Facial Anim_Eyes Animation

In this lesson, I learned that eyes are the most important part of facial animation. The main elements are blink, eye dart and eyebrow movement. The logic is clear: thoughts come first, then eye movement, and finally body reaction.

Blink must have a clear motivation instead of happening randomly. It can show a change of attitude, a shift in eye direction, a change of thought, head movement, or long staring. When a blink has a reason, the performance feels more natural and connected.Through the classroom demonstration, I realised that blink animation is not as simple as I thought before. It is not just three keyframes to close and open the eyes. It requires more keyframes to create smooth transition and continuous movement. It can also include squash and stretch to make the motion feel softer and more organic. All these details help the animation look more believable and fluid.

Eye dart shows that the character is thinking or collecting information. It keeps the character alive. The eyes should move in a straight line and always lock onto a clear target. The eyelids must follow the eye movement, and the energy level should stay consistent.

About Eyebrows , I learned that we need to separate intentional blink and natural blink. If the blink is intentional, we can add eyebrow movement to support the emotion. But for a natural blink, adding eyebrow movement can be distracting and unnecessary.Eyebrows also show different meanings. When a character asks a question and already knows the answer, the brows usually go up. When the character is unsure, the brows go down. These small changes can clearly affect how the audience understands the emotion.

I understand that small eye movements can strongly affect the character’s emotion and believability. Eyes are not just details, they drive the performance.

Assignment: Facial Pose (Connecting Poses)

When connecting the three poses, I first followed the teacher’s advice and thought about several key questions: which part moves first, which part follows, whether a blink is needed, and when to use slow in and slow out. I also considered if the head and chest should move slightly.

Before animating, I recorded my own reference video. After analysing the timing and order of movement, I added eye movement between the first and second poses. Because there was a head turn, I added two extra keyframes during the turn to make the direction change clearer.

Between the second and third poses, I added a blink to connect the emotional change and make the transition smoother.

In the final animation, the eyes move first, then the head, and finally the body follows. This order makes the movement more natural and clear.

Assignment: Heavy Object & Change of Mind (Spline+Polish)