Creating Characters With Blender - Part 3

1. Introduction to Shape Keys: In this lesson, we will see how to use a feature called shape keys that is very useful for creating facial rigs. Shape Keys can be used to create custom deformations in a geometry that can be animated in a controlled way. To demonstrate the working of shaped keys, I will start by deleting the initial objects of the scene. I will create a monkey object from the object creation manual. Now with this geometry selected, I will click on the Object Data tab in the Properties editor. Here we will find this panel called Shape Keys. When we want to use this feature, the first thing we need to do is click on this ad button to create a new shape key. This first shape key is already named Basis, and we can keep this name. When we work with shape keys, we generally don't make any changes to this initial basis shape key. To be able to animate custom deformations, we needed to create new shape keys. To this, I will click on the Add button in the panel. Again, with this, see that a new shape key has been created. This time, this shape key has a value next to it. We can rename each shape keys As we wish to do this, simply double click on the name. I will rename this shape key as example. Now to be able to animate a deformation, we will configure the deformation we want with the shape key active. To do this, simply make sure it is active in the shape keys panel. Then we can edit the shape of this shape key in edit mode or scooped mode of the object. In this case, I will use the edited mode. Now I will change the position of some verses in the model. I will return it to object mode, since I add the shape of the geometry in additi mode with a shape key other than the basis one active. When I exit the Aditi mode, the object returns to its initial shape. This happens because the values of the created shape keys are initially zero. But if we click and drag the value field to the right to increase the value, we will see that the shape of the object will interpolate proportionally between the initial shape of the object and the Shape configured in the Shape key. Now I will click on the subtraction button to delete the shape key that I created. I will create a new shape key which I will rename as expression One. With this shape key active, I will enter the editing mode. I will select these two verses from the top of the eyebrows to make a smooth deformation in the edit. I will enable the proportional editing button in the upper part of the tridivial. When this option is enabled and we start to move a component of the geometry, we can see that an area around the selected component also undergoes a gradual influence of the transformation. We can screw the mouse wheel up or down to increase or decrease this influence. This feature is very useful for creating smooth shaped keys. After configuring a reasonable influence radius, I will move these vertes up to create a stylized expression. Now I will return to object mode. I will create a new shaped key, which I will rename expression two. We can't create practically as many shaped keys as we want in the geometry. Now I will leave the shape key active and enter editing mode. Now I will click on one of the edges around the mouth with the out key pressed. To select the whole loop, I will use the key to scale the selection. Since I still have the proportional editing influence active, the transformation also affects the region around the selection. Now I will return to object mode. If I tweak the values of the shape keys expression one and expression two, we can see that each of these parameters can be changed independently, but their deformations can also be combined if we use the values of more than one shape key at a given moment. Now I will reset the values of both shaped keys to zero to show how to create a simple animation. For this example, I will position the playhead of the timeline at the frame it 20 of the scene. I will activate the shape key example one. I will click on this point next to the value field. This will generate a key framing for this parameter. At this frame of the time line, I will repeat the same procedure for the shape key expression two. Now I will position the playhead of the time line at frame 80. I will increase the value of expression two to the maximum value. I will click on the icon next to it to generate a key frame. I will repeat this procedure for the shape key expression one. In this way, the two expressions have key frames with different values at frame 20 and frame 80. If I move the play head back to the beginning of the time line and press the play button, we will see that these expressions are already properly animated with that. We conclude this brief introduction to the concept of Shape keys. Thank you for watching, and until next time. 2. Drivers: In this lesson, I will show a powerful feature for creating animation controls called Drivers. This feature allow us to create automated control systems in a summarized and simplified way. A Driver is a feature that allows us to configure a valuing blender so that it is controlled by another. To illustrate, I will delete all the initial objects in the scene, and I will create a cone and a Suzanne clicking on monkey. Now, to prevent the object from overlapping, I will move the head a little to the side to configure a driver. We needed to understand that in the system there is a controlling value and a controlled value. The controlling value and the controlled value may belong to the semi object sometimes. But most of the time the controlling value belongs to one object and the controlled value belongs to another object. For this first example, I will set up a driver that makes the z x position value of the cone, control the rotation value of the x x for Suzanne. To create a driver, we will configure the value that will be controlled as the controlled value will be a value from Suzanne. I will make sure I have this object selected, since I want the controlled value to be the x x rotation value. I will go to the Object tab in the Properties ejector. Right click on the rotation axis field in the transform panel. In the menu that appears, I will click on the driver option. After clicking this option, we will see a floating panel of driver settings. It is in this panel that will configure the driver to control this value the way we want. But if we move the cursor away from this panel, we will see that it automatically closes. We can also see that when a certain parameter is configured with a driver, it is highlighted in purple in the value field. If the driver configuration panel has been closed, we can right click on the value in question at any time and click on the editor driver's option to reopen the panel. The first thing we will do in this panel is to define which object will control this value. To do this, we will click on the object field to choose the object from a list of seen objects. Or we will click on this drawer tool and click on the chosen object directly in the Viewport. Now we will define which value from this object. Will control the parameter with the driver as I mentioned earlier. In this case, I want the z axis position value of the cone to control the x axis rotation of this object. To define the value that will act as the controller, I will open the type menu. I will choose the controlling parameter from this list. In this case, I can simply choose location with the a simple control relationship is configured between these two values. If I move the cone on the z axis, we will see that Suzanne will be rotated automatically on the X axis. However, if I select Suzanne and try to rotate her on the X axis, we will see that this rotation is not active initially. When a parameter is configured to be controlled by a driver, it cannot be controlled manually. Now let's see another configuration we can make with drivers. For the, I will right click again on Suzanne's rotation value to open the editing panel. Now I will briefly show the expression field. In this field, I can addit mathematical expressions to change the automation value of the driver. If I use the expression var, which means variable multiplied by five, using the asterisk for multiplication, we will see that when I move the cone on the z axis, the rotation will happen five