How Did I Handle… Developing a Skinning Workflow for Facial Expressions

I’m rigging her face using a simple blendShape method, importing facial expressions sculpted in ZBrush. The opposite method implies rigging joints to every muscle in her face. I’m including some additional facial expressions from the Expressions Sheet in case I have to escalate this pipeline. If you want to know more about Skinning, click on these case studies: Skinning a Human Body: https://www.3dartviz.com/skills/skills-3d/rigging/skinning-human-body.html and Skinning Facial Expressions: https://www.3dartviz.com/skills/skills-3d/rigging/skinning-facial-expressions.html . After testing Rigging and Skinning, I’m animating my character, first blocking out the main translations, and later adding some subtle variations, like:
• Stretching her legs before landing
• Lowering down the arms
• Opening her eyes, looking at the camera, and smiling
Warning: Animation is a part of the pipeline just like modeling or texturing. Always hire a professional animator to animate your character/props. They have a special education, a sense for timing, curves, rhythm and other skills that you can only acquire through years of every‑day practice.