EYE BLINKS AND FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

EYE BLINKS :


Blinking provides moisture to the eye by irrigation using tears and a lubricant the eyes secrete. The eyelid provides suction across the eye from the tear duct to the entire eyeball to keep it from drying out.

Blinking also protects the eye from irritants.Eye lashes are hairs attached to the upper and lower eyelids that create a line of defense against dust and other elements to the eye. The eyelashes catch most of these irritants before they reach the eyeball.
In animation when we are giving blinks to the character then we should keep this in mind that :


1. Blinks Have Meaning!2. Skipping a strong foundation in the basics in order to get to acting scenes quicker shoots yourself in the foot.
3. Never animate anything without a reason.
4. Don't say "No way!" to an Animation Director.
5. We blink to cut the "film of our life."


- Blinks are so much more than any kind of physical dry-eye response.
- Blinks are the key to selling many emotions. Fire up some of your favorite films and study the eyes of good actors.
- When do they blink?
- Why?
- What does it feel like?
- How does it make you feel?

While animating a character try to show a little part of the eye puple at all points of time.even if the character is facing away from the camera and we are seeing only the back of the character then also we should try to cheat and bring at least a minimum part of the pupil in view
Eye direction has to be taken care of at time of blocking a character has to fix/plant its eye on the other character with whom it is talking to.See to it that the eyes don't go here and there.
When closing/opening the eyelids see to it that at no point of time the eyeball should appear total white.At least a minimum of the eye pupil should be seen at all times along with eye blink,
Add eye darting when the eyes of a character is static for long period of time.specially when the character is in close up/tight close up shot.
When a character is looking down ,lower down its eye lid so that it should at least touch the eye pupil.u can also further lower it to touch the eye ris,when it is looking up,make its eyebrow a little up,the eye white should not be seen at the upper part of the eye pupil,but should be at the lower part of the pupil.only in case of angry,surprise or some special/un common expression the white can be at the upper normally at blinks.
Normally eyelid takes two frames to close,two frames to hold in closed pose and two frames to open
Blinks usually happens at the time of head turn and it follows the movement of the head and not the body.




EYE DARTING:




Movement of the eye pupil within a very limited area/circumference without changing the eye direction.

This is very much helpful to keep the character alive when neither it is delivering a dialogue nor it is doing any major action but very close to the camera,
Usually the changing of the pupil results in the change in the look-at/eye direction of the character.but if the change is very minimum,within a specified area then the eye direction does not change and at the same time the eye or rather the character does not look dead in spite of doing no action at all. the area or the circumference of the eye darting depends on the comparative size of the eye pupil to the eyeball.


EXPRESSIONS

Expressions are important in animation to convey the action of the story , expressions like HAPPY,ANGRY,SAD,SURPRISE, etc,.