Animal faces
by Jason Turner · in Artist Corner · 02/23/2006 (9:08 pm) · 6 replies
Hi, I'm new to this whole experience and I'm hoping to learn a lot. so far so good. ;)
I was just wondering if anybody had any experience modeling animals, namely dogs, and if so how did they rig their facial features? Actually I suppose this could be asked of all faces, but I suppose this confounds me so much because the jaw can be so far removed from the rest of the facial area. Also how would you rig it so that the mouth could be used as a weapon in torque? I'm basically starting at this model and from there creating the world around it, so any help is very much appreciated at this early stage.
I was just wondering if anybody had any experience modeling animals, namely dogs, and if so how did they rig their facial features? Actually I suppose this could be asked of all faces, but I suppose this confounds me so much because the jaw can be so far removed from the rest of the facial area. Also how would you rig it so that the mouth could be used as a weapon in torque? I'm basically starting at this model and from there creating the world around it, so any help is very much appreciated at this early stage.
About the author
#2
sorry, honestly I'm not even near completion of the whole mesh for the character, so I haven't dived into the rigging tutorials, I probably should do that first. I was just asking ahead of time, so as to figure out how to create both jaws to give maximum flexibility for believable animation in barking and attacking. Blender always seems to keep the tool I need out of documentation that makes sense to me. I always find it (just after I've jerry-rigged it some other way) looking up something that has absolutely nothing to do with what seems logical. They just need a function run down document, got one up your sleeve?
02/23/2006 (10:39 pm)
You lost me at skin the weights...sorry, honestly I'm not even near completion of the whole mesh for the character, so I haven't dived into the rigging tutorials, I probably should do that first. I was just asking ahead of time, so as to figure out how to create both jaws to give maximum flexibility for believable animation in barking and attacking. Blender always seems to keep the tool I need out of documentation that makes sense to me. I always find it (just after I've jerry-rigged it some other way) looking up something that has absolutely nothing to do with what seems logical. They just need a function run down document, got one up your sleeve?
#3
02/23/2006 (11:18 pm)
Ah your using blender. I use 3dsmax. I'm not usre if all the terms and processes are the same in blender as they are in max. 
#5
02/24/2006 (10:24 am)
Thanks, I think i pretty much grasp most of that. so all in all, the path I'm heading in is what I should be doing, and just adjust the weights so that the closer to the rest of the face the less movement it causes. Now about that weapon thing, I've seen TONS of talk on the boards about melee weaponry, but no one really has gone into how you would mount that on a face, guess there's not much need to what with people not using their face in battle too much (does look cool in the movies though eh?) So, my next question would be how would I mount the melee "weapon" (his teeth or bite or whatever) to his face (btw this isn't going to be 1PPoV). This is kind of why I needed the jaw to move in the first place.
Ben Jones