9

Facial An imation 1103
your viewers w i l l most likely never notice that
they’re separated. If you use a separate head, it will
be easier to control the facial animation.
If you use a separate head, apply Physique to the
head mesh alone. Click Attach to Node and pick
the main head bone. Check the links to make sure
they extend to the ends of the bones. Then, link
themainheadbonetothebipedhead.
If the character’s head is connected to the mesh,
linkthemainheadbonetothebipedheadbefore
applying Physique. Alternately, you can use the
biped’sheadasthemainheadbone,linkingthe
facialbonesdirectlytothebiped’shead.When
you apply Physique and click Attach to Node, pick
the biped’s COM as u sua l.
After applying Physique to the head or the entire
structure, you c an adjust envelopes and vertex
assignments for the facial bones as you would for
any biped b one.
Animating the Facial Structure
After you apply Physique to the structure, you can
animate it by rotating or moving b ones. 3ds Max
manipulators (page 2–27) are usef u l for setting up
acustomuserinterfaceforboneanimation.
Facial expressions animated with Physique and facial bones.
Tip: Hierarchies other than bipeds can’t use
Figure mode, so special consideration is needed
to establish the initial skeletal pose. Position the
facial bones in the “at rest” position at frame 0,
and start keyframing the face at frame 1 or later.
You can perform lip synch animation by loading a
sound t rack in Track View. By scrubbing the time
slider, you can locate a sound and keyframe the
dummies to appropriate positions.
Procedure
To isolate lip vertices from influence by inappropriate
links:
When working with a complicated facial bone
structure, envelopes for the lower lip are bound
to affect vertices in the upper lip, and vice versa.
In general, this can be corrected in at the Vertex
sub-object level:
1. SelecttheheadandontheModifypanelgoto
the Vertex sub-object level.
2. TurnonInitialSkeletalPose
3. Turn on Select, region-select vertices of the
lower lip, then click Remove From Link.