZ.

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS | JOY (sensitive smile)

5/1/2016

Putting on the Charm with the Sensitive SMILE

Credits: "Frozen" is based on Hans Christian Anderson's book, "The Snow Queen." Movie produced and distributed by Disney Studios, 2013.

The sensitivity which makes the smile of Prince Hans in "Frozen" so appealing is based on the slightest upwards inflection of his inner eyebrow corners, which normally arc downwards. This movement, actually part of the Distress pattern in the brows, adds a sad or fearful inflection to the moderate smile, as though we were trying to be likable but at the same time are feeling insecure about being rejected, or being seen as too assertive.

The Sensitive Smile is surprisingly common in popular photographs of female actresses who have learned how to capitalize on a certain friendly, vulnerable appeal, and even a tiny amount of brow curl changes the whole flavor of the expression.

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS | FEAR (anxiety)

4/1/2016

Pretty Darned AFRAID - but not Quite Enough

Fear is the most difficult emotion to portray, both by actors and artists. It can be confused with surprise, sadness, and disgust. In tests I did with researchers at the University of Washington, it took us literally hundreds of attempts to create animated characters with fear faces that could get 90% agreement using internet-based Mechanical Turk responses, and the examples that worked were extreme versions of terror, with bulging eyes and a radically widened mouth.

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.

FAIGIN FACE BLOG

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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