Hello,

Head Gizmo V2

For those who haven't seen my Head Gizmo before, it's a rig for animating the head with as few controls as possible in order to make the animating process quick and easy. Import the rig, position the bones, assign control points and it's ready to be animated; no poses need be setup.

I redeveloped the rig so that it uses the translation of nulls instead of the rotation of bones to animate the features of the head. As a result, I've used different techniques that have reduced the number of bones and constraints needed which in turn has made it easier to install. To me, it feels more intuitive and it's easier to edit the translation data.

The new rig design allows for all of the controls to be placed where the user sees fit. As the method of operation is translation, you can now use the single axis restriction keys (number keys 1, 2 and 3 for X, Y and Z) for speedy manipulation.

In the attached Zip file you will find the Head Gizmo V2, an example head model called Simple Simon with the Head Gizmo V2 in, and a text file containing information on how to use and install the Head Gizmo.

I have also made a test animation with my Simple Simon model which you can find below and yes, that is me doing the voice. I'm not posh. Honest. (If anyone has trouble playing the video, please let me know and I'll encode it into another format; it's MPEG 1 which I have assumed can be played on most systems.)

I hope this rig is useful to all who download it,

Steve.

Thanks Steve!

I'll give it a go!

Thanks for posting this Steve. I'll have to take a look. Your hand gizmo is great and I'm sure this is just as good.

Hey Steve, It's great to see you back "gizmo-ing" again. I'm sure you've been working on this rig for a long time. It's clear that a lot of thought went into it. I like the way you can do unilateral or bilateral controls easily. It's also great to see such a simple mesh layout and how nicely it deforms into some pretty great extremes. Your example shows off the potential really well. The fine lip controls are cool.

Do you think this rig would work on a character with a huge jaw, like a dog or similar beast, or is it limited to a humanoid shaped head? Have you tested it on any other mesh designs? It looks like it works best on a very spline-lite model.

I don't have any more time to play with him tonight, but I just wanted to congratulate you on another very cool invention! I look forward to playing with this more on the weekend.

Thanks for sharing this with us!

Mark

Thanks, Steven! This looks really useful!

Sincerely,

Carl Raillard

Thanks for sharing, Steve!

I haven't tried using it yet but the results certainly look good! I think this is some of the best animation that I have seen from you. I would like to see more!

That is one CLEAN piece of animation, Steve. I might just take your character's advice and give-it-a-go! AND- The price seems right too...

I've installed the previous version into a dog and a chameleon with no problems and it works a treat. This new version uses the same main geometry bones so it'll be the same but with better controls. As with all spline heavy models, it's a question of control point weighting between bones to achieve good deformation.

(For those who don't know, you edit how much influence a bone has on a mesh by selecting control points in the modelling window, right clicking them and selecting 'Edit CP Weights'. Select all the control points in the left column then in the drop down 'Bone' menu at the bottom, select the bone names you want to move the control points. You can either input the percentage of influence manually in the box on the bottom right or try the two buttons on the bottom left which automatically calculate an influence.)

Mark, John and John - Thanks for the plaudits on the animation front. I'll have to spend more time animating rather than rigging; there's always something to tweak...

I'm glad this thing is generating interest and I hope it lives up to expectations,

Steve.

This is the best thing since sliced bread! Even more so, this thing gives such a control over the character that it makes animating facial expressions real joy! (slicing bread is in fact really easy, making good rig on the other hand... brrr, I shudder to think about it).

Great work, Steve! I just love the way controls are laid out, they in fact make it easier to animate then if they were overexposed over the face - facial expressions can be seen more clearly... what can I say? This is a work of art! Bravo!

When I come to think of it, you just created me a lot of work! I'll have to transfer my characters to this new rig before doing anything else... I hate you! (And thanks...)

Steve, if this is anything like the animation, it's going to be a great piece of kit. Love your Hand Gizmo BTW, I'm using it in the TWO rigs.

Wow! That is a very lively face rig, Steve!

I love the range of expression that can be achieved so quickly from each of the control nulls.

Just a few things that would really nail it:

1) Character dependent limits. Do you have any plans to put some kind of limits on the range of movement for the control nulls?

2) While playing with your Simple Simon model I kept wishing that there was some way to refind the neutral position for each of the control nulls. (It would be cool if a line could be drawn between each control null and it's original position so that you could always be sure that you could get the expression back to the character's neutral pose. That could probably be done with just one narrow patch for each control, I would think, with two CPs constrained to the origin and the other two constrained to the control null.

3) Control ID : It would be nice if the less obvious nulls had a patch constrained to them with an icon, or text, to identify what it is. I don't know how you would get the icon patches to always face the animator except through the camera though. Maybe 3D icons?

