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Yeaa... I hope the above GIF of a girl using the motion capture on her webcam to animate the anime character attracted you to this post. :P Haha, because I have one of the most important thing to share with you guys (animators,artists,enthusiasts). Though this has been a rough week for me, I'll do my best to give you the simplest yet informative post today. Exceptionally one of the most important aspect for an animator to master.

The Face

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Impressive huh? Behind every movement that the face is shaping into, are thousands of joints coordinating with one another. If you're wondering if it is a point and click and it is automated to get a certain shape....well... no. Every joint is animated manually by the animator individually. Amazing huh? And to think this is just one part of body we have to animate. Imagine fingers, feet etc ...

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As I said this would be a much simpler post, I would just straight up give you the Most Important Tip when animating the facial features on a character. Here it is!

Every joint rig on the face MUST move as one unit

Facial rigs are set up with manual joints, where you can control individual facial muscles on the character. Another setup would be blend shapes, where there will be controls/sliders for you to slide to get a certain movement on the face. Most facial rigs consist of these two setups, so there would be more customizability for animators. There are definitely other types of facial rigs but these two are most commonly used in every production.

Putting aside the technical aspects of which facial rig is better than the other one, I would like to let you know that none of that will matter IF your facial animation are not moving as One Unit.

That being said, NEVER EVER key the same frame for every joint on the face as well. Though I've said that everything must move as one, it doesn't mean that there are no overlapping actions and follow-through in these facial expressions. That brings us to the next little tip.

The 1 or 2 frame difference on different parts of the face will make the character more organic

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Have a look at Elsa singing, "The cold never bothered me anyway". I usually say that a good animated facial dialogue would allow you to lip read the words properly eventhough without audio. And if you take a look at how organic her facial expressions are. The eyebrow that gave her that sassy look and that little squint at the end perfected her animation.

Every facial joint cannot be independent

It must be affecting other parts of the face. Much the same for the body movements of the character. The limbs and joints are all connected and should affect one another. Now the challenge for the animators is that we have to create seamless movements that have overlaps and followthroughs and still look as it is moving as one.

Have a look at this awesome showreel and focus in on the facial expressions.

Showreel by Manar Al Tawam

Before I end this post, I would just like to kindly remind you that before starting an animation, always remember to find good references. Plan ahead and ask yourself questions. Questions like "Is your character going to be surprised by something?" If so, how would the face react. Would the eyebrows lead the movement or the eyes? Generally, the eyebrows would lead and pull the eyelids along. Well, most of the time that is. I do hope this post has given you some tips and awareness on how important the face must move as one.

And with this, your characters will definitely come to life!