Post 42 - Final head setup rig: Evaluation

The head rig is now finished. Since my last post, I went ahead and made additional morph targets for the eyelids opening and closing. These were then wired into the Face UI. I decided, after a discussion with Darren, to create some phonemes. As a follow on from the last post, I have made phonemes for A, W, O, B/M/P, U and V/F. I then redesigned the face UI to incorporate these extra features. In theory, it is possible to relocate the pupil controls into some sliders, but this would mean making the original pupil sliders not work, plus I feel that rather then by sight, using numbers is much more accurate.

New Face UI

I am very happy with the outcome of this face rig. It was a lot more understandable then I first thought and the use of morph targets made the process for a lot of the time linear. The use of reaction manager to take it a step further was a great way to make the rig a lot more animator friendly. Being introduced to the notion of corrective shapes was very helpful and allowed me to see what was important and a what time it was useful to do. 


However, there were a few issues. Firstly, the reaction manager at times is very confusing as it displays all reactions unless you toggle the show selected button a few times. Also, one major problem with the use of morph targets is that asymmetrical morph targets cannot simply be mirrored over. A very long winded work around needs to be used in order for this to work. There are scripts out there which apparently mirror geometry and vert information, but I have not been able to make any of them work.




But finding out the work around aloud me to seek out the solution and made the project all the more better for it. In addition, morph targets a great, but currently aren't particularly used in games due to the extra data needed. Games usually use a few corrective morph targets, but mostly bones / joints as they do not require 20-30 morph targets. This system is more suited for CG film and animation. 


Another issue I have with morph targets is that unless the targets are very exaggerated and a lot of them, the motions possible when wiring these into a controller are to an extent limited as they are already based on morphed models. It isn't direct manipulation , but for a first head / face rig, I am very pleased with the outcome and I am sue that this will help when I move onto a different method for rigging a face.






Final head demonstration rig - LINK