I need help in figuring out a proper way to rig stylized characters’ faces. In this case, I have a character with no nose and big eyebrows. I have been trying to use Rigify but there are some errors I have been encountering. I wanted to know if there’s a recommended way or tip to rigging the face of a stylized character. ( I will continue to use rigify and try to solve the problem but either way curious if there’s a better workflow or tip I should know)
Should I have all the extra components (eyebrows, teeth, tongue, and eyes) combined with the body? I already made a body rig so im a bit concerned this may mess things up but will it?
is there a way to parent the face rig with the body and the other components?
There are several approaches to Facial Rigging in Blender.
A major factor for making better decisions is to know the purpose of the Rigged 3D Character. Because if it is meant to be used solely inside Blender (no Exporting to other software), then this allows for a lot more Blender Rigging features.
If it’s a project to remain inside Blender,
for Stylized Characters, I would recommend Facial Rigging using a Bendy Bones Rig.
Eyebrows, for example, are one of the simplest cases of Face Rig with Bendy Bones Rig.
The problem is that Face Rig may involve lots of different techniques. Therefore, it is unlikely that ‘Bendy Bones Rig’ will do everything on every problematic.
For example, even for an Eyebrows Rig, although Bendy Bones work in a very simple and effective way, there is still the problem of having the Eyebrow Mesh sticking to the Face Mesh; Bendy Bones alone won’t do it; it requires probably and additional technique, such as an Object Modifier (I use Shrinkwrap Modifier, but I know there is a method with… Surface Deform Modifier?).
If you’re into Rigify Addon, you should know there are at least two free Feature Sets (or Extensions to Rigify Addon), that can help with Facial Rigging in Blender:
CloudRig
(beware: the Meta-Rig with the ‘super’ Face with Bendy Bone features is named Cloud Sintel Rig, and it is not showcased in that big presentation; however, you may easily find it by Adding preset Meta-Rigs, after CloudRig Feature Set is added.
Experimental Rigs by Alexander Gavrilov
(beware: this tutorial of mine just shows an Eyebrows Rig example, of how to use the automation of the ‘tentacle’ Rig Type, from that Feature Set, in order to Generate Spline IK Rigs (very complicated to set up manually). However, when I made that tutorial, I didn’t know anything about Rigify workflows. In theory, instead of Joining Armatures as I was doing (trying to combine my Custom Rig with the Generated Rig), I could just have made an entire Rig gradually (just like Dzadik shows in his CloudRig presentation), by continuously using [ Ctrl+Alt+R ] which Re-Generates the Rig, updating it seamlessly.
In principle, all the Facial features of the Face Rig should develop a dependent Relation to a special Bone of the Head. Usually, this can be the DEF (Deform) Head Bone.
Of course, in the case of Bones, mostly, it’s the upper Bones in the FK hierarchy of Armature Facial Rig features which require this Parenting (usually, Offset) to the Head Bone; but sometimes, additional, lower Bones on the hierarchy also require the same Parenting. It is often relevant that extra Objects involved in Face Rig features, if using Set Parent To Bone, they also Target the same Head Bone. In the case such Objects are using Set Parent to Armature Deform, then its their Deform Bone(s) that should present some dependent Relation to the Head Bone (Parent Offset recommended). Of course, there should be exceptions to all these ideas.
Moreover, it might be relevant that the DEF Head Bone is not only Bone-Constraint to a CTL (Control) Head Bone; such as, with a Copy Transforms Bone Constraint. But, also, that, both DEF Head Bone and CTL Head Bone are Parented (in the same way: Offset or Connected) to a higher Bone in the hierarchy (perhaps a CTL Neck Bone). If this is not achieved, the Copy Transforms Bone Constraint alone might not be able to reproduce all the direct and indirect Transforms which might be happening to the CTL Head Bone, and therefore the DEF Head Bone will probably lag behind, along with several Face Rig features: it would bea complete mess.
There would be many other topics to cover, but Face Rig is just a too big large topic.
Hope that helps.