times faster. If I use the expression R divided by three using slash for division, we will see that the rotation will happen three times lower. This expression field can be used for us to use this type of mathematical expressions to make adjustments so that the driver works with the intensity that we want to finish, I will talk about the space field referring to the control value. This configuration is under the type menu in the Driver Configuration panel. When this parameter is set to world space, the considered control value will be the value traveled by the object on the Z axis of the scene. This means that if I rotate the cone forward and move it on, what would be the z axis of the cone itself, We will see that Suzanne's rotation is not being affected as before. I can even change the configuration of the transformer orientation menu so we can visualize it better. If I try to move the object on its Z axis arrow, the driver's effect will be almost negligible. But if I move the object up and down in the scene, we will see that the driver is influenced normally. This happens because the space parameter of the driver is set to world space. This means that the value taking into account to control the driver is the value traveled by the object on the z axis of the scene, not the object's own axis. If we want the considered z axis to be the z axis of the object itself, we can change this parameter to the local space option. This way, when remove the cons position, the value considered to measure the distance traveled on the z axis will be the value traveled on the object's local axis, not the scenes. And this is space parameter can also be quite important for driver configuration. This was a brief presentation on how we can use drivers for control automation. In the future, we will see how to use these drivers to create simplified controls for facial expressions. Thank you for watching and until next time. 3. Creating Shape Keys Part 1: In this lesson, we will start creating the shape keys with a facial expression for our character to keep the viewpoard cleaner. During the process, I will disable the display of the rig collection and the display of all character objects except for the body and teeth. Now I will start creating the shape keys of the body object. The shape keys I'm going to create for this character are these, as we have seen before, the basis shape keys is the initial shape key with the neutral expression. In addition to that, I will create an expression with the mouth open, an expression with the mouth more stretched on the horizontal axis. An expression with the mouth compressed on the horizontal axis, an expression with a smile and an expression of sadness. To begin, I will make sure the initial expression is very neutral. And with the mouth closed, in my models case, the mouth is still slightly open. I will go into the objects editing mode. I will activate vertex interaction mode to manipulate the models vertex. I can go to the modifier stab and disable the visibility of the subdivision modifier. Additionally, I can activate the shade flat display mode for the model. However, I actually need to be in object mode to do this with the object. In object mode, I can right click activate the shade flat option, then I can go back into edited mode. Note that it's not mandatory to edit the mode with the subdivision modifier disabled. If you want to edit the mode with the modifier active, you can enable the own cage option by clicking this button in the modifier interface. When this button is active, the editing components of the geometry appear in the final modified version of the object, instead of appearing in a separated geometry with the original shape. This way it's easier to visualize and select the components. Now I will manipulate the verses to keep the mouth closed and neutral for this initial expression. When you are editing symmetric shape keys, keep the mesh symmetry option active for the x axis. If the model is symmetric, this option will mirror the transformations made to the components to the other side. Unlike the mirror modifier, this doesn't mirror the effects of tools like extrude or loop cut for example. But any movement that we make will be mirrored to the other side. With that, I will move the verts to keep the mouth closed and neutral. I will also keep it with an not too wide lateral opening. During the process, I like to disable and enable the subdivision modifier a few times. This way I try to keep the original structure very smooth. When I am satisfied with this initial shape, I will go to the object data tab in the property Gor. I will create two shape keys. The basic shape key, which will be the initial one, and the second one, which I will rename it to mouth open. I will configure this shape key with the mouth open vertically. With the mouth open shape key active, I will go into editing mode. I will make a change to the geometry shape so that the chin goes down for the. I can activate phase selection mode and select these central phases of the chin. I can move them down to facilitate the transformation, I can activate the proportional editing function. However, initially when this function is active, the virtues around the selection will be influenced based on the absolute distance from the selection. This means that the verses above the mouth will also be influenced. Even if I decrease the influence radius to make the influence not consider the vertes above the mouth. I will open the Proportional Editing settings menu. I will activate the connected only option. This way the influence will have to go around the mouth before affecting the upper part. Now I will move these faces down. I will also work with Vert Selections mode active to make a series of adjustments to the shape. This process is a bit laborious and should be done with patience and care. Try to keep the shape very smooth. In the case of this open mouth shape key, we can also select the loop around the mouth we can scale with. With the key. I will disable the teeth object visibility for now. I will continue moving the verts to distribute them organically and smoothly around the mouth. For this open mouth shape key, we also need to it the verses on the inside of the mouth. We can use wire framing mode or x ray mode to visualize the inner part. We should open these verses so that the inside opens along with the lips. When I am satisfied with the shape key, I can go back to object mode and test the shape key by editing its value. Now I will enable the teeth objects visibility, and I will also need to create shaped keys so that the teeth open along with the mouth. With this geometry selected, I will create two new shaped keys for this object. I will rename the second one to teeth open. With this shape key active, I will go into the edited mode. I will position the cursor over the lower arc. I will press the L key to select the entire arc. Now I will move this arc downwards. I will rotate it a bit so that the rotation fits the mouth. Now I can go back to object mode. I notice that in this case, the initial shape of the arches is a bit open. If I want to edit this, I just need to activate the shape keys basis, go into edit mode and add. In this case, I will leave these initial shaped keys with the archers touching each other. Now I can go back to object mode and test the shape keys For now, the teeth and mouth shape keys of the character need to be controlled separately. But in a set up we will do in the future, we will create a controller to control both at the same time. Thank you for watching and until next time. 4. Creating Shape Keys Part 2: In this lesson, we will continue creating the character shaped keys. We are going to create the other four shaped keys that are missing. The mouth open shaped key with the mouth more stretched on the horizontal axis. The mouth shape key with the mouth compressed on the horizontal axis. The mouth shape key with a smile and the mouth said shape key with a said expression. I will create and rename each of these expressions in the Shape Key Spaniel, Mouth out, mouth, mouth happy, and mouth set. I will start by activating the mouth out expression and I will enter edit mode. I will select this loop of virtues around the mouth by click on one of the edges. With the out key pressed, I will activate