Rig Advice

Draffin

Hey All,
I'm currently studying a game design/art course at uni and we have to build a 3d bipedal character this semester (model, texture, rig, animate etc etc). I'm trying to work ahead of the class and get as much done as possible as i have other subjects i'm not quite so passionate about.

So I've started rigging my character and i want to add a face rig so i can use some basic facial expressions. Since it's for a game i can't use blend shapes and so need to rig it with a skeleton. For the life of me i can't find a decent tutorial on this. Could someone please point me in the right direction or post a face rig that they have done so i can reference off it (if skinning is included that would be grand).

Thanks All
Ben

FunkaDelicDass

You should specify what 3D app you're using for your class.

If you want a nice book on the subject (that's Maya-centric), I'd recommend the Art of Rigging Vol 1. The first volume is enough to cover the basics of setting up characters, including face rigs.

http://www.cgtoolkit.com/book1.htm

renderhjs

maya

can't use blend shapes

but it would nice to write it down anyway

Draffin

Ah, sorry about that.

So yes, maya.
Thanks FunkaDelic i'll check it out

DimitrisT

http://eat3d.com/facialrig

They have a sale atm so it's 20% off.

Draffin

Have you used that tutorial DimitrisT?

Rick Stirling

Can you use translation as well as rotation for the face rig? Do you want to to just use bones, or have them driven by sliders?



Start simple:
Drop in a jaw bone and two eyeball bones, and skin to those. Adding a tiny bit of eyeball weighting to the skin around the eyes will look more natural.

Add eyelid bones, blinking will bring the character to like.

Add a couple of eyebrow bones above each eye.

Draffin

@Rick Stirling: I think translations have a tendency to disrupt the axis of the bones in a skeleton. I should probably give my character eyelids as well...

I've ended up purchasing the face rig tutorials which DimitrisT recommended so I'll give it a go and see what i end up with

Rick Stirling

Draffin - translating bones are fine in a facial rig, I've worked on rigs that rely on translation. You'll want a translating jaw to get in/out movement, unless you are suspending the jaw on another rotating bone.

Draffin

I thought the jaw is connected to the joint at the base of skull and just pivots from that point. Is there a better way?

Rick Stirling

Draffin - yes it does, but the jaw is more complicated than a simple hinge that lets your mouth open and close. It does move forwards and backwards too, and the simplest way to replicate that in a facial rig is to allow the jaw to translate.

When you are looking at facial rigs you'll need to remember that unlike the rest of the body there aren't lots of joints - it's basically only one large bone. Rotation works fine for the most part, but muscles are actually contracting. That's why I mentioned translation, because you get better deformation from translating some of the deformers like the eyebrow ones.

Draffin

Rick - Would this affect an animator more? Other than allowing translation (and rotation) when i rig the face, does anything else profoundly change? Do i link them differently?

Thank you for the advice i really appreciate it.

Draffin

Sorry for bumping such an old thread, But just wanted to say that these tutorials from Eat3D are fantastic. I've done pretty much all of them and now my character effectively has a fully working face rig, able to replicate phonemes (sp?) and all.

It's for a uni project and i can nearly taste the HD already :P

I highly recommend these to anyone wanting to do something similar.

Cheers