Blender Character Animation: Shape Keys

[@arnoandchelseychannel3655]

great video, but please turn down the music 😀

[@SouthernShotty]

Ok, thank you for the feedbacks

[@nicktheritter]

Or just cut the music entirely. It's interesting enough on its own.

[@matslarsson5988]

I found the video very interesting, still I stopped halfway through because the music made me unable to focus. Other than that the video was great.

[@SouthernShotty]

@@matslarsson5988 I'm going to remove music in future videos, thanks for the feedback

[@SpaghettioH]

@@SouthernShotty I really enjoy the music, but it is very loud. It'd be much nicer if you edited the music so it's only in the parts where you're not necessary talking, just editing, it was louder. Great video all round though.

[@LarsVision]

Great Tutorial. It's will be 100% better without the music, during the lesson.

[@radioactivehummusengine2407]

or he could just turn the volume down

[@boleroy9895]

@@radioactivehummusengine2407 yes because his music is nice but a bit too loud.

[@kakos_set1175]

I agree... just turn down the music so it's easier to hear

[@vivekr2597]

Totally agree.

[@sicfxmusic]

Music is great and btw, as you get older the music gets louder 🤤

[@alexandrbukreev9995]

Nice! sometimes music is too loud

[@rontarrant]

If you added the music in a video editor, perhaps you could just remove it and re-release this video. I know you said it's possible to use CC, but reading and watching what you're doing at the same time means re-watching relevant sections several times.

[@Snairster]

Dude, you have no idea how much this helped. I think people who're animators like myself need to search "shape key rigging" instead of "how to rig". I've been on this issue for 2 weeks trying to figure out how to animate eyelids with a rig, didn't even know shape keys existed. This 100% helped and worked. THANK YOU!

[@mangaldoner]

thanks for the video! it would be even better if the music be less loud or disabled...

[@mibixdev]

Awesome! Can you make tutorial about clay-style shader?

[@SouthernShotty]

Working on one!

[@kennethyates5597]

i love the tut and your design sense is dope. however, your voice is battling the music for my attention and the music is winning. Still, 4 out of 5 stars. keep up the excellent work! i'm looking forward to the next. peace.

[@SouthernShotty]

Oops, I see it now when I'm not on headphones, I'll lower it next time, thank you

[@ricky107_]

Totally agree

[@_Ploton_]

It's also good to turn on "For Transform" for Limit Location constraint. Otherwise the effect is only visual and the object will go above the limits in Location Transform and you have to "go back" to point 0 every time you cross them.

[@summerskye8852]

11 minutes in: When you're at the club but you also got a shape key quiz in the morning.

[@benpebbles4111]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@PonteRyuurui]

got to drop that music level mate, other than that good info

[@MrDanINSANE]

Very useful video! you explain things very clear thank you for sharing. For future videos please consider to lower the music volume, meanwhile keep up the good work! :)

[@SouthernShotty]

Thank you for the feedback

[@radiosupernova2099]

You can explain more detail how you make the snap animation of the bird? I know you don't recommend, but is what I been looking for.

[@afish2281]

*FINALLY A VIDEO THAT SOLVES MY ANIMATING PROBLEMS!* I spent over 8 weeks trying to weight paint a leg because it was deforming too much.

[@SouthernShotty]

so glad this helped!

[@alzy101]

Please stop putting that god awful music on your videos

[@WilliumBobCole]

can we get a tutorial about that claymation material holy moly it looks so good, specifically how the surface detail changes from frame to frame to look like real stop motion :O

[@SouthernShotty]

Yes, I'm also doing a giveaway on my Instagram rn 😁

[@Soliddimension3D]

Instead of doing Var*[-1], you could also write -var. Great video!

[@SouthernShotty]

yeah, plenty of ways to do it, thanks for sharing

[@r2hthacker459]

really really thank you soo much about this toturial , bcz i need it. ( please down the music volume .. its very high make me headach .. )

[@A.J.Interactive]

I think you could've also set min and max driver value for face happiness, either way, great tutorial, lots of valuable stuff in a short amount of time!!