I think I was also confused because you did make 2 posts related to more or less the same problematic: Face Rig. I’ve decided to reply in this thread because this is a more generic one and I’m not expert in Rigify Addon to specify detailed solutions on it (as this would be the investigation on the other thread I believe). So, sorry if I wasn’t clear enough here.
Maybe, if you are able to quote my post on some portions you didn’t understand well but would like clarification, then I can probably develop on top of that.
Here, I need to insist on the point, that, a generic recommendation of a good/better Face Rig method in Blender, is difficult to provide, without knowing in advance if the project is for 3D Character Animation inside of Blender, or if is for a Game Engine; just a common example.
This, because Blender do offer a lot of interesting Rigging features (Bendy Bones is just one of them), but, unfortunately, not all of them work outside of Blender.
It’s not like we can just make ‘a good and generic Rig’ (although this would be theoretically valid at least). We need to know the purpose of the Rig. Regarding Rigging purposes: “Rigging Face for 3D Character Animation that would be animated inside Blender” would be technically a much clearer (and adequate) purpose than “Rigging Face for Stylized 3D Character Animation”, because we need to know the software medium(s) involved in order to realize what we can and cannot do, to avoid critical mistakes.
Another interesting aspect, regarding Rigging purposes.
It is possible to make great Rigs, with very good anatomic Deforms on the Model, and quite interesting Control Rig features… However, that same Rig might be quite inadequate for making 3D Character Animation! Though it should still be good for Posing the Model properly, such hypothetical Rig was made without a clear “3D Animation purpose” in mind, therefore it is likely it won’t respond properly to the real 3D Animation demands/problematics anywhere.
Of course, in your case it sounds clear that it has a 3D Character Animation purpose at least. But more information on its purpose would be fundamental.
Standard Rigify should work just fine, assuming you are using it right.
First thing, the Metarig that you add initially to start with Rigify IS NOT used to actually parent or animate the character.
The Metarig is used to place the bones and then generate the actual Rig which you parent and animate. I can’t tell from the screen shots if you are doing that part right, so need to clear that up first.
I’m glad that could be helpful after all; and I’m very sorry about the delay in the answer: I’ve got suddenly overwhelmed with tasks previously. Maybe this answer is no more required, but just to be sure:
Exactly! In principle, try to always use exactly that same Head Bone as the center of attention, to gather all the the major dependent components from the Face Rig.
And, when it comes to give dependency to that Head Bone itself, in the case you’ve got a DEF Head Bone and a CTL Head Bone for instance, make sure both of them have exactly the same Bone Parenting to another Bone higher in the hierarchy (e.g., a Neck Bone). Additionally, make sure those Bones are adequately matching in 3D space on Edit Mode (for the Armature Object) and on Pose Mode: usually, a Copy Transforms Bone Constraint on the DEF Head Bone Targeting the CTL Head Bone.
Well, I know, actually, the image you’ve provide is fair enough:
The Head Joint of both Head Bones seem to be matching at the Tail Joint of the Neck Bone. And the Tail Joints of the Head Bones at the top of the Head indeed don’t need to be matching in principle, so that’s probably safe to do (there are Rig cases in which this kind of setup would be relevant; for example, we see that on certain Advanced Foot Rigs for the MCH Toes Roll Bone in combination with the MCH Heel Roll Bone; MCH for Mechanism type of Bones). Moreover, both Head Bones in the image seem to be Aligned properly on Edit Mode as well; I hope you’re aware of the Axes Option (on that Viewport Display Panel we see on the right of the screen), because the common Gizmos which appear on the screenshot don’t necessarily correspond to the true Bones’ Gizmos; if I’m not wrong, for the common Gizmos (e.g., for the Move Tool), the orientations they show on the 3D Viewport Editor are dependent on the Transform Orientations Select Menu (in the Header Region) being Normal or Local, but on the screenshot it’s being Global; so this could cause some confusion. The true Bones’ Gizmos, from Enabling Axes Option, will never cause this particular kind of confusion.
If you find more problems on the Face Rig, feel free to post the following; I’ll make sure I’ll find time to answer even if sometimes it may take extra time.
