I'm working on a faical rig myself. Since I want it to be pretty expressive, I've spent a fiaire bit of time on it.
If your game engine supports it well, I would go for a couple of blendshapes (which is what I do) mixed with a few joints here and there for more control and flexibility.
I've tried working wih joints but oh my god, the hassle of going through every one of them and paint them can be tiresome, add to that, it's more controllers to animate and clean afterward for the animator, even though they're more flexible. Lips rig rig is a pain using joints.
What I usually do, is that I set up a few joints for easily deformable part which requires rotation from a center, like the JAW, the EYELIDS and that's about it. The whole rest, I sued blendshapes.
However, let me remind you that shapes can get heavy, really really fast...
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If your game engine supports it well, I would go for a couple of blendshapes (which is what I do) mixed with a few joints here and there for more control and flexibility.
I've tried working wih joints but oh my god, the hassle of going through every one of them and paint them can be tiresome, add to that, it's more controllers to animate and clean afterward for the animator, even though they're more flexible. Lips rig rig is a pain using joints.
What I usually do, is that I set up a few joints for easily deformable part which requires rotation from a center, like the JAW, the EYELIDS and that's about it. The whole rest, I sued blendshapes.
However, let me remind you that shapes can get heavy, really really fast...
Some of the material is getting pretty dated but for what I need to get done right now, I'm learning a lot from it.
[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stop-Staring-Facial-Modeling-Animation/dp/0470609907/ref=dp_ob_title_bk"]Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right: Amazon.co.uk: Jason Osipa: 9780470609903: Books[/ame]