Animator Interface

Look-at System

Next, we add a hierarchy to manage the look-at system with:

• an eyes module: core>joints, type transform, skin tag unchecked, placed between the two eyes,
• a look_at module, identical but placed in front of the face, controlling the gaze direction of both eyes,
• a look_target module, used to control each eye individually.

Constraints

We add a constraint modifier to create an aim constraint between eye_ball and look_target.

[ mod ]
# -- look at rig

constraint:
  type: aim
  node: eye_ball.L::roots.0
  targets: look_target.L::ctrls
  maintain_offset: on
  flip: on
  aim: [ 0, 0, 1 ]
  up: [ 0, 0, 0 ]

Space switch

We add a space modifier to implement a space switch for the look-at control.

[ mod ]
space:
  node: look_at::ctrls.0
  rest_name: eyes
  targets:
    - "*::space.world"
    - "*::space.move"

Facial UI

To set up the facial interface intended for animators, we start with:

• a face_panel, created using a core>xform module, with the parent = parent option so that the panel group is attached to the face group.

We then create the rigger section and the animator interface.

Rigger section

• shp_lids: core>xform module where all blink and eyelid-movement parameters will be stored.
• shp_lips: module for lip-related settings.
• chan_face: centralizes and manages all facial-rig connections, in the spirit of the BCS plugin, by aggregating all attributes onto a single controller.
• shp_face: node on which the facial poses will be recorded.

Animator section

On the animator side, we set up the hierarchy used to build the interface:

• frame_look, a core>xform module providing a 2D interface for eye animation.
  • a look core>joints module for the global movement of both eyes,
  • a look_eye core>joints module for the individual movement of each eye,
  • a loc_look core>xform used to collect the movements of both c_look and c_look_eye.
• frame_lipsync, a core>xform module for the 2D mouth-movement interface.
  • a lipsync core>joints module to handle mouth opening.
• face_up, a core>joints module grouping all upper-face poses (eyes, eyebrows).
• face_dn, a core>joints module grouping all lower-face poses (mouth, teeth, cheeks).

Connect 2d eyes rig

Now let's create the 2D eye rig. We connect the frame_look (look + look_eye) interface to the eyes, and add two attributes: cross and dizzy.

We create a helper on look, add a plug, then drive modifiers.

[ mod ]
# -- 2d eyes rig

plug:
  t.x: { min: -1, max: 1 }
  t.y: { min: -1, max: 1 }
  t.z: { l: on, k: off }
  r: { k: off, l: on }
  s: { k: off, l: on }
  cross: { k: on }
  dizzy: { k: on }

drive:
  plug: look::ctrls.0@cross
  eye_ball.L::poses.0:
    r.y: { 0: 0, -1: $amp_ry }
  eye_ball.R::poses.0:
    r.y: { 0: 0, -1: $amp_ry }

drive:
  plug: look::ctrls.0@dizzy
  eye.L::poses.0:
    r.z: { 0: 0, -1: 30 }
  eye.R::poses.0:
    r.z: { 0: 0, 1: 30 }


drive:
  plug: loc_look.L::node@t.x
  driven:
    eye_ball.L::poses.0:
      r.y: { 0: 0, 1: $amp_ry }
drive:
  plug: loc_look.R::node@t.x
  driven:
    eye_ball.R::poses.0:
      r.y: { 0: 0, -1: $amp_ry }

drive:
  plug: loc_look.L::node@t.y
  driven:
    eye_ball.L::poses.0:
      r.x: { 0: 0, -1: $amp_rx }
drive:
  plug: loc_look.R::node@t.y
  driven:
    eye_ball.R::poses.0:
      r.x: { 0: 0, -1: $amp_rx }

  [ mod ]
#!~dev, ~debug
#!-10
plug:
  cross: $cross

If you look at the notes, you will see the introduction of gem_var variables, which we will set as follows:

gem_var_amp_Rx : 30 gem_var_amp_Ry : 30 gem_cross_var : 0.15

tip

You do not need to manually create gem_var attributes. Mikan automatically generates missing ones using the proper naming convention during the build process.

And we add a constraint modifier on loc_look:

[ mod ]
constraint:
  type: point
  node: loc_look.L::node
  target: look_eye.L::ctrls.0