Toolkit 2 - Character Design Lesson: Facial Expressions

   Sadly due to isolation/ sickness, I was unable to attend this lesson. However, my friends sent me information on what was taught from our tutor. This lesson was focused on facial expressions, in both humans and animals. This also relates to the subject of sidekicks in the character design bible.

  Facial expressions and head movement work together. Getting mannerisms correct is vital in trying to capture emotion and help to give a character the desired personality.

  When creating emotions, we need to understand the anatomy of the facial muscles, the more muscles being worked, the more extreme the emotion. Some examples are laughter, anger and shock. It’s important to note that some expressions causes muscles to become more drawn out and to flatten.

  As I was not in class, I decided to try and draw several emotions in a digital format (Procreate) and get a feel for them. It seems drawing in a digital format is still a little tricky for me.

  Moving on from humans, these practiced emotions can be transferred onto animals. In animal characters, you can cheat and make the mouth a little more flexible. Also in the case of ears, these can empathize emotions by being up or down. Animal faces are more horizontal but although the noses don’t really change, they have a more varied range of movement (twitching and sniffing).

  I decided to try and experiment with a raccoon. I was not able to draw too much as it seemed the more I did, the more exhausted I became. Therefore, I managed only three expressions.

  Continuing onward, the subject of sidekicks came round. Over the next week I aim to work on the secondary character for my design bible. As it is going to be a vision of the soldiers wife, I have to figure out how she was be represented.