Rigging a Face in Maya

Learn how to rig facial features for natural movement and expression. Discover how to use blend shapes, joints, constraints, skinning, and more tools for character rigging in Maya.

Introduction

• Facial rigging from scratch with Maya
• Making the most of the exercise files

1. Getting Started with Facial Rigging

• Facial topology
• Prepping the model for rigging

2. Creating Blend Shapes

• Blend shape stategies
• Modeling mouth shapes
• Testing blend shapes
• Additional lip shapes
• Eyelid shapes
• Creating in-between shapes
• Extracting left and right shapes
• Connecting the blend shapes

3. Joint and Skeleton Setup

• Joint and skinning strategies
• Setting up the skeleton
• Getting the jaw pivot right
• Upper face joints
• Skinning the head
• Fine-tuning jaw deformation
• Upper face deformations

4. Rigging the Head

• Attaching hair and eyebrows
• Attaching teeth to jaw
• Using joints for eyes
• Creating spline controls
• Connecting head controls

5. Rigging Eyes and Eyelids

• Controlling eye direction
• Creating gaze control
• Connecting lower eyelid controls
• Connecting upper eyelid controls

6. Setting Up Mouth Controls

• Connecting the jaw control
• Creating mouth and lip control splines
• Rigging upper lip controls
• Rigging lower lip controls
• Multi-axis controls for smile and frown
• Finishing the multi-axis control

7. Finishing the Rig

• Controlling the cheeks
• Eyebrow setup
• Using clusters
• Testing the rig

Conclusion

• Next steps