Lectures for Animators

The following lectures are 90 minutes each and presented over one-and-a-half days.

Lecture No.1 (Intro): The World’s Greatest Signaling System: The Expressive Human Face.

Artist and author Faigin discusses how recent discoveries in psychological research can be utilized by artists working with the human face. Although the variety of expressions that can cross the face is almost unlimited, scientists have determined that only six basic expressions underlie all that complexity. Faigin shows how the Basic Expressions are a cross-cultural language, transcending barriers of time and place, and how the same expression can be transmitted regardless of the type of rendering, using a knowledge of the underlying Facial Code. This lecture is a stimulating introduction to an important subject.

Lecture No.2: Learning the Alphabet Before the Words: The Action Units of the Face.

Before a smile is a smile, it is a contraction of two invisible muscles of the face.  In this workshop, Faigin goes underneath the surface to detail the eleven Key Muscles of facial expression, those subtle skin pulls from which all expressions are created. Drawing from a posed model on a large panel also visible on nearby video monitors, Faigin carefully tracks the origins and insertions of these face-shaping motors, treating them one-by-one. Since many CG artists create facial “Action units” and “Sliders” based on a similar model, this discussion will be of particular interest to those engaged in computer animation.  This lecture is a key background for Lecture No. 3.

Lecture No. 3: What’s in a Smile? Getting Facial Expressions Right.

Everyone knows the basics of smiling and frowning.  But the
difference between “OK” and “Great” lie in understanding the subtleties of those expressions.  What’s the difference between a false smile and real smile?  What makes a smile look sinister, or bittersweet?  And why do some angry faces look much angrier than others?  In this fascinating workshop, Faigin focuses on the little-known “intensity controls” that can ramp up the impact of a particular expression, or make it so slight it barely registers. Faigin will draw from a live model, with video monitors displaying their face as well as close-ups of his work.