[@fulltimespy]

Thanks, this helped me alot :) I tried to rig a model that's 1 piece with bones, but it woudln't work, mesh would deform, i tried splitting it in parts, ofcourse there is an open area, so no good. This worked ! I am making a single piece of iron into a butterfly. But it's 1 object so it's tricky.

[@BMTVMeditationandSleep]

I wish I could follow this, but I cant hear you because of the music is to loud :( looks a really useful tutorial though

[@sonicfan9144]

Is it weird if I use shape keys to animate my characters instead of rigging them with an armature?

[@usagijojo2]

10:28 Your instructions for the slider don't seem to work for me. All it does is permanently put the mouth in the closed position whether the slider is at the top or the bottom, as opposed to being permanently open.

[@usagijojo2]

I suppose what I should be saying is: How can I get the slider to work when the little box is between 6.3 feet at its lowest point and 6.7 feet at its highest point?

[@Glyc01]

again usefulness ! you are best )! i wanted to make mouth with bones )))

[@pearple.something]

how do i do this with real a Armature and not objects

[@MikeScottAnimation]

Any way to mute the music? Looks like a good tutorial

[@mrhollywood1173]

WOW that music is MURDER. Your tuts look so great. Cheers MR HOLLYWOOD

[@DerekElliott]

Nice!

[@SouthernShotty]

You're nice!!! I mean. Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@EpicHardware]

if music was beneficial for learning all schools will playing it during lectures

[@EpicHardware]

don't worry is not boring without it

[@VallyWake]

that character is so cute! ^_^ Thanks for the tutorial! Just seems the music was a little too loud comparing with the voice, imho...

[@SouthernShotty]

Thanks for the feedback - I'll turn it down next time

[@jayakumarseenivasan]

Shall you share your stop-motion work flow... For us😀

[@SouthernShotty]

Working on it.

[@jayakumarseenivasan]

SouthernShotty thankyou so much👍👌😀

[@GyLala]

Thank you for your assistance. :D

[@bUildYT]

musik is soooo anoying but video is soo good

[@FlyCat1]

Great tutorial, this is my big problem. Thank so much!

[@SouthernShotty]

Glad you liked it

[@hubbcap18]

Blender newbie here: Is this doing essentially the same thing as an armature rig with bones? What are the advantages/disadvantages comparatively?

[@SouthernShotty]

No, it's meant to be used with an armature. I go over the advantages of corrective shape keys and rigging in the video. Additionally it can be used for quick animation for radical model alterations not possible with a standard armature. The bird in the video is a good example. It's also good for morphing objects

[@pukey82]

Awesome! Thanx! :)

[@RubenSterlingS]

Good tutorial, @SouthernShotty btw on the arm the wheight paint assigned to the forearm is affecting the arm and is causing that deformation, I suggest that instead of fixing it with sculpture, use the wheight paint and remove/assign the paint from the vertices on the arm/forearm that are causing that problem. That always happen when you use the automatic wheight-paint and yeah it's a pain I've being there hehe.

[@SouthernShotty]

Good tip

[@RubenSterlingS]

LoL I wrote white instead of weight damn auto correct but yeah you know what I meant.

[@felinoyunizal4331]

Thank you, I need a blend shape tutorial. (Maya to Blender user)

[@eggyrepublic]

This is the type of organization I need to begin doing. I just have a clusterfuck of shape keys that I have the scroll through to find the right ones to keyframe at the right times.

[@SouthernShotty]

lol i used to be that way

[@al-noorstudio1669]

Hi Master, I request you to make a full rigging tutorial with discussing all the problems that's the new person face including weight painting and all the stuff related to rigging (I will do modeling, sculpting and every thing but suck at rigging and always use auto tools to rigg, and they solve fewer problems and create more for me, and now I want to learn custom rigging with all the constrains needed) Thank you in advance

[@delilh325]

This was more informative that I expected, but you did teach stuff that I wondered how it was done. Great video

[@lesmatheson6001]

Very informative. But rather than "turn the music down", I think most would favor "no music whatsoever." The viewer's mind is focusing on concepts and understanding, any sort of entertainment is a distraction to most people, that's not what they're here for.

