Character Rigging : How to Create BlendShapes for a Fiinished Rig

#1

Hi,

I have a character which I rigged by using " Gear Animation plug-in"…

That was awasome …

Now I have to create my blendshapes from this skinned character mesh head.

I am kind of new for softimage. I realy want to learn it and I have been spending a lot of time to do that…

I know the fundemantels about shape manager and shape animation in XSI.

But I do not know how to create them from a mesh which has already been rigged.

I was not able to rig my head using blenshapes.

I’ll be so happy If you help me about this particular situation …

#2

In softimage you don’t need to create blend shapes before rigging or skinning. You can do it any time you like. If during an animation you feel you need a new shape, you can go and add it in at any stage too. :slight_smile:

Simply select your character (or any mesh that needs shapes) and go to -Animate -> Shape -> Shape Manager. Here you can create as many shapes as you like at any time. in the ‘Create’ tab, simply right click on base shape and duplicate. Model as many shapes as you wish following these steps. Then go to the ‘Animate’ tab and animate with the sliders.

This is the simplest way to animate the shapes you create. Many people are moving over to animating the shapes they create this way in ICE rather than the Shape Manager, but for many situations, the Shape Manager is more than adequate.

Hope this helps.

#3

This one helps perfectly.

Thank you so much …

I have tried to apply your suggestion.

Unfortunately, I was not able to animate my new blendshapes …

Is there something in softimage called deformation order ? …

Am I still doing something wrong ? I just followed the steps you suggested me …

Shape manager is a great tool but I also want to learn working with imported meshes which are identical to orginal mesh and to be used as blendshape targets.

Best Regards ;

Ozan

#4

You select the rigged or target mesh, then select Animate menu - Shape - Select shape key and then select your heads with then the face shapes, then right click to end. This adds them to the shape mixer.

Is the head attached to the body? I’ve tried it this way and not had success, but I’m no expert so I may be missing something. I’ve tried with a character that has a head that is separat from the body and it works fine. Both attempts were with completely enveloped rigged characters, applying the shape from a separate head.

#5

And there is the operator stack and you can move various operators from the modeling to the animation, or secondary shape modeling region for example. I’m not sure if that helps as far as your question about deformation order.

#6

OK colour …

I think that is the problem. My character mesh is a single solid geometry.

A man with a musculer body . We have to see his neck so I do not have any chance to saperate his head from his body …

I am sure that this thing is the easiest thing in softimage.

I just do not know what to look for …

I’ll be searching for that …

#7

You could of course try Gator :slight_smile:

youtube.com/watch?v=wcGwvc2VCkk

#8

If you’re interested in trying this route out, I HIGHLY recommend Adam Sale’s tutorials on Facial Rigging with Ice: http://vimeo.com/album/1662591 Incredibly generous for him to offer all his tutorials over the years, A+ stuff.

This series has helped me understand and implement blend shapes with ICE, creating my own Shape Manager in essence.

If you’ve never used ICE, it may be a little too much, but then again, it’d be a great project to get your feet wet with.

#9

I wonder if your problem is related to this:

As you work, you can display the final result (the result of all operators in all regions) or just the current mode (the result of all operators in the current region and those below it) as described in Displaying the Results of Different Regions.

By default, each view shows information about the current construction mode and display mode. You can toggle this feedback on or off as described in Getting Feedback on the Current Modes.

http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/softimage2013/en_us/userguide/index.html?url=files/basic_mod_OperatorStack.htm,topicNumber=d30e92074

#10

to " dwigfor " ;

You are awasome. I do not know how to thank you. This is amazing.

Looks like these help pages which I denied to read will me as helpfull as my arms.

To be honest,

I think I’ll be asking more questions in the near future.

Best Regards;

Ozan

#11

also i would highly recommend to abandon old workflow having new model for each blend shape then using as target, and instead just building new ones into shape manager, unless you go ICe route ofc :slight_smile:

#12

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