Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right 1st Edition

by Jason Osipa (Author)

74 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0782141290

ISBN-10: 9780782141290

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Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right
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"No other book to date presents facial animation concepts, theory, and practical application with the authority that Stop Staring does."
—TIEM Design

Crafting believable facial animation is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding aspects of 3D graphics. Done right, this art breathes life into otherwise deadpan faces.

In this extraordinary book, professional animator Jason Osipa teaches you how to achieve realistic facial modeling and animation. Using detailed practical examples complemented with high-quality images and a touch of humor, Osipa leads you from design and modeling to rigging and animation. The CD and full-color insert demonstrate techniques you can use to fine-tune your facial animations.

Reviewed and approved by Alias|Wavefront, Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right, uses the Academy Award(r) winning Maya(r) 3D animation and effects software as the focus for its examples, yet the principles and techniques are described in ways that will be helpful to anyone working on facial modeling and animation.

Mastering the Face
Start out by getting familiar with the range of possible facial expressions, then focus on animating and modeling the mouth, eyes and brows. When you're ready to bring it all together, you can generate a scene from concept to completion. Topics covered include:

Understanding how the whole face affects expression
Learning visimes and lip sync techniques
Constructing a mouth and mouth keys
Building emotion through the eyes and brows
Building interfaces to easily connect and control your models
Skeletal setup, weighting, and rigging

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Lips, brows, frown lines--theyre all in motion in an expressive face. Stop Staring analyzes facial structures and movements and shows animators how to enliven the faces of their characters. The author, whose own handsome head (in modeled form) graces the cover, is an experienced animator currently working on The Sims.

He writes with a dry wit and a confidence born from experience. The book is friendly but also loaded with content and precise in its directions. "I am by no means Gods gift to animation, but I do pretty well at making a talking head look like a living one, not just a set of gums flapping." This is not a how-to manual, but a richly detailed guide to achieving the right movements for a given situation and emotion. The companion CD includes all the pieces readers will need in order to work along with the text: models (both realistic and stylized toon characters), lip-synching samples, finished Quicktime movies, and even a copy of Maya Personal LE. (More info and some movies can be found at jasonosipa.com.)

Readers move from "Getting to Know the Face," to synching audio, working on the mouth, eyes, and brows, and rigging. Osipa has created a methodology for facial animation that gets results and makes the process fun. The book can be used as a step-by-step guide for learning new skills or finessing techniques, or as a reference book for troubleshooting specific expressions (for example, "happy eyes," "frustration," and "sneers" are all in the index). Although the projects are presented using Maya, the concepts involved pertain to animation in general.

There are lots of production tips and, in Chapter 13, case studies using five scripted scenes. Readers can even begin with this last chapter, watching the movies (theyre funny!) and enjoying Osipas debates as he works through animating his face telling a lame bartender joke or a sassy toon gal weighing the pros and cons of pink and blue bows. This hip writer knows what hes talking about, even when its his own animated mug thats doing the talking! --Angelynn Grant

Review

"A breath of fresh air to both students and industry professionals alike." -- Owen Hurley, Director (Casper's Haunted Christmas, Barbie in the Nutcracker, Barbie as Rapunzel)

"Readers new to these techniques are spared the frustration of feeling overwhelmed ..." -- Jason Schleifer, Senior Animator, Weta Digital

"Stop Staring is a refreshingly practical book on animation, loaded with useful information for animators, artists, and designers." -- Will Wright, Game Designer

From the Back Cover

"No other book to date presents facial animation concepts, theory, and practical application with the authority that Stop Staring does."
—TIEM Design

Crafting believable facial animation is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding aspects of 3D graphics. Done right, this art breathes life into otherwise deadpan faces.

Reviewed and approved by Alias|Wavefront, Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right, uses the Academy Award® winning Maya® 3D animation and effects software as the focus for its examples, yet the principles and techniques are described in ways that will be helpful to anyone working on facial modeling and animation.

Mastering the Face
Start out by getting familiar with the range of possible facial expressions, then focus on animating and modeling the mouth, eyes and brows. When you’re ready to bring it all together, you can generate a scene from concept to completion. Topics covered include:

Understanding how the whole face affects expression
Learning visimes and lip sync techniques
Constructing a mouth and mouth keys
Building emotion through the eyes and brows
Building interfaces to easily connect and control your models
Skeletal setup, weighting, and rigging

About the Author

Jason Osipa has 5 years of focused industry experience in 3D facial animation and modeling. In recent years, he's been the Supervising Technical Artist at Mainframe Entertainment and an instructor in CG animation and production at the Vancouver Film School. Jason currently works at 3D game maker, Surreal Software. Jason's professional credits include ReBoot, Max Steel, Barbie in The Nutcracker, and Casper's Haunted Christmas.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0782141293
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sybex; 1st edition (August 1, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780782141290
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0782141290
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.72 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.54 x 0.67 x 9.02 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,223,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #754 in Desktop Publishing
- #1,228 in Digital Video Production (Books)
- #2,673 in Computer Graphics

Customer Reviews:
74 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		54%
4 star		26%
3 star		10%
2 star		3%
1 star		7%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Patrick E. Donnelly

Lost in the woods without this

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2006

Verified Purchase

I recently finished a big project that required sync and realistic facial expressions, and reading this book was like being bathed in a pure, heavenly light. Osipa guides you through the creation of numerous plausible blend shapes and helps you avoid the most common errors. Before I bought this, I was doing everything wrong. The range of emotion that this system is capable of expressing is near total, and certainly enough for any project I can think of short of a major motion picture.

