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Method for Animating Facial Surface Bones
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Method for Animating Facial Surface Bones // Archive: Tech Forum
Post by brucegregory // Jul 17, 2007, 10:02am
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brucegregory
Total Posts: 7
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I've done a little experimenting with rigging a face using "surface" bones with no success. Does this function currently work? Would this be the method of choice to animate a face on the WorkSpace Side? Bones work very nicely for limb animation and posing, and certainly a surface or "tissue" rig would be very interesting to be able to use for facial animation. Does anyone have an example of how this can be set up with a head/face?
If this is not yet working or a good idea, can someone tell me whether there is a method for keyframing "vertex level" animation on the WorkSpace side? (with an already rigged mesh, I mean).
Thanks,
Greg Smith |
Post by frootee // Jul 18, 2007, 11:51am
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frootee
Total Posts: 2667
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Hi Bruce. Sorry for the delay in responding.
By surface bones, do you mean, placing bones on the
outside of the mesh? If so, what are you trying to achieve with them?
Reason I am asking is, a skeleton external to the mesh would be good for deforming the mesh, kind of like squeezing a play-doh ball, as opposed to controlling the mesh.
Please clarify; thanks!
Froo
I've done a little experimenting with rigging a face using "surface" bones with no success. Does this function currently work? Would this be the method of choice to animate a face on the WorkSpace Side? Bones work very nicely for limb animation and posing, and certainly a surface or "tissue" rig would be very interesting to be able to use for facial animation. Does anyone have an example of how this can be set up with a head/face?
If this is not yet working or a good idea, can someone tell me whether there is a method for keyframing "vertex level" animation on the WorkSpace side? (with an already rigged mesh, I mean).
Thanks,
Greg Smith |
Post by brucegregory // Jul 18, 2007, 2:19pm
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brucegregory
Total Posts: 7
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Froo:
What I mean by "surface mesh" is what happens when you click the button "surface" when laying out bones in the WorkSpace. The bones are automatically linked along the surface of the mesh, following every contour. I can't imagine what else this function may be for, other than rigging the "tissue" area of a model, like the face or muscles or something. But I really don't know and was hoping that someone might clue me in.
If there is any way to animate the face of a model in the WorkSpace of the program, please let me know, since I focus mainly on character modeling and animation in my daily pursuits and don't want to learn an area of the software that will soon be abandoned.
Thanks,
Greg Smith |
Post by frootee // Jul 18, 2007, 5:49pm
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frootee
Total Posts: 2667
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Hi Greg.
Thanks for clarifying that. Just wanted to make sure I understood what you meant.
I had to refer to the user manual to find where to set that.
That should be possible, although you should also be able to perform the same tasks with an internal skeleton. For an external skeleton example, look at the Characters library. There is a sample rig called BatWing. Drop that into the workspace and move the bones around to see if that is what you need. It does deform the mesh as you describe, although it is not a character head.
Elsewhere on this forum there was a discussion about using multiple skeletons in a mesh; not sure if that is possible or not; but it would be worth checking to see if it is possible create one mesh/skeleton for the body, and one mesh/skeleton for the head; then, combine them using the Encapsulate Objects in 3D tool. Doing so may allow us to 'fake' subskeletons.
Just like skeletons on the inside of the mesh, weight painting is necessary to adjust the bones and the mesh areas they affect.
I hope that helps at least give some starting ideas for experimentation on this, though I can't give a definitive answer since I haven't done it yet myself.
Froo
Froo:
What I mean by "surface mesh" is what happens when you click the button "surface" when laying out bones in the WorkSpace. The bones are automatically linked along the surface of the mesh, following every contour. I can't imagine what else this function may be for, other than rigging the "tissue" area of a model, like the face or muscles or something. But I really don't know and was hoping that someone might clue me in.
If there is any way to animate the face of a model in the WorkSpace of the program, please let me know, since I focus mainly on character modeling and animation in my daily pursuits and don't want to learn an area of the software that will soon be abandoned.
Thanks,
Greg Smith |
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