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audin
03-30-2011, 06:44 AM
Hello,
Few days back I was interacting with a friend and we saw few animated series which use texture switching for the facial blendshapes rather than deformation on model itself. Since it was made in 3DSMAX, we thought of the same idea in MAYA only to realise it takes a lot of alpha channels too in the layered shader.
I tried to solve this problem using an algorithm and putting it together with the utility nodes. The tests I did was - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qgvJ1fk6xc

My only question is - Is there any other method which can be employed to do so?

Thanks in advance.
PEN
04-01-2011, 02:03 AM
What series are you talking about.

I worked on this some time ago and set up the character pipeline. We had hundreds of textures switching on ever character. What I did was write a couple Plugins in Max Script that cached the textures to memory for animation and fast switching. To keep it fast when scrubbing through animations it also intelligently updated textures only when needed.

Not sure how you would go about this in Maya as I have not been in it for a few years now.

http://penproductions.ca/technical/pinkyDinkyDoo/pinkyDinkyDoo.htm
audin
04-01-2011, 03:49 AM
Hi PEN,

check this Indian series on cricket -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_B16CoEEzA

As you said this one was also done in Max. I dont use Max and I have almost forgotten the use of it. So I thought giving it a try in Maya. The utilities I apply are working similarly and are good enough. The problem is with the increase of the blendshapes on the character, the files will become heavier.

Thanks for the reply!!
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04-01-2011, 03:49 AM
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