Don't make the same mistakes I did the first time around. Unless you have years of instruction on human anatomy in motion under your belt, buy this book before you attempt any kind of lip sync or serious facial animation. It will save you from the pain of building inaccurate shapes and watching your character painfully contort into each of them to strain out an expression. The information Osipa provides on lip sync in the age of computer animation is very, very valuable to someone like myself who has tried to sync in the past and failed. The facial rig that the book provides in the attached CD and the automatic scripts that apply it are, alone, worth twice the modest price of the book.

I have a lot of marginally useful books on 3d that contain just enough information to cash in, but this resource is clearly heartfelt. Osipa wants to teach you how it is done and his easygoing style makes it a pleasure to read.

5 people found this helpful

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MikeWhy

Forty blend shapes...

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2005

Verified Purchase

Brilliant concepts and discussion of details, but somewhat slow in painting the big picture. He never really comes out and says it, so I will. The end result is a control rig for 40 blend shapes, each painstakingly hand drawn and tuned. The state of the art doesn't allow shortcuts; I don't think it ever can or will. If you can accept that all 40 shapes are needed to model the range of human facial expression, this book is for you. Osipa makes a compelling argument that each is necessary; guides you through the modeling to make it possible; and wraps up with an elegant rig to control and manage them all. The result is a talking head, simply amazing in its range and control of nuance. Still, 40 heads per character is a huge investment. Is it worth "Doing Right?" Or can you continue to fake it? Buy the book; play with the rig; and find out for yourself.

31 people found this helpful

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JDH

Every animator should own this book

Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2003

Verified Purchase

I can highly recommend this book to every character animator. Jason's approach to facial animation is different, but very intuitive. And thanks to the CD that comes with it you can clearly see the high quality you can get out of his facial animation setup.
I love the book because I work with Maya, and if you are a Maya user you will get a lot of sweet things out of the book. But of course Jason's method is not about which button to use in what software. He simplified all the current approaches to facial animation and put his own twist to it, and that's the strength of the book. It's not different just to BE different and attract new readers, the way he works makes sense and the results are impressive.
A must buy!

One person found this helpful

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Quinbould

The best book on Virtual Human face animation design.

Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2004

Verified Purchase

As author of "Virtual Humans" I'm always looking for good books that bring a higher level to face animation. This is it. Jason writes in an accessable style, good humor and the kind of authority you want in a book. Frankly most other books that cover this subject are pretty boring and the faces are ugly. Jason is a very talented pro who privides you with everything you need to create the best, most realistic facial animation in remarkably easy ways. I recommend it highly to those of you who want to perfect your face animation techniques. His approach is different and better than any other that I've seen. I especially recommend this book to anyone who has purchased "Virtual Humans"
Peter Plantec

16 people found this helpful

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Tamarisk

Buy 2.

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2008

Verified Purchase

I am a 3d professional artist for a long time, I have to say I have read hundreds of books, watched hours of training videos, read pages of internet tutorials anything related to 3d animation. No other training material comes even close to things I have learned reading this book. It is a treasure that you have to keep somewhere close to your desk as a reference, whether you are modeling a character head, building blend shapes or rigging . I have used the techniques successfully in many projects. I thank Jason Osipa for writing this book and for teaching me how to build superior 3D characters. This is my second SS book, I also have the first edition. This 2nd edition is a lot different then the first.

2 people found this helpful

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Ladfam

Even for non-Maya users...

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2005

Verified Purchase

I knew before purchasing that this book was centered around Maya, and understandably so, as it is the industry standard. However, as a trueSpace user I found this book to be very useful. We can't exactly set up rigs and controls the way Jason does in Maya, but the theories and other ideas presented in the book hold true no matter what application you are using.

If you are serious about lipsync / facial animation, I highly recommend this book.

And also check out Keith Lango's tutorial:

[...]

4 people found this helpful

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GraGra

3D animators NEED THIS BOOK

Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2004

Verified Purchase

I used to use Morph targets and blend shapes previously, although the way it's done in this book is amazing. When you get your character finally rigged up using this method you will praise Jason for enlightening the world. It makes facial animation a breeze and above all, FUN. Plus the controls just "feel" so good.

The Modelling theories are also quite good. Just doing it properly once to any character should be enough to give 3D enthusisats the foundation for better work in the future. I have bought alot of books about 3D from Amazon in the last 3 years and currently study a degree in Animation and let me tell you - this book is the best there is.

5 people found this helpful

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LorenzoS

Super!