[@kru3d36]

Great tutorial. How do you control the easing in and out of the shape key driver? Meaning adjusting the timing of when the shape key driver turns on. From 90 degrees at the elbow to 120 degrees extreme elbow flexion, there is need for another shape key driver. However, it's calculating from 0 degrees not 90 - 120 therefore, it turns on and off too early / late as the elbow bends / straightens. Stumped on this. Any thoughts, appreciated.

[@hyp3r_unii]

DUDEE So cool! Thx for your videos, i'm learning a lot. Everything i'm learning i'm using on my own music videos, thanks a lot :D If one day i become famous, and someone ask about my videos and stuff, i'll mention your channel hahahahahah and others of course, but thx a lot bruh ;D GG

[@carlosalmuniamoliner3595]

Hi. Love all your vids and have learned a lot with them. Now I'm stucked...maybe some of u can help me....imagine you want to duplicate the character with same shapekeys but you want to anime different than first character...I this case, how can you achieve that? I'm trying with an animated shape key object but copy has linked animation with shape keys...even if I rename or erase some of them, it happen also on original model....I've tryed lots of forms...when it seems that creates new Key action strips, when you move the frame, they parent again instantly.... Need to duplicate the mesh with same object but delay keyframes (ans if possible animate separately) but no way... Thanks in advance. Carlos.

[@ReyBanYAHUAH]

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[@MrDoodleDandy]

I'm just in on the video, but you are using relative shape keys and not absolute shape keys. The checkbox underneath Shape Keys says so, and I hope you explain the difference (one is more suitable for stop-motion and needs NO rig, where relative does often need so yet this model is very low-poly so it works as well.

[@zenroles]

10:37 will it help if you create the slider starting from Z=0 and ends at Z=1 so that you won't have to change the limits of the driver? That way the local space is 0-1. And you can parent it to another object and move it around and it won't affect the value of local Z.

[@Josabooba]

HI SS - could you possibly link t that "future advanced" custom slider shape key animation you talked about in this video - I searched your channel but can't locate it. Thank you...

[@MumuMusic]

what's the music track in 1:33 ?

[@damseldragon9696]

1:15 "So here we have my little goober character" *IM A GOOFY GOOBER-*

[@SouthernShotty]

GOOFY GOOBER YEAH!

[@AkramSays]

just whyyyy the music, omg :/ thanks for the video though, but indeed bad choice for music, you don't actually need that

[@tasiarae2]

Thanks for the video, your background music is overpowering your voice

[@zyrhon_balce]

Hi can you show us the animation tutorial for the bird its kinda cool!

[@SouthernShotty]

Maybe that would be a good one 😁

[@zyrhon_balce]

@@SouthernShotty OMG I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE TUTORIAL!!

[@RomulusMorgan]

My bf making we watch baby sensory videos when I’m overwhelmed with that track at 4:27

[@virtuallyreal3055]

By the way, you can go to the start/end of the timeline with shift-left arrow/ shift-right arrow

[@nkbabusbi9103]

VERY USEFUL TUTORIALS.BUT IF YOU DONT MIND THE BACKGROUND MUSIC IS VERY DISTURBING.

[@gin3116]

thanks help a lot

[@atamaminami5752]

Gotta say it's a really good tutorial, and it's really nice music, but its quite distracting unfortunately!

[@OlliHuttunen78]

Very good tutorial! Thanks a lot! This helped me so much in my project. Keep up the good work!

[@Oygurd]

i have a problem, when i change the axis to left or to the right on the foot, then the driver wont work, is there any way to make it so that i cancel it "calculating" other axis and then this problem might not happen?

[@LagssGameplay]

I can't understand what you say because the music is too loud.

