Human Character Rig Setup – This Text Tutorial is designed to guide the User through the method of installing some of the FacePro facial rigs. The Text Tutorial covers the most complex version, the 23-Bone rig – other than the process is the similar for every rig. The Tutorial comes from an Autodesk 3D Studio Max perspective, but the same principles apply to every popular authoring tool such as Maya, XSI, etc. The Tutorial followers the procedure used to make the Max9 file “RIG_23_WPoses” – which can be found on the RIG Select page of the FacePro website: www.free3dstuidomaxtutorials.com. It is not strictly necessary to employ this procedure when installing a FacePro bone rig, and there are a lot of excellent resources on the Web which might provide useful insights.
Preparing the Mesh
Let’s assume you have a character before now set up with a skeletal rig such as Character Studio, or a custom skeletal rig of your own. Hide all except the character’s Head Mesh and the skeletal rig.
The FacePro rigs are designed to be skinned with the lips of the character slightly open, and the upper eyelids slightly closed, as you observe here. This will create the skinning process easier, since you won’t have to pick out or paint weights on vertices which are extremely close together, or on top of each other.
If your character’s Head mesh is not in this pose now, use whatever modeling tools you similar to to open the mouth and close the eyelids slightly.
Positioning the Rig
previous to you begin installing the Rig, you should rename the bones in the Rig to reflect the name of your 3d character. We prefer that you keep the similar naming convention we have used, and only replace the root name of the bones– but if you need to use a totally different naming convention to please your pastime engine, then do so at this time. With the Time Slider at Frame 0, delete every one animation from all bones at this time. Delete the test character head mesh at this time, and save the file as a sole filename.
Since this rig is intended to be linked to the Head bone of your existing skeletal rig, begin deleting the Neck Bone in the facial rig (which is included mainly to create the example 3d character work better) and then go the Head Bone of the Rig to the exact pivot point of the Head bone in your skeletal rig, and then link it to your skeletal rig’s Head bone. You be able to alternately link the facial rig’s Head Bone to the Neck bone in your skeletal rig, and delete your existing rig’s Head bone. This decision is mainly concerning how you will animate the head of your 3d character, and does not affect how FacePro will use the rig to provide facial animation.
Some time ago you have positioned and linked the Head Bone, select and position the Jaw Bone now in front of the earlobe. This establishes the two main pivot points of the Rig. Now you can follow the hierarchy of the Rig outward, positioning the bones according to their names. The simply exception is the Tongue, which have to be done from front to back. Whenever possible, leave the bones buried simply partway in the surface of the mesh, so they resolve be easier to select later.
Skinning plus Weighting
The following section gets you through the basic Skinning plus Weighting process, where a deformation modifier or envelope is applied, and vertex weights are adjusted to create the mesh deform smoothly during animation. Every one vertex weighting is done at Frame 0 (the “Bind Pose”). The FacePro Rig files are designed so that you paint vertex weights at Frame 0, and then make a “Neutral” facial pose at Frame 10. You can see an instance of a correct Neutral Pose in the Rig file, with the supplied test character mesh. The Neutral Pose looks like a relaxed face by the eyes open plus the lips closed.
With the Rig properly positioned and linked, affect a deformation modifier to your Head mesh, plus include all the bones in the Rig in the modifier. This ought to include the Neck Bone of your existing skeletal rig. Set up the Skin modifier in “Vertex” mode, so you can use the Paint Weights tools. Use a fairly “soft” paint brush at first; you can tighten up on little areas later.
Begin by painting almost the whole Head with a vertex weight value of 1.0.
After that, paint the Neck area as shown, blending along the underside of the Jaw softly.
Skinning plus Weighting, cont.
After that, paint the Jaw vertices, so that the Lower Lip is included as shown, as well as the lower area of the Cheeks. Try to include a bit of the earlobes as well.
then, paint the Lip Corners as shown; this is a critical area for proper lips deformation, and you resolve have to adjust it later when you go to the test poses – but a soft, broader area is good for now.
Paint the Upper Lips after that, creation sure to paint a rather large and soft area so it determination blend well. Don’t forget to paint around to the inside of the mouth a bit.
The FacePro rigs are made to use both place and Rotation bone transforms (but not Scale transforms) to achieve the final poses for animation, so soft amalgamation is the rule to help prevent “shearing” at the edge of the blended areas.
Skinning plus Weighting, cont.
at this moment paint the Lower Lips, avoiding the sharp crease in the Lip Corner area. Remember to paint up and over to the within of the mouth!
We use a only bone for the Nostrils, which we control with both Up and Down animation, as healthy as a “rocking” motion, to match all the facial poses while saving on bones. Softly blend both Nostril areas into this bone.
After that, blend the Cheek Bones, making sure to include a generous amount of mesh around the bottom and outside of the lower eyelids. Going this far into the lower Eye area helps when creating effective “Smile” plus “Pain” expressions, without requiring an extra bone at the corner of the eye.
Skinning plus Weighting, cont.
at the present blend in the Outer Brows, painting across to the Inner Brow area and down into the Upper Lid areas slightly.
Paint the Inner Brow area as shown, blending farther upward into the forehead region a bit. This will help create a extremely slight “sliding skin” effect on the forehead.
After that, paint the Upper Lids, with an extremely strong weight in the center and blending softly toward the edges. Be sure to paint around to the inside of the lids!
Skinning plus Weighting, cont.
Finally, paint the area approximately the Lower Lids bones, avoiding the sharp crease in the corners. This area can be left slightly “soft” compared to the Upper Lids, since they never completely close or open – and a softer blend in this area resolve produce a more natural effect during animation.
Lastly, we have included Teeth, Eyes, plus a Tongue mesh in the setup file, which you can use if you don’t by now have these in your 3d character. We always recommend using a Tongue, even though it does add polys and takes up two bones – realistic speech is improved a LOT with the addition of a tongue, and every FacePro animation includes data for the Tongue anyway – so why not!
Skin and Weight the Tongue as follows: be relevant a Skin modifier or other deformation envelope, and add the Jaw Bone, as well as the two Tongue Bones.
Paint the base of the Tongue primary, and then follow with the Rear, and Front of the Tongue as shown.
If you do make a decision to use the Eyes and Teeth, skin these to the suitable bones in the usual manner, with a vertex weight of 1.0 for all vertices.
Skinning plus Weighting, Conclusion
When you have finished the Skinning and Weighting procedure outlined on top of, save your work (again!) and start working on your Neutral Pose at Frame 10. The Frame 10 pose is the Neutral bottom pose on which every one animation is based, so this needs to look like a completely relaxed face.
Go to Frame 20 plus try key framing a different facial pose, like the one in the picture above. Then go to Frame 30 plus key frame the eyes totally closed, the mouth wide open, etc. You should be able to move between the Bind Pose, the Neutral Pose, and your fresh extreme poses, with no visible buckling or shearing of the mesh. If needed, go back and adjust the Skin Weights as needed until the face deforms smoothly at all poses and all the points in among.
The result of this Text tutorial should be a file with your 3d character face rigged and skinned, with the Bind Pose at Frame 0 and the Neutral Pose at Frame 10.
That’s it! If you have some questions about facial rigging or how you can modify your obtainable rig for FacePro animation, please contact