3 Simple ways to Animate Face Textures [In Blender]

There's an updated version of this video! Which you can watch here: • 3 Simple ways to Anima...
In this Tutorial, we cover 3 different ways to animate face textures. These methods can be used to animate any texture, and the third example can be used to animate pretty much anything! These methods don't require Rigging or Armatures, and are pretty useful! Hope you all enjoy!
The Observatory is our weird KZbin experiment. We currently are making time lapses, because they're awesome, but we have many ideas and projects in the making. One thing is for certain though, we want to create and grow The Observatory World with viewer input!
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~~~Music By:~~~
Mr.Kevin Macleod, super talented, and since I can't afford to pay him, maybe you can; / kmacleod
"Funkorama"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io
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#Animation #Blender #Tutorial

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Hey Everyone! We have a new video that covers how to Animate Object Visibility using Geometry Nodes here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y4CxqGNraKufjJI It makes Method 3 significantly easier, and you might find it helpful! Thanks for watching!

[@jvukovic4]

Thank GOD you made this, i was dreading having to follow a 45 minute tutorial when i could swear face texture swapping is as easy as how you show us.

[@TheObservatoryShow]

No problem, I'm glad you found it useful! Thanks for watching!

[@Oldmanfnaf]

1:52 for those who get trap in the node group hell space, it's tab to get out.

[@TheObservatoryShow]

^This is important! Thank you 😁

[@lemonworm]

Holy fuck man, the node group you created to switch eyes is ABSURDLY powerful just as a standalone node within blender. Ive started to use it in shaders as a tool to select between various presets. Its so incredibly useful huge props

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you very much! I'm glad you find it useful, we actually have an update video improving these methods coming out this week...hopefully 😅 Thank you for watching!

[@Katy133]

Thank you so much for this tutorial. Method 2 was perfect for a rolling clock I wanted to animate, as I had a single texture for the numbers 0-9, and wanted to add a subtle overshoot every time a new number clicked into place on the clock's rotating pieces.

[@ianandrew1997]

That node group is brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing this information

[@ranska000]

Perfect ! that was exactly what I need. 👍

[@SalElder]

Very clever. Thanks for the video.

[@yuriben8132]

really cool , thanks helped alot

[@millybaez24]

Thank you so much for making this!!! I've been struggling so much trying to change face expressions from splatoon models, this helps a lot! Thank you again!!!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I'm glad you found it helpful! Thank you for watching 😁

[@HandlebarOrionX]

This one helped quite a lot! Thank you😊

[@zapfsaeule2]

This and the new version is so great! Thanks for sharing and for this great channel!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Glad you like it! Thank you for watching!

[@tienanhhoang6004]

Thanks sooo much i have been struggling with this thing a whole month now.

[@TheWiseChickens]

Oh neat, I was just thinking about this. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

No problem! Thanks for watching!

[@emiliano3d514]

This was the most interesting video i ever saw about how to animate face texture, the easiest to understand, and the shortest one, good job! you got all of the points on a super efficient way.

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you very much 😁 We're currently working on an update video that improves each method, which should hopefully be out this week! Thanks for watching!

[@lonelybrowncow9876]

This is fantastic! Thank you so much!

[@Syke1337]

Exactly the information I have been looking for. Thank you!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching 😁

[@jheremih3D]

thank you so much for this......i love this. Thanks for sharing this beautiful piece of knowledge

[@TheObservatoryShow]

You're very welcome! Thank you for watching!

[@firered1191]

I've been looking for something like this for ages! Thanks!!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

No problem! Thanks for watching 😁

[@joacocavo2745]

Gold and so easy to follow along. Thank you so much!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you for watching! 😁

[@markusfranz8809]

This was way more informative then I could have hoped for! Thank you so much for making the video!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Glad you liked it! Thank you for the great question!

[@gzuspower6483]

For Shizzle!!!

[@EdwinDevey]

Superb tutorial and well presented. I too had problems with frames between keyframes giving unwanted views but reading the other comments it was easily resolved by giving a value to all frames holding a constant value until the next keyframe.

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you for watching! Glad you could find the answer here!

