FACS
Posing the Face
Building a Foundation for Animation
First things first, we start with building a database to memorize what/how are the actions identified in the system of FACS.
As you look at the actions listed below, try them yourself by isolating the movement on your face to use only those muscles. By doing this, you will get a feel of what is the range and direction of the muscle-groups engaged for a particular action.
Pay special attention to the temporary wrinkles, bumps, folds and creases forming on your face as a result of those actions. This is where you create a treasure of indicatives of the muscles engaging for a particular action which can guide you at various levels.
We are all used to calling out common actions of the face in daily life like smiling, smirking, kissing, squinting, smelling, snarling etc. These are good for common purpose but are not specific in anyway for our purpose. With the basic overview of FACS, you would now be able to look at the face and call out combinations of several FACS shapes which constitute the expression.
For example, looking at the image below, in your mind you can run a basic scan as to which shapes have been used like this :
Sound . Emotion . Expression
The deformation on the face is always a combination of multiple things i.e., it could be a sound, an emotion or an expression or a combination of all of these and more. Consider the example of a smiling face which is in the middle of uttering an “O” sound while mocking at someone. This action could have a complex combination of muscle movement to produce the sound, emote and express at the same time.
So, this brings us to an important concept of countering forces happening on the face which causes the muscles to be pushed and pulled in different directions simultaneously. It can be observed that this countering activity is exclusive to the face as opposed to the body motion as none of the body joints can counter themselves!
Countering forces on the face create a tension resulting in temporary wrinkles and artifacts on the face which are not usually present and it is very important to bank these indications as they can be priceless in a given situation.