Scratch that. Those are just nit-picking comments about something that is really too cool to criticize.
The open range of motion is actually quite liberating.

To have translate limits on the nulls wouldn't be consistent with varying sizes of models. Say I made the model of an ant - the translation limits start off at a human dimensions and wouldn't be effective at that smaller size. While you could always model at a certain size and scale the model down in the action or choreography, I doubt very much that technique would suit all users of the rig. And like you say, the lack of limits does feel nice and allows for extreme poses.

The translate limits that are there are arranged so that they are at zero to ensure the eyelids won't pass through each other.

** EDIT ** - Hmmm... This was a bleary-eyed response I made (my apologies). The words "character dependant" didn't register in my head. You can always add your own translate limits when modelling because you know the range of movement you need. I'd rather not second guess what someone will need as I know that it'll be either too lenient or too restrictive.

Each control null will probably need its own slider to adjust the constraint limit and even then, it'll be my guess as to what is the largest or smallest model that'll need to use the Head Gizmo. There doesn't appear to be a way of using an expression to adjust the limits, so maybe I should put in a feature request. Actually, come to think of it, that might very well be a good idea, Paul. Yes... the more I think about it, that might very well be a great addition. Thanks!

You can refind the centre by looking at the figures in the Manipulator Properties box and pressing N or looking in the Properties window to see how far the figures are away from zero.

I can see your point, though. You could assign the control points to the X group bone so that when you move that bone and hold down CTRL, they move with it. Might be handy to have the visibility of the guide splines turn off and on-able with a pose. This could be a good addition and is something I hadn't thought of. Nice one.

Funny you should mention that...
I had labeled them a while ago but found it cluttered the screen and was redundant when I got used to where the nulls are located. The unsymmetrical layout of the controls helps identify them from front or back. The only confusion that occurred initially was picking the tongue instead of the jaw. Just remember that the jaw always goes with the teeth and the jaw null is at an angle.

** EDIT ** - Whoops. I meant to say 'Just remember that the jaw always goes with the lip controls' not "the teeth". Well, it was 2:30am when I typed that.

Thanks for the feedback Paul; it's much appreciated.

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Trajcedrv - Curses! You've discovered my secret plan of working people to death! If it weren't for you pesky kids...
It's nice to know you like it so much.

Pequod - Great to know you like both Gizmos. Maybe I should polish up my Biped Gizmo and score a hat trick. Every time I look at your avatar, George Michael pops into my head.

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One slight mistake in a pose description that's in the text file:

Eyelids_Close_Position - This pose changes the position/angle at which the eyelids close (can go high or low and you can vary it in an animation). I copied and pasted the wrong bit of text when I was compiling.

Steve.

Aaaa - haaaaa! I have descovered your evil plan for world domination! Rare survivors will fall under the hipnotic influence of the rig and became Steve's animating zombie slaves! Luckily, you are unmasked! Vade retro! ;o)

Thanks again! I've played again with your rig and I love it even more (Could it be that hipnotic influence ?!?)

Hey Steve, there were a few things I wondered if you would consider adding to this rig.

1. A "Jaw forward/backward" control.
2. The ability to have the mouth controls (CCheek, CLipBot, etc.) move in an arc so that they conform to the shape of the head and face.
3. An easy way to move the mouth controls in the Z-axis.

I played around with the first two ideas and came up with ways to accomplish them using poses. You could probably do a better job using expressions, but I'm not up on that stuff yet. There is a sample file attached that has two new poses:

Click to view attachment

1. The "MouthCornerCurveOpen" pose works on the left CCheek, CLipBot, CLipTop controls and defines their positions to conform to the curvature of the head as the mouth goes to a wide (smile) position. This was just a quick test so it isn't activated when the CMouth control is moved, but that would be easy enough to fix.

2. The "JawForward/Backward" pose does just what it says and works on the XJaw bone. Again, this was just a test to see if it was easy to accomplish but you may have a better way of doing it that will be more stable with your existing rig.

As for the Z-axis controls for the mouth controls, this could be easily done with poses but that would clutter up the interface and make things more complicated so maybe it's not worth doing. Can you or someone else think of an easy way to do this?

See what you think. The setup is very nice and workable as you have it now. It's just fun to brainstorm.

Mark

Steve, we've been putting together Lesson Plans for teaching animation in schools - not computers - animation. (However, computers do play a huge roll, in that Middle Schoolers, and even High Schoolers, couldn't possibly master the draftsmanship required for hand-drawn animation.) As part of the students' training, it would be awesome to include this face rig along with FACE, and some slider driven facial animation techniques, to give them a feel for what works best where. I'm just talking here; I haven't really thought it through but I wanted you to know that I think this technique has tremendous value, and may get integrated into 1000s of schools across the U.S.

