What are the best ways to create dynamic and expressive facial animations in 2D animation?

1 Sketching and Planning

The first step to create facial animations is to sketch and plan your character's design and expression. You need to have a clear idea of what your character looks like, what their personality is, and what emotions they will show in different situations. You can use reference images, mood boards, or character sheets to help you with this. Sketching and planning will help you to define the shape, size, and position of the facial features, as well as the style and tone of your animation.

2 Rigging and Posing

The next step is to rig and pose your character's face. Rigging is the process of creating a skeleton or structure that controls the movement and deformation of the facial features, while posing is the process of creating keyframes or snapshots of the facial expression at different moments. Depending on your software and preference, there are various tools and methods available to rig and pose your character's face. These include using bones, joints, or controllers to create a flexible and adjustable rig that can move and rotate the facial features; using morph targets, blend shapes, or shape keys to create a set of predefined facial expressions that can be blended and mixed together; and using drawing tools, layers, or masks to create custom facial expressions by drawing or editing the facial features directly.

3 Timing and Easing

The third step in facial animation is adjusting the timing and easing. Timing is the duration and speed of the facial expression changes, while easing is the acceleration and deceleration of those changes. Depending on your software and preference, you can use various tools and methods to adjust the timing and easing of your facial animations, such as curves, graphs, or dopesheets to edit the interpolation and spacing of keyframes or poses. You can also use in-betweens, breakdowns, or tweens to create smooth transitions between keyframes or poses. Additionally, you can add anticipation, overshoot, or follow-through to create dynamic and exaggerated facial expression changes.

4 Syncing and Lip-syncing

The fourth step is to sync and lip-sync your facial animations. Syncing involves matching the facial expression with the context and mood of the scene, while lip-syncing is matching the mouth movement with the voice or sound of the character. Depending on your software and preference, you can use various tools and methods to sync and lip-sync your facial animations. For example, markers, cues, or scripts can be used to identify the key moments and emotions of the scene; phonemes, visemes, or mouth shapes can be used to create a set of basic mouth movements that correspond to the sounds or words of the voice or sound; and expressions, gestures, or eye movements can be used to enhance the communication and emotion of the character.

5 Testing and Refining

The fifth step is to test and refine your facial animations. This involves checking the quality and consistency of your facial animations, as well as improving and polishing them. Depending on your software and preference, you can use various tools and methods for testing and refining. For instance, you can use previews, renders, or playblasts to view and evaluate your facial animations in different formats and resolutions. You can also get feedback, critiques, or reviews from others to learn how to improve your facial animations. Finally, you can use adjustments, corrections, or fixes to modify and optimize your facial animations according to the feedback received.

6 Experimenting and Learning

The sixth and final step is to experiment and learn from your facial animations. To do this, you can use a variety of tools and methods, depending on your software and preference. For example, you can use tutorials, courses, or books to learn new techniques. Additionally, you can study and analyze other animators' work by using examples, inspirations, or references. Finally, you can apply and showcase your facial animation skills and knowledge through challenges, projects, or portfolios.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?