WIP : alien head. Maya questions

[Erik]

Hi, i started a new head, an alien. I want to try and do a lip-sync in Maya with it, just to learn. The head may have turned out a bit too complicated for a first lip-synch test though... But he has a mouth cavity, teeth and a tongue so the basics are there.

My problem is that using deformers to make blen-shapes, the teeth will move with the rest of the skin and be deformed... Well they are obviously not supposed to do that... What is a good way to counter this? Can i use set-memberships with deformers? Should i extract the teeth in a separate object?

Another question: say i would model each lip-synch pose poly-by-poly. Could i then use the entire mesh as a blend shape?

Maybe these are stoopid questions but i have great trouble with em... Thanx for advice!

The head:

smoothed:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~erikedf/art/3d/alien_merged_hi.jpg
smooth wire:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~erikedf/art/3d/alien_merged_hi_wire.jpg
unsmoothed wires:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~erikedf/art/3d/alien_lo_wire_front.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~erikedf/art/3d/alien_lo_wire_side.jpg http://www.xs4all.nl/~erikedf/art/3d/alien_lo_wire_persp.jpg

I did it poly-by-poly in about 2 hours from scratch.

There are numerous tris in the model which i still need to clean up though. But i find that if i go SUB-D surface with it the tris are not so much of a problem (?) still bad practice to have em there hough i know...

[killing.people]

he looks awesome! i wish i was that good!
okay okay .. sorry.

i think he would look cooler if the corners of his mouth had more definition.

[Erik]

Thanx!

Yeah i see what you mean. The mouth is really just sort of an oval shape... But he's not supposed to have real human-like lips, i want him to be a bit different from that... Suggestions?

[Neox]

:jawdrop:

are you the same guy asking me all those question a few days ago? you're learning as fast as hell!

[Erik]

Hey Neox!

Thanx for the compliment! Yeah i'm still the same guy but keep in mind i have at the moment nothing else to do but 3d... But anyway, even if i improved my modeling my animation and texturing are still at level zero :-( So much to learn...

E.

[azjohnl]

I have usually done blend shape animation on poly stuff and usually have teeth gums as same object.

You should use the entire head object as a blend shape.

[Erik]

Ah! That's what i wanted to hear... I'll just do a whole head manual editing, use that as blend and then make facial animation! Ok, i'll try that. I couldn't find out from the tutorials if it was the way to go (it only shows deformers) and wanted to know if other people did it that way... More freedom i guess!

[azjohnl]

glad i could help!
do a test between two different blendshapes, open mouth and close mouth would be my suggestion.

[Erik]

I did a blendshape test - hope it comes out clear enough to see


Here an avi (709 K)
testblend (http://www.xs4all.nl/~erikedf/art/3d/alien.avi)

Man that blend shape stuff really rocks! It was deceptively easy once i found out how to keyframe the blend sliders ;-)

About the blended models: the animation is really trivial now but since this is my very first face animation: rip away with the comments.

- What's wrong with the mouth when he opens it? Something's not right...
- Should i animate blend shapes for the 'things' in the back of his head? Suggestions? How can i separate a part of the head for a different blend shape?
- i'd like to but bones in the things on his head so they will have follow through when he turns/moves his head. How do i do that?
- Do i animate the tongue with blend shapes too?

Thanx!

Erik