Sept/oct 2024 - Arts - Authentic facial movement: A FACS based primer on naturalistic action and emotion hot-spots (Erika Rosenberg)

Programme de la formation

If your work is to create realistic virtual human faces, then an appreciation of actual human facial action is essential. Detailed study of human facial behavior using the Facial Action Coding System, (FACS) will deepen your understanding of both the form and dynamics of authentically moving human faces, which will enhance your work. In this one day master class, Dr. Rosenberg will offer brief, but in-depth sampling of FACS, a comprehensive, anatomically based system for measuring all observable facial movement that has become the gold-standard reference for digital artists. This FACS primer will feature a history of FACS’s development, a brief dive into this anatomically-basedmethodology for facial measurement, and a discussion of crucial considerations for the application of this measurement tool and knowledge of its parts (namely the action units or AUs) to the creation of moving faces in the arts. This primer should instill an appreciation for subtleties of facial movement, while helping the curious decide if learning more about FACS or the application of FACS is useful to them. A one-day training is not sufficient to learn FACS, but it will be a deep sampling that gives the learner a good sense of what FACS is and how to apply it. In addition, we will take the “microscope” of FACS to a subset of the vast human facial expression repertoire by focusing on key facial actions and combinations of actions that convey particular emotional information. We will look at “core action areas” for depicting emotion. This exploration will include some areas of detail on FACS as well as some affective science on the situations in which certain emotion expression occur. Learners will gain an enhanced understanding of the exquisite complexity of human facial expression, the power of a subtle action, and an appreciation of natural human faces move. Finally, Dr. Rosenberg will offer some ready to implement, “take home” advice on how to use knowledge from FACS research on emotion to convey feeling in animated faces. September 30th 2024 in Paris - October 02nd 2024 in Lyon