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| REALISM vs SUZANNE-ISM |
Here is "Ishidourou" YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSNi8Xxsd9Q7hEK6lZPuc2A
Great respect for him for writing and sharing his Blender Add-On to help when creating Bone in Blender (aka Armature object).
After installing the Add-On, you will get this additional Panel, this is quite intuitive.
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| Bone Modeling Helper Add-On |
However, you want to check out his long video demo for the Add-On (around 30 minutes). I cannot read Japanese myself, however, the video is pretty self-explanatory.
VIDEO DEMO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_BEGXA0pEo
ENGLISH VERSION (Update!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fFv9znBZOo
WEBSITE:
http://stonefield.cocolog-nifty.com/
Feel free to spend some time to watch the video demo.
This Blender Add-On is simple and practical. It does not try to do too much setup, but more for general usage. Such as converting to BONES from SELECTED MESH.
For that particular function, I also wanted to point out this interesting setup where ishidourou is showing how we can rig Suzanne Monkey Head just by using the Edge Loop, around the are of Circular Face Topology.
This is not a totally new concept, however, I figured out a few things after studying his video and trying it myself in Blender:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk8Ma5ne2pk
FACIAL RIGGING AND SETUP
With the topic of Facial Rigging, I actually have a very high interest in it. Sometimes more than biped rig alone. Biped is biped. However EVERY FACE is different. Unless it is a generic facial rig.I have a bit obsession of Human Faces back then (and still now) and I do draw a lot of portraits. One my old dream is to be a character designer for more cartoony and stylistic character.
These days, we all know it that "realistic looking" and "hyper realistic" high detailed creature is the big thing or in high demand. I think stylistic character still have place. Both equally important.
JASON OSIPA's book "Stop Staring" has become THE ONLY CG BOOK that talks in details about facial rigging and goes about explaining how to set it up, particularly using commercial software called Maya.
http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470175044.html
That book has been updated and republished few times. "Osipa Style" has become really famous and becoming the "Industry Standard" of Facial Rigging. Both for realistic and stylistic face.
There is also another book that talks about Rigging really well, it is becoming a very rare book:
"CG Toolkit The Art of Rigging Volume 1-3".
That book talks about whole body rigging for human character and mechanical robot creature, but also touch a bit on "advanced facial rigging".
Having been a bit of a rigger and using Maya for over 10 years, I still often need to adjust my brain to really understand the ESSENCE OF RIGGING that is more general and applicable in other packages.
Currently, I am adapting to Rigging system in Blender. I am more experienced in character rigging using Maya. So I want RAGE a bit about Maya Rigging. I have serious love and hate with Maya and rigging.
Maya Rigging in summary:
- Maya's Rigging involves JOINTS, DEFORMERS, CONSTRAINS, and CONTROLS. => I think these are some ELEMENTS of RIGGING. Blender has some equivalent to all those. And not forgetting SKINNING (assigning Cluster or Group or Vertices) and WEIGHT PAINTING.
- Maya is a node based but also has some familiar and friendlier 3D environment like Blender, on the surface. Unlike Houdini 3D which is a fully node based, can work with almost hardly no interface in 3D view.
- Being node based, it is a breeze for Maya to setup Expression, Connection, from one object to another. Blender can do this via Python and Drivers and Bone Constrains.
- For Facial Rigging, typical Maya setup is to use Blendshapes and Set Driven Keys => In Blender terminology, it is just like Shapekeys and Drivers. However, there might also be some differences between the two. PROS and CONS. Blender has Action Constrains(!).
- Facial Rigging can be created JOINT BASED or BLENDSHAPE BASED. For Game Production, actually Joint Based is what is more commonly used. Vertex Animation is not always supported and can be heavy for game engine.
- Maya's "ADVANCE" architecture has become both a curse and a blessing. In one way, it is very flexible, on the other hand, when not careful creating and implementing Tools, CHARACTER RIG can easily be broken.
- All "advanced" rigging setup has been cleverly using Maya's systems. Such as MUSCLE, RIBBON, STRETCHY, and so on. Blender has some of those features as a built-in system, ready to be used especially for Rigging.
- Maya has thousands of useful MEL scripts and many AUTO-RIGGING scripts, just like Blender's Rigify and others.
- Maya is very popular in CG industry for Rigging and Animation. There are PLENTY of good rig setup in Maya. Now, I also found many interesting CHARACTER RIG SETUP using Blender out there. Many of bipedal rig is using RIGIFY. Make Human is using RIGIFY too.