the proportional editing function. I will scale the selection on the x axis, adjusting the influence radius of the proportional editing so that the transformation is smooth. I also like to check how each of these shape keys is looking without the influence of the subdivision modifier. I will make some adjustments to make the shapes smoother and more organic. When I am satisfied with the shape, I will re enable the subdivision modifier. I will test the shape key in the object data tab. In the case of this particular shape key, we also need to adjust the inside of the mouth. This is important because this shape key can also be combined with the mouth open shaped key. When the character has an open and widened mouth, the inside of the mouth also needs to be widened to be seen correctly from the outside. I will enter Edit mode. Again, I will activate x ray mode. I will position the cursor over one of the vertes of the inner part. I will press the L key to select the entire inner mouth cavity. Now I will scale the selection on the x X. I will check how this edit looks without the x ray mode active. As we can see, this outer part of the cavity is going through the cheek. I will select this vertex of the tip and move it backward. When I am satisfied with this, I will test how this shape key looks combined with the mouth open shape key. If necessary, I can make any corrections to the other shaped key as well. In this case, I will enter edit mode again for the open mouth shape key. And I will open the inside of the mouth a bit more. As we can see, we can activate each of the shaped keys at any time and make adjustments in edit mode. In this case, for example, I need to move the outer vertex of the mouth out shape key a bit further back. Now I will go back to object mode, activate the mouth in shape key. I will enter edited mode. Shape key consist of the mouth being compressed horizontally. I will select this loop with the out key. I will scale it on the x axis. Then I will disable the subdivision modifier. I will make some adjustments to make these verses a bit less jumbled. But note that they don't need to be perfect as long as the shape key works well with the subdivision modifier active. Later, I will go back to object. I will test the shape key. Let me make an observation that I forgot to mention. You may have noticed that I'm working with a wire frame visualization active on the faces. If you want to visualize the wire frame even in object mode, just activated the wire frame option in the Viewport overlays panel. Now I will activate the mouth hap shape key. I will enter editing mode. I will add the mouth to create an arc like a smile for the. I will work with the proportional editing to active and I will set a relatively small influence radius. I will move the outermost mouth vertex slightly upwards. Note that I will only move the vertex upwards, not outwards. If I want to use a wider smile or during animation, I will be able to combine shaped key with the mouth out shaped key. Additionally, I will make adjustments to the shape with the subdivision mopire disabled. If you are unsure whether to create shape keys more smoothly or more exaggerated, I recommend creating them slightly more exaggerated. Because you can always opt to use smaller values when you actually use them. But created them exaggerated gives you the option to use them this way if you want. Now I will go back to object mode. I will test the expression. Now to finish, I will activate the mouth set shape key. I will enter edit mode and use more or less the same method to create a downward curve shape for the mouth. I will make adjustments both with the subdivision modifier on and off. Later, I will go back to object mode. Since I have finished all the shape keys, I can disable the wire framing visualization on the overlays panel. I will right click on the tredviw. I will click on the Shade Smooth option. Now I can test all the shape keys. Remember that if you notice any imperfection in any expression, you can activate that shape key at any time and edit it in edit mode. Thank you for watching and until next time. 5. Adding Bones to the Facial Rig: In this lesson, we will start creating the control structure that we will use to manipulate the shape keys we have created in an easier and more intuitive way. At the end of the process, we will have a structure similar to this one. We will have a control for each eye and each eyebrow. The controls and eyebrows correspond to effective bones that will influence this part through vertex group influence. To control the mouth shape keys, we will have three controls. One control that will handle the lateral mouth opening both outward and inward. In addition to controlling the smiling and set expressions, all of these will be configured in a way that activating all these expressions will be done by adjusting a single control. Furthermore, we will have a control for the vertical mouth opening and a control for the vertical opening of the dental arches. If we want, we can select and move these two controls at once. In this already configured example, I am manipulating this expression imposing mode of the rig. But if I enter the edit mode, we will see that these controls are conventional bones. They are simply configured with some custom shapes to make the interface more user friendly. But I will show you how to configure them this way in a future lesson. In this lesson, I will just show you how to create these bones in the Rigifirig. To create the bones I will use to control the expression within the Rigify rig itself. I will start by activating the visualization of the rigi collection. But I will keep the meta rig object disabled. Now I will select the rig object to create a new bones for an existing rig, we will need to be in the edit mode of that particular rig. But now I need to make an observation about the layer or collection in which the new bone will be created. This procedure is a bit different if you are using Blender 3.6 or earlier or if you are using Blender version four or later up to version 3.6 When a new bone is created, it will belong to all the layers that are visible in the rig layer spanel at the time of creation. If I leave only the torso layer active, for example, when I create a new bone, its visibility will be tuggled along with this layer. I will press Shift and right click to position the predecursor somewhere around here. To create a new boning editing mode, I just use the shift, a shortcut for creation. With this, a new bone is created. I will enter the pose mode now and alter the visibility layers. We will see that the bone I created will be hidden or shown along with the torso layer, which was the one that was enabled when I created it. Since I did this just to demonstrate this functionality, I will go back into editing mode and I will delete this bone. But for this project, this is the layer where I actually prefer to create the facial bones. But now I will show how this procedure works in blender vision. For and later. If you have created the rigifying, this version, a layer called face may have been created. But to set in which layer the bones will be created, you should go to the object data tab of the property editor and activate the collection where you want the bones to be created, in the bone collections panel list. This is how we define the collection, where a new bone will be created in an existing rig in blend of version four. If I create a bone in a particular collection interpose mode, we will see that when I disable or enable that collection, the bone I created will be hidden or shown. After defining the layer or collection where your bones will be created, let's actually start creating the bones. For this, remember that the reading question must be in edit mode. I will start by creating the mouth bones. Since I want these bones to be created in the center of the x axis of the, I will start by pressing the shift C shortcut to center the predcursor in the grid center. I will use the shift A shortcut to create the first bone. With this, a new bone is created in the center of the trevi. Since I want it to stay in the center of the X axis of the scene, I will activate the orthographic side view. To move it this way it won't be moved to the side and will remain the center of the axis. Now