Of Face and Emotions

When I see this video I am reminded of an adage, “Face is the index of one’s mind”. A simple smile carries untold meaning based on context in which it is expressed. But this TED video really explains the complexity of human emotions represented as facial expressions . When I saw the movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” for the first time, I really loved the movie for two reasons. One was the compelling portrayal by Brad Pitt in the movie; another was the most artistic direction of David Fincher that really breathes life into the plot. But after seeing this video, now I have one more reason to love the movie. It is indeed a testament to the monumental will of the people involved and their realization of the fact that how something simple and mundane as facial expression of emotions, that is acted out so easily by worst of actors ,can be such a daunting task to mimic using animation. The head of Benjamin Button is CG and rest is an actor doing the role. They have managed the head of brad on to the body of some one else. For all the advanced animation capability that studios have these days, the best that could be done was to mimic the emotions on an aged face of Benjamin.