SN FacialAnatomy - Handbook

Edge Flow for Organic Modeling 1
Sculpting vs. Modeling
For a professional modeler, achieving a pleasing shape isn’t enough. It’s necessary that the model
stands well the deformations it will be subjected to during the animation, and this is specially true
when it comes to characters.
Sculptors can afford to be concerned with making a model as good as possible for one pose only,
but professional modelers working as part of a team in a film, broadcasting or game studio must
deliver meshes with solid topology that is animation friendly.
Art by Rick Baker.
SCULPTING VS. MODELING
Art by Rafael Grassetti.
Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

Topology IS KEY
Topology is the holy grail of modeling, and there are as many opinions about ‘what makes a good
topology’ as there are modelers. It’s important to understand that many of those opinions are based
on underlying technical requirements of the media, and as software evolve, sometimes techniques
become obsolete, causing knowledge that was valid for a specific reason not to be valid anymore.
It’s not unusual that artists working towards a certain final media or with certain software package
will have opinions that are different or in contrast with artist working towards other media.
Therefore constantly familiarizing yourself with the new tools and software packages is an
important part of being a modeler, as well as understanding all aspects of your production pipeline.
Understanding how your model will be skinned, animated, and rendered will help you make good
decisions during the modeling phase and benefit the whole team - including how your model looks
down the line ;)
Gnomon Workshop interview with Ian

Joyner (Blur Studios, Zoic)
GW: Modeling has been

revolutionized in the past few
years. Where do you see the
challenges in modeling now?
IJ: When I started modeling, Zbrush 2

was not out yet. I did everything poly
by poly, or box modeling. I got on the
Zbrush 2 beta shortly before I started
at Blur and it was amazing, being able
to sculpt so many polys. I begin doing
most of my modeling still in traditional
(edge loops) methods and then refine in
Zbrush. The biggest change for me has
been has been with Zbrush 3. I find that
about 80-90% of my work is ALL in a
digital sculpting package. I barely poly
model at this point, changing the idea
of poly by poly to re-topology. But the
more things change the more they stay
the same. You still need to study form,
understand sculpting techniques more
than ever and practice your craft… it is
just more on the artistic side of things
now.
TOPOLOGY IS KEY
Art by Ian Joyner
For real production work the value of a solid base mesh, good topology and efficient poly counts still
matter. At this point, a great Digital Sculptor who can also model with proper topology for animation
is king. In the coming years you will see (as we have now) more and more tools to speed up the
creation of things like UVs and Topology, but the understanding of what makes them work will still
be key.
(Read full interview here)

Zbrush Central interview with Sze Jones (Blur Studios)
ZC: Could you tell us about the role that ZBrush plays in your artwork?
SJ: ZBrush plays a huge part in my artwork. In fact, I think ZBrush revolutionized the entire
industry. Knowing that one brush stroke in ZBrush equal 10-15 verts being pulled for five minutes
means I have more time to focus on the artistic process.
I am really meticulous about the topology of the model. It is important to me to build a mesh that
will work well with body and facial deformation. However, when I alter the topology of a mesh
using traditional modeling methods it often changes the form that I have created -- and it’s very
frustrating. With ZBrush I am able to make my topology as perfect as I want it to be, and use
the sculpting tool to get shapes in place very quickly. In fact, I could sculpt and not worry about
topology first and then retopologize it afterwards. It’s very versatile and fabulous.
(Read full interview here)
Art by Sze Jones

TOPOLOGY IS KEY

The Human Face

There are many different opinions about how to model human faces and successful facial topology.
For many, the goal is to create the ultimate facial topology that can be used for any human face,
regardless of race, gender or age.
While we are still far from having universal agreement on what’s the optimal face, all successful
facial topology take into consideration how the face moves, both on the skin deformation, and also
on the underlying muscle groups.
It’s necessary therefore for the character modeler to have a minimum understanding of the facial
movements and main muscle groups. The goal is not a static understanding or anatomical precision
- more important than memorizing the names of muscle groups, it’s to understand how they work
together to create the different range of facial expressions.
We’ll start by looking at the surface vs underlying muscle anatomy of the face, and then proceed to
look at the main areas of the face individually - mouth, eyes, forehead/ eyebrow, nose, and ears.
THE HUMAN FACE

Topolgoy and FAcial Muscles
TOPOLOGY AND FACIAL MUSCLES

Art by Leticia Kao.
Art by Jean Galbert Salvage.