I will position it in front of the character's mouth. I will scale it to make it much smaller. I will position it so that the lower joint is roughly aligned with the mouth. This will be the control we will use to manage most of the mouth expressions. Now I will cup this bone using the shifted disshortcut, and when the copied bone starts to move, I will press the Z key, so that the bone is only moved along the axis. I want this bone to be a bit larger. I will move the upper joint a bit upward in this region. I will need two controls that will be positioned in the same place. One to control the mouth opening, and another to control the teeth opening. I will use the shifted dish shortcut once again to copy this bone. When the bone starts moving, I will right click to cancel the movement. Now I will simply click on one of the joints of the top part. To select only one of them, I will move it a bit downward. This way I can see the two bones separately. Now I will set the view part to the front view. I will copy one of these bones to create the first eye bone if you want. You can also activate the wireframe view in the overlays menu to help with the alignment in the front view. I will copy one of these bones using the Shift D shortcut. I will position the lower joint, roughly align it with the center of one of the eyes. Now I will copy the bone once more. Align the basis of this new bone with the center of one of the eyebrows. Now that I have created the bones on this side of the face, I will copy and mirror them to the other side. I will select the two bones and copy them using the shifted shortcut, I will right click to cancel the movement. Now being careful not to select them, I will mirror these copied bones to the other side, to the D. I will do the following. I will once again use the shifty shortcut to make sure the treedcursor is in the center of the tredviu. I will go to the transformed pivot point menu. I will set the treedcursor as the transformation center. Now I will go to the Armature menu Mirror. I will click on X Global. This way the copied bones are properly mirrored to the other side. Now to finish, I will rename each of these bones. For this, I will select each bone and I will go to the bone tab of the property editor. In this first field of this tab, we can define the name of the active bone. I will name this mouth bone, Bone, mouth. I will name this larger bone in front of the chin bone, Mouth open. I will name this smaller bone as bone. Teeth open. The left bone will be bone. The left eyebrow bone will be bone. Eyebrow, the right bone will be *****. The right eyebrow bone will be bone. Eyebrow bones can be named in a way that makes sense to you. The only guideline that is advisable to follow is that symmetric bones have the same name, differing only by for left and for right. This rule allows you to use some uring tools during the animation process. Now I will parent all these facial bones to the character's head bone. For this, I will activate x ray. I will select all the facial bones first. I will add the head bone to the selection. While holding down the shift key. I will go to the Arma Chairman, Parents Make. Then I will click on the Keep of Set option so that the parent head bones retain their original position. With this, the creation of the bones is completed. If I want to test the parenting, I can go back to pose mode, return the transformation pivot, point menu configuration to the individual origins or median point option. And manipulate the head control to see if the created bones are following it correctly. Thank you for watching, and I see you next time. 6. Using Custom Shapes: In this lesson, we are going to see how to customize the appearance of the custom bones we created in the last lesson. This customization is not mandatory and the rig can work perfectly without them. But in general, manipulating the control bones become more user friendly with customized objects. This procedure works by replacing the shape of the bones with the shape of any other objects existing in the scene. The rigifhise controls themselves are configured with specific custom object for each control bone. To create a custom object, I will go back to object mode. I will create a new object. This object could be anything, even a geometry. But the most common thing is that the objects chosen to use as controls are objects from the curve category. I will go to the curve subnu, I will create a circle object to facilitate editing, I will move this object a bit to the side. I will activate the top view. Now I will enter edited mode to customize the shape of this object. Editing objects of the curve category is a bit difference from editing conventional geometries. These objects work like curves. In vector software like Illustrator or Coral Draw. The objects are composed of verses that have Bezier type handles. These handles can be moved, rotated, or scaled. For this example, I will make a very simple edit. For these, I will activate the median point option in the Transforming Pivot Point menu. I will use the scale to to bring these two verses closer. Now I will select these two other verses. To scale their handles, I will need to set the transformed pivot point back to individual origins. This way, when I scale the selection, the handles will be scaled. Additionally, I will scale the handles of the other verses a bit horizontally. In this way, I have reached this curve, the rectangular shape, which is what I wanted. This will be the shape I will use for all the phase controls. I can go back to object mode in the object tab of the properties editor. I will rename this object with my name. I remember for this example, I will use the name, my custom shape. If I want, I can move this object in the Outliner into the WGTS rig collection where the custom shapes used by rigifi are located. But this is not mandatory Now to configure the bones with this custom shape. I will select the rig, I will enter pose mode, and I will select one of the bones. I will start selecting one of the eyebrow bones with the bones selected. I will go to the bone tab of the properties editor. I will open the view part display panel. I will open the custom shape sub panel. In the custom object menu, I will start typing the name of the object I want to use. In my case, I will start typing my custom shape. With this, we will see the object appear in the menu. Now I just need to click on it. We can see that the object in question is now being used as the shape of the active bone. Additionally, we can use the transformation values below to change the size, rotation, or position of the shape in question. In this case, I will adjust the lateral scale of the shape of bit. I will try to use a rounded value so that I can use the same value on the bone on the other side. Now I will repeat the same procedure for all the other bones. I will choose the shape I made from the menu for the symmetrical bones, I will use the same transformation values I used on the first side. Now I will repeat the same procedure for the eye bone, but in this case I also want to rotate the shape I will test to see which rotation axis I need to adjust. I will rotate the figure 90 degrees on this axis. I also think I can scale the figure a bit in all the three Xs. I will also adjust the position on the lateral axis. After that, I will repeat the same procedures and values for the bone on the other side. The difference is that for the position Xs, the value of the X X that is negative on one side should be positive on the other. Now I just needed to repeat the same procedure for the three mouth bones. I will just adjust the size of the controls so that the teeth opening control is slightly smaller than the mouth opening control. To finish, I will show one option configuration. These dash, the lines that we are seeing show the connections between parented objects. If you don't want to see these lines, you can go to the Overlays menu and disable the relationship lines option. With that, we finish creating the control object for the facial. Rich. Thank you for watching and until next time. 7. Using Bone Constraints Part 1: In this lesson, we will look at another optional, but highly recommended, configuration for the facial rig. If we select each of these controls in the rigs pose mode, we can