Face Animation Tutorial

Naked Templar

Im looking for a tutorial on how to rig a face.
Is there anyone that can help me with this?
point me in the right direction, or give me any tips?

Daz

You might be making it hard for people to help by having them guess what software you use.

Joao Sapiro

http://www.google.es/search?hl=xx-elmer&q=face+animation+tutorial&btnG=Google+Seawch

Naked Templar

oh, god, i forgot I use 3ds Max, i heard you can use wire parameters or dummies. just dont know how to get it started.

Mark Dygert

Bones and morph targets are the most common from what I understand. All I have used is bones, but morph targets looks interesting. Just about any tutorial on using bones even the ones that come with Max will give you the needed info to get started. Each facial rig is almost a case by case basis even when you use the same methods.

Search the max help or tutorial files for "bones" and "morph". There is less detail about morph but once you have the basics it sounds like that is enough.

It also depends on what you plan on using the model for, are you going to use lipsync? That will require some special rigging and you'll just need to read the reference and tutorials that come with max to figure that whole mess out.

Good luck, sorry no one can give you a "click this link this is how it is done everywhere" answer. But really the answer is there are many ways and you need to find which works best for your project =/

Jarrod1937

i used morph targets before, when i animated this face, please don't laugh, lol, that was my first face i modeled and my first attempt at any sort of animation at the time.
anyway, i found morph target animation to produce some nice smooth transitions and be very easy to animate with (quick too). basically you copy your face mesh as many times as you wih, change each ones expression by editing the model (without adding any new verts/faces), then combine these into the morph target animation modifier. then when you are animating you simply use a percentage slider for each expression to get to the expression you want. very easy very fast. i have yet to try bone animation for a face though.

Fordy

If you want an absolute corker of a tutorial and can afford $5 go here - http://www.duber.cz/index.php?section=tr...ead_rigging.php, its worth every penny!

Bronco

Hey.

If you are intending to use it for lip sync and speech,though you arn't yet this far along,I figured this might be useful.

Phoneme Shapes

Something I wacked together for my own use,its acturally a copy from motionbuilders help files and definitions of Phonemes. with front and side pics of the mouth.

hope it works.

John

Rick Stirling

Often game engines only handle rotation, and not translation (more common these days to have both).

Areas such as the eyebrows often look like purely a translation (up/down/squeeze), so placing the pivot of the eyebrow far back in the head means that even though the bone is rotating, the arc is shallower and aids translation.

Hinge the lower lip bones off the jaw bone.

A translating jaw is useful, but you can fake this by linking the main jawbone to a long jaw helper. The long helper bone has the shallow arc, so it's rotation affect the placement of the pivot point of the main jawbone, allowing you to pull the jaw in and out.

Eric Chadwick

Not rigging, but a good article nonetheless.
http://www.keithlango.com/tutorials/old/lipSync.htm

Naked Templar

hey thanx a lot everyone.
the advise is very helpful.