How to add controller to the Mesh deformed Cage for Facial animation?

Support Animation and Rigging
1

I’m trying to work out how to use the mesh deformer for Pixar style facial animation. I need help with attaching a handle to the CAGE. How do I parent a handle control? I tried CTRL+P but its not working. Thanks.

2

I played around a bit with this one, but never really used the mesh deformer much. You can start out by looking here:
http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-246/mesh-deform/
There’s an example .blend posted there. But basically, the mesh deform cage has an armature modifier added to it, and it’s weight painted to the bones, just like a normal mesh is treated. When I played with it, I used it on a poorly modeled chest and arms to see how well it works. I only used it on one side, so I could compare the results with the other side. See attached .blend. (2.49b)

FeelGoodComics has an excellent site setup about rigging in blender and I know he used it for facial rigging, but I haven’t checked it out. You can find his site here:
http://rigging-repo.blogspot.com/

Hope this helps,
Randy

Attachments

meshdef2.blend (233 KB)

3

Thanks for the links there Andy, their great links, I have look at before.
I’ve tried the making the mesh cage so far and am up to part
where I want to move the cage for animating each sentence.
So I’m wondering how to parent a handle to move the cage into position.

4

Thanks for the links there Andy, their great links, I have look at before.
Thanks for that great blend example. I noticed the armature is under the cage. Some instructions say to put armature first. But I’ll try this method.

I’ve tried the making the mesh cage so far and am up to part
where I want to move the cage for animating each sentence.
So I’m wondering how to parent a handle to move the cage into various positions.