Curve-based Facial Rigging in Maya
In this Maya tutorial, we will cover tools and techniques for curve-based facial rigging in Maya. Software required: Maya 2011 and up.
What you'll learn
In this Maya tutorial, we will cover tools and techniques for curve-based facial rigging in Maya. We'll take the Facial Action Coding System approach of control muscles to mold facial expressions. Step by step, we'll construct a facial control rig that is robust, sufficient, and animator-friendly. We'll learn everything from how to deform a mesh by a curve's shape, to creating controls for those curves that will provide the animator with the functionality they need to create entertaining facial animations. We'll also learn how utilize nodes and expressions to automate certain components of our control rig. By the end of this tutorial, you'll have the fundamental knowledge you need to create your own curve-based control rigs that produce natural and appealing facial expressions. Software required: Maya 2011 and up.
Table of contents
- Driving the New Mesh of the Animation Character 12m
- Setting up the Joints of the Facial Rig 7m
- Adding Tools to a Custom Shelf 7m
- Building the Curves That Will Deform the Face 15m
- Adding the Facial Curves as Influence Objects 9m
- Wrapping up the Initial Weight Pass of the Facial Curves 10m
- Refining the Weights of the Brows and Orbicularis Curves 9m
- Fine-tuning the Deformations of the Mouth Curves 11m
- Finalizing the Weights of the Buccinators 5m
- Controlling the Facial Curves with Clusters 6m
- Mirroring Influence Weights and Setting up Brow Controls 12m
- Creating Controls for the Orbicular Curves 7m
- Building Controls for the Buccinators and Zygomatic Curves 9m
- Starting on the Lip Controls 11m
- Adding Clusters to the Driver Curve for the Lips 9m
- Creating Groups for the Lip Controls 11m
- Attaching the Lip Controls to the Driver Curve with an Expression 11m
- Finishing up the Connections of the Lip Controls and Driver Curve 9m
- Connecting the Zygomatic Controls to Their Driver Curves 9m
- Correcting the Weights Around the Corners of the Mouth 3m
- Rigging the Nose 6m
- Creating a Jaw Control Blocking in the Weights of the Jaw Bone 5m
- Automating the Corner Lip Controls to Follow the Jaw 7m
- Wrapping up the Automation of the Corner Lip Controls 9m
- Setting up the Lower Lip Controls to Move with the Jaw 4m
- Finishing the Connections Between the Lower Lip Controls and the Jaw 10m
- Refining the Deformations of the Jaw 5m
- Shifting the Lower Lip Controls as the Jaw Rotates in the Y Axis 9m
- Closing in the Gaps Around the Lips When the Mouth Closes 11m
- Setting up the Lip Rolls 18m
- Tweaking the Facial Rig 5m
- Creating the Tongue Bones and Binding the Tongue 11m
- Rigging the Tongue Controls 10m
- Stretching the Tongue 9m
- Tying the Facial Controls to the Control Rig 9m
- Connecting the Blend Shape Controls to the Animation Controls 5m
- Finishing the Setup of the Animation Facial Controls 11m
- Cleaning up the Scene 8m
- Creating a Sub Character Set for the Facial Controls 2m
- Exploring a Technique for Correcting Deformations in the Face 9m
About the author
Delano works avidly as an animation author at Pluralsight. Starting his career at animation studios like Shilo, Delano has developed a strong passion for his talents. His animation and rigging background help him teach and create some of the most-watched training on Pluralsight. A few of his favorite projects that he has contributed to include: Character Interaction in Maya and in Softimage, Rigging the Human Face in Maya, Rigging Sea Creatures in Maya, and Rigging and Animating Transforming... more