New facial rig

#1

Hi there!

Here’s a first version of an “Osipa style” facial rig that puts the new boxcontroller armature scripts into action: http://maks.free.fr/messiah_facial_rig_demo.avi
It’s a rig that I’m developing for a film project by David Maas - he also did the model and the morphs.
The rig is using the boxcontroller scripts from pmG, as well as a custom version of the boxcontrollerquad script that I did to control 4 morphs in a cross. I also made an armature action to automatically select the concerned morphs sliders (probably one of the easiest scripts possible;)).
In future versions I want to apply this to a bone-only facial rig :slight_smile:
I have to say that the new armature scripting feature is just amazing! :smiley: It’s a real joy to build up custum interfaces like this, and I’m taking a great pleasure in developing my own armature scripts :bounce:
Rock on pmG! :thumbsup:

#2

Maks,

That is a lovely looking piece of work. Congratulations and well done. :thumbsup:

N

#3

Great stuff! Seriously, that is so cool. What was that red torus that you were sizing to effect the mouth? Is that a meta-effector? Also, I saw that you had box controllers for the eyelids, but it also looked like you had some additional armatures for them as well (at the end). Any particular reason?

#4

Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Can’t wait to see the final rig. Lucky animators!!! My face rigs are pretty elementary…

#5

Maks, Simply awsome use of the features, it’s stuff like this that gets me ‘excited’ again about animation that I’ve lost in the last year.

#6

Jaw dropping! No pun intended. :wink: I’m glad someone’s using the new features that Lyle et al have put into the latest release of messiah. Maks, have you thought about making a tutorial CD? - you and Phenobarbidoll would do well. :slight_smile:

#7

Hey maks

Nice to see david’s and yours work again :).
The rig looks grait, you both took those technics few steps ahead, every thing looks very easy to use and gives a lot of control. The “On face” controls are just grait!
Nice stuff:thumbsup:

#8

What a work you did, thats look so great !! :drool:
It must be a very smooth way to work with this.
I’m sure that the production will be improve, that animator will work faster and have more fun, and all of this will reflect in the film project.
:thumbsup:

#9

Great work, Maks! :bounce: I especially like the squash ‘n’ stretch for the jaw, amazing!

#10

Wow, thanks for all your nice comments guys! :bounce:

@ Leebert: The red ring is a visual reference for the underlying metaeffector that lets you interactively weight some of the morphs. Unfortunately there is a little problem with it right now, that is that when the character moves away from its setup position, the weight field doesn’t follow along “internally” - I’m not sure yet what the problem might be or if its a bug, I’ll see what pmG can say about this…
As for the lower onface eye controls, they are squash and stretch controls for the whole eyesockets :slight_smile:

 @ gsutter: Hey Geoff! Glad to see you around again :wavey: I'm very honored if my stuff can contribute to get you motivated about animation again - GO DUDE! Or the world will loose one great animator that you are!!! :thumbsup:

@ Chikega: A tutorial CD, errr, yeah, uhm… you are not the only one who has asked me that actually - I’d like to do one, but the main problem is that I’d need some time that I don’t have right now :rolleyes: I’ll keep it in mind though, I promise :slight_smile:

 @ roli: Thanks :) How are things progressing on your side?
 
 Thanks again to everyone! :thumbsup:
#11

Cool stuff maks :slight_smile:

#12

I LOVE the fact that when you click on a block, the slider bank pops up for those of us who like that sort of control. Its the best of both worlds. Your riggs are amazing Marek. Great work.

#13

Wow, that was just amazing. I’d love to hear more how your squash and stretch controls work. So well done.

#14

Thanks Wegg! :slight_smile: Yeah, the slider accessibility is very important in my eyes, since they are the ones who get keyframed, and not the armature handles, as opposed to a “physical” control interface as you know it from my previous rigs. And I actually also had a bit of you in mind, screaming “I want my sliders!” :wink: I was actually amazed how simple it was to make an action script that lets you specify and select a object, it took barely 3 lines of coding :smiley:

#15

any way you could post the actual rig? That thing is killer. Love to study it.

#16

Sorry guys, since this is contract work that I’m doing for a living, and also because it’s still WIP, I can’t simply make this available like this :shrug: Well, maybe at a later time or maybe bundled with a possible future tutorial CD…:wink:

#17

If you’re talking about the jaw SnS, it’s basically a jaw bone combined with a muscle bone that runs down the face. Always keep in mind: muscle bones rule for squash and stretch! You can accomplish the most amazing things with them through very simple setups :buttrock: As for the eyesocket controls, they are simply bones scaled in Y, with the eye-skeleton parented under them :slight_smile:

#18

Yeah, I think I keep making things way more complicated then they need to be. Just used to that from other software :slight_smile:

Fantastic work and add me to the list that would buy a tutorial CD from you if you ever decide to make one!

#19

Maks… i would like to see “those 3 lines of code”:scream:

#20

Could you show us a shot with the wireframe and the bones visible? That would explain a lot on the jaw/muscle bone thing.