Hey tuler! Idk if you'll end up reading this, but I have a lot of trouble with making more expressive facial expressions. I think you do some really nice ones. So I wanted to ask how you learnt how to do that? Maybe you have some resources you recommend? I've only been using random expressions I find on the net and trying to study from that. Particularly I think it's difficult sometimes trying to translate an expression onto furries since they have maws. Hope this isn't a bothersome qn!
A lot of the time I just look in a mirror or take photos of my face making an expression and using it for reference. I really enjoy pausing a piece of animation and dissecting the frames to see how it was done, or how one expression lead to the next, and how squishy and stretchy parts of the face get. I like to squish, stretch and kind of ‘break’ it to give it the expression I’m looking for. Here’s something I doodled up for this question…
What really sells an expression for me personally, are the eyes. They are essentially the gateway to the soul.
Eyes and mouths are what I like to focus on when I draw an expression. I sort of shape the rest of the face to go with the expression I had in mind, and not the other way around since drawing a nicely shaped face, you realize aw man I don’t wanna ruin the whole face I just drew, so I’m sacrificing a potentially solid expression for a face I did first. When I draw the rest of the face around an expression, it’s much, much easier to work with and I’m not sacrificing anything to make it work.
If it’s like a whole character, I usually draw an empty head on the body before I even touch the face, doodle the expression I had in mind real quick, try to draw the body language to work with that, then refine the face and body.
You mentioned something about resources too, and honestly I don’t have a super concise answer, but I own a loooot of animation art-books. They usually have chapters where they focus on characters, I find a lot of those are really, really good to study. I tend to do the same as you and just find stuff on the net that inspires me! If it looks good in your eyes, I’d say it’s worth studying.
For maws on furries, I tend to apply the same knowledge. I always reference the actual animal from a few angles first, and then stylize it.
I wouldn’t call this a tutorial by any means, but it’s just my two cents! I didn’t mean to go so balls deep into this question but here we are haha. Thanks for the wicked question, it really got me thinking about stuff! I hope you, or anyone following finds it at least a little helpful!
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