Exquisite. I LOVE these controls - so intuitive!
Martin is right - this would be perfect for animation students...although advanced enough for other work too.

Great work!

Hello,

I've put in two additions as suggested by Paul Forwood and Mark Strohbehn; they being the control guides and a jaw depth control null.

I've made the guides render as lines so you'll have to be careful during final renders and make sure the Control_Guides pose is turned off. You may not want the guide splines to be rendered as lines, so you can either adjust the group settings in the Groups folder and turn off 'Render As Lines' in its properties or even just delete the group.

The JawDepth null only moves on the Z-axis and all of the mouth controls move with it.

Click to view attachment

I cannot open the model file you posted because I have A:M v11.1i, but I get the gist of your ideas.

The jaw depth is a good addition and I've implemented it in the above models; thanks for suggesting it.

The only way to do this would be with expressions and implement them in the same way as my eyebrow forehead curvature calculation. That method is suited to the forehead as you won't need the eyebrows to be manually controllable in the Z axis.

The lips are different: they need to be controllable on all axis. When you put an expression on any aspect of a model, you lose direct control over it. Therefore it limits the range of movement and expression and is an automation too far. In order to achieve an arc of motion, you need to adjust the Z axis translation curve in the timeline.

Are you talking about the head's Z axis or the lip segment's Z axis? As a matter of interest, what would the advantage of either be? Hold down the 3 key in order to move the nulls on their own Z axis and the angle changes in relation to the jaw's position.

Thanks for your interesting suggestions and yes, it's always fun looking down new avenues of thought.

I put my Gizmos up to be used, so I'm happy for them to be available to American students.

Ah, so you'll be wanting a nicely formatted description of its usage. I am guessing there are other user manuals for the other rigs; are they all combined into one document or are they similarly formatted separate files? How quickly do you need it? As this is just an example rig, would you need a beginners' guide of how to install it into a model?

While I have done much testing with this rig, I'd like to go through it a few times to make absolutely sure there are no errors since this will go on a permanent distribution.

Steve.

That helps, Steve, thanks! Not quite the implementation I was imagining, (I was thinking rubber band lines that show up when you grab a control null and which draw between the control null and the neutral position/origin of that null). The method that you have used is similar to the FACE rig and works very well but it is not clear, after moving the nulls around, which guide they belong to.

Thanks for doing this. The jaw works great. The stuff you're accomplishing with expressions is bordeline voodoo, man.


Good enough. I may work up a V11i version of an idea for this for you to look at over the next day or so.


I was talking about the lip segments. Your idea of holding down the 3 key works well enough.... thought that was only for CP's. It seemed like I was having to turn the model to an angle to get ahold of the null and get her moving in the Z-axis. I'll practice more.

Thanks,

Mark

I like the idea of stretchy guides, so I've given it a go in these new versions of Simple Simon and the Head Gizmo v2:

Click to view attachment

** EDIT ** Apologies to the 8 people who downloaded the earlier models: while it's not a big error, in my haste to show what a good idea Paul had, I neglected to assign some spline guide control points. I've also repositioned the CJawDepth null to a more convenient place; it was really getting on my nerves where it was before. The Zip file that's there now is the correct one.

The single eyelid controls and the jaw depth don't have stretchy guides as they only move on one axis and the nulls themselves hide the lines. You can change the colour of the guides or even make them thicker by editing the properties of 'control_guides' in the Groups folder. I've left the guides white as I doubt many people have white backgrounds which would camouflage them.

I'm not sure yet how easy the lines are to see when only small translations have taken place. It would be interesting to know what people think about this method of visualisation. Would a combinatoin of the two different guide methods work, or would that clutter up the screen?

A note to those installing this rig: hold down the CTRL key (I can't remember what it is for Macs) whilst moving/rotating/scaling any part of the rig so that the guide splines move with it.

The axis restriction keys was one of the main reasons why I changed to the translation of nulls. It makes things so much quicker and I wish I had started off in that direction in the first place. Just in case people haven't seen this tip: Snap To Grid works on bones in the modelling window and it saves heaps of time and effort and makes rigging a character a breeze.

Oh, by-the-way, if you do make that example, make sure it's v11.1i, not v11i; v11 didn't handle expressions very well, if memory serves.

Steve.

Those new stretchy guides are very cool! Simple and effective. That was a great idea.

I found a copy of v11.1h, so I'll make an example for you to check out with a pose for arcing lip control nulls. You can use it or scrap it if you like.

