What you'll learn

In this series of Maya tutorials, you'll learn production-proven facial rigging techniques for animation. We'll start by building a facial skeleton. We'll then cover time-saving binding and weight-painting techniques. From there, we'll begin setting up control objects and Blend Shapes that will allow animators to produce natural and appealing facial expressions while having fun with the control rig. Along the way we'll learn how to attach objects to a deforming mesh, we'll learn how to troubleshoot common issues one might come across during the construction of the rig, and also learn how to script tools using both Python and MEL to improve our efficiency. By the end of this Maya training, you'll be equipped with the knowledge you need to set up your own facial rigs. Software required: Autodesk Maya 2015.