[@alex.artechtattoo]

Thanks a lot, MAN! I'm so glad to find your channel!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I hope you find it useful! Thank you for watching 😄

[@benthekreator2803]

bless your soul.. method 3 was the confirmation I needed, thank you!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you for watching! you should take a look at our newer video that covers animating object visibility. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y4CxqGNraKufjJI

[@waelxcm]

oh my deear deeeeeaaarrr GOD! this literally solved ALL of my problems with faces right now! and by extension many MANY more useful applications for these techniques

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Glad this helped you out! Thanks for watching!

[@SangHendrix]

This is gold! I'm downloading this video to my laptop.

[@mr.awesome5109]

Isn’t that illegal or is there a way with this video

[@ratitimothy2845]

Very nice! Thank you for making this video this help me a lot

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Glad it helped! Thank you for watching!

[@RB-bj8to]

Great as always Thank you!!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank YOU!!

[@ChrisIves]

Thanks, this helped me a lot.

[@Srcsqwrn]

This is EXACTLY what I needed! I'm glad I found this video, because other videos don't realy touch on this.

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I'm happy it helped, we have an updated version of this video coming soon that expands/improves these methods even further! Thanks for watching!

[@Srcsqwrn]

@@TheObservatoryShow I've subbed because of this vid, so can't wait for the update!

[@chubbydunkers78]

This was an amazing tutorial! Thank you so much!!!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

No problem! Thank you for watching ♥

[@rinshimori1224]

this is perfect, subbed

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@bluetoad07]

Method 1 is incredible. I cannot thank you enough.

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you very much for watching!

[@DoctorMadness]

Cool content and education! Subbed!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

😁 Thank you for watching!

[@paul-thys]

Love this man! You deserve way more subs and views. Keep it up!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

You're too kind! Thank you very much 😁

[@Darkovius]

Very well explained, thanks for the tutorial

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you for watching!

[@MagicSwordFilms]

just what i was looking for, thank you!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thanks for watching! I hope it helps 😀

[@ern_moldabek]

Wow! Beautiful animation 😍

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you! Hope it helps 😁

[@paolaanimator]

Thank you so much for making this video, I'm doing an animation where a character is writing on a piece of paper, it is just a 2D texture, so this is a huge help!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I hope it's useful! Thanks for watching!

[@nierautomata9654]

Thanks for doing this video this is exactly what I need 😆👍

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I'm glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching 😄

[@cheychc]

this video was so helpful!!! (and i just now notice you've done an update LOL) I used method one! I'll check out the new vid too! Thanks for the help! :)

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I'm glad you found it helpful! I hope you find the update even more useful! Thank you for watching 😄

[@TheStrokeForge]

Man this is a total life saver!!!!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I'm glad you found it useful😃 Thanks for watching!

[@SuperWiiBros08]

this is very useful but when I try the math values nodes with 4 textures, the 3rd value doesn't show up at all while value 1, 2 & 4 do show up just fine

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Make sure the greater than values are set correctly, I've had something like this happen a couple times and it usually ends up being that I just set up or connected the nodes wrong! Let me know if this solves it, thank you for watching!

[@Yodakiller3000]

Thank you so much for telling me all this! One thing I found useful that I would love to see in a tutorial is how to keyframe the animation (which can be done by going to "Objects->visibility->" and pressing i while hovering over the "show in viewports". Once again thank you for the great tutorial! I will use this for my Miitomo animations.

[@TheObservatoryShow]

We made an updated video for these methods that drastically improves the ease of keyframing, especially method 3! Thank you for watching, and I hope its helpful!

[@mageandnightingale]

Any way you could put I link to show how to key? I can't find "objects" and I can't find a source that just shows how to keyframe them

[@HasanKeskintas]

excellent thank you

[@TheObservatoryShow]

No Problem! Hope it helps!

[@mak00ileven]

You are a legend. I subscribed

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thanks for watching! 😊

[@daetheknight.]

This is the tut I didn’t know I needed!!!!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I hope you find it helpful! Thank you for watching 😃

[@daetheknight.]

@@TheObservatoryShow Extremely helpful!

