Paul Ekman is a psychologist who's gotten a lot of attention lately for his studies of facial expressions. It's a hot issue now because of face recognition software which not only spots terrorists but is used increasingly as a kind of lie detector.
According to Ekman the long lasting expressions can be faked a lot easier than the short-lived ones which may only last for half a second. The short ones are almost involuntary and are fairly sure indicators of what the person's really thinking.
See if you agree with Ekman about how to interpret the short-lived expressions below.
Face #1 (above): Neutral mouth and drooping eyes indicate a slight sadness or tiredness. The eyes still have focus so the tiredness is mild. 
Face#2 (above): If you guessed anger Ekman says you'd be wrong. This is disgust. You can tell by the wrinkled nose and narrowed eyes.
Face #3 (above): Anger or pointed sadness, but this time expressed with the lowered lips alone. Compare this to #1 where the anger is expressed with the eyes alone.
Face #4 (above): Slight enjoyment expressed with the lips alone. The eyes are neutral.
face#5 (above): Highly controlled anger. The woman's getting mad and may not be aware of it herself yet. If you see this face on a real person it means trouble is brewing.
Face #6 (above): Disgust, this time expressed with a slightly raised upper lip and not the nose and eyes as in #2.
Face #7 (above): Upset, miserable. The lowered brows and tensed lower eyelids signal anger as well.
Face#8 (above): Masked anger. Covering up anger with a happy smile. In some circumstances could be amusement at being perplexed.
I'm not recommending the book, I've only had time to skim it, but I thought you'd like to know about it. There's not really enough pictures. How can you discuss faces in a book that's mostly text?
There's a second edition of that book, published this year. You have the first ed.
ReplyDeleteI've read this book cover to cover, and highly recommend it! Don't let the relative lack of pictures turn you off. After all, cartooning's not just about funny pictures, but the feelings and thoughts behind them, right?
ReplyDeleteThe book is full of great little gems of wisdom that animators can use. For example, there's stuff about the timing of expressions, and the order in which they happen in real life situations.
For drawing and anatomy, you can't beat Gary Faigin's book, but this one is an excellent reference for understanding the emotional clockwork behind all that.
A whole other factor is that everyone has there own unique expressions.
ReplyDeleteHaha, which reminds me- my friend Monica from school has confirmed your theory- I close my eyes when I am about to say something that required an extra amount of thought. I do it all the time she says, and that it's one of my quirks. I would have never known if hadn't pointed it out Eddie!
The eyes convey thinking, while the mouth conveys feeling. A thinking character usually have bigger eyes to emote with. A feeling character emotes through exaggerated mouths.
ReplyDeleteI once saw a documentary on expressions, and if one's eyebrows have a sad/worried expression (the inside pointing upward) that could indicate one is lying and feels anguished about it.
ReplyDeletewow, i'm impressed by how her nose changed in that last pic
ReplyDeleteSome of those microexpressions last less that a frame. It's those little "tells" when a persons subtext leaks out. During one of his lectures he brought in footage of Kato Kaelin being cross-examined. Though he generally comes off as a dufus, there are frames where he is snarling viciously at Marcia Clark on some questions. Though it's almost impossible to see at cine speed, it's not subtle at all.
ReplyDeleteOne of the coolest, most useful things he pointed out is that a sincere emotion is symmetrical. A voluntary emotion is not.
http://www.paulekman.com/
For some reason, I am reminded of the look of our dog, who looks deeply betrayed, when we leave the house. (She squints her eyes, amonsgst other things).
ReplyDeleteThere is at least one corresponding book of this sort involving pets; something like "The Body Language of Dogs"
I have studied non-verbal communication theory too. It seems that microexpressions on the face maybe a little too subtle to be of much practacle use. Then again I have never actually tried to animate it. I think general body language is much more useful and instantly recognizable.
ReplyDeleteHowever an interesting point is that people tend to blink when finishing a thought. That is in film editoy Walter Murch's book 'In the Blink of an Eye'
Uncle Eddie, I work at an airbrush t-shirt stand in an amusement park, but last year I also did caricatures! It was a great experience that really made me appreciate all the subtle differences between faces. This year the caricature booth is no more
ReplyDelete, but I use my downtime to sketch and work new shirt designs, etc . . . I posted a page of faces I attempted to capture on my blog, if you'd like to take a look!
This looks like a very interesting read, I am also interested in learning more about how the musculature of the face changes to convey different emotions. I have seen some diagrams and maybe read an article on the subject, but it was a while ago and I didn't bookmark :p Do you have any material on this subject?
Ever taken one of those e-tests where you try to identify the emotion conveyed, or whether a smile was real or faked? I score well on those!
Kelly-I think the BBC website has some excellent online tests of those things, including reading expressions. I scored well on those too-they're fascinating and fun.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure this is a keen book but that model's visage really bugs me for some reason. Not her fault, just one of those things. The book seems like an extension of a couple of those great Time?Life series books we always had in the house "The Mind" etc. They were full of examples of such tests and research, but very accessible as well.
Aaaargh! After writing lengthy reponses to different comments here I just accidentally erased them. I haven't the heart to reconstruct them! Anyway thanks for the interesting comments and recommendations for books!
ReplyDeleteHm. They all look like variations on sarcasm to me. Either sarcasm or beligerent anger.
ReplyDeleteEddie, I saw this documentary on TV that said teenagers are unable to discern emotions in still pictures of people and always come up with "angry"
ReplyDeleteThey showed teenagers pictures of frustrated, repulsed, inquisitive and other emotions, and all age groups and teenagers were able to correctly identify the emotions.
Teenagers said angry for every single picture. I was 12 when I saw it and I thought to myself, "Boy, teenagers are idiots, who could they think that's an angry face?" But now that I'm 18 I wonder what those same pictures would look like to me?
Anyway, just wanted to leave a comment that's tangentially related to this post.
Hi Eddie
ReplyDeleteyou should get your hands on the second edition of Eekmans research Unmasking The Face. It's great if your interested in learning how the human face works when expressing emotions.
You should also recommend to John as it proves his points about the importance of clear facial expressions. I inspired by Johns work have done my own research into the subject, and tried out some of Ekmans theories in cartoon form, and it work to a great extent
Your blog is a real smorgasbord of interesting questions.
Best wishes
Atta Havlykke
Jorge: Holy Cow! That's fascinating! Thanks for posting it!
ReplyDelete