— ARTICLE RESPONSE: FACIAL ANIMATION

                      — FACIAL ANIMATION 101 by Dana Boadway-Masson


                                    Facial animation is one of the most important parts when animating, clearly
                           showing the characters emotion and response to an external trigger, therefore
                           creating a story and making the audience feel an emotion. It's the basis of any
                           action, and "reveals what is being processed through the mind of your 
                           character" (Boadway-Masson.). Being able to show this action leads to a more
                           consistent, interesting story and animation that will make your work come to 
                           life, and help your viewers relate to the characters. Dana Boadway-Masson 
                           explains wonderfully certain tips and things to keep in mind while animating                                         a character. She clearly illustrates the importance, and includes real-life and
                           drawn examples to take ideas from.

                                     Masson creates a clear four step guide into learning the basics of showing
                           emotion, this process is called the 'KISS' Method. "Keep It Simple, Silly!" At first
                           reading that might invoke some confusion, (which is an emotion, silly.), but after
                           explaining it further, the author makes a lot more sense. Breaking the shot down,
                           creating key poses and frames and writing little notes of what the emotion is and 
                           why it is occurring can help you go a long way! She uses a perfect example of 
                           a scene in Sherlock Holmes, where one character shows multiple emotions in a 
                           matter of one sentence! Now that can be confusing if it wasn't for a simple 
                           breakdown and explanation of the emotion, before replicating the actual emotion.
                           Bringing it back to the times of a bouncing ball or pendulum, Masson reminds us 
                           that there is a special timing for emotion as well! There must be an initial emotion,
                           a factor to trigger a response (this would be the 'emotional hang-time', considered a 
                           neutral face), and then the next emotion. Seems simple, right? She trails off of to the
                           next topic — discussing dialogue blocking and jaw movements. This part was a bit
                           confusing to understand when animating, but Masson explains it clearly. She gives
                           the tip of using ones own body to understand the movement, pressing your fingers
                           against your jaw and moving your mouth to the words to find the emphasis and 
                           dominating vowels in the sentence. You may look silly while doing it, but it's better 
                           to look like a fool than to have your animation look like a fool! The examples she
                           used were very clear, showing proper stretch and squash, and further delving into 
                           another wondrous process of animation; emphasis! All of these factors tie in together
                           to create a beautiful piece of art, and Masson highlights this perfectly.

                                    Honestly, I'm super impressed by this article. It was well thought out, clear,
                           and straight to the point!  Her examples also made me squeal on the inside a bit, as 
                           for my interview, I used the exact same reference to practice my 'stretch and squash' 
                           of faces! Seeing those beautiful examples again made me smile to know I was doing
                           things the right way, and I had a little 'you're one step ahead!' moment. Besides that,
                           I was having a bit of trouble on my own when trying to show emotion in my eleven
                           second club animation. With her steps of KISS (I laughed a bit at that.) and
                           breakdown of "input - pause - output" and "initial action - event - reaction" made it
                           a lot more simple than me just winging it and hoping for the best! I plan to use her 
                           jaw theory some time as well, if my style allows me to attempt a jaw movement. I 
                           could also use that for 3-D however, so the tips won't go to waste! I loved this article
                           and honestly believe it to be one of my favorite ones to be posted so far!

                                    Facial expressions have proven to be the basis to any good story, emotion 
                           being the driving cause of a story and animation. However, figuring out where to
                           put emotion, how to use it to your advantage, and how to perfect it, can be quite the
                           challenge when faced with a big animation project! There is hope however, the easy
                           and simple guide posted by Dana Boadway-Masson on emotion timing, jaw motion,
                           and implicating emphasis and stretch and squash into your face, clearly outline tips 
                           and tricks to wash your troubles away!