[@bluethumbbuttoneek9465]

Lovely will figure this out

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you for watching!

[@mosters2381]

Thank you so much.

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thanks for watching! ♥

[@purchasingjohnstone6700]

Still come back to this video all the time for things!!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I'm glad you find it useful!

[@kyounokaze]

Very cool and easy to understand.

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you! Hopefully it helps ♥

[@javier5606]

In the texture mapping technique it really helps to use entire divisions and modulo so that a sole value node will give the apropiate coordinate

[@TheObservatoryShow]

That's a good idea! Thank you 😀

[@amini011]

that was really good, thanks !

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you for watching! I hope it helps 😁

[@manmadeartists]

Sooo helpful! Thank you so much Sir

[@TheObservatoryShow]

😄 Thank you for watching!

[@Furiac.]

Love how blender often makes complex things easy! (But it also sometimes makes simple things hard lol)

[@xmatias9]

this video goes straight to favorites

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Glad you like it 😁 Thank you for watching!

[@h7aunos]

holy hell ive been looking for a tutorial like this for ages. thank you! i thought blender was just really primal in texture animation and was worried i couldn't get textured eyes

[@TheObservatoryShow]

No problem! Thanks for watching 😀Blender is surprisingly versatile!

[@jantoniolmartinez728]

Thank you for sharing, I´m creating a model of a book and was looking for a way to quick change the interior pages by switching the textures and keying the poses.

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Glad to hear that it was useful! Thank you for watching!

[@aoypgraphic]

Thanks you so much. This is what I'm looking for

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Glad it was useful! Thanks for watching!

[@Ruan3D]

Thanks!! Just what I need!! :)

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Glad to help! Thanks for watching 😀

[@locusruizlopez5997]

thanks again

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I hope its useful! Thanks for watching 😄

[@nicreven]

thank u very kindly :]

[@locusruizlopez5997]

Really cool!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you! Also thank you for watching 😀

[@gxwild5]

Very usefull, thank you!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I'm glad you found it useful! Thanks for watching 😁

[@AxZelAnimations30]

I remember making a Smash 3DS Character Mod using Blender. They did use separate meshes for closed eyes, open eyes, etc with different textures, same for the mouth. As for the hands, they are separate hands. Might also how the low poly models work in KH3D. As for Dissidia (012), I think they used the 2nd Method.

[@Mimoas66]

I'm currently working with Neptunia's models that use a similar method for face animation and your tutorial was pretty usefull.

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I'm glad you found it useful! Thanks for watching 😄

[@uwaiswaiswais]

The second method is simpler to do with less expressions but I can understand how the first method is way easier to keyframe. Haha I just wrapped my head around the second method. Thanks btw!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

We are currently working on a follow up to this video, that will compound and improve on each of these three methods! Thanks for watching 😁!

[@LeonardoNascimentoDesenhista]

Great. I use image sequences instead of single image. I'll try that mapping method.

[@acira_xd2469]

you may have just 450 subscribers but you are so good!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

You're too kind, Thank you! ♥

[@purchasingjohnstone6700]

Sooo True!!!

[@murthfilm]

thank you so much !!!!!!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thanks for watching!

[@murthfilm]

@@TheObservatoryShow still use it to this day!!!

[@z4ta.]

TYSM I ws looking for this TY

[@TheObservatoryShow]

No problem! Thank you for watching!

[@djlukasoliveira]

You are the awesomest

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you very much for watching!

[@michaelfranke8622]

That was really helpful. Now to figure out the equivalent for Maya

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I've never used Maya, if you figure it out let me know so I can direct people to an answer 🤣 Thanks for watching!

[@imammrka4656]

Thanks

[@TheObservatoryShow]

😀 Thanks for watching! I hope it helps!

[@Engylizium]

That was awesome! Thank you for the simple and informative tutorial! P.S.: I think game engines handle it in a more simple manner than a 3d modeling software

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you! Yeah that's what I figured, but I don't have much experience with all that jazz.

