[Figures 3 & 4] The sad pose of the body matches the sad look on his face (left). The happy face is contradicting the body (right).

Build on the Body
Facial animation cannot save poor body animation. You cannot hope to rescue badly timed, poorly motivated or sloppily executed body animation with great facial animation. Unless the shot is a close-up, facial animation is more often a “flavor enhancer.”

Body language accounts for 90% of the emotional communicative weight of a character. Body language can be read from afar, without a good look at a person’s face. Follow the lead of the body language and make your facial animation fit the intensity, energy, tone and tenor of the body animation (see Figure 3).

Strive for consistency in your message. The last thing you want to do is put “I’m happy!” facial animation on a body that’s saying “I should have stayed in bed this morning” (see Figure 4). That is unless the situation calls for a lie to be told. All things in facial animation are relative and subject to the needs of the shot, which is why there are so few rules to go by.

[Figures 5 & 6] A symmetrical face (left). An asymmetrical gesture (right).

Asymmetry
The initial temptation in all animation is to be too symmetrical (see Figure 5). Asymmetrically animating the face creates endless possibilities for facial expressions. People’s faces are bland and boring when they’re symmetrical. However, raise a single eyebrow and now you have a sarcastic look, or perhaps a quizzical, cynical or mildly surprised look.

By combining various asymmetries in your face posing, you can mix and match to capture just the right expressions to clearly communicate an idea. Rotate the jaw left and right to add flavor. Raise one eyebrow higher than the other to add punch to a facial expression. Sneer one side of the lips to break up the flat even line of the mouth. Cock a half smile on a character to hint at an underlying motive. Leave the jaw slightly more slack on one side to impress the notion of utter shock. Play around with the combos of poses and asymmetry to unlock great little gems in facial animation (see Figure 6).