move, rotate, and scale each of them freely. This isn't necessarily a problem, but if you're not careful, you might end up moving the controls far from where they should be. To prevent this issue, we can use a feature called bone constraints. Bone constraints allow us to set limitations for bones, ensure they can only be transformed within a range. We determine to set up a bone constraints, we need to have the relevant bone active in the rigs pose mode. Then we will click on this tab called Bony Constraints in the Properties editor. Here we will open this menu to choose which bone constraints to add. Since I want to restrict the controls movement, I will add the limit location constraints. All the constraints we will configure for this rig should have this owner option set to local space. This way the Xs taking into account will be the local axis of each object. Additionally, we will also check the effect transformer option for all the constraints in this rig. To demonstrate how the constraints work, I will enable the restriction for the minimum and maximum values of all Xs, since the value is zero for all Xs. If we try to move the control, we will see that the object doesn't move. But instead of completely locking the control, if we want to restrict the movements to a certain value, We can configure each axis with a desired value to test what values to set for each axis. I can temporarily unlock all axis and enable the local option in the Transformer Orientation menu. This way, the axis we see in the transformation tools are the local axis of the control, which are what matter for our configuration. Additionally, we will leave the transformer panel in the side bar open. As we can see, the local vertical axis is the Y axis. Now what I'm going to do is move this control on the y axis while paying attention to the value of this axis in the transform penul. I will move the control more or less to the point where I think it should be restricted and look at the value that appears in the transformed penul. In my case, I think I can restrict the controls movement to about 0.1 upwards -0.1 downwards for the side. I want to be able to move the control a bit more. I think a displacement of 0.15 on the x x will be a good value. After finding these values and rounding them in my head, I will return the control to the zero position. I will enable the lock for all Xs. I will configure the restriction ranges. Note that the minimum values should always be negative. In the case of the x x, I will set -0.15 in the minimum x field. For the y x, I will set -0.1 in the minimum y field. For the maximum values, I will use the same values but positive. That is 0.15 in the maximum x field, 0.1 in the maximum Y field. Since the z x corresponds to death, and I don't plan to move the controls in that direction, these values can remain zero. If I test the movement of the control in the treaty view now we can see that it will only move within the restricted space we configured. Now I can select the bone mouth open control. I will add the limited location constraints. I will set the local space option. I will check the effect transform option. Now I will enable the lock on all Xs. In the case of this control, I want it to only be able to move downwards. That is, I will only leave the movement free on the y axis. I think I can use the same limiting value that I used for the other control. Since the movement I want to allow is downward, the value is negative. In the minimum y field, I will set the value minus 01, which is the same value I had already tested for the other control. This way if I try to use the control in the view part, we will see that it only moves downward and only up to this value. Now I will show a quicker way to configure the constraint for the other control. The teeth control should have exactly the same restriction as I configure for the bone dot mouth open control. I can first select the teeth control, then I can add the mouth control to the selection with the shift key pressed with the selection made in this order. I will go to the already configured constraint. I will open this menu for the existing constraints. I will click on Copy to Selected. This will add to the control I selected first a constraint with the same settings as the one already configured. This way the position restriction is already set. Optionally, we could also add rotation and scale constraints for each control. But when we don't want the control in question to be rotated or scale on any axis, we can also go to the transformer panel in the side bar and activate the locks next to all rotation and scale Xs. We can do this for each of the controls. This way we finish setting up the restrictions for the mouth controls. In the next lesson, we will see how to add constraints to the eye and eyebrows controls. Thank you for watching, and I see you next time. 8. Using Bone Constraints Part 2: In this lesson, I will configure the bony constraints for the eye and eyebrow controls. I will start by moving the control of one of the eyes to the approximate point. I want to be the limit of this movement. I will observe in the transform panel what the approximate value is that corresponds to this limit. In this case, I will do this for the y axis and the x axis. In this case, I think I can use the value of 0.05 as the limit for each axis. I will go to the bone constraints panel. I will add the limit location constraints. I will set the option to local space. I will activate the effect transform option. Then I will enable the restriction for all Xs, I will use the value of -0.05 for the minimum x and minimum y fields, and the values of 0.05 for the maximum x and maximum y fields. This way, this control will only move this distance in each direction. Since the constraint for the control on the other side should be identical to this one, I can select it first. Add the already configured control to the selection and use the cup to selected command in the constraint menu. This way the right control will be configured with the same constraint. Now I will select the control for one of the eyebrows. I will measure the approximate distance that I will use in the constraint values. I think I will use 0.15 as the positive limit for the y axis -0.05 as the negative value for the y axis. For the x axis, I will allow the control to move 0.05 inward, but I won't let the control move outward. I will add the location constraint to the control. I will set it to local space and I will activate the effect transform option. I will enable the restriction for all Xs. I will set 0.15 as the positive limit for the maximum y field -0.05 in the minimum y field for the x x. I only want the control to move inward. I will set -0.05 in the minimum x field, but I will leave the positive field zeroed. This way I will be able to move the eyebrow slightly inward to create a forward expression. Now I will select the control for the other eyebrow. Add the first one to the selection, and copy the constraint from one to the other. I will only need to make one change. In this case, since I want the control to be able to move inward and not outward, I will reverse the configuration for the x axis. For this eyebrow. I will leave the minimum x field zeroed. I will set the value of 0.05 for the maximum x field. This way the movement is configured the correct side. Now to finish, I will add another constraint for the eyebrows. In the case of these controls, I also want to rotate this bonus to create more expressions to limit the rotations, I will add the limit rotation constraints. I will also set it to local space. I will activate the effect transform option. I will also lock all axis. Now I will activate the rotation to, to see which axis I should configure the restriction values for. As we can see, the relevant axis is the z axis. Since the rotation constraints works in degrees, I think I can restrict the rotation to 30 degrees on each side. This way I will set -30 degrees in the Z minimum field, 30 degrees in the maximum field. This way the control can be rotated 30 degrees on each side. And to finish, I can copy the constraints to the control on the other side. And with this, we finish configuring the constraints for all controls. Thank you for watching, and I see you next time. 9. Setting Up Drivers for the Facial Rig