Creating Basic Face Controls

When you tested your skeletal bind in Chapter 4, you probably noticed that rotating the jaw joint caused the entire face of your character to stretch (see Figure 5.1). This happens when you bind the basic rig, because only the head and jaw skeletons are being assigned to the skin of the face. All the features of the face are assigned a certain amount to each of these skeletons, and therefore they move when the jaw is rotated. To produce a better bind, and gain more control over each area of the face, you must create additional face influences. Keep in mind as you do this that all the new face influences must move with either the head or jaw skeletons, so they should be parented accordingly. Remember that you can insert two group nodes between skeletons to keep too many extraneous bones from being drawn.

5.1. When you only bind a head and jaw skeleton to your character’s head, the weighting on the face is very generalized, which causes the entire face to stretch when the jaw joint is moved.

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