- In the end Maya's Rigging == becoming pretty much scripted and procedural.
- Maya has MUSCLE and specialized "advanced" like tension map plugins and also things like POSE SPACE DEFORMERS, etc. I talked a bit about it at my Maya blog.
Here is another example of Maya Face Rig by Image-Metrics showing Face Control on the right. This is a Blendshape based.
BLENDER BONE FOR FACIAL RIGGING SETUP
I am actually fairly new to Blender Rigging, in fact, I know very little about the whole workflow. From the HUMANE RIGGING DVD by Nathan Veghdal, I learned a things such as:- Blender Armature object has 2 Modes: Edit Mode and Pose Mode
- Edit Mode to draw and edit the BONES
- Pose Mode to setup Controls and Animate.
- Blender use Bone inside Armature Object. Maya uses Joints. Joint is a single point source, Bone is more like a Capsule.
- Blender has specialized Bone Constrains apart from normal Bone Constrains
- Blender CONTROLS is built in and setup inside Armature System. Unlike Maya where we actually use NURBS Curve.
I remember there is an old Maya Rigging DVD that talks about how to rig a Baboon, the Rig uses Joints that goes along the Edges:
So the concept of using Bones along facial lines is definitely not new, however in Maya the issue is:
- Joint Weighting
- Keeping Joint as Broken Hierarchy
- To be able to reset the Joints
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| Maya's Capsule based Skin Weighting helps a bit when weighting Joints, however, Blender Bone does it better. |
However, I figure out that in Blender, somewhat the result of weight is much better, and the Bone system in Blender Armature just perfect for this kind of Joint Based Facial Rig.
BLENDER QUICK FACE RIGGING SETUP
Anyways, in regards to out "Bone Modeling Helper" Add-On, I did a quick exploration on how we could do a quick cartoony rig using Blender Armature system and Bone, below:NOTE:
- The Setup could be much better. I should have done some broken parenting and adding Ear Jonits. I am just showing how it can be done UNDER ONE MINUTE.
- This does not mean Blender Armature system is good only for stylized cartoony character. You can use it for realistic head.
BLENDER VS MAYA FOR RIGGING
As a technical artist, I need to be fair. I would say that comparison between tools is PRETTY TIRING. Just like comparing between iPhone and Android phones. Or comparing Canon and Nikon camera.<<< Personally, I think iPhone has a lots more added value for the price. And for camera choice, I actually like Fuji and Olympus approach, but I have Nikon.
Let them fight or CHOOSE! >>>
Let them fight or CHOOSE! >>>
However, in all seriousness, IDEALLY it is necessary to be OPEN-MINDED for what tools available that can be suitable for work you are doing. We know that it is very difficult for anyone to accept a new way of working or thinking.
Our mind often goes into "reality distortion field" when COMPARING 2 THINGS for their VALUE and BENEFITS.
In fact, I learn a bit or two by using Blender that I can apply if I need to work inside Maya. I use both.
POSE LIBRARY
Blender has a built in Pose Library for its Armature system:
Blender Armature system and Paint Weighting are very flexible. Accidentally deleting Bones will not kill or crash or break the rig. The painting is much more stable.
It takes me a while to adapt to this "new" rigging system in Blender (it's simpler than Maya), but I am really happy with Blender system because of it's SIMPLICITY. I got too familiar with Maya's INPUT system where we need to be careful with the order of inputs for Rigging, such as:
- UV => must be be done before Skin Cluster
- Blendshapes => need to be before Skin Cluster
- Skin Cluster => skinning mesh into joints => normally the last in hierarchy
Of course, we can do "transfer" etc, but does not always work perfectly.
MAYA: It does not always work. We need a script solution. Google Search
BLENDER: there is always a way around that. If not, ask Blender developers.
- We can change the TWIST of BONE anytime
- We can edit the bone position easily at anytime
- Armature Bone in Blender can in a hierarchy or as "a broken rig" and both will work fine.
- Bone can always be reset to original position.
- Blendshapes can be added anytime and there is a specialized Library for Blendshapes
- Bones Pose Library is provided.
- Animation Action of Armature
- 1000+ bones will not slow down Blender.
Blender Rigging System is SIMPLE and PRACTICAL. We can get complex if we want to.
