facial animation setup?

#561

Yep, in the clips Zipper is 100% on, but its completely tweakable. You can even turn it off when you dont want it.

Looks like the expression that drives the other points kick in linearly.
yes, its very simple system but laid on a pretty complex one. The nice thing is you can add as many layers/controls to the system as you want. This is just one of them, and its infinately tweakable.

>>PLAY<< - another test showing off zipper, the red line is the mouth open smiling, the white line is the Zipper in action driven by a slider.

eek

#562

Looking cool Eek. Couple of thoughts on the zipper.

[ul]
[li]it looks good on the opening but I personally think it feels wrong when closing…basically this is becuase the zipper effect is caused by lips sticking together. However by zippering together on closing it feels more like its muscle driving them together as apposed to the lips just sticking. Did that make any sense? Basically I think the zipper effect should only be enabled upon the mouth opening…not in closing.[/li][/ul]
[ul]
[li]It would be very cool if you could offset the zipper effect sideways…so you could open the mouth from the corner first or whatever and still have the zipper effect (maybe its already set-up this way).[/li][/ul]

#563

ah yes, your right.Oops! That should be an easyish fix to do, need to add another val in there, cheers Harvey.

Offset is a part of the system ive been thinking about for a while, it pretty complex to set up, but i’ll giv it ago. Getting the zipper to do the starting from left or right thing can be done. Basically my brain needs to think about it lateraly. The key is what is driving it, from a control point of view.

I could go via the theory of if a and b are too close to each other they stick, but this might lead to popping.

anyway cheers,

eek

#564

Your mad I tell ya! mad!

Keep up the good work eek. I wish we could work together it would be alot of fun:)

#565

hehe, i do love using expressions, compared to constraints there indestructable! and amazingly powerful. You should see my notebook! filled with the inner workings of my head!. I had a little break from the expressions, need to understand exactly what i want to do. The hardest part of all of this is know exactly what you want the rig to do i.e how exactly do i want to keep poses from exploding. Theres so many ways! I sent the prob to Kees, i think he’s thinking about it slowly!. It took the gollum guys 2 years to work it out eek!

Paul,

Your one of the guys who inspired me to get into this industry!, i would love to work with you on this. I’ll PM you my email, and msn. It would be great!

eek

BTW eveyone whos helped me out on this thread, your’ve all been fantastic and a incredible help, thankyou and have a very merry christmas!

#566

merry christmas my friend! :slight_smile:

I know what will I want from Santa this Year. If I see him, before he say “ho…” I’ll jump on and grab his beard and scream “I want eek’s brain dude!” :scream:

But if he keeps his promise and put a brain inside a pair of socks on christmas night, that would be disguisting hehehe. :stuck_out_tongue:

#567

my god. you have patience!

#568

Hey, Eek.
I’ve read the thread a few times now, and tried to follow the changes. I wanted to make sure I have the basic idea of the current lip functions. Eek, Can you (or anybody that really understands it) clarify if I have it right?

[ul]
[li] Mouth corner “nulls” directly drive the corners of the mouth m-line directly.
[/li][li] Mouth corner nulls indirectly drive the positions of the other mouth m-line points (verts or CV’s) to “shape the mouth”.
[/li][li] Jaw also drives the mouth m-line verts AND the mouth corner nulls - to open and close the mouth.
[/li][li] Each vertical mouth m-line’s “lip point” (mid point) is attached to a point on the mouth m-line.
[/li][li] Each vertical mouth m-line’s end point are attached to the head at one end and the jaw at the other end.
[/li][li] The lip null box (skinning is to these) is “home” at the “lip point” of the red and blue lines - and can travel up or down from there along the vertical m-line.
[/li][/ul]
Other than the layer of higher level expressions is that about how it works?
Much appreciated.

#569

Im kinda Mark, yes. The key is that is there an order to it. At its base is a set of expressions, which drive and are driven by other controllers/helpers.

Mouth corner “nulls” directly drive the corners of the mouth m-line directly.

Um no, they drive a set of expression, in which m-lines are connected.

Mouth corner nulls indirectly drive the positions of the other mouth m-line points (verts or CV’s) to “shape the mouth”.

Jaw also drives the mouth m-line verts AND the mouth corner nulls - to open and close the mouth.

No, but rather the expression layer dynamically.

Each vertical mouth m-line’s end point are attached to the head at one end and the jaw at the other end.

um, in a way yes.

The lip null box (skinning is to these) is “home” at the “lip point” of the red and blue lines - and can travel up or down from there along the vertical m-line.

Yes, theres two reasons for this. Firstly linkage and secondly abiltity to add more functionality e.g bulging/creasing etc etc.

So kinda Mark, Btw im big big fan of you work right back to the creature sweeping up. Really nice work! Ill pm, you my contact details if your stuck, or wanna know more stuff. Atm im do a version for a friend/whilst animating.

eek

#570

Ok, ive been given the go ahead to post a pic of the rig for a friend of mine.

Here you go:

fred_rig.jpg682x693

This is currently in developement, not skinned yet. There’s a few more muscles i need. And scripts to be written. Ive also added a new cheek muscle to keep shape.

There’ll be three layers of controls:

  1. High Level - poses
  2. Mid Level - muscle Vismemes
  3. Low Level - Finite control

The ability to generate poses is currently in the works to.

eek

#571

Eek, good job! For my rig

http://www.treddi.com/upload/cecofuli/Upload/02%20-%20Tutorial/04%20-%20Character%20Modeling/03%20-%20Facial%20setup/Compressa.avi
i have taken in consideration your method. but if you want to obtain a cartoon pose (therefore extreme pose) with your sistem is a little difficult. I’v see the nabu script and I have understood the bae of this sistem. For you what is the best method for a face righ? Bones, morph or eek system? See you later :slight_smile:

#572

hey, thats a nice and solid rig, good work

#573

That rig is wild. I must learn to do this in Maya because I’d really like to get a cartoony rig like this for my work. Must learn!

#574

Ive found a way, to control each side of the face. Eg. 50% oohh shape on Left, 25% on right etc etc.

…more to come.

eek

#575

Hello EEK!

I read through thread and my jaw felt down. Amazing stuff.
i just want to ask you how the thing with maya is going on.
I reaaaally would like to se it working in maya.

Good work, from you really.

Bye

#576

More work on “Fred”, a character for John Lee’s short film…

fst.jpg820x436

Testing out the eyes working properly, and the brow muscles. The mouth is pretty much done.

more to come…

eek

#577

What’s the control for the jaw?
I see one that I interpret as being the lower lip, but not one where I would immediately assume I’d control the jaw by moving it.

This looks really hot. Can you make a video of interaction with the handles?

#578

Whoa! That’s looking awesome.

#579

Hi Dobermunk,

Hows things going?, the control for the jaw is th big box point by the left cheek. Its very simple just rotate/move and the jaw opens, but because everything else drives off it, works very well.

Yep, ill have a video up soonish…

eek

#580

:stuck_out_tongue:
Things are good! Also working on a short - still in pre-viz and story.
(“What Women really Want”.)
Looking forward to what John does with this - he’s a great voice actor.
And animator. Say hi from me!