IMD 4003: Character Animation III

For IMD 4003: Computer Animation, taught by Chris Joslin

Contents

1. 1. Facial Rigging
   1. 1.1 Morphing
   2. 1.2 Basic Facial Poses
2. 2. Facial and Dialogue Animation
   1. 2.1 Six Main Emotions
   2. 2.2 Head, Eye and Lip Sync Animation
   3. 2.3 Eight Basic Mouth Positions

1. Facial Rigging

1.1 Morphing

Morphing means to permit one object to assume the shape of another. For example, you can morph a sphere into a face. Because it is so complex, you would create facial expressions individually. You can let the morphing tool smoothly transition between poses. We would use Multi-Target Morphing in order to mix and blend multiple shapes with morph targets.

Morph Targets

Ideally, we would create a morph target for each muscle on the face but this isn't always necessary. One slider in the morphing tool would control one muscle. It's important to have smooth transitions and symmetry (where necessary).

Target Poses: These are the 'extremes' of the poses - aim for these.

1.2 Basic Facial Poses

Basic poses are fundamental and based on the major muscles of the face.

1. Lower Face:
   • Smiles - we use the zygomatic major (the corner's of the mouth are pulled up into the cheek);
   • Frown - pulls the corners of the mouth down;
   • Fear - pulls the corners of the mouth out;
2. Upper Face:
   • Anger - furrowed brow - the inner brow is pulled down;
   • Worry - pulls the outer brows down;
   • Eyes use blinks and winks, squinting, and wide eyes to convey different meanings.

2. Facial Dialogue and Animation

We need to know exactly which parts of the dialogue to emphasize. Rhythm and timing and important.

2.1 Six Main Emotions (SHAFDS)

1. Sadness: brow raised in the middle, and corner of the mouths down;
2. Happiness: mouth pulled up, exposed teeth, and cheeks pulled up;
3. Anger: brows down in the middle, teeth bared;
4. Fear: raised brows, wide eyes, mouth open wide, and jaw dropped;
5. Disgust: centre brow slightly lowered, narrow eyes, and side of mouth pulled up towards the side of the nose (in a sneer);
6. Surprise: raised brows, wide eyes, and slack jaw (mouth slightly open).

2.2 Head, Eye and Lip Sync Animation

Head Animation

Use for emphasizing facial expressions. For example, cocking your head conveys interest or curiosity. People tend to bob their head while they speak to emphasize certain points.

Eye Animation

• Direction and Eye Contact: the direction in which the eyes are looking insinuates that the character is focused on that object or person. Avoid staring but maintain eye contact to show interest. Breaking contact suddenly can imply evasiveness or embarrassment.
• Blinking and Turning: people tend to blink in the direction they are turning their head. The eyes tend to lead the movement.
• Thinking and Eye Direction: From your perspective, if a person looks to the left, they are constructing information. If they are looking to the right, they are remembering it. (This is when the person doing the looking is right-handed. If they are left-handed, reverse all of this.)
  
  Looking up suggests you are thinking about an image. So keeping in mind what I just mentioned about remembering and constructing information, if a person looks to your left, they are constructing an image. If they look to the right, they're remembering. (Think of a green kangaroo with a red top hat. Which way did you look?)
  
  Looking to your left or right suggests you are thinking of a sound.
  
  A person looking down to your left suggests they are remembering an externally expressed emotion, taste or smell. To the right suggests they are talking to themselves in their head.

Lip Sync Animation (just like Britney Spears!)

Lip Sync Animation is when you move the lips to match an audio track. Dialogue is normally recorded before the characters are drawn. "Reading the Track" is when you're breaking down the dialogue track frame-by-frame into individual phonemes (we did this in Flash in 2^nd year - see my Assignment)

2.3 Eight Basic Mouth Positions

The most important thing to remember about these positions is that

• Vowels: the mouth will open quickly but close slowly.
• Consonants: these are short in length and break up vowels.

In the list below, the highlighted letters make the mouth motion.

1. Position 1: closed mouth - mmmm, bubbles, pedantic;
2. Position 2: teeth closed - deny, grand, then, crack;
3. Position 3: open jaw - aero, i like bananas;
4. Position 4: mouth open slightly but wide - eeeeeeeeeeeevil;
5. Position 5: open jaw - oooooooooooooooooh;
6. Position 6: open jaw with pursed lips - food;
7. Position 7: open jaw with tongue moving up against the top teeth - love;
8. Position 8: bottom lip tucked under top teeth - fart;

Visemes: similar to phonemes but these are generic facial images used to describe a particular sound.

People that can read lips can read visemes.