Stop Staring: Facial Modeling & Animation Done Right with CDROM

"No other book to date presents facial animation concepts, theory, and practical application with the authority that Stop Staring does."

—TIEM Design

Crafting believable facial animation is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding aspects of 3D graphics. Done right, this art breathes life into otherwise deadpan faces.

In this extraordinary book, professional animator Jason Osipa teaches you how to achieve realistic facial modeling and animation. Using detailed practical examples complemented with high-quality images and a touch of humor, Osipa leads you from design and modeling to rigging and animation. The CD and full-color insert demonstrate techniques you can use to fine-tune your facial animations.

Reviewed and approved by Alias|Wavefront, Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right, uses the Academy Award® winning Maya® 3D animation and effects software as the focus for its examples, yet the principles and techniques are described in ways that will be helpful to anyone working on facial modeling and animation.

Mastering the Face

Start out by getting familiar with the range of possible facial expressions, then focus on animating and modeling the mouth, eyes and brows. When you’re ready to bring it all together, you can generate a scene from concept to completion. Topics covered include:

• Understanding how the whole face affects expression
• Learning visimes and lip sync techniques
• Constructing a mouth and mouth keys
• Building emotion through the eyes and brows
• Building interfaces to easily connect and control your models
• Skeletal setup, weighting, and rigging

Stop Staring is the first book to focus on this tricky yet satisfying art. Here, author and professional animator Jason Osipa shares what he's learned through several years of firsthand professional experience, offering a practical, heavily illustrated guide to one of the most challenging aspects of 3D animation.

Breathe life into your creations

With detailed examples, high-quality professional images, and a touch of humor, this is the fully revised and updated second edition of Jason Osipa's best-selling book on facial animation. You'll learn the basics of design, modeling, rigging, and animation—while mastering exciting new techniques for stretch-and-squash deformation, advanced blend extraction, and the latest software tools. Walk through the author's detailed analysis of sample animations and discover how to add nuance and sophistication to your designs.

Full of insights drawn from years of professional experience, this book provides the focused and practical information you need to create believable facial animations.

• Learn visimes and lip sync techniques

• Construct a mouth and mouth keys

• Explore the process of facial landmarking

• Master the cartoon techniques of squash and stretch

• Harness the latest advanced blend extraction tools

• Create interfaces for your faces

• Understand skeletal setup, weighting, and rigging

Control faces with the book's powerful rig and learn how skin moves to make various shapes and expressions

Master powerful stretch-and-squash (and squoosh!) techniques

Featured on the CD

Fine-tune your facial animations with the techniques demonstrated on the companion CD. Content includes tutorial files, lip sync samples, models, textures, and more.

Jason Osipa has 5 years of focused industry experience in 3D facial animation and modeling. In recent years, he's been the Supervising Technical Artist at Mainframe Entertainment and an instructor in CG animation and production at the Vancouver Film School. Jason currently works at 3D game maker, Surreal Software. Jason's professional credits include ReBoot, Max Steel, Barbie in The Nutcracker, and Casper's Haunted Christmas.

Foreword.

Introduction.

PART I: GETTING TO KNOW THE FACE.

Chapter 1: Learning the Basics of Lip Sync.

Chapter 2: What the Eyes and Brows Tell Us.

Chapter 3: Facial Landmarking.

PART II: ANIMATING AND MODELING THE MOUTH.

Chapter 4: Visimes and Lip Sync Technique.

Chapter 5: Constructing a Mouth.

Chapter 6: Mouth Keys.

PART III: ANIMATING AND MODELING THE EYES AND BROWS.

Chapter 7: Building Emotion: The Basics of the Eyes.

Chapter 8: Constructing Eyes and Brows.

Chapter 9: Eye and Brow Keys.

PART IV: BRINGING IT TOGETHER.

Chapter 10: Connecting the Features.

Chapter 11: Skeletal Setup, Weighting, and Rigging.v

Chapter 12: Interfaces for Your Faces.

Chapter 13: A Shot in Production.

Index.