This week I've been working hard on completing and automating the face setup I partially used in the last post. It's a 13 steps setup now :D 13 is a... mostly lucky number for me... I think... The setup is made to be easy to use and reduce to close to zero the extra-unnecessary-work (like: select curve, click button, paint weights), and it's totally flexible, but it doesn't have an elegant interface just yet. And it could be more efficient and faster... but hell, I'm no programmer. So I'm not sharing it, but if I could clean it up and make it more efficient, I would. Right now is heavily based on naming, instead of variables, for example. So yeah, it's not ready to be brutalized by anyone except me...
Anyway, I'm planning on doing some more tests, and rigging a cartoony dude - but let me sculpt him first. The face rigging should be fast - like in a day or less. I've done quick dirty tests of rigging a face in around one hour in fact. But to take your time and set really clean and correct AUs, that can't be done that fast. Anyway, my workflow is based on the idea that I want to keep the number of AUs to a minimum, mostly stuff that's repetitive like opening the mouth, or needs corrective creases, like a smile. On top of that, I want to shape the face freely during animation. I haven't really done this yet on an animated shot, but it's my goal right now. Anyway, the setup is very fast because painting weights on wires is a breeze, and then you can shape anything really easy and clean. And I've automated all connections and stupid technical stuff. Grrrrrrrr!
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About me
I'm a character animator, visual artist, game dev, and music composer. I like to doodle, write, experiment, and plan my next big thing. I love tech that inspires and enables art. I have a formal background in music composition. And I like to walk around the world and see things up close. Archives
September 2021
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