Part 1: In this lesson, we will see how to use drivers to make these controls. We created effectively control the Shape keys we set up on the character. I will start by setting up a driver to control the mouth opening Shape key as we have already seen. To set up a driver, we should have the object to be selected. I'll switch back to object, I will select the character model. I will go to the object data tab. In the Shape key spanele, I will activate the mouth open Shape key. Now I will right click on the value of the Shape key. I will click at the driver in the object field. I will choose the rig object as the control object. But when we choose an armature type object, besides choosing the object, we need to define which bone will be used as the controller. I will click on this bone menu and start typing the name of the bone I want to use as control. In this case, I will start typing Bone Mouth open. I will click on the respective bone. In the type option, I will choose the y axis. I will set the space to local space. To test, I will select the gino and interpose mode. If I move this control downwards, we will see that nothing will happen. This happens because I am moving the control downwards. In other words, using a negative value. Since I want the value of the shape key to increase when the position value of this control decreases, I will have to invert the mathematical expression. For that, I will switch back to object mode, select the character, open the driver editing panel. To invert an expression, simply add the subtraction sign in front of expression in the expression field. This way, when the controller value decreases, the controlled parameter value will increase. If I select the rig and interpose mode, we will see that when I move the control, now the expression starts to appear. However, the influence value is still very low. To change the intensity of this influence, we can use a multiplication value. I will once again switch back to object mode and open the Driver Editing panel. Now I will add a Nester risk. After the word var, I will choose a multiplication value. To find this value, we usually need to go through a trial and error process. I had already tested some values before recording this lesson, and I concluded that ten is a good value for this case. But usually you will need to test a bit to find the ideal value. If I test the control, now we will see that the automation is already working properly. Now that this first driver is set up, I will show an interesting option. If we want, we can copy an existing driver from one value to another. In this case, the driver I will use for the shape key we created for the teeth is very similar to this one. I can select the character object, right click on the value that already has the configured driver and click on the copy driver option. Now I will select the teeth object. I will right click on the value of the teeth open shaped key. I will click Paste Driver. This way an identical driver to the first one was added to this value. But in this case, I want to change the controlling bone so that this driver's control is separate from the mouth. I will open the driver editing panel in the bony field where it's defined as bone mouth open. I will type bone teeth open, which corresponds to the other control. I will select it this way. If I enter the posing mode of the rig and test each of the controls, we will see that each of them is acting on their respective shape key. In the next lesson, we will continue setting up the drivers for the shape keys we created. Thank you for watching and I see you next time. 10. Setting Up Drivers for the Facial Rig Part 2: In this lesson, we will configure the drivers that will allow us to control the other mouth shape keys of the character. With the bone dot mouth control. I will start by selecting the character. I will right click on the value of the mouth out shape key. Click Driver in the driver panel, I will set the rig as the control object, the bone, mouth as the controlling bone. The controlling value will effectively be X location. But I will set up the space as local space. If I put the rig imposing mode now and move the control, we will see that the control is already working, but the influence is very small. I will select the character again and add the driver value with a multiplier. But I will take this opportunity to show that we don't necessarily need to open the driver editing panel. If I click on a value that already has the driver, we can see and add the expression of that driver. I just needed to input the multiplier with the asterisk and some value as we have seen. It's usually necessary to test the values until we are satisfied. But I had already tested some values and concluded that for this case, eight is a good value. I just need to set this expression as asterisk eight. If I test the control, now we will see that the infants is much better. The driver. I will use the control. The mouth in shape key will be very similar to this one. I can copy the driver from the mouth out shape key and paste it into the mouth in shape key value. However, as I want this value to be activated, when I move the controller to the other side, I will invert the expression of this driver as we have seen. To invert the expression of a driver, simply add the subtraction sign in front of the expression. If I test the control, now we will see that for one side it triggers one shape key, For the other side it triggers the other shape key. Now we will do more or less the same thing with the y axis and the smile and front shape keys. I will add a new driver for the mouth ha shape key In the driver panel. I will set the rig as the control object, the bone, mouth bone as the controlling bone. In this case, the controlling value will be de location. As always, the space will be set as local space. In this case, I will already set the expression as var asterisk five to multiply the influence by this value. Now I will test the control. I think the multiplication is still weak. I will go back to the driver value, and I will change the multiplication value to ten. I will test again. Now I think the influence is good. Now to finish, I will copy the driver from the mouth happy Shapy key and paste it into the mouth said Shapy key. However, as I want this shape key to be triggered, when I move the control downwards, I will add the subtraction sign in front of the expression. Now if I test this control, we will see that with a single controller, we can activate four different expressions. We can still combine these expressions with the ones from the other control we area. Configured. With that, we finish configuring the controls for the shaped keys. In the next lesson, we will configure the influence of the eye and eyebrow bones on the geometry. But in this case, we will do it using vertex groups. Thank you for watching, and I see you next time. 11. Weight Painting the Facial Elements: In this lesson, we are going to finish setting up our characters, facial G. What is left to do is configuring the controls for the eyes and eyebrows, for these parts of the face. I will set up the virtues of these components so that they are directly influenced by the bones of their respective controls. This I will select the character. I will enter the weight paint mode of the object. Now I will use the sample group command to check which bone is influencing the verses of the eyes and eyebrows up until Blender 3.6 We do this by pressing the shift key and right clicking on the relevant area. From Blender 4.0 onwards. We do this by placing the cursor over the area in question and using the control shift X shortcuts. As we can see in this rig, the bone influencing the verses is Death Spine 006, which is the character's head bone. At the end of my configuration, I want each eye and eyebrow to be influenced only by its corresponding control bone. I could do this whole set up using weight painting tools, but since in this case I will be changing the influence of entire and specific volumes, it's easier to do this by directly modifying the vertex groups. In edited mode, I will switch to the edited mode of the object. I will make sure the vertex selection mode is active. I will select each eye and eyebrow to do this, simply place the cursor over each of these parts and press