Workshop on Facial Expression by Ms. Judith Reyland 2011 @ ICAT, Chennai

On 27th April 2011, Image College of Arts and Animation Technologies (ICAT), Chennai, hosted a workshop on facial expressions by internationally famed theatrical artist Ms. Judith Reyland. She did her graduation in sociology. Her passion towards a theatre play made her study theatre in Belgium film school.

The workshop was indeed quite enlightening for the students pursuing 3D Animation in ICAT

The session began straight away with an exercise to voluntarily show the current emotions after a greeting with vannakam and namaste. As the time passed, students became more interactive. The first exercise was to play a role in the story being recited by Ms. Judith Reyland. Students relaxed and roamed around the hall and each one played the role asked by her and as the second character was introduced they interacted in pairs. These types of exercises made student to convey the message with body language. Everyone did it quite well and there were lot of expressions explored.

The workshop proceeded to other exercise. It was about synchronising with the other person and expressing to the extreme. Divided into pairs, students sat facing each other. They started making mirror images of their partner’s expressions one by one. They discussed the original emotions of the expressions and the different emotions which were acted.

Students also explored process of making a pose with the help of their partner and discussed various impressions of that pose. This was the exercise that took most of the time and showed them in diverse thinking pattern. There were poses of a baby, brave man, tired labour etc, which got interpreted in many different ways when they were forced to think differently. Students learned that it’s important to be precise with the body language with the facial expressions, which can change the meaning of any pose completely.

This workshop made students to think that Facial expression is part of body language, which they need to express the reaction, emotional state or the intention. Overall it was quite enjoyable and a great valuable seminar for the animation students.