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2009

Verified Purchase

An advanced crash course in facial modeling an animation. Of course there is a million ways to do one thing.
This book gives you a great balance of technique and tried and truly production tested solutions for limp syncing and animation.

I recommend.

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Nils Henning Deitmers

Unbedingt lesen

Reviewed in Germany on March 17, 2009

Verified Purchase

Es gibt soweit ich weiß zu diesem Thema kein besseres Buch.

Man merkt, daß der Autor ein Profi ist, der über langjährige praktische Erfahrung verfügt. Daß er zusätzlich ein sehr guter Lehrer ist, macht dieses Buch so wertvoll. Der Ton ist so sympathisch und humorvoll, daß ich das Buch in einem Rutsch durchgelesen habe.
Es vermittelt wertvolles Wissen, das anzuhäufen auf andere Weise ein halbes Leben dauern kann.
Die einzelnen Kapitel bauen dabei logisch aufeinander auf, man fühlt sich nie mit einder Frage allein gelassen, sondern wird behutsam an das Thema herangeführt.
Es werden die technischen Grundlagen der Gesischtsanimation erläutert, wobei das Ziel der Animation genau untersucht und in kleinere Teile heruntergebrochen wird, sodaß ein vereinfachtes System entsteht, das dem Anwender das Arbeiten erleichtert.
Die Modellierung von Augen und Mund wird getrennt behandelt und im Hinblick auf die spätere Animation erklärt.
Es wird genau beleuchtet, was einem Gesicht auf welche Weise ausdruck verleiht. Allein dieser Teil macht das Buch schon interessant. Nicht nur für 3D Grafiker, sondern auch für Zeichner oder Trickfilmer.
Typische Fehler werden aufgedeckt, und es werden bessere Wege gezeigt, das jeweils gewünschte Resultat zu erzielen.
Alle Ausführungen zur Modellierung, Animation und zu Morphtargets beziehen sich zwar auf die Software Maya, sind aber so allgemein gehalten, daß sie auch für Benutzer anderer Programme relevant sind. (Ich selbst bin auch kein Maya Anwender)

Ich kann dieses Buch jedem unbedingt empfehlen, der sich auch nur entfernt für das Thema interessiert. Aufschlußreich ist es Allemal.

Und jetzt noch mal in inglisch:

As far as I know there's no better book on this subject. You'll recognize right away that the author is a professionall who has been working in his field for years. What makes this book so valuable is the fact that on top of that he is a very good teacher with a fine sense of humor. I read through the whole book in one go.

It delivers knowledge that would take a lifetime to accumulate otherwise.
The chapters build on one another in a logical and intuitive way. You never feel left alone with any questions but carefully guided, while being brought closer to the subject.
The book explains the technical aspects of facial animation, it examins the goals and breaks them down into smaller pieces, leaving the reader with a set of rules and workflows that can easily be digested and put to use.
The eyes and the mouth are modelled seperately, regarding their specific parts in animating the face.
You will learn what gives expression to a face most effectively, what mistakes you have probably been making in the process of trying to achieve this expression and how to do it the right way.
All examples concearning modelling, animation, morphtargets and such refer to the software Maya, but they are relevant and useful to useres of other software all the same.

If you have only the slightest interest in the topic of this book I recommend that you read it. You will be delighted and enlightened.

7 people found this helpful

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M. Mähring

top

Reviewed in Germany on November 9, 2011

Verified Purchase

"frohes rentier" schreibt, dass das buch nur mit der entsprechenden software sinn hat; zum glück liegt die in form einer cd bei.
das buch ist großartig; jason osipa's herangehensweise ist eine exzellente mischung; einerseits erklärt er, wie der meshflow eines kopfes aussehen muß, um optimal animierbar zu sein - immerhin haben auch die entsprechenden threads auf cgsociety.org seinen headmesh gewürdigt. andererseits liefert er das toolset, um kompexe animationen zu realisieren. dabei ermöglicht es sein "keyed bump map" workflow auch kleineren studios bzw. solo-artists, filmreife ergebnisse zu erzeugen.

absolut empfehlenswert!

One person found this helpful

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Gaffer

Grundlagenbuch des Charaktermodellierens

Reviewed in Germany on September 7, 2015

Verified Purchase

Führt in die Anfangszeiten der Computer-Charaktermodellierung und -animation zurück. Es hat sich einiges geändert aber die Grundlagen sind die gleichen geblieben. Gut zum Vergleich und auch zur Auffrischung der Freude am kreativen Teil des Computers.

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Bea

überteuert

Reviewed in Germany on February 13, 2015

Verified Purchase

leider bin ich enttäuscht. die lieferzeit hat so lkange gedauert und dann ist das Buch eine enttäuschung. der autor redet nur monolog und stellt sich selbst als absolut herrlich da. so als ob es ausser ihm keine anderen guten 3D animateure gibt.

ein reinfall.

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luis

Libro en muy buen estado. Casi sin usar.

Reviewed in Spain on August 2, 2019

Verified Purchase

El libro esta nuevo. El dvd que lleva en su interior no ha sido usado.

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