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Understanding facial actions
April 16th, 2016
info License: CC-BY
Juan Pablo Bouza
Publisher
UNDERSTANDING FACIAL ACTIONS
Learn how to edit the predefined facial actions so that they fit the needs of your character!
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18 comments
So powerful! I thought that it would be a lot more complex! Rigging the eyelids took me less than 20 mins. thank you so much!
Hey @filou.rod!
I'm glad you found it easy to do! :D
We are getting closer and closer to finishing this! Hang on bit more! :D
My action bones don't quite have a strong hold on my character's eyelids. They can only pull the eyelid down about half way before they lose influence.
What does this sound like? A problem with where I placed reproportion bones...weight painting?
@Ben Muensterman:
But did you edit the eyelids actions? Or are you talking about how the eyelids work out of the box?
@Juan Pablo Bouza: I am currently editing the eyelid actions, and bones such as "eyelid_up_ctrl_2_mstr_L" will only move my eyelid so far. For some reason they lose influence about half way down the eye. It is as if they have a very weak hold on my eyelids.
@Ben Muensterman:
Ok that's weird, maybe you can check enabling the deformation bones layer. If the deformation bones reach the same height as the controllers, then it must definitely be a weight painting issue. Maybe the head bone is still influencing the eyelids? Remember that both head and jaw bones (head_def_mstr and maxi) should have their influence erased from the areas of the face that get articulated by the face rig.
@Juan Pablo Bouza: Wow, the (head_def_mstr) bone was influencing the eyelids. I changed the weights, and it fixed my problem. Thank you for giving me the solution!
When I use the automated weight painting for the face as described in Ch. 8, should I enable "Auto Normalize" in weight painting mode so that the (head_def_mstr) bone influence is erased from the face?
@Ben Muensterman:
To tell you the truth, I have no idea how auto normalize behaves with auto weights :D
I never use automated weights with main characters, so I really don't know. Also remember that in order to get the most out of the facial rig, you can replace head_def_mstr with head_def_1, 2 and 3. That will let you articulate the head and you can get more tooney effects.
@jpbouza: I had ths same problem, came here and woultn't you know my answer at hand! :D
Thanks guys/gals
Hi Jaun or anyone.
I have been working on my first character with BlenRig This is so fantastic. Thank you. I have come across an issue with the mouth_ctrl. It modifies the mouth when moving from side to side but it does not change the mouth when moving up and down as it does for you in near the end of this lesson. Looks like a driver adjusts maxi control and the lips opening controls. I am not sure why it isn't working. Probably something simple. Any help would be great.
Hi @our.hope.is.found:
In the BlenRig rigging panel (the one in the Blender Armature tab), in FACIAL SETTINGS - Facial movement ranges, you will find a field called JAW ROTATION. That property is the one that drives that motion. Try to increase it and tell me if it worked!
@jpbouza: Yes Juan. That sure fixed it. I must have missed that!. Thank you!!!!
Wow this is way too powerful than i anticipated. Thank you for the great rig. Some day i will dissect it fully to understand it.
Q1. When i rotate mouth_ctrl in Y positive 60 degrees it turns to smile and in negative 60 frowns. How is this done? i need to tweak it. I checked Vincent Character it too has this feature.
Q2. What are the ways to optimize rig for animation? it is amazing but heavy.
@bisketashwin:
In the BlenRig Rigging Panel (the one in Blender's Armature data panel) you have to go to FACIAL SETTINGS - FACIAL MOVEMENT RANGES. There there is a parameter called SMILE. It is that, or tweaking the same property that is also located in the bone mouth_ctrl.
About Optimizing the rig, if you run Blender with the new depsgraph (--enable-new-depsgrap), it will go much faster. But Anyway, optimizing playback speed in a modern computer is more about changing the deformation methods, that's why I always have a low resolution version of the character in another layer. But well, in a more or less recent i7 (4 years old) you can expect 30 fps in the high res character and 40 - 50 fps in the proxy model. With the new depsgraph, this increases a lot.
@jpbouza: is it a saperate blender install with --enable-new-depsgrap or i have to enable it in main blender? I am using 2.78.
Sorry i am bothering you. I checked it in internet i am able to understand what this does but not able find how to enable it.
@bisketashwin:
normal blender install, just modify the shortcut with blender --enable-new-depsgraph
How can I modify the hand close action like you did for the eyelid, I can't find the individual action controls(blue boxes) like in the eyelid case in the action layer.
Hi JP In Chap11, I don't understand why the eyelid_up_ctrl don't stay after move it . I can't record a new key position in frame -1. Thank in advance.