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Osipa-Style Facial Interface


brainmuffin

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I'm glad Mulls ressurected this topic:

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...=0entry116078

 

because I'm really enjoying working with one of these setups.

 

BillY, (If you happen to poke your head in here) Am I correct in assuming that there's similar info in the "animate a face" cd from Anzovin Studios? because if so, I'm buyin'!!

 

Anyway, Like I said in the other thread, To save a lot of time, I set up my interface as a single patch with an image decaled onto it. I gave the interface patch a bone, and parented the nulls to the bone. That way I can grab the interface bone and straighten it out no matter what view I'm in. When I want to do a final render, I just make the interface 100% transparent.

 

Here's my interface decal:

post-43-1119568630.jpg

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Hey!!!

 

Very cool interface!

 

If you do have some time maybe you could respond to the itsy-bitsy tiny-weeny request... khm... some example face (with the interface) would be nice... nudge, nudge, wink, wink

 

Keep us posted!

 

Drvarceto

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Here's a piece I did a while back that shows a lipsync with the Osipa-style onscreen interface I use for animating. About 90% of the lipsync was done using the "slider interface" and the remaining 10% was tweeking the individual pose sliders. (DivX 5.1.1, 2.1MB)

 

http://www.mstrohbehn.lunarpages.com/Videos/Yosemite26.avi

 

Since then I've moved the controls onto the face and have two sets of controls, one similar to the simple setup, and one that has unilateral controls. Each set of controls can be hidden to reduce clutter. I'm very happy with the intuitive feel of working with these on-face controls.

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Mike,

 

What does the setup look like with moving controls onto the face?

Here's a screenshot:

OnFaceOsipiaSetup.jpg

 

And Here's a DivX 5.5.1 video (8.6 MB) of what each slider does (I forgot to show the one on the bottom left that moves the jaw left/right/forward):

http://www.mstrohbehn.lunarpages.com/Video...OsipiaSetup.avi

 

The photo and video shows both sets of controls visible at the same time. I use it this way because it's not confusing for me. But either set can be hidden.

 

As far as a tute goes, here is a cut and paste from a previous post of mine on how the interface is made.

 

1. In the modeling window, make the outlines for the interface and add type if you wish. For the on-face rig you won't be making the outlines or adding type.

 

2. Add the nulls (modeling window), rename, resize, and position them in the proper places in the interface outlines.

 

3. Make a new On/Off pose and rename it Face Constraints.

 

4. In the relationship window (for the Face Constraint pose), click on a null and select New>constraint>translate limits. Set the "min" and "max" values which will restrict the x and y movement of the null. Repeat this process for each null. This completes the interface part. Now you need to make relationships for each null slider position.

 

4. In the PWS go to Model>Bones and select one of the nulls. Open its' properties tab and go to Translate X (or Y, depending on how your slider is going to work), and right-click, select New Relationship.

 

5. In the relationship window, make your pose slider window visible and set the relevent pose slider's values to zero (the sliders that will be affected by the null). Move the null to one of its' extreme positions and set the appropriate pose slider to 100%. Now, move the null to its' other extreme position, and change another pose sliders' value to 100%. For example, on the right side of a side-to-side null slider I put a wide mouth pose and on the left side I put the narrow mouth pose. Close the relationship window and repeat this process for each null sliders' x and y value you have.

 

6. Test the null slider in an action window. As you translate each null it should automatically control whatever pose sliders you attached to it.

 

7. Save, save, save.... repeat.

 

Good luck!

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Mark, you have the Nulls controlling pose sliders, right? Do any of the pose sliders involve bone action, or are they all muscle action? Because I had a jaw bone in my character, and every time I tried to assign a null to control a slider that involved that bone, I crashed. Has that happened to you?

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Lazlo,

 

I just checked it out to be sure and here's how it goes:

 

The mouth null has X & Y relationships that control three sliders/poses (mouth open, smile/wide, and narrow). The "mouth open" slider/pose does control the rotation of the jaw bone, as well as muscle (CP) sculpting.

 

I don't remember any crashes related to nulls controlling sliders and bone movement. I'll think on it and get back to you if anything comes to mind.

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This is great! Glad to see this subject being revisited. The "on face" controls are interesting, Mark. Do you find this more convenient when you are animating the whole character in a scene? I would think doing the lip sync and other facial animation would be easier in general if the controls were tied to the camera view. That way you can animate the face directly from the camera view to make sure it reads well from that angle. Either way, using nulls for face controls strikes me as a wonderfully intuitive and efficient way to control the facial animation.

 

Bill Gaylord

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The "on face" controls are interesting, Mark. Do you find this more convenient when you are animating the whole character in a scene? I would think doing the lip sync and other facial animation would be easier in general if the controls were tied to the camera view. That way you can animate the face directly from the camera view to make sure it reads well from that angle.