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| Blender Game Engine (BGE) also respect the Blender Facial Bone Rigging |
BONE FACE RIG AND ANIMATION INTO UNITY
Blender's Armature and animation imported into Unity via the BLEND.
When importing to Unity:
- Delete the Polygon Subdiv => conversion does not seem to always work 100%
- Delete the default cube, can be deleted inside Unity too I think.
When we want to make changes, we can just do it in BLEND and updates inside Unity actually Blender
BLEND and Unity are seriously made for each other.
The Add-On is no longer needed because Blender Shape Key can do it:
https://vimeo.com/27100314
BLEND and Unity are seriously made for each other.
ANISCULPT SHAPE KEY
Once upon a time ago, there is a Blender Add-On called Anisculpt allowing animator to sculpt and refine the "profile" of their animation from the shot. This is called "Blendshape Fixes" in other package to fix an ugly pose on pose basis. "Pose Space Deformation" is kind of related to this, but not exactly the same.The Add-On is no longer needed because Blender Shape Key can do it:
https://vimeo.com/27100314
GENERALIST AND SPECIALIST
There is a trend that has been going for years: a trend of SPECIALIZING. In reality, a good 3D Artist needs to have some good understanding of general knowledge of 3D, as well as specializing in one or two areas.
To stick with our topic, I think (COMPUTER) ANIMATOR should have knowledge of RIGGING. Animators will work very closely to riggers, but animators SHOULD NOT be dumb. Especially Computer Animators. Computer Animators SHOULD NOT look down on the traditional hand drawn animations either. If one being ignorant of the others, the result could be disaster.
Sometimes, with matter of rigging, ANIMATORS can CHEAT. Sometimes a complex rigging is unnecessary. All Animators need for animation just Bones.
However, for some complex animations, we do need things like constraining objects, advanced IK, crowds, motion captures, animators should take advantage of what computer offers.
Obviously, some animators are more technical like me. Some are not. Some are more artistic and just amazingly good with understanding of TIMING and SPACING, etc.
The problem is usually TIME and ENERGY required for a single person to do everything. However, I think most of really good BLENDER artist is a good generalist and as well a specialist.
It is a debatable topic. However, if we care about being INDEPENDENT and making sure ARTISTS have freedom to produce works and no dependency on the "state of industry", we always need to be adaptable and have multiple skills. Both equally important and so balance is needed.
In a way, the more IDEAL RIG is to GIVE MORE CONTROLS to ANIMATORS to build shapes themselves for ANIMATION. Of course the are certain boundary within productions, like to maintain the shapes, ANIMATOR need to be aware of the model.
RIGGER <=> ANIMATOR <=> MODELER. Animator should push the Model.
A bit like DEVELOPER/PROGRAMMER/CODER <=> ARTIST, the intermediate solution seems to be NODING, the procedural or parametric way to do things.
BECAUSE YOUR TOOL IS STUPID...
Clever artist choose the right, practical, simple tool.Anyway, that's all my rants on rigging and Maya. Both Maya and Blender have something to like about, in term of rigging. Blender Rigging can hopefully continue to improve.
Here is an advice:
Make the tools work for you. Do not be dependent to other's complex script. Know your tool inside out and always learn for alternative.
Maya under Autodesk is NOT good. I have serious doubt with this company. Slow in development, no proper support. I do like Maya as the tool, I really don't like the corporation that ask for $$$$ for yearly update that does not update the basic tools.
Blender should be in every University and education institution and NOT big greedy giant like Autodesk.
Thus, for me, love for Blender continues to grow. Make this Baby Godzilla works for you.
ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Thanks also to my friend, Veta, for sharing the link to Mr.Higurashi-sama website above. Otherwise we could have missed such great add-on!VETA ANTARES:
http://blenderia.blogspot.com.au/
https://www.youtube.com/user/dotline11/videos
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
- Facial Expressions - A Visual Reference for Artists by MARK SIMON
- Jason Osipa's "Stop Staring"
OTHER LINKS
FaceShift x MakeHuman
https://vimeo.com/97096194
Facial Rig in Maleficent
http://www.wired.com/2014/06/fx-guide-maleficent/
Snapper Facial Rig Demo (Maya)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qeOFibRmoo
"Shave It" Baboon Animation
https://vimeo.com/63528500
Blur Studio Animation (lots of uncanny valley issue)
https://vimeo.com/97143634
Michael Comet
http://www.comet-cartoons.com/aboutme.html
Keith Lango
http://keithlango.blogspot.com.au/
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