Modeling mouthbags?

Lord McMutton

For being a rather important thing, there sure is a lack of material covering this.

I'm modeling a character's face at the moment, and am about to get to this part. Anything I should know before I get to it? General info or considerations?

Lord McMutton

Hmmm, I see. Thanks, Dustin!

Swizzle

Dustin pretty much covered it.

I tend to prefer making the tongue a separate piece because it's just easier to work with and select when/if it needs to be rigged and textured, but it's not strictly necessary.

cptSwing

'mouthbag' is just such a cool word.

r_fletch_r

Modelling em seperate keeps things much cleaner, its alot easier to model the tongue when your not restricted to the mouth loops.

also

Mark Dygert

I rig up and animate faces all day, I prefer a separated tongue and teeth.

I REALLY like a simplified mouth bag, leave your crazy face loops just behind the lips and make the mouth bag easy to work with. Just don't treat it like a dumping ground for your face loops, tris are normally fine and even appreciated, save as many verts as you can without it being a nightmare.

Make sure the bag rests against the teeth so when the character opens their mouth it doesn't look like they are being blasted with an air hose. A lot of the time new modelers will "shell the cheeks" and leave the teeth floating in the middle of a very cavernous mouth bag... which looks fine until they open their mouth... There are enough problems to deal with a cavernous mouth bag shouldn't be one of them.