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 models
• Skeletal setup, weighting, and rigging