"Anatomy of Facial Expression": A Genesis 8.1 Companion Guide?
margrave
Posts: 1,822
A few weeks ago, I asked for recommendations about a FACS reference guide, to achieve scientifically-accurate facial expressions for the new Genesis 8.1 face rig. Amidst the dozens of replies basically saying, "Just eyeball it, it'll be fine," one helpful soul ( @Ceridwen ) recommended "Anatomy of Facial Expression." I just now got around to checking the book out and I decided to post my preliminary findings. While the book itself is a very good resource, I very quickly ran into problems when I tried to apply the Action Units to the G8.1 face rig, because I have no idea what half the controls should be. Like AU17, "Chin Raiser". Nothing on the Daz rig is named that, so what the heck do I move? Nevertheless, the book is 200+ pages and has a great deal of information about musculature, so I'm sure if I read the rest more closely I can figure it out, but it's still annoying.
Anyway, onto my first renders with my lucky volunteer, Victoria 8.1.
SMILE
SURPRISE
RAGE
In conclusion...
If you want a technical reference guide to human expressions--or you just plain don't want to "eyeball it" when making faces--the book is a pretty good buy for $45. Especially since the official FACS reference guide costs $400 and you need to study for 100 hours and take a certification test before they send you the good stuff.
I have my issues with Genesis/Victoria 8.1 itself--the oddly-named control handles, the lack of realistic skin creasing, her eyes not blinking properly due to the new tear node--but I'm overall satisfied with the book. It seems to have a wealth of insight on how faces are put together, so even if you don't use it for FACS you can probably learn some useful stuff when you're making expressions.
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Comments
Wow... your results are impressive!
And your "Surprise" is as good (better) as any I have seen in expression packages!
Cheers!
Like the Surprise Expression you came up with. Add some more of the same quality and put it on sale. Should do good in refinancing the book purchase ;-)
Do you have one for "Did I remember to unplug the iron before I left the house this morning?"
Idea: Why don't you convert the book into expressions and sell it here?
I'd feel like a cad charging people money for something I literally just followed the instructions to create.
That one I can guarantee never to have, though I do have an iron. Somewhere. On the other hand, I'd pay good money for 'Why have I opened the fridge?'
Surprise and Rage turned out to be great, Smile not so much. Smile seems to be the most difficult, for I have not seen any convincing smile morph for G3 or G8 yet. Neither in the stores or free sections.
I am afraid there won't be any one dial solution for that.
Maybe you can make your smile dial a control dial and add keyed sub-parameters to it, in order to improve its look at any single parameter value.
edit:
Even worse with smiles, what ever smile looks most perfect for one character, might look aweful on another.
You might have to go through all this for every single character again and again.
Sorry, I do have that bloody perfectionist-syndrome ;-)
I just can't keep my mouth shut...
uhhh... really?
Don't think about it like that.... rather, think that you are just providing a service for those who want a quick expression that works for their character. I don't want to get lost in the high grass of "surprise expression making", I just wanna apply an expression that works for me and get back to the parts I enjoy doing and telling my story. If I gotta throw you a coupla quid to make that easier for me... meh... here you go... catch!
That's pretty much what every vendor here does, and any professional that sells their "labor". They learn how to use something, make something, and then sell something. Anyone can do anything another person does, given the time invested and knowledge. That is what you're paying for when you purchase a service, the time someone else spent to learn something and the time they spent making something.
And by your own admission, you are not just "following the instructions". By trial and error, you are perfecting a bit of knowledge you've spent time acquiring and learning how to put to a specific use case, i.e. what any person does that sells a service, which is really what all PAs do, sell a service. YOU can make the next Stonemason environment, Mousso character, Aeon Soul outfit, and Jen Moris texture - IF - you spent the time learning how to do so.
Anyone can pose a character. I do it all the time. But I also use pose packs (heck, I made a pose pack for naughty gen 8 centaurs, but couldn't sell it for TOS reasons and gave it away), and they obviously sell. I can make expressions, but I also have a fair few expression packs too.
Yeah, make a his & hers expressions based on the book. I'll buy your products as well.
Also trying to figure this out. This is my best guess currently. A few au seems to map to the same slider. Some are a bit more questionable, let me know if you find better matches.
Edit: Also most of those can be seperated into left and right morph.
Genesis 8.1 face controls walkthrough:
Face Controls walkthrough:
Face Controls also comes with 50 premade general expressions which you can use as a starting off template.