[@dhruvverma2951]

Just wow,exactly what I wanted

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you so much! I'm glad it helped, thank you for watching! ♥

[@dhruvverma2951]

Hey can you make a separate video explaining the first method in a more basic/detailed way

[@TheObservatoryShow]

@@dhruvverma2951 What kind of details are you interested in? Do you want to know what the individual nodes do, or is there something else? Also our Paper Mario video covers how to apply the first method to a walk cycle, which might be helpful!

[@OayxYT]

lifesaver

[@TheObservatoryShow]

😀 Thanks for watching!

[@johnaMNG]

besides of the great video, this silly things like at the end make it even better to watch, supper enjoyable ^^ 4:50

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you very much for watching! I'm glad you enjoy my strange sense of humor!

[@tylerwashington5625]

This is a really good tutorial and is gonna save me time and polygon count with a few simpler models! For things like if you would like an emission shader for a transparent texture, would a mix node be required for each facial expression?

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Depends! What are you trying to make? I'm glad you found it useful! Thank you for watching 😄

[@Ricardo-fm5wt]

Great tutorial! I'm wondering, how do your UVs look for Method 2?

[@mst3kforever]

Bless you.... Bless you...

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Hopefully it helps! Thanks for watching 😁

[@Lhamaramachannel]

Thank you

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Hope it helps! Thank you for watching 😁

[@Lhamaramachannel]

@@TheObservatoryShow I'm testing this out today! I'll let you know if it worked, thanks again :)

[@Lhamaramachannel]

Hi professor. I gave a try to the first method and I'm using multiple image textures for the eyes like in your example, the thing is that everywhere in the image that should be transparent, is rendered as black. To fix this I had to attach the Alpha option from the Image Texture's node to the Alpha option of the Principled BSDF and then click the Material Properties and under settings, change the Blend Mode value to Alpha Clip (same thing as when you work with a single image texture). I did get rid of the black, which is now transparent as it should be BUT when I change to Value and move to another image... it breaks :( Now, if I try to add all the alphas to the Principled BSDF alpha it just replaces the previous one I added, I can't attach everything to that node at the same time :|

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Try looking at our update video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJ7dcpWbiqmDi7M At around 9 minutes in! Let me know if this answers your question!

[@lottex3486]

ty

[@TheObservatoryShow]

No problem, Hope it helps!

[@animatrix1490]

3:05 Megaman Legends seems to have taken this approach, too (if you look at the characters on Models Resource, you can see a ton of different face and eye expressions on the image textures)

[@DOPELAFRAPPE]

good tutoriel

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you!

[@DOPELAFRAPPE]

@@TheObservatoryShow You have discord ?

[@TheObservatoryShow]

@@DOPELAFRAPPE Not yet, we plan on getting one going at some point!

[@CorpseBaron]

I love the video! Clear and to the point. i have one question. It's possible to use 2d textures animation on a vtuber model? With real time tracking and like mouth shapes and all? Thank you for your time!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Hey Everyone! We released an Update to these methods for anyone who is interested! You can watch it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJ7dcpWbiqmDi7M

[@arachnosexpresso8761]

Man I was in the process of adding eye bodygroups for G-Max Inteleon and had some struggle in order to change the eye texture. I came across this and I think I may be able to finally get my lizard sniper son to sfm lol

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Hope it helps! 🤣

[@aortaplatinum]

>Simple >Uses nodes yeah okay buddy have fun with that I guess I'm the "some situations" that method 3 will be advantageous in lol. I considered doing that in the first place but wanted to see if there was an easier way to do it. Thanks though, this was really helpful! Can't wait to start animating my own simple, stylized characters!

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Haha, nodes aren't so bad once you get used to them! We have an updated video that has an easier way to keyframe with method 3, and I suspect there are quite a few other ways to do it as well. Good luck and thanks for watching!

[@creativohugo]

Oh, thank you so much! I had no idea how these kind of cartoon eyes worked but you explained it so well, if you don't mind how would one go about using these methods and also making the pupils have the ability to track down something in the environment?

[@TheObservatoryShow]

There's quite a few ways you could go about doing it! The first way that comes to mind is to have your pupils be a separate texture with alpha transparency, and add it to the eye shader material using nodes. Then you could use a mapping node to slide it around on the eye. If you wanted to go a step further, you could add drivers to the mapping node that use the location of an empty to determine where the pupils are looking. If you're interested in this I can try to explain it better in a future video. Alternatively you could just just draw more versions of your characters eyes with the pupils in different locations. If I think up any other easier ways I'll let you know! Hope this helps!🤣 Thanks for watching!

