2013
CGWorkshops
Judd Simantov
13:16:94
English
For seven years, Judd Simantov was the Lead Character Technical Director at Naughty Dog, working on gaming classics like the Uncharted series. Now he's here to share the secrets of succesfully rigging stylized faces and caricatures with you.
In this 8 week online workshop, work with Judd as you learn the differences between rigging realistic and stylized faces, discover the best areas to place joints so you get muscle control and good animation control, look at different skin binds and discuss workflow methodologies for painting weights.
Judd will show you different shapes and ways of controlling different parts of the face like eyes, ears, mouth and eyebrows (to name a few), adding head and neck controls and talk about how animators can use the elements you rig to create a sense of squash and stretch within the facial expressions.
Finally, you'll learn to use corrective blend-shapes to handle areas that are harder to get right with joints, and discover how to test your rig before it begins the animation process.
You can bring your own face model (subject to Judd's assessment for suitability) or use one that is supplied with the course.
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.
http://workshops.cgsociety.org/courseinfo.php?id=314
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