dcnelson

To see it you'll have to select 'Deutsch' instead of 'English', then select 'OUR WORK' and in the upper left corner click on 'REGAL UNTEN'. It's the first film on the left. I don't speak German so I have no idea what is being said. But it's done with the usual Soulcage excellence.

I know it's just my opinion, but I think the density and thickness you've chosen makes for a 'wonderful' stylized look. I'd vote that you stick with it. My only other thought is that the faces of Heidi Fleece and the Pwofessor are a bit too similar in appearance. You might consider tweeking their faces some to differentiate them a bit more (their glasses don't count). Now if they are suppose to look alike due to family resemblance (whether biological or too many years spent together) or by the artist's choice (yours) then please ignore my comment. Regardless, just wanted to say that I love the style you've got going here.

Just a thought -- you may consider using a lathe cross section of 4 (instead of 8) on your character's eye stalks. That way you wouldn't need to have any hooks where the eye stalks connect to the eyeballs on the one end and the head on the other. Plus it will reduce your patch count (which is always a good thing). Interesting character. Dean

Hi Victor, your restatement is quite clear. What you stated seemed to me like the way to go with CP weighting, but in my experimenting I could see that there were alternative approaches. So I thought I'd ask for the clarification. I also asked in part, because of the interest of others in your facial rig. I figured someone else may benefit as well from the CP weighting issue being clearly described. Thanks for taking the time and being willing to share how you did what you did. Dean

Hi Victor, Your new facial animation does indeed look better; I especially like the fuller quality of the cheeks. I do have another question which may seem like it has an obvious answer, at least it did to me until I started second guessing myself. You previously stated that, Now my question has to do with exactly which CPs are affected by the AMweighted falloff of a single UD bone? My assumption was (and is) that it is only those CPs that make up the spline that attaches to the mouth's CP to which the UD bone is assigned. And that none of the adjacent up/down splines are affected. (I really hope you can understood what I'm trying to say.) Is this in fact what you did? Thanks again, Dean

Hi Victor, I totally agree regarding translations. However, I did notice the following differences when scaling the LR bone versus scaling the UD bone. Given that each UD bone is a child of its corresponding LR bone. If one scales the LR bone in its Z-axis, then the UD bone will only scale to the degree it is pointing in the direction of the LR bone's Z-axis. See diagram on the left. If one scales the UD bone in its Z-axis, then the UD bone will retain its full scale length regardless of how it is moved, whether by rotating itself around its own X-axis or by rotating the LR bone around its Y-axis. See diagram on the right. The reddish semi-circles represent the area described by the rotation of the UD bone about its X-axis with no scaling. The yellowish areas describe the rotation of the UD bone about its X-axis with the corresponding scaling. Just some food for thought. Thanks, Dean

Hi Victor, Yeah, everything you said makes perfect sense. Thanks for the advice. Thanks again, Dean Hi Zack, Victor just answered your first two questions (see the quote in this reply). And to answer your question about whether two bones per CP will make animating tedious and whether picking the right bone each time could be a pain in the neck -- well, actually the bones are hidden and you use pose sliders to manipulate them. In Victors case, the jaw bone remains visible and can be moved to affect the hidden CP bones. I'm considering hiding the jaw bone and using pose sliders for it. Hope that helps. Dean

What a wonderful character and facial rig test! (If only my tests turned out so well.) WOW! And thanks for sharing some of the details about your facial rig. I noticed that you had a pose slider labeled "Corner_L_IO". I assume that "IO" stands for "In-Out", as "LR" stands for "Left-Right" and "UD" for "Up-Down". Also (assuming that the bones' roll handles point either up or down) In-Out involves scaling a bone in its Z-axis, Left-Right involves rotating a bone around its Y-axis, and Up-Down involves rotating a bone around its X-axis. Correct? In trying to play with a test rig based on your facial rig, I noticed that one could either scale or translate the bone in its Z-axis. Translating moved the center of the sphere described by the bone as its radius. This seems to have some interesting possibilities, but I assume that you used scaling since you do not want your sphere's center to move. Correct? You mentioned that you found that using a single bone for both Left-Right and Up-Down rotations caused some unspecified problems. Assuming I'm on track (which may be a bad assumption on my part), did you find any issues regarding which bone you scaled (i.e., the LR bone or the UD bone)? I was also wondering in regards to your character's arm rig whether you were going with a strictly FK rig? IK? or one that can select for either? Thanks in advance for any answers you may provide. It is greatly appreciated. I've been struggling with the rigging of my character's mouth for a few months now and have been encouraged by seeing your facial rig. Although my character's head isn't spherical, it appears I can adapt your rig to my situation. Thanks again, Dean