[@SouthernShotty]

Yeah, I made a mistake when I exported it, I apologize

[@LagssGameplay]

@@SouthernShotty I'm pretty sure it's a very good tutorial, even though I can't understand you sometimes. Keep up the good work, just turn the music down a little and you'll Rock! Cheers!

[@SouthernShotty]

@@LagssGameplay future Tutorials this issue is fixed 😁

[@itsroger]

Full facial rig!! YES PLEASE! SUB

[@SouthernShotty]

I've made a simple face rig tutorial

[@DanielGill]

Your music is too loud and distracting. I have to strain to hear you. Good info, I wish I could hear it.

[@kylegaijin]

wHAt??? did you say?

[@arknark]

I'm very glad you've removed the music in your more recent videos :) Thank you for the great tutorials my friend.

[@SouthernShotty]

Glad you like them!

[@andyo5220]

Say what? Again? Sorry, I can't hear you over the music! 😊

[@okanbas5772]

If you don't put the music The voices are mixing up, we don't understand

[@Lilian040210]

Putting music in tutorials is a great way to say "fuck ppl with adhd"😣

[@CarlosBehrens3D]

I love your style. It's exactly what I want to achieve. And the tutorial is TOP. I just subscribed

[@SouthernShotty]

Thank you 😊

[@lucianhuja1079]

9:30 it s funny how you recorded the video with the intention to edit it after and ended up not editing it and just slapping on some loud music

[@lmproductions6075]

How did you make the circle bigger or smaller at 2:15

[@TheMotionofPictures]

Thanks! The last part on correction shape keys was super useful, and helped me fix an issue that's been bugging me for a couple of days!

[@TheImmortalLEGO]

This was so helpful, the part where you explained driver ranges was SOOO HELPFUL TO MEE :D

[@SouthernShotty]

good! I'm glad!

[@EROSNERdesign]

do you have a video on how you make that simple rig for your tubby guy dancing?

[@almerbatti8586]

Great tutorial but it could have been faster! and less music distracting !

[@pactube8833]

Its boring turn the music down

[@foopock]

surely theres a more ethical way of doing the shape key transition right?

[@aeducationalplatform654]

Wao

[@Lhamaramachannel]

Thank you SO MUCH for this knowledge! I remember when I was introduced to symbols in Adobe Animate and I was like "oh my this is great". But shape keys and that little controller you did just blew my mind

[@SouthernShotty]

Glad I could help!

[@igretrovods9189]

I wish I could better hear this guy but the music is blasting

[@educate3d]

I’m just here to say the music isint louder then your voice

[@SouthernShotty]

*starts crying* Thank youuuuuuuu

[@u.r.specialkelley6390]

Hi SS and blender community, I'm new to blender and using 2.9. I am rigging EYEs and following a step by step tutorial. I cannot select any bones, in Pose mode or in Edit mode. let me be as clear as possible I **can** shift select while in Object mode but when in edit or **Pose mode** I cannot Shift select. My goal is to use the **TRACT TO** function but nothing is working. please help? thanks in advanced for helping a new person learn and grow.

[@SouthernShotty]

Hey, blender stack exchange has a good community for these kind of questions :)

[@brannonharris4642]

Let's frickin goooo. Nice work dude.

[@kathleenz2412]

This has opened so many new doors for me, thank you

[@kyles-english-adventures]

It looks like you have REALLY good content. Unfortunately, it's hard to hear your voice. And the music is a bit distracting. Maybe if the music wasn't as loud while you are explaining, and your voice volume was turned up, that would be perfect.

[@SouthernShotty]

Thanks for the feedback

[@dropbars]

This was great! Thank you. I look forward to the next lesson. And thank you for telling us why adjusting or adding etc. works a certain way, or why we need it. Adding "the reason why you do this step is...", is super crucial in the learning stage. Thanks again! Subbed!!!

[@SouthernShotty]

Thanks for the feedback and subbing :)

[@DelvisonElias]

I´d have liked to have the models available for download.

