Eyebrows Tutorial - Carlos Baena
- Blocks: Brows can be treated as two blocks connected. They affect each other. Shapes should be thought as a combination of BOTH brows, not each of them separately.
- Connectivity: I think of a Brow as if there is an imaginary line connecting both of them. That way, whatever on of them is doing, will affect in some way what the other one is doing. Moving just one separate eyebrow, although possible, it makes the eye area of the face somewhat disconnected.
- Anatomy: It’s important to know which muscles do what. I would highly recommend going over the book by Gary Faigin on Facial Muscles, to understand what movements are caused by which muscles. That way you are not animating parts of the eyebrows for no reason. This will help riggers as well.
- Subtlety: This is a difficult area. The eyebrows can have really tiny almost micro movements that yet say so much about what a character is thinking. Go study clips of people thinking. A good test is to study people when they are not watching or when they are not acting as that will give you a good and more realistic idea about what muscles are being used and why.
