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There are two parts to this: eyelid heights for emotional effect and, of course, blinking. Let's start with heights. This line has got an elevated tone throughout, so I'll likely leave the eyes slightly more "bugged." I raised the eyelids on frame 4, and tapered them slightly (very slightly) down to frame 21. That's because the word here, although a tonal drop, does have a distinct volume hit. I want to make here have some impact, but in the same way that it's already impacting. In a little bit of an opposites approach, I lessened the incoming key, then on frame 24 jumped it back so the upper eyelids widen some more, and then hold that pose through the end.
| Sometimes (though not always) bouncing eyelids up just to hit a single key causes them, during their return motion down, to look unnatural; that's why I chose to hold the pose through the end. |
Now for blinks. One basic suggestion for when to blink is during big motions of the eyes. The range over which our character is looking most definitely meets that criterion. I'm going to blink the eyes by moving the Ctrl_Lids slider down on frame 2.
I'm not, however, going to blink on the second motion of the eyes; that would turn this into the blinky-blink-blink show. Generally, stay away from groups of blinks for functional reasons. For emotional effect they're great, but groups of blinks show disbelief, shock, confusion, etc. Since this guy is asking a question, he may be a little bit concerned, but I don't think he's in shock or disbelief. Putting a blink on the second eye move would cause an emotional side effect, so I left it out. My first instinct, moving forward, is to just leave the rest of the scene alone, but there is something else to consider. In conversation, there's a subtext in blinks.
When I say something, if I continue to stare at you without blinking, you won't know when it's your turn to talk. If I instead say something and blink, it shoots you the message, albeit subconsciously, "Okay, it's your turn to talk." If there's no blink, there's no message. It's another fun little experiment to try at home: talk and then don't blink. It's likely that you'll hear no response to your statement. In any case, it makes me want to blink the eyes near the end of this line. After scanning the line a few times, I'm realizing that exactly where we have the eyes widening on here is where I want to blink. That's fine, I'll just change the widening into a blink instead. The word here still gets its eyelid animation hit-it's just a blink instead of a widening.
Production NoteI did it in this example, but in real-world production it's almost always a bad idea to blink in the first or last 5 to 10 frames of a shot unless you're expressly asked to by your director or supervising animator. Editors will murder you. Editors need some flexibility in exactly where to come into and out of your shot. If you put blinks in that zone, and the frame they choose to cut to/from has the eyes closed, it causes a "hook-up" problem with shots around it; extra work for you, and extra grief for them. |
The lower eyelids-the Squint-is an emotional intensifier; it adds thought. Using that approach, I'm looking for where thought should be communicated. Listening to the sound, and watching what I've already animated, the character seems to do his thinking up front, when he's darting his eyes around. Also, it's usually smartest to change lower lid poses at the same time as upper lid poses, making blinks perfect transitions. I animated the lower lids up (Ctrl_Lids left) from frame 2 to frame 21, then back to default on frame 24. It basically appears between the two blink keys. Another thing this did was to create more punch on the word here, as it's now getting a widening of the eyes. See how it's all relative? Since the lower eyelids were tight, going back to default looks wide.
Watching the animation, you'll notice that there already seem to be brow Up/Down motions due to the head's Up and Down. Many people animate the brows to volume. Instead, animate the tilt of the head-it's a very similar perception. The difference is that the brow Up/Down due to perspective in head tilts more accurately reflects reality, and the brows don't look manic.
Use the brows mainly to reinforce. In this situation, I like the seeming raise in the brows created by the upward tilt of the head during sayin. I don't, however, just want him to be "Mr. Brows in the Air," so instead of pushing the brows up, I'll push them down beforehand-this is basically using opposites, or treating it like an anticipation. I set keys for the brows Down on frames 4 and 10, and they return to default on frame 13, approximately at the right time for sayin.
| Do not concern yourself too much with lining up all of your keyframes for poses on the same frame quite as stringently as you might on the body. There are few enough things to keep track of in the face that the inaccuracies actually make it look better, and it's not very difficult to manage. |
That's about all I want to do with the brows. As an animator, I'd like to go in and key all over the place, but I don't think it'll add anything to the performance. I don't look at it and feel a lack of brow Up/Down, so I'm not going to add any more.
On other setups, the brows will work together a little bit differently-you'll create the mads and sads out of combinations of the shapes you have available. With Box Head, though, we've got some pretty simple stuff. Sad and Mad. Sad can double for a lot of things: the right smile with a subtle Sad on the brows can be happy; it also portrays shame. Sad generally portrays the softer emotions, or even the lack of confidence, which is the way I hear this line. The character is just a little bit confused, asking a question. Asking is a lesser form of pleading; they're in the same category, one that indicates a little bit of weakness. Since the whole sentence is pretty much in the same tone, and I'd like to hit each portion a little bit harder, I'll use stepping. I went to the end of the scene, choosing the most extreme sound and pose first, which I only want at about 70% strength for the shape. Then I backtracked. I set a key on 27 so that the pose holds until the end of the animation, then between 13 and 21 sayin in, I set some keys back up a level, about 40% to 50%, creating a "step."
| It was no coincidence that I chose the range between 21 and 27 for an expression change. I used the blink as a device to help change expressions more believably. Blinks are good for that. |
From there I created another step, even higher, between 3 and 10 to give what am I some sort of impact, and left the key I already had on 0 that goes back to default. Watching the scene through, you don't see drastic motion on the brows, you just see some acting as the brow shape shifts slightly throughout the line.
So here's where there are really no rules, and it's up to what I or you like and don't like. I'll add in some motions on the head left to right, and see what it feels like. In this stage, you should really have something that you're reacting to on an emotional, not functional, level. If your character doesn't seem at least a little bit alive, take a look at each step again, seeing if it can steer you toward something you missed or could use more or less of.
Not in all cases, but in some, I like to move the head along with the eyes. Making the head reach a little bit as the eyes move really takes away the feeling of the character wearing a neck brace. In this scene I'm only going to move the head left to right, as that's where the eyes are looking. I moved the head (character) left on frame 4, then (character) right on frame 9, and then back to the middle on frame 13. Leaving the head fairly still, or at least facing forward during the last part of the line, where I have Box Head addressing the screen/audience, gives it some focus.
Next, looking at the scene, I decided I really liked the bug-eyed look for the delivery, so wherever the eyes are wide I made them wider.
This scene is too short to bother trying to move the shifts in expression ahead. In short scenes, you should be more concerned with the overall expression being pretty homogenous, so that it will read in the short time an audience will see it. I'm going to leave this as it is. In longer scenes, by shifting the acting portions of your animation ahead, you can create the effect that the character thinks before they do.
| Here's something really funny you can do later: By copying the animation curves from these sliders to sliders on some of the more refined looking setups, you can actually recycle this animation onto a photo-real or any kind of head if you like. It's funny to see Box Head performing the same line side-by-side with another character! |
I think we can all agree that what we have here is not going to win any awards, but I think we can also agree that we got very far very fast. That is the goal at this stage of the learning, so let's keep on it!
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Created: March 27, 2003
Revised: November 7, 2003
URL: http://webreference.com/3d/stopstaring/1
