How did I deal with…?

Rigging and Skinning a Human Head with Maya

The goal of this project is to test a human head rig system for facial expressions. I'm mimicking acting samples from an actress' live action footage. You can watch some of the tests here:

Facial expression 2 — Facial expressions in head rigging stress test, mimicking actress' acting.

These are the steps I'm following to rig the head:

Rigging User interface Combining blendShapes FK/IK rig Expressions sheet

Rigging

First of all, note that the performance bases on a bust, not an isolated head. That's because my references are moving their shoulders. Shoulder are essential for human expressions. In rigging terms, the joints are affecting not only the face but also the whole spine/shoulders/arms/neck systems.

User Interface

After mapping and skinning joints, I am connecting them to the User Interface (UI) using constraints and other mechanisms:

Linking BlendShapes and Clusters to UI:

Combining blendShapes

The advantage of this method is that I can trigger a BlendShape and let it contribute to any arbitrary expression. This method allows the creation of infinite expressions by combining blendShapes, cluster deformations and joint rotations/translations:

Rigging demo 1 — Samples from combining arbitrary deformations.

Rigging demo 2 — Samples from combining arbitrary deformations.

The opposite method consists of creating one single expression via blendShape using, e.g. ZBrush Expressions. This would limit the expressions range to the expressions you created. Instead, I'm connecting the controls from the UI to Character Sets, so that I can have 3 streams of independent keyframes:

FK/IK rig

Conventional FK/IK Rotations/Translations functionalities:

Rigging rotations — Samples from conventional FK/IK rigging rotations.

Expressions sheet

Typical Expression Sheet Set from pre‑production:

There's much more to facial expressions, rigging and skinning to take a look at. Click on these rigging and skinning link cards to know more:

Rigging Human Body

Rigging a human body using animator friendly rigging in Maya. Torso, spine, FK/IK, neck, head, pose, fixed elbow, hand, reverse foot, independent pivots.

Skinning Human Body

Skinning a whole human body using Maya Muscle, attaching muscles to joints in Maya, using them as influence objects, and mixing blendShapes.

Skinning Facial Expressions

Using skinning for facial expressions, through quad retopology, minimum Maya joints, importing and combining expressions sculpted in ZBrush.

Links about character pre‑production, including character sheets:

Character Sheet for Video Game

Character sheet example from a video game project, including silhouettes, poses, expressions, clothes and gear, variations, turnaround and 3D block out.

Guidelines for Real Time

Establishing guidelines for a real time 3D production pipeline. Research, One Page Design, developing environment, characters and programming interaction.

Developing 3D Pipeline

Writing a 3D production pipeline for render time using pre-production, production, and post-production, including modeling, VFX, and compositing.

Links about drawing and painting human anatomy and characters:

Digital Painting for Concept

Using digital painting as a technique for rendering concept artwork, using hand painted layers, blending modes and compositing principles.

Live Portrait & Nude Drawing

Live portrait and nude drawing and sculpting samples from different workshops in Berlin and Barcelona, using different techniques, including wooden pen.

Discover 3D Skills