[@creativohugo]

​@@TheObservatoryShow Thank you! I had not think or even thought possible for these sort of eyes to follow and empty but that would be quite the perfect idea, I'll definitely try! I still would love to hear you talk of this more in deep in a future video though, you are a great teacher.

[@DoxyYT]

im so lucky i found this tutorial

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Hopefully you find it useful! Thanks for watching 😄

[@nicolasdefrancony9095]

GOLD

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thanks! 😁

[@uwaiswaiswais]

Awesome! Could you go into more detail about UV unwrapping and texture painting with photoshop? I'm hoping to use my art (e.g. eye) as textures on my models. Kinda like this video but a little slower lol

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Yes, we can definitely go into better detail on UV Unwrapping! Once your model is unwrapped, in the UV editor click the UV menu, and choose export UV layout. You'll then be able to use that UV Layout in photoshop to paint whatever textures you want! I hope this helps!

[@jimpeppercorn6244]

This is awesome, and the only video I found a clear and concise way to do this for an amateur such as myself. Works really well with blinking, but I am having some issue using this method for something like a mouth opening and closing. So when I add the keyframe, it seems like it applies to all of my animations? Is there a way to keyframe a mouth opening and closing using method 1, but have it apply to only one animation in the Action Editor?

[@LowPolyJack]

I am also having this issue, did you ever figure it out?

[@LowPolyJack]

I managed to get it working using a driver

[@jimpeppercorn6244]

@@LowPolyJack I dont believe I did, what I ended up doing is saving the facial textures and using the game engine to change between them (godot 3.4)

[@intetx]

Love the short video format. Most tutorials just fluff stuff out to 90% >.>

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Glad you like it! I prefer shorter tutorials, so I attempt to keep them short and to the point, while still hopefully being helpful 😆 Thanks for watching!

[@cedricaguilar4501]

Amazing video, I think the last method could use drivers to hide the objects easily

[@TheObservatoryShow]

We have an updated video using drivers on all three methods! Here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJ7dcpWbiqmDi7M Thanks for watching!

[@Imms64]

I'm starting in animation, my pc is ABSOLUTE RUBBISH and my brain feels like it's missing whike I watch stuff as simple as this But altough, this video will help, thanks a bunch (Note: I started trying to animate because of a youtube comment lol, it was of a guy that dreamt with fighting rayquaza with an stick AND WINNING, I'll try to make this first project as best as I can, and when I'm better at this shii, I'll do it again"

[@neubeginner4636]

thank you so much for your tutorial, this is great ! :D eventhough i don't know how to get the proper texture XD

[@TheObservatoryShow]

Thank you for watching! www.models-resource.com/ and www.textures-resource.com/ as well as the rest of their sites are totally free downloads of video game resources! Its extreme helpful, and they might have what you're looking for!

[@neubeginner4636]

@@TheObservatoryShow whoaa ! i'm just thinking that i should try drawing myself. but you save me, bro. Thank you for your kindness ! :) have a nice day :D

[@TheObservatoryShow]

No problem, I hope it helps!

[@neubeginner4636]

@@TheObservatoryShow hey ya ! because of this tutorial, i have learned so much about texturing. i hope i could send picture of my own model to you. eventhough im using the eyes and skin texture from Red character in Pokemon hahaha thank you so much bro !

[@TheObservatoryShow]

@@neubeginner4636 For sure! I'd love to see it, send it to our business Email on our KZbin about page! I'm glad this tutorial helped! 😁

[@mensoon6038]

Nice fast tutorial, I hope can make face animation in LEGO move. What method u think is preferable for this? sorry if there was already such a question ;4)

[@TheObservatoryShow]

I would probably use method one. Then its just simply key framing the slider to change faces. Thanks for watching!

[@mineority6310]

Hey so, I have this all set up but how do I have the texture change chow up in my animations? what type of keyframe should I use?