Developer Defends Starfield’s Facial Animations; Says “Faces Are Hard”

Delaney King, a character tech artist, who’s worked on a number of titles including God of War, took to Twitter recently to explain Starfield’s less-than-stellar facial animations. The developer mentioned the game’s character smiles have a major issue which gives them such an unnatural appearance. This is the orbicularis oculi muscle which does not contract in-game like it does when people smile in real life.

One thing I noticed about Starfield is the character smiles have an issue with the orbicularis oculi muscle not contracting to give a "Duchenne smile". pic.twitter.com/2JdR95L3Uo

— Delaney King (@delaneykingrox) September 10, 2023

This results in NPCs having a “fake smile” or a “liar’s smile”. In addition to this, King mentioned another reason why the smiles in the game look so off.  The cheek apples should also rise, otherwise, you look like you are actively resisting the smile, which leads to a very constipated look. This might be why a lot of NPCs in the game look actively displeased to even speak to you. 

King continued that there’s another muscle that isn’t working as it should. This is the zygomaticus major muscle. It contracts when a person smiles, pulling up the corners of a person’s mouth upwards. But in Starfield, it simply doesn’t do this. This continues to add to the uncanny look the game’s NPCs have. Players have already noted some of these issues but were previously unsure how to put into words why the animations looked weird.

King stated that they aren’t sure if the solution Bethesda is using for their faces is facial capture fed into bones or blend shapes. But the result most certainly requires a manual tweak pass to get the smiles working again. As is, the smiles and facial animations in the game are downright creepy. For what it’s worth, the developer mentioned that movement in these muscles does exist. But right now, it’s not in coordination with the mouth.

There are plenty of other insightful takes in the full Twitter thread. But the conclusion that King drew in the end, was simply that “faces are hard“. According to them, getting good facial animations is something that requires tons of people from several departments to coordinate together. And even then, you need a decent amount of time and money to do it right. 

Add in the fact that they all require a good understanding of human facial anatomy, expressions, and visual communication, and it becomes clear why even a large studio like Bethesda might struggle with creating polished facial animations for a title as big as Starfield. That said, even with King’s insights, some fans feel like it’s not a good enough justification.

Bethesda games often come under fire for having creepy-looking NPC faces. And much of this can be credited to the aging Creation Engine. With tons of other games nowadays having much more expressive and realistic facial animations, Starfield’s poor attempt at it sticks out even more. Baldur’s Gate 3, for example, has been praised for its animations despite its large amount of cutscenes and dialogues.