FAIGIN VFX
  • ABOUT
  • SERVICES
  • EXPRESSION BOOK
  • FACE BLOG
  • CONTACT
  • ABOUT
  • SERVICES
  • EXPRESSION BOOK
  • FACE BLOG
  • CONTACT

FACIAL EXPRESSION : Beware Botox!

9/1/2019

7 Comments

 

Good Grief! Bad GRIEF!

The Key Concept: Expressing true grief requires the whole face to contort. Botox freezes the forehead and negates this expression.
Picture
Picture
Figures 1 & 2. Here are two photos of two persons experiencing grief; they both exhibit tightly stretched lips and active cheeks. Notice the difference in each person's forehead and eyebrow action; Figure 1 (actress Brooke Shields) looks like she's stifling a smile; Figure 2 (police brutality protester, Ikea Coney) shows a genuine look of painful grief and sadness.  What's going on?

Read More
7 Comments

FACIAL EXPRESSION : Emoting Animals II

8/1/2019

10 Comments

 

No CROWN for "The Lion King"

THE KEY CONCEPT: The hyper-realistic CGI remake of Disney's "The Lion King" is lacking one essential ingredient - highly expressive faces!
Picture
Figure 1: A still from the 2019 CGI remake of "The Lion King."  Mufasa is definitely King of the Jungle, proud and expressionless, beside  his expressionless offspring, Simba.  
The freshly-minted, hyper-realist reissue of "The Lion King" is a magnificent piece of CGI artistry. From the sweeping African landscapes, to the herds of fabulous savanna beasts, to the charming bits of business with little bugs, Lion King 2019 is a tableau of mastery. Congratulations to the teams of character designers, animators, riggers, compositors and everyone else whose talent came together to create this visual masterpiece. 

Read More
10 Comments

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS : Emoting Animals

7/1/2019

2 Comments

 

SAD Doggy? Smart Doggy!

THE KEY CONCEPT :  Scientists have discovered a special muscle that makes dogs look sad.  It gives animators permission to apply this pattern to far more faces than just canines.  
Picture
Figure 1. How can you say "No" to those sad doggy eyes? This is a real photo of a charmingly plaintive dog, not a graphic image of a digital dog created in a CGI studio. Science now tells us that dogs are capable of emoting sadness with a specialized eyebrow muscle no other animal has.  

Read More
2 Comments

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS : Anxiety

6/1/2019

2 Comments

 

Don't get Panicked about ANXIETY  ​

THE KEY CONCEPT : To depict a particular facial expression, it’s all about the specific pattern of the eyes, the mouth and the brows; everything else is window dressing.
Picture
Figure 1: An illustration of "Anxiety" for an article on a genetic mental disorder in the NY Times.

Read More
2 Comments

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS : Faces with only Eyes

5/1/2019

1 Comment

 

"Only have EYES for You"

THE KEY CONCEPT :  When designing characters with only their eyes visible, their most successful range of expressions is limited to Anger and Sadness. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Figures 1, 2 & 3. What do these 3 stylized characters have in common? They are limited to their eyes alone to express their emotional state. The robot’s expression is highly ambiguous; Spiderman’s obliquely-shaped eye opening appears aggressive; Eve’s expression of Joy, missing her mouth, is handicapped without the addition of body language and sound.

Read More
1 Comment

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS | The Expression of Distress

4/1/2019

1 Comment

 

Damsels in DISTRESS

THE KEY CONCEPT:​ When depicting the facial expression of Distress, 90% of the information is contained in 15% of the face - the rest of the face and the body goes along for the ride.
Picture
Picture
Figures 1 & 2: Actresses Lori Loughlin (left) Felicity Huffman (right), as depicted by the courtroom artist, Mona Shafer Edwards. Note the very different facial expressions of the two defendants; only one looks distressed,

Read More
1 Comment

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS | Stylized Anger

3/1/2019

1 Comment

 
Don't be SAD, get MAD!
THE KEY CONCEPT : The deeper the arc of the frown and the more angled the clip of the eye white, the more menacing the facial expression.
Picture
Figure 1:  (left) NYC protesters display upside-down Amazon logo "smiles" with added dot "eyes" to express their disapproval of the company's plan to expand their operations to Queens; Figure 2 (right) the author has modified the protesters' signs to create angrier, more threatening, Amazon frowns and eyes.

Read More
1 Comment

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS | Extremely Stylized Faces : Emojis

2/1/2019

7 Comments

 
EMOJIS 1 : Anger & Surprise
KEY CONCEPT : Why certain emojis succeed and others fail as expressive faces.
Picture
Figure 1:  A quick clip of emojis on the web show a variety of artistic interpretations of two of the cardinal facial expressions - Anger & Surprise.

Read More
7 Comments

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS | Top Faigin Posts for 2018

1/1/2019

2 Comments

 
The BEST of 2018
Picture
2018 in REVIEW :  Forget the overjoyed World Cup winners, Winston Churchill's scowl, Martha Stewart's  sugary smile and the angry Trump balloon. It was my commentary on three digital movie characters that captivated Faigin FACE BLOG readers. Here's the 2018 line-up of winners, in descending order:

Read More
2 Comments

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS | Real vs. Stylized Faces

12/1/2018

3 Comments

 
That Mysterious 
UNCANNY Valley 
KEY CONCEPT : ​Artists who create stylized faces play by an entirely different rulebook than those who take on the challenge of the realistic CG face.
Picture
Figure 1. The charming and beautiful young Carrie Fisher/Princess Leia, alive and in the flesh.

Read More
3 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>
    Blog Sign-Up
    Picture

    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.

    Archives

    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly