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FACIAL EXPRESSIONS : Do-coding Masked Faces

9/1/2020

3 Comments

 
QUIZ: What's Going On
​Behind that Mask? 
Now that almost everyone is wearing a mask, it's become much harder to read facial expressions.  But the eyes can express quite a lot, depending on the emotion.  We invite you to test your knowledge of the six basic facial expressions, with the eyes alone "in action." 

​Match the pictures (Figures 1-7) to the  expressions listed below:
  • Neutral
  • Angry
  • Sad
  • Happy (Joy)
  • Disgusted
  • ​Surprised
  • Afraid (Fear)
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Figure 1
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Figure 2
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Figure 3
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Figure 4
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Figure 5
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Figure 6
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Figure 7
Many of you make facial expressions for a living - on dragons, on robots, on superheros, and more - so it is essential that you make sure that your eyes say as much as your other features. I drew the different facial configurations and tested the masked versions on 'Mechanical Turk' to see what consensus I could get. So...

​????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
...here are the answers:
Picture
Picture
Figure 1: JOY
HAPPY EYES 
Joy belongs to a group of expressions - the others being Surprise and Disgust - which depends on both the mouth and the eyes being readable.  We may think that the "happy eyes" in the full face (right) clearly indicate joy, but when the smile is hidden behind a mask, happiness can be hard to read.   
Picture
Picture
Figure 2: ANGER
ANGRY EYES 
Anger, unlike smiling, is recognizable even when the mouth is masked.  In online tests, testers had no problem reading anger with just the scowling, glaring eyes, a configuration unlike any other expression. 
 
Picture
Picture
FIGURE 3: SAD
SAD EYES 
Sadness is also clear without being able to see the mouth through the mask, although some testers saw this masked face as Fear, rather than Sad.  
Picture
Picture
FIGURE 4: NEUTRAL
NEUTRAL EYES 
Many testers were unsure about this Neutral face when the mouth  was hidden.  20% saw this masked face as Anger, while others thought it looked like Fear  or Sad.  About half of the testers said it had no expression.  It is important to note that, even with the mouth visible, testers tend to project an emotion onto any face with no particular expression.
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Picture
FIGURE 5: FEAR
TERRIFIED EYES 
Terror, like Anger, is highly readable with just the upper face visible.  Some testers thought the masked face showed Surprise, but the extremely wide, bulging eyes struck most testers as Fear.  
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Picture
FIGURE 6:  SURPRISE
SURPRISED EYES 
Most testers saw a strong expression in this masked face, but were split between Fear and Surprise.  Surprise, like Joy and Disgust, is only fully readable when the mouth is visible whereas Fear is recognizable with just the eyes, as long as they are wide open, as in Figure. 5.  
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FIGURE 7:  DISGUST
DISGUSTED EYES 
Disgust, with the wrinkling action around the nose and the characteristic arched shape of the upper lip, is nearly unreadable when the nose and mouth are covered.  It is the most  dependent on lower face recognition of all of the cardinal expressions with Joy being a close second.  

​How did you do? Email me at gary@FaiginVFX.com if you got them all right and I'll put you into a lottery to win a copy of my book, "The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression."  May the best animator win!

​And, don't forget to wear your own face mask!

AND THE WINNER IS: Dave Normand, Animation Supervisor, Montreal, Canada


CREDITS:  All illustrations were drawn by the blog author, Gary Faigin, on his Wacom tablet.
3 Comments
Lou Jurcik
9/15/2020 07:37:40 pm

I got 100%, undoubtedly because of your skilled rendition of emotion more than my ability to read them. Or maybe I should say we make a good team!

Reply
Jose Gutierrez
9/16/2020 09:35:35 pm

The eyes/eyebrows provide all the needed expression in order to differentiate them. There is a reason why the old expression the eyes are the window to the soul rings true.

Reply
Leslie Ross link
9/24/2020 03:04:45 pm

I agree with the first respondent. I guessed them all correctly because you did such an amazing job of representing the listed emotions, despite the obscuring of the rest of the face by the mask and seeing only the eyes.
Bravo, maestro!

Reply



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