Introducing the world's first blend shapes for animation in VR

Take the complexity out of your 3D animation creation pipeline

Using software that is fast, easy, and feels natural lets you fall deep into a creative flow. You lose track of the world and get immersed in your creation. In this heightened mental state, you are limitless in your creativity!

Yet, when making 3D content there are still some tasks that are clinical. Creating facial animations from a 2D screen has been complex and technical, but now with Masterpiece Motion things just got a heck of a lot simpler and cooler. With the use of a powerful move tool, you can deform parts of the face by simply grabbing and moving them. 

Today, let’s delve into a project where Ian Crighton, a professional artist based in Scotland, used Masterpiece Studio Pro to the max.   

PART ONE: USE MASTERPIECE CREATOR 

Visualizing and concepting organic features was an enjoyable experience for Ian Crighton. Working in Creator is adding rocket fuel to his process. It enhances the ability to sculpt quickly while returning to imported references intuitively in a full 3D space. He decided to sculpt a Gorilla. Iconic. Powerful. Smart. There is no monkeying around here. 

Ian breaks down his process: 

Each of the 7 layers was created with the Gorilla’s anatomy in mind, these were split into skull, lower mandible, teeth, skin, fur, eyes, In doing so this would then allow me to manipulate each of the layers independently or in a co-dependent fashion when exporting to motion. Reference images of both facial expression and anatomy were then imported and referenced while sculpting each layer. The overall texturing was done with vertex painting tools.

PART TWO: MASTERPIECE MOTION 

Even King Kong has a personality.  The world’s first VR Blend Shapes give you the ability to breathe life into the character with expressive motion. Adjust and morph expressions by hand. This is the continuation of sculpting rather than having plug-in code when key shape rigging. This is how Ian successfully got the results. 

I needed to create the illusion of each material having a natural resistance or strength. The jaw, teeth, and skull are solid bones, whilst skin, eyes, and fur have a certain elasticity or stretch. Being able to make these adjustments gave me greater control over the speed and strength of the animation because weight painting skin at a reduced volume allows for a natural stretch, whereas weight painting at full strength allows solid structures like a bone to retain their rigidity.

Moreover, Skin could be pulled over the eye layer to create blinking, the skin could be pulled over the skull to create muscle movement for the frown/grimace, even though the Jaw, teeth, and skin move together. 

PART THREE: EXPORT

After animating the expressions and movements within a 10-second timeline at 30fps, the animation file was exported as an FBX. Which retains the vertex color information and texturing

PART FOUR: BLENDER

Once in Blender the blend shape animation was baked using the shape-key feature and set to loop infinitely to create a seamless output when played back or rendered.

CONCLUSION 

You’re immediate, authentic, and emotional. So should be your creations. Get your characters acting as they should with our first-to-market Blend Shapes features.  Use our blend shape tools so you can understand the truth and intention of your character’s emotional breadth.

Get started today, and check out our tutorial on facial blend shapes!