Part
2: Applying IPO Drivers to Armature Bones and Shape Keys
a tutorial by Calvin
First of, Introducing Mr. Ant.
This
character was inspired by Tommy Gard Helgevold's (JoOngle) cutebear chatacter.
Well, atleast the mouth portion. Which can be found
here.
Here is the Blend file so you can follow along: ant00.blend
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Apply IPO Drivers to Armature Bone
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Whenever you see a chance to apply a bone instead of a shape
key, I say go for it. And this is what we are going to do for the Jaw
of the Character. Another advantage of using a bone for
the jaw of the character is that you can parent the character's teeth
or tonge to the Jaw Bone.
1) Try to visualize where the Jaw of the character would meet
the head. And apply a bone there.
2) Now click on the end of the bone, and Snap you Cursor to it. (Shift+S)
This will make the next bone we create appear in that spot.
3) And add another Bone.
4) Go into Pose mode and select the Big Bone.
5) Apply the following settings to it.
Note: IK is the name of the Little bone we added in step 4.
6) Now click on the character, go into edit mode, and select the following
faces.
7) After words create a New vertex group, call it "Bone" and
assign the selected faces to it.
Note: Bone is the name of the Bone we created in Step 02.
8)Go into object mode, Select the Character followed by selecting the
armature.
- Click Ctrl + P
- Choose Armature
- Don't Create Groups (Since we already created one)
Now go into Pose mode, and try moving our "IK" bone around.
Notice that the big bone is rotating, following the"IK" bone.
But there is a problem:
When we move the bone to far, the face deforms a little too much. So now
I will demonstrate on how to use IPO Drivers to limit the location of
the IK bone.
1) Go to YZ view mode (Top View)
2) To the side, create another armature.
3) Give the Armature and Bone the following Names. (it is important to
give names to everything from now on)
4) Because we love for things to "look good." Apply the following
settings to the Bone.
- B-Bone
- Make the bone smaller in edit mode.
############################# Intermission ####################################
1) Divide the window in half.
2) Select IPO Curve Editor.
3) In Pose Mode, select the IK Bone.
4) In the IPO Curve Editor window, select "Pose."
5) You'll notice that unlike the Object mode, their is no properties (channels)
for the bone. In order for the Properties to appear, click on the bone
and click I, and apply location.
6) Now we have Properties, which means that we can apply an IPO driver
to one of these properties.
- (While your mouse is over the curve) click a and delete.
7) Go to Transform Properties (N Key)
- Click on Channel "LocX"
- Click Add Driver
8) Apply the following settings:
9) Go into Edit Mode (TAB) and create the following points.
- As we move the Z Location of the Jaw bone we created, from 0.0 (default
location) to 1.0 (one step up,) we want the Location of the IK Bone to
move from -0.17 to 0.25.
10) Now select LocY Channel and create the following curve. See if you
can interpret the curve.
Now Judge the Results!
Here is the Blend File of what we have done so far: ant01.blend
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Apply IPO Driver to Shape Keys
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Mr. Ant looks pretty happy. Let see if we can make him sad.
1)First off, create a New Bone withthing the Drivers Armature. (Duplicate
and rename.)
2) Click on Mr. Ant and under the Shapes Tab, click "Add Shape Key."
- This will create our Basis Key.
- Note: Before creating new Shape keys sure to select the Basis key.
3)Now go into edit mode:
IMPORTANT
While you are in edit mode and editing the object DO NOT
go into object mode, or the changes will be applied to the Basis key.
- Since Mr. Ant is already smiling, lets make him sad.
- select the inner faces and move them down a bit. Select some other faces
and smooth them out a bit.
- Notice that I smoothed the faces on the side a bit, because as a person
"unsmiles" his cheeks go a littl flat.
- Smooth Button is your friend!
After you have gotten the face the way you wanted it. Click "Add
New Shape Key." And give the ShapeKey a "Happy" name.
IMPORTANT
After and only after you have created a new shape key, can you leave the
edit mode without modifing the Basis key.
1) Go into Object Mode, and click on Mr. Ant.
2) In the IPO Curve Window, select "Shape."
3) On the side you will see a "Happy" Channel. That is the Key
we have just create.
4) Click on Happy followed by "Add Driver," and apply the following
settings.
- As LocZ of Happy changes the Happy Shape Key will take into effect.
5) Here is the curve I've applied.
6) You can take it another step forward:
The Great thing about Shape Keys is that you can go into Negetive numbers,
meaning that even though we have created a sad face, Blender can calculate
how the vertex points moved, and apply a reverse effect making the face
smile even more.
But the basic Shape Ket Deformation is from 0.0 (NO deformation) to 1.0
(full deformation). But we are not limited to those numbers we can go
on and beyond!
Now Judge the Results!
Here is the Blend File of what we have done so far: ant02.blend
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Taking it to the next Level
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Notice that the Jaw doesn't move beyond the rotation of the bone. Mr.
Ant is a "Cartoon Character!" So we've got to do something about
it.
1) Create a New Shape Key, Call it "Open"
Experimenting with our previous Jaw setup, you probabley noticed, the
the Jaw bone does not go beyond the Default 0.0 location (when moving
down). So now what if we apply this new shape key to whenever the Jaw
bone moves down.
Now Judge the Results!
Here is the Blend File of what we have done so far: ant03.blend
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Heck, lets add another Bone and Shape Key
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Now Judge the Results!
Here is the Blend File of what we have done so far: ant04.blend
As you can see the posibilites are endless, so go have fun. Maybe add
shape keys to eyebrows, the upper lip, etc.
Hope you enjoyed the tutorial.
Part
3: Half
a Smile (Using Vertex Groups)