Anatomy of Facial Expression

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Create realistic expressions that inspire real emotions

smile face muscle anatomy of facial expression anatomy for sculptors

Visual artists
are visual thinkers

Often the most challenging area of human anatomy to master. Since people intuitively recognize badly faked expressions. 

Anatomy of Facial Expression teaches all the primary facial anatomy and muscles. And the movement and collaboration of them to create realistic expressions.

3D and live models

The visual references in Anatomy of Facial Expression include pictures of live models, portrait photos overlaid with 3D renderings of facial muscles.

And photogrammetry scans of neutral and expressed faces, as well as 3D models of skull structures.

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Judith Beheading Holofernes Caravaggio
Caravaggio Judith Beheading Holofernes by Michelangelo close up
The Last Day of Pompei by Carl Brullov
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Learning how to understand anatomy

Real emotions are hard to fake. We need to learn the subtle visual nuances that make us connect with a character’s inner world. 

Anatomy of Facial Expression lets you understand the anatomy behind the delicate facial movements and provides you with the language to convey them.

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The essential
part is how it looks

When it comes to anatomy for artists, the visual aspect is what matters the most. It doesn’t mean being superficial – visual references are simply more directly applicable to creating visual artworks.

rage facial muscles anatomy of facial expression anatomy for sculptors

F.A.C.S.

Facial Action Coding System by Paul Ekman. We’ve listed the FACS codes along with their corresponding visual images for a quick reference.

For all visual artists

We shape the knowledge in an empowering way for all kinds of visual artists. Regardless of whether you’re in digital art, CGI, VFX, character design, 2D or 3D, traditional art, etc., you’ll find Anatomy of Facial Expression helpful.

These companies let us put their logos here. They also use our books in their everyday work.

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Industry expert
experiences and uses

Tiago Rios

Character Artist

– Santa Monica Studio

The book gives literally hundreds of easy tips for new and experienced sculptors interested…

Yuri Alexander​

Sr. Staff Character Artist

– Sony Bend

Anatomy for sculptors is the clearest and most comprehensive anatomy reference material that I have seen…

Frederic Daoust

Senior Character Artist

– Epic Games

Anatomy for Sculptors books are my go to references for whenever I’m sculpting a character…

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Tiago Rios

Tiago Rios

Character Artist

– Santa Monica Studio

The book gives literally hundreds of easy tips for new and experienced sculptors interested in pursuing their anatomy studies but not sure how to begin.

To me, the most helpful section was the head and legs, the head for its complexity and amount of very tiny muscles composing it; the legs for its shapes and silhouette. 

The book doesn`t only teach you the name of the muscles but more importantly shows you how the muscles interact to form the big forms.

tiago-rios-crop-scorpion

Yuri Alexander

Sr. Staff Character Artist

– Sony Bend

Anatomy for sculptors is the clearest and most comprehensive anatomy reference material that I have seen.

Their topological drawings, anatomy diagrams, and kinesiology examples do a better job of simplifying and breaking down the human body into understandable forms than any other resource available.

I use their work as reference to help clarify anatomy on every human I sculpt.

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Frederic Daoust profile pic epic games

Frederic Daoust

Senior Character Artist

– Epic Games

Anatomy for Sculptors books are my go to references for whenever I’m sculpting a character. 

The books have all the information I need as a sculptor and are super well organized to easily find whatever area of the body I am working on. The way they simplify shapes to help modelers understand them in three dimensions is something I haven’t seen done that well in other anatomy references books and that I find particularly helpful. 

I highly recommend those books to anyone looking to learn anatomy or for any sculptor  to have on hand to quickly find specific anatomy references. 

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