Umm... how do you rig eyes in Messiah?


#1

Well,

I’m doing my first Messiah rig. This is probably the first of several posts. I feel pretty comfortable, except that in LW I just assign weight maps to eyes, voila. I’m not sure I can get meta-effectors in Messiah to size perfectly to just control the eyes.

If I load the eyes as separate objects, then, hmmm, how exactly does that work in Messiah?

Robert Newton


#2

Have you checked out some of the scene files with eyes in them?


#3

…that would be the logical thing to do. You expect logic at midnight? :blush:

Actually I did look at a few rigged scenes, but none had eye rigs, so I just sort of assumed none of them did. Let me go back and look further, thanks!

Robert


#4

Take a look especially at the mask project - Taron uses metaeffectors with the bulge effect, I believe, to make the eyelids react to the eyes as they move. Especially effective when the eyes are closed. :slight_smile:


#5

Aah, basically you just apply the same bone deform effect that you have applied to your main mesh, right? You “add” the eyes to that effect. At least that’s what the sample scenes look like. I’m not far enough along to try it on my character yet.

Robert


#6

yeah, Taron’s mask project is very cool. My character is a bird without eyelids. Very stylized eyes. But i think I may have it worked out. Need sleep now… sleep.

Robert


#7

You are absolutely right.
One bone effect on may objects or you could have multiple bone effects and parents bones from one effect to another bones or simple make a master null and parent both bone effect’s bones to it.

Lots of ways to do it.

See manual on moving bones from one effect to another.


#8

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#9

in LW I just assign weight maps to eyes, voila. I’m not sure I can get meta-effectors in Messiah to size perfectly to just control the eyes. (I wanted 2 quote this but … ???)

I made a LWO_WEIGHTIMPORT Plugin for messiah that should solve your problem and many many others. It’s limited to the 3 weights on the 1st layer (The full version will be available soon). But it worx perfectly.

Otherwise you can just apply an oldschool trick that will spare you to work with more than 1 object. Offset the eyes a few meters from the object in the modeler, rig(setup mode) them in that position and offset them back to their right position in animate mode.

As for the rig itself. I do it in a very simple way that gives u 100% control over the 2 eyes.

  • Create an EYES_MASTER Null somewhere between the eyes.
  • Create a L_EYE_MASTER Null and parent the L_EYE_BONE that only influences the eyeball.
  • Mirror L_EYE_MASTER with descendents and rename to R_
  • Create an EYES_CTRL Null and parent it to EYES_MASTER. Offset it somewhere outside the head so you can easily access it.
  • Use the Align function twice (L&R) to align L®_EYE_MASTER to the EYES_CTRL.

Voila.

You can control the direction of both eyes by rotating the EYES CTRL.
If you want a crosseyed character you can animate L®_EYE_BONE separatly.


#10

Hi,

The offset technique is a great idea. It’s so obvious, that’s probably why I didn’t think of it. That would work perfectly. I can’t wait for your weightmap plug-in. Please let me know when you get it done.

Robert Newton


#11

You can simply place two small metaeffectors in front of each eyeball, they just have to surround a few vertices of each eye, and set the effectors to all connected. :slight_smile:

I made a LWO_WEIGHTIMPORT Plugin for messiah that should solve your problem and many many others. It’s limited to the 3 weights on the 1st layer (The full version will be available soon). But it worx perfectly.

  Where?!? Where is it, where????! :drool:

#12

Ooh, this is getting even better. I thought metaeffectors HAD to cover every vertex that they were effecting. Didn’t know that trick. Thanks!

Robert

[QUOTE=maks]You can simply place two small metaeffectors in front of each eyeball, they just have to surround a few vertices of each eye, and set the effectors to all connected. :slight_smile:


#13

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