The Planes of the Face
One of the things 3d modelers most often overlook are the overall proportions and planes of the
face. Because we usually work from a set of front and side reference pictures, it’s easy to overlook
how the face looks from different angles - ie, top, bottom, back.
It’s important that you constantly look at your model from different angles, under different light
conditions and with different materials so that no detail goes unnoticed. This is specially true
if you’re sculpting in Zbrush or Mudbox, where the high amount of polygons can easily lead to
unexpected surprises if you’re not careful! :)
PLANES OF THE FACE

PLANES OF THE FACE

PLANES OF THE FACE

The Forehead
The forehead is one of the simplest regions of the face, and it’s controlled by two muscles only, the
frontalis, and the corrugator.
Frontalis
Corrugator
THE FOREHEAD
While the forehead by itself is hardly ever used in an isolated motion, it plays an essential role as a
supporting muscle and is present in expressions of surprise, doubt, concern, and pity.

The frontalis controls the up and down movement of the forehead, and is involved in the movements
raising the eyebrow. That’s why we can raise our eyebrows more towards the middle and interior
than the exterior, since the frontalis muscle doesn’t touch the exterior area of the eyebrow.
THE FOREHEAD - FRONTALIS

The corrugator is a small muscle that starts roughly on the inner side of the eye socket and ends on
the top of the middle eyebrow. Unlike the frontalis that compresses in a single direction (up), the
corrugator can be moved up or down and is a muscle used in a wide range of frowning expressions.
THE FOREHEAD - CORRUGATOR

the Eye
The eyes are controlled by a single and powerful muscle group called the Orbicularis Oculi. The
orbicularis is a circular muscle capable of great compression and a series of micro-movements. The
outer edges of the orbicularis are attached to the skull’s eye socket, while the inner edges keep the
eye globe in place.
Orbicularis Oculi
Even though the Orbicularis Oculi is studied as a single muscle group, it’s a complex organ that’s
capable both of voluntary movements (ie, blinking eyelids, squinting), and also involuntary
THE EYE
movements (the true smile that reaches the eye).
The results on the skin level of the orbicularis oculi vary greatly depending on age, physical condition
and skin condition. Ie, an older skin with a significant amount of wrinkles will reflect the orbicularis
movements different than a young skin free of wrinkles.

THE EYE - ORBICULARIS OCULI

The Mouth
The movements of the mouth are affected and controlled by three distinct regions - the jaw, the
chin, and the lips.
All three act in conjunction to create the wide range of movements the mouth is capable of. It’s the
wide combination of movements of the mouth and tongue that help us articulate our speech and
are essential for good facial animation.
We’ll study each of the three areas separately, starting with the jaw.
Levator Labii
Levator Angulis Oris
Buccinator
Orbicularis Oris
Depressor Angulis Oris
Masseter
THE MOUTH
Mentalis
Depressor Labi

The Jaw
The jaw is the only region of the face voluntarily controlled by a bone, the mandible. Notice that
only the lower mandible moves, the cranium stays in place at all time. It’s a common mistake of
beginning artists to try and ‘lift’ the top of the mouth palate in open mouth expressions.
The movements of the jaw also cause deformations on the neck and cheeks. In overweight people,
the jaw can cause the neck to compress into what’s called a ‘double chin’. Chewing motions cause
the whole cheek to move, up to the junction point near the ear.
The masseter is the main muscle responsible for opening and closing the jaw.
THE JAW - MASSETER
Masseter

THE JAW - MASSETER

The Chin
The chin movement is mostly controlled by the Mentalis, although it usually acts in conjunction
with the Masseter (moving both jaw and chin), or with the depressors (moving both lips and chin).
The Mentalis can move the chin both up and down. In the downwards movement, the muscle
attachments are usually visible through the skin due to the thin layer of muscle covering the
mandibula in the chin region.
THE CHIN - MENTALIS
Mentalis

THE CHIN - MENTALIS

The Lower Lip
The lower lip is controlled by two main muscle groups, the depressor labii and the depressor anguli
oris. The depressor labii lowers the lower lips; the depressor anguli oris lowers the corner of the
lips.
Depressor Angulis Oris

THE LOWER LIP
Depressor Labi

THE LOWER LIP - DEPRESSOR LABII

THE LOWER LIP - DEPRESSOR ANGULARIS ORIS

The Upper Lip
Like the lower lip, the upper lip is also controlled by two groups of muscles: the levator labii, and
the levator anguli oris. Like the corresponding lower lip set, the levator labii raises the upper lips,
while the levator anguli oris raises the corners of the lips.
Levator Labii
Levator Angulis Oris

THE UPPER LIP

THE UPPER LIP - LEVATOR LABII

THE LOWER LIP - LEVATOR ANGULARIS ORIS

The Lips
The region of the lips itself is controlled by a circular muscle group called the orbicular oris, which
is very similar to the orbicular oculi, expect that where the oculi surrounds the eye globe, the oris
ends in an opening with the mouth cavity.
In conjunction with the obicular oris which purses the lips, the buccinator pulls the lips wide and
tight. The buccinator is a muscle that starts in the cheek and connects with the orbicular oris.
Buccinator
Orbicularis Oris
THE LIPS

