Eyelid Rig - Shape Keys | Blender Rigging For Animation

This is the first of four videos I'll be making where I'll investigate types of eyelid rigs.
Download the files here: gum.co/EhEuL
Rig Method: • Eyelid Rig - Shape Key...
Action Constraint: • Eyelid Rig - Action Co...
Eyelid Geometry: • Eyelid Rig - Geometry ...
0:00 - Introduction
0:42 - Add the shape key
1:00 - X-mirror
1:10 - Making the shape
2:40 - Cleaning up the shape
3:54 - Testing the shape
4:25 - Adding the rig
5:02 - Turning on x-mirror
5:36 - Duplicating the shape keys
6:30 - Adding Vertex Groups
7:00 - Assigning the groups
8:00 - Testing the groups
8:05 - Assign the group to the shapes
8:20 - Testing the shapes
8:30 - Adding the drivers
10:00 - Copy and paste the driver
10:44 - Testing out the rig
11:00 - Flipping the bone role
11:20 - Fixing the shapes and rotation mode
13:00 - Final thoughts
Drivers Master Class: • Drivers Master Class |...
Let me know if you have any questions in the comment below!
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[@CosmicComputer]

9:40 "just sort of eyeballing it here..." hehehe I see you boo. Honestly this is the best eye rig tutorial I've ever found, thanks!

[@DannyMac3d]

great stuff, thanks!

[@al3xsilver]

Very nice explanation - short, to the point, and very useful

[@DavidBoura]

Thanks for this and the detailed description!

[@thibright2633]

Really good thank you. I found most of blender's rigging tutorials on utube confusing, yours are really good

[@blendflair9589]

Nice, looking forward to c the upcoming method's

[@happywindsurfer]

Thanks. Wery useful and well explained, short and to the point. I was looking for something like this. Thanks again

[@mayhem7929]

Thank you so much for explaining how things work and why you do things! I have learned so much from this single video than from a lot of other resources I've been studying. So many things make a lot more sense now!!

[@baswaijers7780]

Just discovered this, awesome tutorial. Will try for sure, may be just what I need. Blender newbie by the way. Thanks :)

[@lunaSzymanska7979]

thank you for the help. I didn't even know about shape keys but your video really helped to animate eyes in a quick and easy way.

[@philosophyfrog2653]

Love your eye tutorials, extremely useful.

[@MrWeda2]

Thanks! I have not seen you useless lessons. All information is extremely interesting and important ... Sincerely, Alexander.

[@lucy-bf8ex]

THANK YOU. This has got to be one of the easiest tutorials for Blender I've seen EVER. And I've seen a lot of tutorials. Keep doing what you're doing, this was incredibly helpful.

[@lumzalum8863]

This was the perfect for what I needed! Applied this technique to a 2D plain to make a Live2D blink effect.

[@spicysalad3013]

this is exactly what I needed, I'm making a rig with nonhuman eyes and couldn't figure out how to rig it without sending my eyelid models off into space by accident, tysm for the clear tutorial I might look at your other eyelid tutorials as well, they might be closer to what I need

[@Endarz]

very handy information. i'm in the midst of doing some modelling for VRChat and needed to know how to do something like this. again, very helpful

[@user-tt9tr4vx1n]

Thanks for the tutorial, it is good for beginners.

[@robfr5740]

Awesome tutorial, thank you so much !

[@mansoranimationclasses2562]

Great tutorial thanks mate🙌🏻✨

[@TioMegamanX]

14:05 You can select the vertices you are gonna move around and use CTRL+V and then smooth vertices to make the process a bit faster and then drag them around to fix the clipping.

[@maxfallout]

Thank you!! You're awesome!!

[@darindial8908]

appreciate the knowledge!

[@rewindcat7927]

Excellent thanks!

[@CircusPeanut]

LOVE this vid, I'm about to binge your channel... you really know what you're talking about. Thanks! +subbed.

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Thank you :) glad you are enjoying the tutorials!

[@sriharivaila7276]

Nice work. And if you face problem of mesh not following the eye ball surface I think shrink wrap modifier can help.

[@susanareciofrias6249]

Great job, it helped me, thank you very much

[@E.Woyzella]

Thank you very much! This video helped me alot! 😊

[@butterpup1471]

thank you so much!

[@dampsz1]

Man you are God of rigging in blender !! You doing great job keep going 💪💪💪

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Haha, thanks! More to come in the future!