[@3DPDK]

As far as an animation method, deformation targets are a good, simple way to animate vertex movements as long as *linear* movement is acceptable - otherwise setting up intermediate "shapes" can end up being more complex and tedious than "angular vector movement" (or bone animation - see what I did there?) This is NOT a complaint - just an observation: This is typical of Blender to arbitrarily take an opposite path from other software to achieve the same goals. In this case it is the *name.* In every other industry standard software this is called "mesh deformation targets". It's like calling a "break pedal" in your car a "stopping lever" - it makes sense, but ridiculous and often confusing to try to call it something different from industry standards. When you use the sliders in Fuse or MakeHuman this is how the mesh moves from the default shape to what ever shape you are adjusting. It was the original method to animate facial expressions and mouth forms for speech. It was actually the original way when 3D was very young - like mid to late 80s, to animate any mesh using "pose" targets. I have been ignoring these "Shape Key" tutorials because I have wanted to know how to set up "mesh deformation targets" in Blender. Being arbitrarily different is the stumbling block Blender has faced for 20 years to being accepted as legitimately professional software in the industry. ... anyway ... rant over ... back to the tutorial.

[@SouthernShotty]

I get where you're coming from. Appreciate you taking time to comment

[@jamest0m]

useful tutorial.. The background music is distracting, especially if I have my own background music running ;)

[@SouthernShotty]

Sorry about that

[@sandrawong6787]

Do shape keys also get imported into unity? 🤔

[@kitwayne4891]

This is very handy stuff. But a bit of constructive criticism given with love: The music is a bit distracting. And can you please give more specific instructions than "over here," click this here," and "move this here to there"? Thank you, and good work.

[@SouthernShotty]

Thanks for the feedback

[@Dwiki_RP]

Thanks for sharing @SouthernShotty How to add more shape keys into that slider driver I mean like this: X=5 turn shape A X=10 turn shape B X=15 turn shape C, and so on

[@ThisOLmaan]

SouthernShotty:: do you think Blender is harder to learn than Adobe Animate cc, or as it use to be called Flash??? reason asking it was pretty simple learning flash given no skills of being an animator, and yet i so Love it

[@SouthernShotty]

I think animate is easier to learn, but I think cell animation is harder than 3d. Depends on how good you are at drawing

[@idiocracy10]

They just wanna whine. the music helped liven up what can be a dry topic. its all good. if/when you take the music out or drop it down low, some bozo will complain that "your voice puts me to sleep " or something similar, just do your thing man.

[@SouthernShotty]

Haha thanks for the comforting comment in the middle of a comment battlefield

[@drinnerd8532]

Great tutorial. One criticism, though. This tutorial made the same mistake that all the other Shapekey tuts I've seen make so far, which is, it failed to explain that you can't officially control the shape keys for animation purposes in EDITING MODE, you must switch back to OBJECT MODE in order for you're shapekey to affect the mesh with the slider property. If you start sliding the slider property while in editing mode, you will not see anything happen. If you watch the video, after he gives his sculpture a "sad face" he switched back to OBJECT MODE in order to animate it... but he didn't mention that. If I'm incorrect about this, then I apologize and will withdraw my comment. Otherwise, I hope this helps. Thanks SouthernShotty for your wisdom and hard work and for making this tut for us.

[@eugenew2]

If you lowered the bottom of the bounding rectangle to z=0, wouldn't the happy sad value then go from 0 to 1?

[@SouthernShotty]

Yes, but I was trying to show how you can use math in the var field

[@ronaldlongtin3785]

I hate to ask, but might you consider re-posting this without the music? It's a cool tutorial, but I can only watch about 6 minutes before the music makes me stop it.

[@SouthernShotty]

I'm going to remove music for all future videos

[@C1_Droid]

Nice, but please turn down the music

[@ReinOwader]

Tutorial is great but that music is annoying.

[@sosasees]

The music is too loud. This is the only reason I needed subtitles. Don't be afraid to make the music practically inaudible at lower volume. In fact, this is always the best setup for instruction videos like this: The music should add excitement to the video without really being noticable.