Faigin Professional Services

Facial Expression Lecture & Demonstrations ​
​Faigin’s introductory lecture to facial expressions and his three visually- comprehensive demonstrations offer a concise and intensive guide to the fundamental principles of the expressive face, applicable to real, stylized, humanoid and animal characters. These specialized trainings, available in person or virtually,  provide an effective professional development opportunity, as well as a recruiting incentive, for your team. Exclusive video rights for company-wide, in-studio use are available for all Faigin facial expression presentations. 
Faigin demonstrating facial expressions
In-House & Remote Consulting
Working as a consultant, Faigin provides in-depth input for digital artists and computer vision scientists working to create authentic, convincing facial expressions. For media studios, Faigin advises riggers and modelers at the initial stages of production as to critical areas of their character design to enhance their expressive range, and helps to insure that the resulting characters can effectively enact the emotions required. For vision scientists, and for animators much later in the production process, Faigin offers detailed, hands-on critiques of particular expressions suggesting “tweaks” that can spell the difference between an adequate result and a spectacular one. For relatively little time and effort, these late-in-the-game adjustments offer tremendous impact.
After (left) & Before (right) expression consult
Guest Speaker & Panelist
Faigin’s breadth of understanding of the art and science of facial expression, combined with his enthusiastic personality, make him a warm and accessible public speaker. As such, he is in demand as both Guest Speaker and Panelist at national conferences of professionals who are focused on the expressive power of the face – from plastic and reconstructive surgeons to social robotics designers and digital artists who work in CG, Animation and VR. His informational presentations may include a digital drawing demonstration, or an insightful PowerPoint, while providing practical takeaways for the audience to apply to their own specialized work.  
Same smile interacting with different eye & eyebrow actions
Facial Expression Workshop
This 5-day workshop offers digital, forensic and analog artists - both professional and student - the opportunity to intensively study the expressive mechanics of the human face with Faigin as your master instructor. A completely hands-on structure maximizes the learning experience, each artist works at their own station, where they are provided with a drawing materials, a plastic skull, modeling clay, and a mirror set up next to their easel.  Faigin presents new material twice each day; each student draws from their own face as well as from a professional model.  
Building facial muscles onto a skull
​Rigging Facial Expressions in Maya Class
Faigin teaches a 10-session class on how to pose various movements of the face in Maya using a pre-rigged model. He includes an overview of the individual components of facial expression and shows the students how to pose them on their own faces and render them in Maya. Students learn the criteria for creating a resting face with no apparent expression in Maya as well as how to pose convincing and accurate versions of the six cardinal facial expressions in Maya in varying degrees of intensity.  
Typical student Maya rig
(below) Gary Faigin demonstrating facial expressions to CGI artists at the Moving Picture Company, London.