Face motion tests

A face can win as a still and lose in motion. Check each top face moving before the client sees it.

Run a face motion test on each top face, internally, before the treatment is sent (decided). It is a normal check of one asset, a candidate face. The face motion test and the place motion check are the same kind of step: an internal check of one candidate asset, a face or a place, not of a method, made before the client sees it. Besides the place motion checks (see Photoreal anchors (Nano Banana Pro) → The place motion check), it is the only video made before the anchors are approved (the anchors are the approved sheets, plates, products and voices every shot is made from; see Photoreal anchors (Nano Banana Pro) → What an anchor is), and it is never shown to the client.

• Estimate per face: about 95–171 Higgsfield credits for one 5–9 s draft and its 1080p finish; the ceiling allows a diagnosed retake in a second batch.

• Write it on Template A (see Video with Seedance → Templates A, B and D), with the identity close-up (and the smiling close-up, where one is made) as the only references. No casting still, sheet or presentation frame is attached.

• Judge timing, body and the size of the acting on the draft. Judge the face, its likeness and its facial acting only on the 1080p finish, at full size (see Video with Seedance → Draft and finish).

• In the generation rhythm: one take per top face, then review all the faces together. A face that fails: name why, make a new still of that face, set it beside the original (or move to the runner-up), and check it again in the next batch. Never spend a take on the same unresolved problem; a face that keeps failing goes into the next review with its diagnosis (see Planning, budgets and takes → The generation rhythm).

The face motion test brief, written for this guide:

Role {name}, candidate {letter}. References: identity close-up{, smiling close-up}.
{5–9} s at the film's ratio; a draft, then the 1080p finish of the chosen draft.
Place and light, in words: {one sentence from the location and light sheets}.
Wardrobe, in words: {the role's main wardrobe look}.
The face must: {turn from front to three-quarter, and to profile if the film shows one};
  {the role's key expression change}; {a smile that shows the teeth}.
Camera: {one slow, dosed push or arc that takes the face from medium to close}.
Passes if, on the 1080p finish: the likeness holds through the turn (face shape, eyes, nose, jaw, skin tone);
  teeth and jaw read as one person; the skin keeps its texture; nothing drifts toward a generic face;
  the key expression change reads as a thought, not a pose.

Two filled examples, written for this guide:

• Comedy, the uncle: 6 s. A dining room at noon, hard light from a balcony door on his left. A white shirt. He turns from his newspaper to someone off frame right, his offended face slowly giving way to a grin with one gold tooth. A slow push from medium to close over 6 s.

• Emotional, the father: 8 s. A dining room at night, one warm floor lamp behind him. A white thobe. He looks up from his phone toward camera, his tired face softening into a small smile that shows his lower teeth. A slow arc of 25° to his right side.

Sources

• Higgsfield Academy on checking faces and places in motion before they are locked (courses).