Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right

GET IN YOUR CHARACTER'S FACE How a head tilts, the timing of a blink, how the mouth shapes sounds these and a host of other details add up to the creation of complex animated characters that can not only move, but also act. In this third edition of his acclaimed book, Jason Osipa teaches you his secrets for breathing life and drama into animated characters through the face. Digging even deeper into technical topics, this new edition explores today's latest animation and rigging trends and teaches you dazzling, professional techniques. Follow a detailed analysis of a wide variety of characters, understand the why and how of every pose and move, and take away insights from the author's years of experience in all kinds of 3D media. Learn about visemes and lip sync techniquesFind out what eyes and brows communicateUnderstand how fundamentals bridge across character stylesExplore the process of facial landmarkingLearn how squash and stretch and secondary controls are all the same thingCreate a library of expressions and shapes for your facesUnderstand skeletal setup, weighting, and rigging in many different formsUse Python scripts to automate tasks Techniques described are applicable to any 3D software application. Maya 2011 is used in many of the examples in the book. A color insert showcases many techniques, including the impact of color and lighting.

Table of Contents:
Introduction xv PART I GETTING TO KNOW THE FACE 1 Chapter 1 Learning the Basics of Lip Sync 3 The Essentials of Lip Sync 4 Speech Cycles 6 Starting with What’s Most Important: Visemes 8 The Simplest Lip Sync 15 Chapter 2 What the Eyes and Brows Tell Us 21 The Two Major Brow Movements 22 The Upper Lids’ Effect on Expression 24 The Lower Lids’ Effect on Expression 26 Eyelines: Perception vs. Reality 28 Distraction Is the Enemy of Performance 30 Chapter 3 Facial Landmarking 31 Introduction to Landmarking 32 Landmarking Mouth Creases 35 Landmarking Brow Creases 39 Landmarking the Tilt of the Head 42 PART II ANIMATING AND MODELING THE MOUTH 45 Chapter 4 Visemes and Lip Sync Technique 47 Sync: Wide/Narrow Grows Up 48 The Best Order of Sync Operations 56 Sync Example 1: “What am I sayin’ in here?” 63 Sync Example 2: “Was it boys?” 69 Chapter 5 Constructing a Mouth and Nose 75 The Best Edge Flow 76 The Big Picture 78 Building the Lips 78 Building the Surrounding Mouth Area 81 Building the Nose 84 Continuing Toward the Jaw and Cheek 87 Building Teeth 88 Building the Tongue 92 The Mouth Wall 95 Chapter 6 Mouth Keys 97 Order of Operations 98 Preparing to Build a Key Set 99 Default Shapes, Additive Shapes, and Tapering 100 Building the Shapes 114 PART III ANIMATING AND MODELING THE EYES AND BROWS 145 Chapter 7 Building Emotion: The Basics of the Eyes 147 Building an Upper Face for Practice 148 Using “Box Head” 158 Rules of the Game 159 Example Animations 164 Continuing and Practicing 177 Chapter 8 Constructing Eyes and Brows 179 Building Eyeballs 180 Building the Eye Sockets 183 Building the Brow and Forehead 189 Chapter 9 Eye and Brow Keys 197 Brow Shapes and Texture Maps 198 Building Realistic Brow Shapes 207 Tying Up Loose Ends 226 PART IV BRINGING IT TOGETHER 229 Chapter 10 Connecting the Features 231 Building the Ear 232 Assembling the Head Pieces 237 Chapter 11 Skeletal Setup, Weighting, and Rigging 245 Skeleton 246 Eyelid Rigs 254 Extra Eye Fun 265 Sticky Lips 270 Chapter 12 Interfaces for Your Faces 281 The Two Big Problems of Facial Control 282 Buffer Networks 283 Sliders 291 Skeletal Control 301 Layered Controls 304 Corrective, Contextual, XYZ, Half, and Dominant Shapes 308 Just Interface Me 319 Chapter 13 Squash, Stretch, and Secondaries 321 Local Rigs 322 Global Rigs 326 The “Real” Character Has No Rig! 330 Not Using W t raps Changes a Few Things 331 Tutorial: Rigging Squoosh 332 Gotchas 339 Secondaries 341 Chapter 14 A Shot in Production 347 Scene 1: Bartender 348 Scene 2: Lack of Dialogue 353 Scene 3: Dunce Cap 363 Scene 4: Salty Old Sea Captain 367 Scene 5: Pink or Blue? 370 Scene 6: Great Life 379 That’s All, Folks! 381 Index 383

About the Author :
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jason Osipa has been working in 3D since 1997, holding titles in all levels of animation, rigging, and directing in real-time and rendered 3D. He is currently running Osipa Entertainment, which offers contracting, consulting, and classes for games, TV, Direct-to-Video, and film. Prior to opening his own company, he worked at gaming industry giants LucasArts and EA, among others. He is the author of both previous editions of Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right.