Update - New Face Rig, Annual Memberships with 10% Discount

Hey everyone,

I hope you had a great week! I managed to finish a first version of the new facial rig. Please note there are still a couple of things that need tweaking. Like the lower teeth vanish when she opens the mouth, the skinning when she smiles, frowns (basically all emotions) and so on. But overall I am very very happy with the flexibility :) 

Like the way some controllers drive/influence others. For example when she smiles, the cheeks also move automatically, the lip controls are more flexible and so on. I had to do that all one by one before, and now it´s a lot easier and faster to use. That is a BIG step for improving not only my workflow but also improving the quality while spending less time.  

However: having a new Face-Rig also means that I have to redo all animations. But I really needed to improve things so we are better prepared for future projects. And in the long rung, it will save a lot of time. I plan to use that for Episode 6 already and then for all future productions. 

=> Quick show-off video for new Face Rig 

Another cool thing is that it can be used for basic facial motion capture. I used a sample file from a software that can do that, applied it to the facial rig and also did some polishing. But I think, overall, this is pretty cool :)

The main disadvantage of the facial mocap is, that it´s not capable of the complete range of motion. Like looking angry is simply not working. I have to go over the animations anyway, but still there is a lot of stuff that can be improved from the automated side. 

Here is a clip of what I did. It does look a bit weird because only her head and face are moving, and also the audio itself is a bit weird, but please ignore that. It's just a test.

=> Facial Motion Capture Test-Clip 

So v1.0 is great as a start, but I will have to polish that even more. But I would say I am 60-70% done.

I also started with another animation from our Poses-Poll. The Full Nelson Pose:

Next week or the week after next week, I plan to have a nice little Movie with the Lick-Out scene for you. Not just the playblasts from Maya but nicely done in Unity. Either in the   the Museum from EP3, the Throneroom from EP4 or, or the Beach from EP5? What would you prefer? Let me know :)

And last but not least, I enabled annual Memberships with 10% discount. 

Alright, that´s it from me for now! I hope you like the update :)

Have a great weekend!
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