POSING TUTORIAL: FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
Helluu! You know the moment when you think you found the perfect pose for your story/gameplay but the faces look... uhm... a bit... off?
Yeah, I know.
When I first started making poses, the facial expressions were the hardest part for me. Because no matter what I do, I felt like they don’t look like the way I wanted them to look like. After many many many (many) hours spent in Blender, now I can achieve the emotions I want and I thought, HEY LET’S SHARE SOME TIPS&TRICKS YOU WISH SOMEONE TOLD YOU WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED!!
1. The View Mode
This is probably the most crucial part, at least it was for me. When you open Blender, you see your rig in Perspective mode, and it means it looks distorted. I know some pose makers prefer this view mode, but for me, it’s impossible to get the emotions I want when Blender is in this mode. So what should we do? We should switch the view mode to “Ortho”. Go to “View” menu, Click on “View Persp/Ortho” or just press 5 (Numpad).
2. The Brows
Brows are where the magic happens! Just with a few minor tweaks, you can change the default face in so many different ways, even without touching the other parts of the face.
3. The Lids
Eyes wide open for a totally shoketh look, or slightly closed lids for “You bore the hell outta me” mood. If you close both the up and low lid slightly, here you go you’ll have a “I’m gonna kill you but I can’t yet decide how” look.
4. Closing The Lids
Okay, this took me long time to figure out but I’m finally happy with the results! Guess what, when you close the eyes, our beloved eyelashes CLIP! I KNOW! It’s terrible. It’s a disaster. Oh the time I’ve spent trying to fix the clipping in Photoshop... Anyway, there’s a way to avoid that. Just move the up lid forward a tiny bit with G after closing it.
Closing the eyes are a good way to show intense emotions. Combine it with different brow and mouth movements and you’ll get a wide range of emotions.
5. The Jaw
When posing the jaw, make sure you lock the W, X and Y axis before you open the rig’s mouth. In order to do that, press N and click on the little locks next to W, X and Y. That will prevent jaws to run wild.
Combine an open mouth with flying brows and open eyelids, and you have a surprised face. Change the brows a bit, you have a "oh no, not that again?!” face. Slightly close the lids and change the brows again, now you have a mad mad face in front of you.
6. The Mouth
The mouth is tricky ladies and gent... If you over-do it, it will look hideous. So try to be subtle when moving those points. There’s a fine line between a natural smirk and the whole Strangerville mood.
The same goes for the sad faces too. If you drag the mouth corners too much, it won’t look natural. Just a little tweak would be more than enough especially when combined with matching brows and eyelids.
7. The Lips
Okay this is the fun part! Don’t hesitate to play with the lips! They can add so much to a pose. Use the “G” key for dragging the points around.
8. The Eyes
People rarely look at something directly, so when you’re making poses, try to avoid the default eye placement. Move them around.
9. Now combine everything!
Go wild!
Hope that was helpful! Take care guys :)
