Cowboy Dan Face Rig
Cowboy Dan's a major player in the cowboy game!
This 61-joint rig allows for precise control over facial expressions using a combination of joint and FACS-based blendshape deformations. Features control switches for joint-blendshape blend and direct UI controls for joint movement and blendshape expression.
Built on utility nodes and facilitated by Python scripting.
Things learned in the process:
The importance of establishing vertex order and UVs before creating blendshapes.
The role of blendshapes in expressing FACS-based movement when working in conjunction with joints - my initial blendshapes were not isolated or exaggerated enough to work efficiently with joint movement, and I had to go back and redo several of them.
Using locators to control joint position and the various ways to drive transform values between components - parenting, parent constraints, blendColors nodes, node connections.....