We present a system called “Chibi Face” developed to create the extreme facial expressions for the characters in the movie “KPOP Demon Hunters”. Rather than building on and extending our existing facial animation system, we decided to go with rigged geometries detached from the face for the mouth and eyes. In this way, the animation is not limited by the resolution and deformation of the underlying facial mesh.
The Chibi Face system was used on many characters in a large number of shots in the movie for the mouth or the eyes or both at the same time. To make it look like the separated mouth and eyes were an integral part of the face, we developed new tools for animators in Maya as well as a new workflow for lighting in Katana and compositing in Nuke.