THE LIPS - ORBICULARIS ORIS

THE LIPS - BUCCINATOR

Combining it all
Although there are other muscles that play a part in the facial animation, as a modeler you can focus
on the main areas we discussed above - eyes, mouth, lips, forehead - and treat the surrounding
areas as ‘connective’ tissue.
The cheeks for instance connect the eye and mouth/ jaw area, and their deformation is limited on
the top by the cheekbone and eye group, on the bottom by the jaw, on the side by the lips and on
the back by the ear.
The nose is shape dependent, in the sense that the shape of the noses can differ significantly
between Caucasians, Asians and Africans, and the modeling has to take this into consideration. The
nose itself presents little deformation, although the deformations from the eyes and mouth ‘spread’
into the nose area creating wrinkles - specially in disgust and frowning expressions.
The ear is for all intents and purposes a non-deformable object and you can also model according
to shape more than deformation.
But what does this mean for a modeler?
While you’ll have to find your own perfect face mesh, and there’ll always be different opinions on
what constitutes the best facial topology, you do need to take into consideration that the mouth/jaw
eye and forehead regions are the most important areas of your facial model - in that order. From
1-10 in order of importance, we can roughly grade the areas as follow:
mouth/ jaw - 10
eye - 9
forehead - 4
everything else - 2
Since most characters will have at least some level of dialogue/ lip sync, the mouth region is
very important. It’s usually the most heavily animated region of the face, and it’s extremely
important that you familiarize yourself with the facial animation technique being used on
your project.
Usually your face animation will be either:
very simple bone setup (ie, 4 mouth bones)

complex bone setup (30+ bones for the full face)
blendshapes (model/ sculpt shapes for each target)
A mouth that will be animated using 4 bones only will have limited deformation and won’t show all
BACK TO MODELING
that extra work you put in for creating nice crease areas. A 30+ bones setup will require strategically
placed edge loops to take advantage of the bones setup. A blendshape system on the other hand
will require easy to select loops and heavy topology to allow for the sculpting of micro details.
Each system presents a unique challenge for the modeler, as well as specific requirements. It’s
important you always test the pipeline by working in a generic head until the model + technical
setup (rigging/ skinning/ controls) + animation work smoothly.
Never use your main character’s head as a test - no matter how tempted you might be.
The more you and the team produce, the better you’ll get at it and your 3rd or 4th head will be
significantly superior in quality to the first one. You don’t want the hero to end up looking old tech/
lower quality than the rest of the cast!

A bone based animation system (above), and a blendshape animation system (below).
BACK TO MODELING

For this course, we’ll base our facial topology on Angela Guenette’s system used for the movie
Sintel. It’s an easy to follow system based on the main muscle groups we’ve covered and works
well both for low and high resolution meshes.
You can also check the full tutorial/ course on the DVD workshop Blenderella, via Blender 3D.
The starting point for this setup, is to clearly define the boundaries of your mouth and eye mask
areas.
THE MOUTH AND EYE MASK AREAS

The Mouth Region
THE MOUTH REGION

THE MOUTH REGION

The Eye Region
THE EYE REGION

THE EYE REGION

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Edge Flow for Organic Modeling 1

Sculpting vs. Modeling

Art by Rick Baker.

SCULPTING VS. MODELING

Art by Rafael Grassetti.

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

Gnomon Workshop interview with Ian

GW: Modeling has been

IJ: When I started modeling, Zbrush 2

Art by Ian Joyner

(Read full interview here)

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

Zbrush Central interview with Sze Jones (Blur Studios)

(Read full interview here)

Art by Sze Jones

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

The Human Face

THE HUMAN FACE

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

Topolgoy and FAcial Muscles

TOPOLOGY AND FACIAL MUSCLES

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

Art by Leticia Kao.

TOPOLOGY AND FACIAL MUSCLES

Art by Jean Galbert Salvage.

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

TOPOLOGY AND FACIAL MUSCLES

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

TOPOLOGY AND FACIAL MUSCLES

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

TOPOLOGY AND FACIAL MUSCLES

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

TOPOLOGY AND FACIAL MUSCLES

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

TOPOLOGY AND FACIAL MUSCLES

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

TOPOLOGY AND FACIAL MUSCLES

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

TOPOLOGY AND FACIAL MUSCLES

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

The Planes of the Face

PLANES OF THE FACE

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

PLANES OF THE FACE

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

PLANES OF THE FACE

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

THE FOREHEAD - FRONTALIS

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

THE FOREHEAD - CORRUGATOR

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

movements (the true smile that reaches the eye).

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

THE EYE - ORBICULARIS OCULI

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

Levator Angulis Oris

Depressor Angulis Oris

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

THE JAW - MASSETER

Animation III Nataska Statham (nataska.statham@hgo.se)

THE JAW - MASSETER