Facial Rigging Notes

I have been studying the face anatomy and looking at different reference videos to see how the different areas in the face deform. My main interest is in looking for a particular relationship between different muscles. There are two main types of research for facial rig.

1. Follow anatomically correct deformation. This also includes exaggerated emotions that are based on realistic deformations. This generally falls into visual effects work.

2. The other is to study the given drawings and concepts of stylized character designs and see what deformations are needed. Most of such deformations are not close to how realistic deformations would look like. What is more important in this case is to study how deformations create the shadow lines to give the results we need. Generally this is more cartoony type of deformation hence more free form deformations. But it is still important in looking for how different parts interact.

I think it is really important to have fluidity in the facial deformation. This gives life to the face. I believe interaction of different face parts generates this fluidity in the face. So in either case what is important is to not just create individual deformations, but have a system that creates interaction between different parts. More later.