jklind

Rigging Day 3 - Test and Refine

Added 2017-02-22 22:27:18 +0000 UTC

Today I tested out my lips function, and more of ngSkinTools' features. So far I'm loving ngSkinTools, although I've kept things fairly easy...

To test out the lips' deformation, I first created a new layer. That's the first thing to love about ngSkinTools - its layers work much like Photoshop's, allowing artists to edit skin weights non-destructively. Much like her eyelids, Daisy's lips have a bone for every edgeloop - 36 total! Each edgeloop gets weighted 100% to its bone, even if wraps all the way around her head. A layer mask helps to limit all of the bones' influence. Once all of the bones are weighted, the plugin's relax function smooths out the weights, making the results feel more organic. One thing I may do next time - duplicate the layer before relaxing the weights, just to be safe.

The rig itself still needs a bit of work, but testing it at least helps to identify what's missing or broken. Last night I got thinking about the ribbon-sliding feature, and whether it should have blended on/off switches at both ends. I'm glad I waited to test the rig, first, as now I'm not sure sliding will be useful for the lips at all.

Something else to work on is control shapes. Right now, all of the rig's controls use the same shape, so they're difficult to distinguish visually. Unfortunately, my control-shape script is written in MEL. Python can run it, but it might be better to just port it to Python.

Apart from more scripting, the next thing I'll need to determine is how many bones the rest of her face will need. The again, considering how much easier ngSkinTools seems to make weighting them, the number may not even matter.