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View Full Version : WIP: Alien Head | Maya lip-synch questions

erik2003
03-29-2003, 12:51 PM
Hi, i started a new head, an alien. I want to try and do a lip-sync in Maya with it, just to learn. The head may have turned out a bit too complicated for a first lip-synch test though... But he has a mouth cavity, teeth and a tongue so the basics are there.

My problem is that using deformers to make blen-shapes, the teeth will move with the rest of the skin and be deformed... Well they are obviously not supposed to do that... What is a good way to counter this? Can i use set-memberships with deformers? Should i extract the teeth in a separate object?

Another question: say i would model each lip-synch pose poly-by-poly. Could i then use the entire mesh as a blend shape?

Maybe these are stoopid questions but i have great trouble with em... Thanx for advice!

The head:

smoothed:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~erikedf/art/3d/alien_merged_hi.jpg
smooth wire:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~erikedf/art/3d/alien_merged_hi_wire.jpg
unsmoothed wires:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~erikedf/art/3d/alien_lo_wire_front.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~erikedf/art/3d/alien_lo_wire_side.jpg http://www.xs4all.nl/~erikedf/art/3d/alien_lo_wire_persp.jpg

I did it poly-by-poly in about 2 hours from scratch.

There are numerous tris in the model which i still need to clean up though. But i find that if i go SUB-D surface with it the tris are not so much of a problem (?) still bad practice to have em there hough i know...
ckw01hk
03-29-2003, 04:29 PM
i like your character!!! great design.

and about your technical problems, i think i can share with you my very little experience.
if your teeth will not be deformed, you can make it a separate geometry and set a SDK with the jar. the upper half teeth is stable with the head and the lower half moves with the jar.

for the blendshape, u can use the 'add' button in the blendshape win to make duplicate face from the base and make modification on that copy, others are the as the same way to do. or you can just make lots of copies from your base model, modify the copies and then make a blendshape all together at the end.

hope u understand my words... and of course there are thousand ways to do the same thing.

anyway, i like your design!!!
erik2003
04-04-2003, 09:56 AM
I did a blendshape test - hope it comes out clear enough to see


Here an avi (709 K)
testblend (http://www.xs4all.nl/~erikedf/art/3d/alien.avi)

Man that blend shape stuff really rocks! It was deceptively easy once i found out how to keyframe the blend sliders ;-)

About the blended models: the animation is really trivial now but since this is my very first face animation: rip away with the comments.

- What's wrong with the mouth when he opens it? Something's not right...
- Should i animate blend shapes for the 'things' in the back of his head? Suggestions? How can i separate a part of the head for a different blend shape?
- i'd like to but bones in the things on his head so they will have follow through when he turns/moves his head. How do i do that?
- Do i animate the tongue with blend shapes too?

Thanx!

Erik
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