FAIGIN BLOGS - FACE BLOG

Other | Masked Faces - Sept 2020

9/1/2020

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."

Take a look at Figures 1 through 7 below and see if you can determine which of these expressions match the masked faces - Fear, Anger, Neutral, Joy, Disgust, Surprise and Sadness. Good luck!

Figure 1.

Facial Expressions: JOY

6/1/2020

The Hardest SMILE to Draw

Key Concept: The elusive Stifled Smile is the hardest smile to capture in fine art and animation.

Figure 1. Cartoonist Bill Griffiths tries his hand at the Stifled Smile, using line work only – a difficult task. The Stifled Smile is a real smile where someone is trying to hold it back, deploying lower face muscles like the Chin Raiser and the Triangularis that fight the upward pull (Figure 4). The use of tone would make describing the complex facial topography a bit easier.

Facial Expressions: ANGER

4/1/2020

What is the FROWN Threshold?

Key Concept - The two key facial cues for recognizing a frown are the steep angle and lowered position of the inner eyebrows.

Figures 1 & 2: The face trasnforms from Neutral to Angry when the inner eyebrows lower significantly at a pronounced angle.

Stylized Facial Design

3/1/2020

Sonic CRASH!

KEY CONCEPT: Less-than-stellar stylized character design can be brought to life by well-posed facial expressions. Case in point, the two different facial designs of “Sonic the Hedgehog" developed for the recently-released movie.

Figure 1. The original, beloved "Sonic the Hedgehog" character, developed for the eponymous video game by Sega and released in 1991 was designed by, Naoto Ohshima, who admitted that Sonic's basic design combined Felix the Cat's head with Mickey Mouse's body.

Facial Expressions: JOY

2/1/2020

FAKE LAUGHTER
always looks fake

KEY CONCEPT: Uproarious laughter is expressed with an open mouth, actively squeezed cheeks, clenched eyelids (including tear, for some) and spontaneous, infectious sounds.

Figure 1. Honest-to-goodness laughter is unmistakable. Barack Obama is remarkable for his no-holds-barred, uninhibited laugh. His entire face is either stretched or squeezed up to his eyebrows which are unaffected by all the action.

Facial Expressions from a Master

12/1/2019

The Many FACES of
Adam Sandler

Key Concept: A great comedian commands a mastery of facial expressions, from nuanced to exaggerated.

Facial Expressions: FEAR

10/1/2019

The Body Language
of FEAR!

Key Concept: For fine artists, cartoonists and animators to clearly and unambiguously depict Fear, it is essentila to include a protectieve body stance in concert with a contorted face.

Figure 1. Terror engages one's whole being, as illustrated by the faces & body poses of these haunted house visitors.

Facial Expressions: SADNESS

9/1/2019

Good Grief! Bad Grief!

The Key Concept: Expressing true grief requires the whole face to contort. Botox freezes the forehead and negates this expression.

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?

Animal Facial Expressions

8/1/2019

No CROWN for
"The Lion King"

KEY CONCEPT: The hyper-realistic CGI remake of Disney's "The Lion King" is lacking one essential ingredient - highly expressive faces!

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.

Emoting Animals

7/1/2019

SAD Doggy?
Smart Doggy!

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.

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.