Mark

Here's a quick example that uses a pose to force the CCheek Nulls to move in an arc, conforming to the shape of the head. If you view the CCheek nulls from the top view while moving the test slider you'll see what I mean. I don't know if it would be useful to you or not.

Click to view attachment

I like the new position of the CJawDepth control.

Hello Mark,

The pose works well and the setup looks nice and straightforward. I don't think I can put this pose in because it's size and shape dependent. While you could scale the timeline curves of each null so that they fit the character you are rigging, I think it might be easier for people to create a new pose themselves to ensure it fits exactly.

You may have noticed rotation transformation curves appearing in the project workspace. This is because you may have clicked on the end of the null but as the rotation has a fixed value, the angle stays the same despite what the graph shows. You can delete these curves to reduce the clutter and space taken in the project workspace. The reason I didn't make the nulls translate only was because I noticed I kept clicking on the single axis movement handles which got quite annoying.

The only null that rotates is the tongue control so that you can rotate the tip. If you go on a rotation curve deletion frenzy, watch out for the tongue; it's completely innocent.

Steve.

Hello Mark,

I’ve had another think about the mouth bending round the teeth when stretched and I’ve come up with a solution which you can find below:

Click to view attachment
You’ll notice another slider in the model properties under User Properties > Steves_Head_Gizmo which allows you to adjust how much of a curve the mouth does and it is size independent. The cheek retraction bones are now pointing straight ahead and can be moved to any angle just as long as the WCheek and WCheekScaler bones match what the GCheek bones.

I think the cheeks work better than before so thanks very much for suggesting the change; it was the example you posted that inspired me.

Let me know what you think of it,

Steve.

Thank you Steven for the instant updates/upgrades. I am looking forward to giving your "final" version a try

P.S. any relation to the author Thomas Cleary?

Hi Steve,
Thanks for your continued tinkering with/perfecting the Head Gizmo. I won't have time to check out your new file until later this weekend, but look forward to trying to follow what you've done.

Just so I'm clear on something... is it OK to lengthen the cheek retraction bones (to make a wider arc) as well as change the angle? Or should they be kept the same length and only the angle changed?

Thanks,

Mark

Hello Mark,

The best position for the cheek bones to be in is at 90 degrees pointing straightforward or alongside the back teeth and you can make them any length. You need to test to see if the lip nulls start to come back in on themselves when the lips are pursed, then adjust the Mouth_Stretch_Curvature slider accordingly. The amount of curvature also depends on how pointy the lips are (which should relate to curvature of the teeth). Only the start of the bones should be manually adjusted; the end must always lie on the end of the lip bones.

If all else fails, you can always go back to the old way of cheek contraction by returning the Mouth_Stretch_Curvature slider to zero and moving the origins of the cheek bones to the ideal contraction position. The old style is good for flat-faced characters such as inanimate objects coming to life e.g. walls, doors, stamps, etc.

After all of the cheek adjustments have been completed, you must make the CCheek nulls point straight along them. The easiest way to do this is to place the end of the nulls on the origin of the related WCheek bone and then, in the nulls’ properties under Bone Position, make the Length an appropriate size.

I look forward to finding out what you think of my tinkerings,

Steve.

Depending on how satisfied people are with the new changes and if they have any more ideas/suggestions, I think it's pretty much there. I'll just have to go through it a few more times to check for any anomalies and then write up a short installation/user manual.

Not to my knowledge, but I have seen his books on library shelves before and thought "how far removed am I?". I then thought "hmm... not science fiction" and walked out.

Steve.

Hi Steve,

Is it possible to make the lip and cheek guides follow the same arc? Here's what I'm seeing now... the lip guides and cheek corners follow different paths, which causes the lips to collapse inward. Please take a look at the screenshot:

Click to view attachment

The red lines indicate the current paths of the lip guide and cheek corner's movements. Ideally, the lip and cheek guides should follow the same path. The green line indicates the path that they should both follow (for this character).

Sorry if I'm missing something here, like maybe a simple adjustment. My time is a bit short this weekend so it's kind of a hit-and-run analysis. What do you think, Steve?

Hello Mark,

I was unexpectedly busy over the bank holiday weekend, hence the delay in getting back to you.

The middle lip nulls' parent bones are aimed at the mouth corner nulls and I think they move in a fashion that mirrors my observations and gives predictable results. I may have placed the cheek bones too close to the teeth (in them, infact), so I'd move them a little to the sides which in turn makes the middle lip nulls move more sideways. If you think that the lips aren't moving quite right in a head you are rigging, have a little experiment with where the cheek bones are located.

