vampchild opened this issue on Apr 08, 2014 ยท 337 posts
Morkonan posted Fri, 11 December 2015 at 1:41 AM
[erogenesis]...
Not sure what you meant with the chin but I can tell you this: I have been utterly unimpressed with recent rigging jobs regarding the jaw and opening and closing of the mouth with Dawn and Pauline. When a jaw opens, the cheeks get stretched, and PE does this, thankfully! For the rest its all a matter of morphing what you want, as far as I am concerned. I'll do my bit with supplying options, but you're entirely free to do yours if you want!
Great previews and such!
On the chin: See the example link(s) I gave. Notice the topology around the chin? You can check V4, too, if you want. Now, compare that to your topology. You have nice flowing edge-loops around most of the mouth area, which is great for certain expressions and mouth morphs. (There's a star at the bottom of the cheek, but that might be fine. You'll only know when you start to create morphs. :) )
But, notice the comparison differences. In the exampled pic(s) and/or V4, the chin is topologically isolated, for the most part. There are reasons for that, of course. I don't remember if you said the figure's mouth was fully rigged or if you're using rigged expressions. But, if you're doing either of these, then getting some isolation of the chin area will definitely help the chin keep its shape with rigging-based morphs. For geometry based morphs (morph targets) the issue without isolating the chin a bit more is going to be felt a bit when creating those morphs. The flowing edge-loops will tend to naturally deform according to that long, flowing, shape, which can make keeping the chin well defined during morph creation somewhat difficult. And, during application of multiple morphs, this "could" become compounded.
I'm not familiar with the topology of the figures you mentioned. I'm happy with V4, what can I say. BUT, I certainly want to play with your new creation and that's a fact! But, you can see, somewhat, what I'm talking about in the advertisements for some expression packs. Typically, many expression packs are "cartoony" expressions - They're not realistic. Because of V4's somewhat "light" topology around the mouth area, you usually get funky bottom lips, squished chins, horrible "grimaces" and the like with many face-morph packs. V4 is an excellent figure, by-and-large, but it could have used a few more polys around the mouth area. Also, considering the longevity of V4, there are a huge number of custom head morphs and many of them fall afoul of the fact that V4 could benefit from a bit more oomph in the face department in regards to polycount around certain areas, like the chin/lower-mouth region. (Between bottom of lip and top of chin, also, unrelated, around top of mouth near the sides of nose. But, that's just complaints about V4 and custom faces/expressions.)
You've got a good bit of polys, there. More than V4, at least, and that's an improvement. When you're creating morphs and working with the mouth, just pay attention to how the chin and lower-lip area deform. Take note of how easy/difficult it is to make morphs that include the lower face while preserving the chin region. And, do the same when making expressions or rigging the mouth, whichever you are doing. IF you see the chin shrinking in the vertical when deforming and/or getting "pointy" or becoming more undefined when it shouldn't, consider isolating it a bit. Not, necessary, with edge-loops, but you can use the "squarish" topo evident in the example pics or in V4's own face as a guide.
Just a comment, by the way. Until you get a chance to get us some hi-res topo or, perhaps, UVs, it's all good, so far.
Oh, by the way... UVs, groups, etc? What's happening, there? :)