Course Overview

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  Judd Simantov

  Judd Simantov has worked in the Computer Graphics industry for over 10 years. He currently works as an independent contractor in S...

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• Week by week outline

  
  

  Week One: Introduction to Facial Anatomy and Rigging:

  In this first week we're going to start off with an overview of the basic techniques used to rig the face and then talk a little bit about the differences between rigging realistic faces vs stylized faces. We'll also cover the importance of good geometry and finish off with an in-depth look at facial anatomy.

  • Introduction
  • What course will cover and what you should expect to get out of it
  • Facial Rigging Overview
  • Common approaches to facial rigging
  • Stylized vs Realistic
  • Importance of good geometry
  • Facial muscles

   

  Exercise:

  • Draw wire-frame cage over supplied characters (images)
  • Draw arrows to illustrate the muscle movement for the supplied characters (images).
  • If you have face models you'd like to use over the course, upload them for me to assess.

   

  Week Two: Joint Placement and Control Rig setup:

  In week two we're going to start getting our hands dirty and placing our joints in the areas that will give us the most control over deforming the face correctly. We're also going to look at different control types and start setting up the animation controls for our face rig.

  • Creating and placing the joints on the face
  • Determining the best position for deformation and articulation
  • Understanding joint deformation and linear blend skinning
  • Defining orientation and position based on joint movement
  • Animation controls for facial rigs
  • In viewport controls vs channel box slider controls
  • Creating visually clear and easy to select controls
  • Naming attributes appropriately

   

  Exercise:

  Students will take the supplied model (or their own if approved) and start placing their joints. They will then go on to creating their animation controls that will drive the rig setup later on.

   

  Week Three: Skinning:

  In week three we're going to start skinning our joints to the geometry. We'll look at the different skin binds you can do and talk about some work flow methodologies for painting weights...etc. We'll also implement a basic range of motion pass, so that we have something to test our skinning against.

  • Skinning methodologies and pros and cons of each
  • Painting weights and other ways of setting the weight values
  • Developing a basic range of motion to test your weights –
  • Get basic weight paint pass in first
  • Create a range of motion to start defining your big shapes

   

  Exercise:

  Bind your head to your skeleton and start painting weights, while painting weights create a range of motion to test your weights.

   

  Week Four: Facial Controls and Shapes Part 1:

  In week four we're going to start with the meat and potatoes of rigging the face. We're going to start creating the controls and shapes for the brows, lids and eyeballs. We'll talk about what each one of these areas require in order to hit the appropriate shapes and we'll also start talking about making appealing poses...etc.

  Start creating controls and shapes for:

  • Brows
  • Eyelids
  • Eyeballs

   

  Exercise:

  Create the controls and shapes for the brows, eyelids and eyeballs

   

  Week Five: Facial Controls and Shapes Part 2:

  Week five is going to be a continuation of the stuff we did in week four. We're going to move on to creating the controls and shapes for the noes, cheeks and ears. These three regions are often overlooked, so we'll talk about their purpose in animation as well.

  Start creating controls and shapes for:

  • Nose
  • Cheeks
  • Ears

   

  Exercise:

  Create the controls and shapes for the nose, cheeks and ears

   

  Week Six: Facial Controls and Shapes Part 3:

  Week six is the final part of the control and shapes section. We're going to wrap up with the jaw, mouth and teeth. The mouth is generally the most complex part of the face to rig and has the most controls to get all the variation that is possible. We'll also talk about the need to add controls to the teeth for stylized rigs and how it's used in animation.

  Start creating controls and shapes for:

  • Jaw
  • Mouth
  • Teeth

   

  Exercise:

  Create the controls and shapes for the jaw, mouth and teeth

   

  Week Seven: Finalizing the face and adding details

  Now that we have all the basic controls and shapes out of the way, we'll move onto finalizing the face controls, adding head and neck controls and talk a bit about squash and stretch techniques for the face. We'll also discuss how the animator can use existing controls to create a sense of squash and stretch within the facial expressions.

  • Finalizing face controls
  • Adding head and neck controls
  • Adding squash and stretch controls

   

  Exercise:

  Finalize your faces rigs and add the controls for the neck, head and squash and stretch.

   

  Week Eight: Creating corrective blend-shapes and final testing

  Week eight will be our final week and will be used to add that final level of finesse to our rigs. We'll use corrective blend-shapes to handle areas that are trickier to get right with joints. We'll then also talk about testing your rig properly before handing it off to animators and some of the different phases in production for rig hand offs.

  • Creating correctives shapes
  • Testing the rig properly before handing off to animators

   

  Exercise:

  Add corrective shapes to fix areas that are not quite working with joints and create a range of motion animation to do final rig testing.

• Student requirements

  
  

  Prerequisites:

  Students will need to have an intermediate knowledge of Autodesk Maya and more specificallyknow their way around the rigging and skinning tools in Maya.