Upon reading your comments, I had another thought on a new way to do things that might allow for different mehods of movement. I'm quite content with how this one has turned out and it didn't feel like I was fighting against the rig at all in my animation test and I achieved the look I was after.

If anything comes of my new idea, I'll let you know. Thanks for the critical eye; it really helps with the development process.

Steve.

P.S. I've just realised I didn't mention the fact that the mouth curvature occurs only when you use the CMouthShape null, but I guess people have discovered this. Also, the CCheek nulls have to point at the origin/beginning of the WCheek bones. An easy way to do this is to place the end of the null on the start of the cheek bones and then in the nulls' properties under Bone Position > Length, reduce the figure so that the null becomes a reasonable size.

Hi Steven,

Sorry for the late reply. Thanks again for all of your hard work on this rig. Your excellent animation results speak for themselves as to the usefulness and ease of use of this rig.

I'm still scratching my head about how, exactly, your expressions do what they do. Maybe someday I'll get more time to go over it and figure it out. The way you've made each control work both sides of the face simultaneously or individually is really great, and I'd like to make FACE do the same if possible.... if you don't mind?

Thanks again,

Mark

May I jump start this thread in the hopes of making easy the use this awesome rig?

How do I apply this rig? I am trying this on the Lambrina model which lacks quite a few facial bones, so what do I need to do first? Delete her head bones? Add more bones? How do I import the head gizmo into the model? Would auto-assign work?

Any help is appreciated.

Hello Dhar,

Following on from Mark's suggestions, I am further developing the Head Gizmo, so keep your eyes peeled for possible changes in the not too distant future. Here are the basic rules for installation:

The installation rig in the Zip file contains bones for the features of the face but not the head itself, so keep the original head bone of the model and delete its children. Right click the model you are working on and go to Import > Model and select the Head Gizmo. In the bone hierarchy in the Project Workspace, make the XHead bone a child of the existing head bone. You must keep the WEyesStill bone on the root level of bone tree (just don't change its position in the hierarchy).

In order to fit the bones to the face mesh, use the yellow X bones in conjunction with the transform manipulators (keys N=translate, S=scale and R=rotate) so that all the children of the X bones are moved at the same time. It is important to hold down the CTRL key (not sure what key it is for Macs) when moving the different parts of the rig in this initial stage so that the guide splines move with the control bones (the ones to the sides). This applies when you move the X bones by hand or when inputting data into the manipulator axis boxes (hold down CTRL before you press enter).

Move and scale the XHead bone so that the features roughly fit the head mesh. Do the same to the feature X bones so that they match each part of the face exactly. The XEye bones have to be dead centre of the eyeballs, the GLip bones have to point at the corners of the mouth, and the origin (start) of the GCheek bones can be moved but the corresponding WCheek bones (the ones to the side) must be moved by the same amount (Snap to Grid really helps here). You can move the GEyebrows to whatever position you want but make sure the roll handles are in the upper hemisphere.

I've just noticed I placed some jaw bones in the wrong order and angle which makes installation a bit difficult. Attached is an update with corrections that allow you to reposition the jaw and mouth controls much more easily. You need to make sure XJaw and XMouthControls bones have matching angles. I'd suggest scaling the XMouth bone along an individual axis would be the easiest way of adjusting the mouth elements. It's probably best to have the start of the GSneer bones halfway up the nose.

As for applying the mesh to the bones, you cannot use the auto assign bones option. You need to apply bone weights by hand and only to green bones prefixed with a G. To apply weight influence of bones to control points, go into Modelling Mode (F5), select the control points you want to influence, right click (option click on a Mac, I think) the bounding box and select Edit CP Weights. In the window that appears, hit the button that says Select All CPs, then select the bone(s) that appear in the box on the right and delete them with the button located bottom centre. In the drop down box located just above the delete button, scroll to the G section and select the bone(s) you want to influence the control points. Select the bone(s) in the box on the right and you can either enter specific amounts by using the Weight box located bottom right or press the Balance Selected or Balance Connected buttons on the bottom left which automatically assigns weights.

Use my Simple Simon example model to see how much influence to give to bones, but it's basically a question of balancing the weights between the green G bones that are located near the part of the face in question and the head bone the Head Gizmo is a child of.

I'll investigate an auto rig installer and perhaps a Flash tutorial, but I'm rather busy at the moment so I cannot guarantee either will come to fruition. I hope my typings help and I'll crack on with the development of the Head Gizmo.

Steve.

Steve, you are a wonderful chap

Thank you ever so much for taking the time to respond so thoroughly. I copied these instructions and saved them as a word document to see if I can apply them. I am more of a visual learner so I hope that you will find the time to create a Flash tute.

Cheers.