Facial expressions tutorial

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Having some trouble with facial expressions, I decided to study them using FACS and I found that they can be sorted in a quite satisfying way. Here I made a video about it :
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=202f6-xUzzQ[/youtube]

Does that make sense to you?

This does appear to be fairly interesting. Thank you for sharing.

A very good video

It makes expressions easier to understand when you can break them down into the constituent parts

I don't seem to have the same level of control of my facial expressions as the average person; it seems more limited
as I can't do a single eyebrow lift for example, just both together

I also think that when I smile in what i think is a friendly way, it can often be taken as contempt as people can sometimes look
perturbed by it

I have to think myself into a postivie mindset to give a more genuine smile as if I do one off the cuff it evidently comes across as ingenuine to some people or too much of a change from straight faced/expressionless to smiling ie looks very forced, which it often is but I am still trying to convey friendliness/do what is expected of me. If anxious thoughts get in the way of the attempt at a friendly smile it shows up in the expression and makes it go wrong - this is what I think happens.

If I go to open the door to someone it works better if I have the smile on my face before I open the door as if I do it just
on first seeing the person they can often look confused so it's like I have to warm up the smile first to make it seem more genuine/proper lol

While I only have a little trouble with facial expressions, I enjoy this video. I think it could help many people.

nessa238 I have a similar inability with my own face , No single eyebrow lifts here too . When I try too raise one eyebrow I just end up contorting all my face and look like I am having a stroke .

I also discovered from a helper I got for a few months recently that my face seems to be in a constant state of anger when I am really sad. I am guessing that this is not really helping as I suffer with depression . He said "unless you looked in you'r eyes you would never know , as you have the saddest eyes I have ever seen" I looked in the mirror for hours after that but could not for the life of me see see the anger . When I
go out I do tend to try and smile but that seems unnatural and makes my face hurt . My daughter dos not like me smiling at her though as
she says it scares the life out of her.

I seem to never be able to make expressions correctly. I always end up looking like sheldon cooper off of Big Bang Theory.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZSqMQc0xM0[/youtube]

Everyone would always tell me to smile for the camera, I'd look like that, and then they'd take 500 more pictures until I got it "right" .

Reading expressions is a bit tough considering I hardly ever look at faces (which I didn't realize I did until I came here). As long as they are exaggerated I can usually get by. Anime has always been particularly easy. And most people like to inflate their expressions so it's easy to catch.

Other people's reactions to things help me fill in any blanks I may be missing.

This video is helpful to see the differences in expressions, but as it stands I have a hard time moving my face in those ways, and I hardly see peoples faces for reading the expressions.

Thanks a lot for the feedback.

@thegreataturn:
Yes it is not simple to find how to activate the muscles of the face. However you can try to activate somewhere around the face and see what happens, until you find the right spot.

@Kafke:
I understand that not looking at faces makes it difficult to identify those expressions. However, it is very fast once you are familiar with them, you can recognize them instantly. Your inconscious mind is capable to check in a glance everything you have learnt.

Also I think it is less frightening to look at faces when you have this knowledge because the reaction is less emotional, you rather see "oh this looks like anger", "oh this looks like fear", etc.

I have watched the video over and over and I don't get any of it . I tried out some of expressions and they don't seem to match up with my emotions at all .I tried and tried but it all seems wrong .

The pain face just seems to make me want to go to the toilet . It seems to be linked with constipation or some such thing

The sad face makes me want to say " you poor thing " It's the face I use when the kids are trying to get there own way and I am not having it ( sarcasm ?)

Most of the rest I find totally unnatural and a bit odd . My face dose not seem to flex in the same way . I have a hard time flexing my forehead and If I try I end up with one my migraines.

I did find one thing very interesting though . The bit about " pressing you'r lips together is only used in anger " I have my lips pressed together all the time ,it's just the way my face sits . Plus I hide my stimming ( never even heard this word before I found this forum ) that way to look more normal. When I was younger I used to do more outward things like rocking ect but it soon becomes apparent at school that this is not normal so ( I'm not sure if it was a thing I even thought about or just did) I switched to tapping my right canines together .
Sadly now those teeth are bent out of shape and from being about sixteen the left side of my jaw has had a loud click to it . Am not sure if the click is because of this or if it is a result of being shot point black in the face with an high power air rifle when I was ten though .

I spent some time looking at what I usually do for my emotions in the mirror . I feel like I moving my face but nothing much happens . Only when I force it and then it looks and feels wrong. I always thought I did a good job with this sort of thing but it seems I may just have been kidding my self for years .

I also thought I could read people quite well and it seems I was wrong about that too. I did the test with matching eyes to emotions last night and never realised how hard it is ( they all just looked like eyes to me ) I ended up getting a 19 but most of that was guessing.It's no wander I have problems with people not liking me that much . What I want to know is how I can be so wrong about so many things about myself for so long and have no idea .It's all making my head hurt .

It's a situation when we can get this kind of face too!


Yes, it's a bit of acting.


Personaly, I found difficult to do fear and sadness at the beginning, it's a tension in the forehead. Anyway, you can express fear by just opening the eyes wide and doing to the mouth.


Oh, yes, it's only used by anger on this graph, but thinking about it, it can just mean that you are refraining from something. When someone hides his feeling, do not want to cry for example.


Oh tooth things are painful.


Yes, I suppose there can be some inhibition of the face, so that our emotions do not show up when they are low. I suppose there can be some inhibition because we do not want to show emotions, because we are afraid to share emotions, which includes interaction with other people, which is not easy.


We do not see our face most of the time, so it's not obvious to know what we do with it. Same thing with our voice, that we do not hear the same way that other people hear it.


I'm not sure that looking for a reason will solve it. If it's too painful to train, give it a break. You can try again a week later. It takes some time to get used to this.

POSOLOGY:

If when training to do some expression, you feel bad, do not insist. You can try again another day.

Because facial expressions are linked to emotions and social relations, it can take some time for your inconscious mind to process the information.

It is normal that learning facial expressions can make significant changes in the way you perceive other people.

Note that some expressions are not explained in this video and some expressions are cultural.

The act of raising my eyebrows seems unnatural to me somehow. I watch other people and how they raise their eyebrows and wrinkle their foreheads on a regular basis, then realize that I simply don't do that. I seem to do ok at recognizing the facial expressions of others, but my sister has commented that I can be hard to read sometimes.