the L key. Now I will go to the object data tab. In the Properties editor, I will open the vertex groups panel and I will find the group death spine 006, which corresponds to the head bone. Since I don't want this bone to influence the vertes, I will click the remove button. This way this vertes will no longer be influenced by the head. Now what I need to do is create a vertex group for each of the control bones I created for the eyes and eyebrows. To this I will go to the end of the panel. I will click the head button to create another vertex group. I needed to create a group for each of the controls. As we have seen, it's important that each group has exactly the same name as the bone that will influence it. If you don't remember the bone names, you can select the rig, go into posey mode, activate the bone tab in the properties editor, and check the name of each bone in the first field of the panel. As we can see, the left eyebone is named bone, the right eyebone is named bone. The left eyebrow bone is named bone eyebrow. And the right eyebrow bone is named bone eyebrow. But I see that I made a typing error in this case, I will correct this error because it's important that the bony name and the vertex group name are exactly the same. Now I can return to object mode, select the character, and create the vertex groups with the name of each of these bones. The first one should be named Bone. The next one will be Bone It. The next one will be Bone Eyebrow. Finally, I will create the group Bone eyebrow. Make sure not to make any typing errors when creating these names. Now I will enter editing mode. I will select each of the vertex volumes by placing the cursor over the relevant part and pressing the Lkey. In this case, since I started with the left eyebrow, I will activate the bone eyebrow group and click the assign button. Now I will clear the selection and select the virtues with the L key. I will activate the bone Dol group and click a sign. Next, I will select the right eyebrow, activate the bone dot eyebrow R group, and click a sign. Finally, I will select the virtues of the right. I activate the bone group and click assign. Now I can return to object mode, select the rig interpose mode. If I select the controls for the eyes and eyebrows, now we will see that they are already influencing the corresponding virtues of the character. This way, we can move each of the controls to create a range of expressions on this part of the face. Additionally, we can rotate the eyebrow controls. We can scale the eye controls. If we scale the eye controls only on the y axis, we will create the impression of closing the character's eyes. And with that, we complete the creation of our character. Now I can enable the display of all the models objects. And I can enable the display of the G layers I want to use to animate the character. That's it for this lesson. Thank you for watching until next time. 12. Creating a Simple Animation Part 1: In this lesson, we are going to start creating a final animation for our character. This is not an animation focused course. I want cover advanced character animation techniques. But I thought it would be a good idea to show how to create a simple animation so we can see our character in action. The animation we will create will be this one. As we will see, this animation can be created with just four different poses. To begin the animation process, I will make sure I am imposing mode with the rig. I will activate only the layers I intended to use in the rig layer spanel. In my case, I will enable the torsal layer, the fingers layer, the FK layers, and the leg K layers. But for the arms and legs. In addition to activating the layers, we needed to ensure that the controls are set. For the K and K modes, I will start by selecting a control from one of the arms. To begin checking, I will open the rig main property spaniel. Since I am using the K mode for the arm, I need the IKFKvalue to be one. I also need to select one of the controls on the other side to perform the same check. In the case of the legs, each of them needs the IKFK parameter set to zero, as I want to use the IK mode for them. I will also check this value for the controls of each leg. Now I will create the first pose of our animation. I generally like to start creating poses for the legs and waist to make the character look more relaxed. I will slightly open his feet to keep the feet within the grid. I will only move them to the sides. Next, I will lower the waist a bit to give the legs slightly bent. I will also rotate this smaller waist control to create a more natural pose. Now I will select the top trunk control and rotate the bits to the other side. It's very common that when the waist is rotated in one direction, the trunk is rotated in the opposite direction. Now I will rotate the head to the side to make it appear that the character is more relaxed. I will start working on the rotation of the arms. To work on the arm rotation. If you are using the rotation manipulator, it's recommended to use the local mode from the transformer orientation menu. I will lower the arm a bit and slightly flex the forearm. Remember that if you want to change the rotation of the elbow with the K mode, you should select the first bone of the arm and rotate it on the Y axis. In local mode now I will start working on the hands position. I will rotate each finger controls to make the hand slightly more closed. I will also close the Palmer control a bit. Keep in mind that for the fingers, the rotation of the control rotates the entire finger. However, if we scale the control with the key, it will close the second and third phalanges of the finger. In question, I will take some time to make the hand look very relaxed. Usually the pinky finger is the one that closes the most in a relaxed pose, while the index finger remains slightly more open. When I am satisfied with the position of the first arm, I can copy the pose of this arm to the other side. If I want to do this, I will select all the controls of the arm that has the pose ready. Then I will go to the Pose menu. Click Copy Posey. Then I will return to the menu and click Paste Pose, Flip it. With this command, the symmetrical bones of the rigifi are positioned in the same pose as the bones we used to copy the pose. But after that, if we want, we can make small changes to make their positions slightly asymmetric. Now that I am satisfied with the body pose, I will also manipulate the facial controls to create a simple initial expression. I will give him a simple smile and relax the eyebrows. Now I will give the pose a general check. I think I needed to open the knee a bit more on the leg that's further out. In the end, when I am satisfied with the pose, I will select all the controls with the key and generate a key framing for all the controls. For the, I can go to the pose menu, go to the animation sub menu, and click Insert Key frame. Or I can press the shortcut key. We will open for us to choose what type of key frame you want to create. Since I am using position, rotation, and scale controls to create the pose, I will create a location, rotation, and scale key frame. If we look at the timeline now, we will see that a key frame has been created on the frame, one of the scene. In the next lesson, we will finish the remaining poses of this animation. Thank you for watching and I see you next time. 13. Creating a Simple Animation Part 2: In this lesson, we are going to finish creating the characters poses. The first thing I will do is position the playhead at a different frame. In this case, I will give a train frame interval between the first and second pose. At the end of the process, I can test and adjust the interval between the poses to achieve the desired animation timing. In this lesson, to make the process faster, I will use the transformation shortcuts to manipulate the controls. But if you prefer, you can create the poses using the transformation two handles. I will start by moving the character center slightly upwards and towards the center. I will reduce the waist rotation. If you want you can leave the auto king button enabled. Then I will make the spine a bit straighter and also rotates the head slides to the other side. Now I will lift the character's arm, but I will keep it flexed, anticipating