 

You likely have a lot more experience relating to this than I do, Bill. I just recently gave this character a body and haven't yet animated a scene with it.

 

I've been experimenting with a 2-camera setup that seems to work very well with the on-face controls. There is a close-up camera that sits just behind the main camera and has "track to" and "orient like" constraints to it, and an "aim at" constraint to the head. The close-up cam has a zoom of 250. The perspective between the two cameras is nearly identical. If I can't grab the nulls easily with the main camera, I just switch to the close-up with the 1-key and it's much easier to work with. Occasionally I have to readjust the position of the close-up camera with the shift/mouse wheel a bit, but that's really fast too. This is blast to work with, so far.

 

All of the controlling nulls are constrained to move in only the X/Y plane and work well as long as the character is not turned far toward a profile view.

 

Tell me if you think this isn't practical.

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I've used a set up much like this on a recent short. Instead of nulls I used bones, becasue the roll handle offers a third control tied to the X and Y movement.

 

As far as the camera goes I used an orthographic (non-perspective camera), included in the character model,placed just at the front of the head. From that camera I always have a face on perspective from whic to view and control the facial expressions. I always keep my main camera in view as well, and judge the performance from that.

 

I also set the whole thing up so that the control bones for the face actually drive sliders that control the face. This way I can rough in my facial animation using the "on face" controls, and then add a new animation layer. In the new layer I can disable the "on face" control and manipulate the underlying sliders directly, for fine tuning.

 

Ben

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Ben, I like the extra dimension you get from from using the bone's roll. I may have to give that a try for fun.

 

I also set the whole thing up so that the control bones for the face actually drive sliders that control the face. This way I can rough in my facial animation using the "on face" controls, and then add a new animation layer. In the new layer I can disable the "on face" control and manipulate the underlying sliders directly, for fine tuning.

This is pretty much the same way I do it. The individual sliders work independantly of the nulls, so I go back and fine-tune with the sliders where necessary.

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It also made strongbehn show off his advances... coolest approach to facial animation that I've seen so far...

 

Thanks for the kind words.

 

I'd like very much to see what others have been doing with the Osipa interface. Some video of their work with the interface in action would be nice. Come on everybody, let's see your stuff! I'm sure there are lots of good modifications out there we can oggle over :)

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All of the controlling nulls are constrained to move in only the X/Y plane and work well as long as the character is not turned far toward a profile view.

 

Mark, I like your control and facial expressions, great stuff.

 

Have you tried to set a parent bone for all the nulls that will aim at the camera so the controls are always facing you as the camera pans up/down or left/right?

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Have you tried to set a parent bone for all the nulls that will aim at the camera so the controls are always facing you as the camera pans up/down or left/right?

 

Mark, I tested out your idea this morning and found that it was confusing having the controls slide around, independent of the face.

 

I think that if the goal is to always have the interface square-on to the camera, then the technique you described or Lazlo's (in the post that started this thread) or the one Bill Gaylord suggested of tying the controls to a camera view would be better. For this on-face rig, I'm still in favor of the setup I described a couple of posts back.

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  • 2 weeks later...

hey i'm glad to see this thread is thriving. i haven't posted in a very long time and haven't been on the forums in a while, but here is some work i did in AM after reading osipa's book.

 

this is a WIP of setting up the Simple interface:

Osipa Style Setup WIP

 

here's a quick test once the Setup was finished:

ShopSmart.jpg

Shop Smart Lip Synch

 

-dieter

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Here's a little DivX .avi of my monkeyface in action. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm using bones instead of nulls. Everything is positioned ontop of the face, and worked with through a dedicated orthagonal camera.

 

You can see the tweaked output HERE in my contest entry. It's the one wih the monkey.

monkeyface.avi

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kungfudork, bendytoons,

 

Great work, both of you!!! I shudder to think how much work those setups required!!!

 

This shows that there is more than one way to the top of the mountain (if only some of them were not that much upwards!)

 

Drvarceto

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Just want to say Thanks so much MARK for explaining your face rig ,posted above July 2nd I think. I was really confused with the null relationship thing but after reading you explanation quite a few times,the lightbulb clicked on.Also got the ANZOVIN Rigging A Face CD worth twice the cost easily as it seems to be with everything they do .And thanks always to DAVID RODGERS,as I flip through the pages AM 2002 a complete guide for the 1000th time,I hit the wall a bit with the face pose thing,but AS ALWAYS I find the help I need here. Shauns Siggraph demo was a big help as well,Thanks to RUSTY since he was the first one I saw post about Shaun's face rig ,SOORRRY about the hard luck with your computer,THE FORUM IS THE BEST AS IS THE SOFTWARE IT STANDS FOR !!!

THANKS TO ALL WHO TAKE TIME TO POST AND REPLY HERE

 

model on :D Mulls

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