Rigging
Advanced Facial Rigging
Jane Porter
Facial rigging is the process of creating a digital framework, such as a set of control curves or bones, that allows animators to manipulate a character's facial expressions and bring them to life in animations and visual effects. It involves a combination of techniques, such as joints and blend shapes, to create realistic facial movements, including lip sync and expressions.
In my experience, I spent approximately 6 months working on Jane's facial rig during Chris Pagoria's class at AnimSchool. This was my first attempt at creating an advanced facial rig, and it involved a lot of trial and error. However, I learned a lot of incredible techniques during this time.
I used a combination of joints and blend shapes for Jane's rig, with blend shapes being primarily used for appealing facial shapes like the mouth and brows, and joints for technical elements such as the eyes, jaw, and mouth zipper. Additionally, I incorporated blend shape correctives on top of the joints.
The Jane facial rig video received over 10,000 views on YouTube in just the first week of publication, and I received a lot of positive feedback from animators and supervisors at major animation studios like Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks, Sony, and Blue Sky Studios. I am extremely proud of this project and always use it as a reference for any facial rigging work.