the gesture it will make with his arms. In this pose, the hand can be a bit more flexed, as we will have an open mouth smile. In the next pose, I will start opening the mouth. For this pose, I can also copy the pose from one arm to the other. I will select all the controls of the arm. With the pose ready, I will use the copy pose command from the pose menu. Then I will use the paste pose flipped command afterwards. If I want, I can make slightly changes to the other arms pose to make them slightly different. When I finish the pose, I will once again select all the controls of the character. I will press the key to open the key frame creation menu. And I will generate another key frame of the location, rotation, and scale type. Then I will move the head forward by 20 frames to start creating the next pose. Now I will begin creating the next pose. I will move the waist slightly downward and to the side. I will open the leg a bit more. I will make the spine more curved again. I will also rotate the head a bit more. Now I will give a character a wide smile. I also want the character to blink between this pose and the next. In this pose, I will scale the eye controls on the y axis to close them. Now I will start opening the character's arm. I think for this pose, I can also make the hands slightly more open. Once I am satisfied with the pose of this arm, I will copy the pose and mirror it to the other side using the paste pose flipped command. Now I will once again select all the controls and generate a key frame for all of them of the location, rotation, and scale type. Now I will create the final pose for the animation indispose. I will make the waist a big higher and the spine a bit straighter. I will also raise the eyebrows slightly and keep the eyes open. Indispose. Arm should be in the most expressive configuration. I will open then a bit more. Then I will select all the controls. I will copy, dispose, and use the paste pose flipped command to mirror it to the other side. To finish, we should also create another frame of the location, rotation, and scale type for dispose. If we activate the play button on the timeline or move the playhead, we can already see the movement. Now we can adjust the animation timing if desired. In my case, for example, I want the character to stay in the initial pose for a while. To adjust the timing between the key frames, I need to have all the control selected to have the character stay in the first pose. For a few frames, I just need to select and move all the key frames a bit on the time line. If I position the first key frame on frame 20, the character will remain the initial pose for 20 frames. I think the timing between the first pose and the second pose is good, but I want the movement between the second pose and the third pose to be a bit faster. For that, I just need to move the key frame for the third pose a bit closer to the key frame for the second pose. To get the timing just right, it's a matter of trial and error. Remember that to move the keyframes in this way on the timeline, you should have all the characters control selected to finish. I think I will move the last keyframe closer to the third to make this interval a bit faster as well. Once again, I will test to see if the timing looks good. Now that I think the animation has the right timing, I will reduce the active frame range of the time line. For this, I will enter a value in the end field that's just a few frames after the last key frame of my animation. I will try frame 80. I will play the animation. I think I can extend it a bit more. I will try frame 90. Now I am satisfied with my animation. Remember that your animation doesn't have to be identical to mine. The goal of this exercise is for you to become familiar with the animation controls and create a presentation for your character. Feel free to create your own animation if you want. In the next lesson, we will set up the lighting for the final video. Thank you for watching, and I see you next time, P. 14. Rendering the Final Video: In this lesson, we will create the final video for our animation. But first, I needed to create some lights and a camera for the scene. To do this, I will start by returning to the object mode of the rig. Since I won't be creating any more animations, I can turn off the auto king button on the timeline. Now I will create the lights and the camera for the scene. Although it's not mandatory, it's a good idea to keep these objects organized in the Outliner. I will create a new separate collection to store these objects. You can rename this collection as you like. I have the habit of naming the collection where I store the lights in the camera as a studio. Now with this collection active, I will press the Shift a shortcuts to open the Creation menu. I will go to the Lights sub menu. I will create an area light, which I find most suitable for this type of lighting. I will move these lights above the character and to be able to visualize the final lighting in the Viewport. I will enable the rendered mode in the Viewport shading options. I will move the light a bit further from the character. I will click on the object data tab of the properties jitter to configure the light in the size parameter, I will increase the size of the light significantly. I will also increase the power value considerably to make the light considerably stronger. Now I will use the shifted shortcut to copy this light. I will rotate it so that it comes from one side of the character, but also a bit from the front. When I am satisfied with these lights, I will copy the selected light. Once again. I will position the last lights at the back of the character. I want this light to come from behind, but on the opposite side of the front lights. This light is often called a back light. It helps create a high light for the character against the scenes background in the lights property spanel. I will adjust the value to make it even stronger if you want to see how your scene is looking. Without the Viewport elements, you can temporarily disable the Viewport overlays button. Now to wrap up, I will create a scenes camera, The de simply clicking on the camera option in the creation manual, as I want the camera to be pointed exactly forward, I will start by zeroing out the vertation values of this object in the side bar. Now in the side view, I will rotate the camera to face forward. I will position it at a reasonable distance from the character to see exactly how the frame is turning out. I will split the view porting by right clicking on the divider and choosing the vertical split option. Now I will click on the camera icon in one of the view parts. To activate its view, I will use the other viewport to continue it position in the camera. In addition to moving the camera, I can also click on the Object Data tab and change the focal length parameter to adjust the camera's aperture. If I use a slightly lower value, the lens will be more open. For this case, I will use a 35 millimeter camera. Then I will make sure the character is well framed by the camera. Once I am satisfied with the lighting and camera, I will set up the scene rendering in the scene rendering tab. I always like to enable the ambient occlusion option. This option creates shadows in the areas where the surfaces meet, making the lighting appear more natural. In this case, this is not making a significant difference. But I still like to keep this parameter enabled. Now we can click on the Output tab in the Properties Editor. Here I will click on this folder icon to set the location file name. I will save my file on the desktop of my computer. I will name it my character animation. Now I will go to the file format menu and choose Mpeg video format. In the encoding menu, I will select Mpeg four. Now I will go to the render menu and click Render Animation. This will render your animation. Once the render is complete, you will see the video file in the location where you saved it. Here is the final result of our work. With this, we conclude discourse on creating stylized characters with blander. I really hope you enjoyed it and that you can make good use of the tools and techniques I've shown so that you can create your own characters. Congratulations on getting this far. Thank you for watching, until next time.