Lips, brows, frown lines--they’re 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 God’s 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 (they’re funny!) and enjoying Osipa’s 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 he’s talking about, even when it’s his own animated mug that’s doing the talking! --Angelynn Grant


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


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


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


Book Description
Over the past few years, 3D animation has become increasingly sophisticated. Done right, facial animation can now breathe life into inanimate 3D objects. As a result, industry and consumer demand for believable facial modeling and animation has grown dramatically. Stop Staring is the first book to focus on this tricky yet satisfying art. Here, author and professional animator Jason Osipa shares what he's learned through several years of firsthand professional experience, offering a practical, heavily illustrated guide to one of the most challenging aspects of 3D animation. In the course of the book, Osipa takes models in a variety of styles all the way from design and modeling to proper rigging and animation. His humorous, engaging approach combined with the book's professional-quality examples and depth of discussion make Stop Staring accessible to a wide audience while still invaluable to even advanced animators. We're proud to announce that this book is an "Alias-Wavefront Approved" title. Although much of its content applies broadly to 3D work in a variety of software packages, Maya is the focus for all software-specific examples. Stop Staring is printed on quality coated paper for crisp image reproduction throughout. It features a color insert showcasing the subtleties that color and shading provide in creating realistic facial features, plus a CD with models, textures, lip-synching samples, completed animations, and other related files to help readers complete their own facial animations.


From the Back Cover
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 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 modelsSkeletal setup, weighting, and rigging On the CD The enclosed CD features models, lip-synching samples and practice audio, completed animations, and other related files to help you refine your own facial animations. Includes Maya Personal Learning Edition software!


About the Author
Jason Osipa has been working as a professional 3D facial animator and modeler since 1996. He has served as the Supervising Technical Artist at Mainframe Entertainment, award-winning creator of CGI animation for television and film, and has taught CG animation and production at the Vancouver Film School. Jason currently works at Maxis, makers of SimCity.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
It￯﾿ﾽs an amazing time for 3D animators. It￯﾿ﾽs now possible to do things that were never before possible. Prime among them: realistic 3D facial modeling and animation.

While realistic facial animation is now doable, however, the techniques have typically been viewed as complex and daunting. Stop Staring will change that.

Few people know more about the subject than author Jason Osipa. He served as Lip Sync Technical Director for the cult classic Reboot; as animator for Surreal Software￯﾿ﾽs The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; as Technical Designer for Mainframe Entertainment￯﾿ﾽs Barbie as Rapunzel.

Stop Staring reflects Osipa￯﾿ﾽs breadth of experience. You￯﾿ﾽll find examples in a many styles here, and coverage of the entire process -- from design and modeling through proper rigging, and beyond. Many of Osipa￯﾿ﾽs ideas can be found in no other book.

He starts with the basics of animated lip sync. Traditional CGI lip sync has traditionally been frustrating, and facial motion capture or automated sync aren￯﾿ﾽt quite there yet. But with Osipa￯﾿ﾽs help, lip sync becomes an easy entry point to full-fledged facial animation.

As he says, ￯﾿ﾽpeople￯﾿ﾽs mouths don￯﾿ﾽt do that much during speech. Things like smiles and frowns and all sorts of neat gooey faces are cool, and we￯﾿ﾽll get to them later, but for now we￯﾿ﾽre just talking sync. Plain old speech. Deadpan and emotionless￯﾿ﾽ￯﾿ﾽ Mouths go ￯﾿ﾽclosed/open￯﾿ﾽ (jaw movement) and ￯﾿ﾽnarrow/wide￯﾿ﾽ (lip movement).

You￯﾿ﾽll be surprised how much you can get away with, knowing just that much. Which helps Osipa make crucial points about what￯﾿ﾽs important, what isn￯﾿ﾽt, and how to simplify facial animation without compromising realism. When it comes to lip sync, for example, some sounds -- visimes, or ￯﾿ﾽvisual phonemes￯﾿ﾽ -- need to be represented visually. (Think ￯﾿ﾽoo￯﾿ﾽ as in ￯﾿ﾽfood.￯﾿ﾽ) Others, you can usually ignore.

By the end of Chapter 1, you￯﾿ﾽre creating quality lip syncs yourself. Osipa turns next to eyes, brows, and eyelids, which express your characters￯﾿ﾽ emotions. Animators tend to spend too much time on brows, not enough on eyes and eyelids. You￯﾿ﾽll control the continuum of alertness vs. sleepiness, even learn about the contribution each eyelid makes to emotion.

He then introduces landmarking: the art of finding the real cues for the impressions we get. (They often don￯﾿ﾽt come from where you think.) This is crucial for understanding the relationships amongst facial features, so you can precisely control your character￯﾿ﾽs ￯﾿ﾽacting.￯﾿ﾽ

In Part II, you￯﾿ﾽll build a model of a mouth that can do anything your real mouth can do; in Part III, you￯﾿ﾽll do likewise for eyes and brows. Part IV brings the whole face together. Osipa covers connecting features; skeletal setup, weighting, and rigging; creating facial interfaces, and more.

In addition to scores of examples throughout, Stop Staring contains a color insert to demonstrate what you can do with color and shading. There￯﾿ﾽs a CD full of models, textures, lip sync samples, finished animations, and related resources. (You can use Stop Staring with any tool, but Osipa￯﾿ﾽs examples were created in Maya, and his book is ￯﾿ﾽAlias-Wavefront Approved.￯﾿ﾽ)

If you￯﾿ﾽre a serious animator, this book needs to be in your library. Bill Camarda

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks for Dummies, Second Edition.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this 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.

SYNOPSIS

Over the past few years, 3D animation has become increasingly sophisticated. Done right, facial animation can now breathe life into inanimate 3D objects. As a result, industry and consumer demand for believable facial modeling and animation has grown dramatically.

Stop Staring is the first book to focus on this tricky yet satisfying art. Here, author and professional animator Jason Osipa shares what he's learned through several years of firsthand professional experience, offering a practical, heavily illustrated guide to one of the most challenging aspects of 3D animation.

In the course of the book, Osipa takes models in a variety of styles all the way from design and modeling to proper rigging and animation. His humorous, engaging approach combined with the book's professional-quality examples and depth of discussion make Stop Staring accessible to a wide audience while still invaluable to even advanced animators.

We're proud to announce that this book is an "Alias-Wavefront Approved" title. Although much of its content applies broadly to 3D work in a variety of software packages, Maya is the focus for all software-specific examples.