[@kaliatrendvlogs]

Super video

[@betapotataOld]

I’m fairly new to blender so I thought you could either use shape keys or a character rig, I had no idea you could combine them like this o: perfect for what I’m doing right now, thank you for the tutorial

[@amaranthseraphim]

If only humans blinked like this lol. I kept thinking "but my eyelids don't meet in the middle when I blink!" Fantastic tutorial tho:)

[@knucklesbyname]

Using this tutorial. Thank you so much! And subscribed. +1

[@kalilfagundes7431]

Awesome

[@davletshintube]

Much appreciated for this tutorial!!! It was short and very clear!!!

[@benallen4986]

Grant Abbit sent me, good stuff! :)

[@Milifernandezrequintista]

Thanks you!!!

[@lib4861]

Thanks

[@Skyvastern]

In terms of making animations that I want to be retargeted to different meshes, which method do you think is the best. In my case, I'm not going with anything too realistic. Just want to create a believable facial animation, which can then be applied to different models. Seeing this video I feel shape keys to be pretty scalable, what do you think?

[@bao007fei]

Actually you can directly *Copy as New Driver* from the Z location and then *Paste Driver* to the shape key. It'll make life easier:D

[@daringcuteseal]

*imagine done making the blink shape key but then realize your character doesn’t symmetrical so you have to make the another part manually*

[@dreamsprayanimation]

You could delete half then mirror modify. Not sure if it would work tho.

[@LevelPixelLevel]

This happens all the time haha, as designers usually like to have asymmetrical designs. This is why I tend to use a rigged element type: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lWjVnGCwe9uJn9U&ab_channel=LevelPixelLevel

[@Nekotamer]

i selected a bit more than the needed for the eyes and when i try it it just moves all the group vertex instead of just adding a value to move from 0 to 1 and if i weight paint it all down it just does nothing at all. HELP

[@mastanarts]

you teach very cool, one thing I ask is please make tutorial on mouth rigging and lip sync, really need to learn that

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Thanks! I'll see what I can do?

[@mohammadehsan9894]

@@LevelPixelLevel tnx a lot

[@stupid4President]

Yep nice, also interested in the future vids. Question: is there a way to create a kind of auto-blink in Blender animation?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Thanks! Yeah, for this you can add the controls or the shape keys to drivers, then add this to a switch. And anytime you dial on the switch you will get a blink.

[@splitfacemedia8519]

@@LevelPixelLevel Couldn't you use built in function fcurve modifiers for that "can't help but blink" feel?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

@@splitfacemedia8519 Yes, you can for sure stack modifiers onto the fcurves here, and even add some noise into to keep a little bit of movement on everything throughout the shot.

[@splitfacemedia8519]

@@LevelPixelLevel I put that into practice, if you don't want it to blink at a particular time, it is much harder to make it stop than to "make it do" with a keyframe I encourage all to experiment But this one sucks lol

[@splitfacemedia8519]

I guess what I mean is this method is "working yourself to death to get out of work" My bad for suggesting

[@joelstolarski2244]

Thank you. Absolute raw noob. Bout 2 weeks into blender, and made a model with help from another tutorial. Feels so different from Fusion 360. Vertex moving is easier on blender. Trying to learn the file saving conventions. Guess I need to go back a step, for that. It's confusing me more than the editing.

[@jessjanasik8541]

Hi! When I turn on the sub surface modifier, my eyelid isn’t shut all the way! It’s close, but more of an angry eyeing someone look. They are large anime style eyes. Do I need to add additional in between shape keys? How do I get the eye to close all the way?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

What you can do is to turn on the subsurface and then continue to edit the shape key. Assume this is the final model and you can adjust the final look with the subsurface on.

[@maximk7816]

Ok one question: let's say you wanna use some another bone which affects the same vertexes that are already dedicated to shape key vertex groups. Is it possible and is it gonna be working properly?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Overall it might, mixing bones and shape keys is never an easy thing in Blender. Usually if the shape key is doing the main movement and the bone the secondary it doesn't always look nice. What I tend to do is have the bone push the main movement and this activating a corrective shape.

[@hrvojeradanovic708]

1:20 yes but what should i do when my other vertices gone wrong, (because i moved the eyelids), when i do shape other vertices go with, so my skin go wrong

[@indianastilts]

Silly question but hope you can answer it. I have a character that I have done key frame for blinking. (eyes closed)... I can see that after you did the key frames, you then added an armiture to it... Is this a must? Do you need to do that or can you just use the key frames for game ready? Once you have done the key frame blink, can you then export it to the game engine and it will work, or is that why you did the rig after??

[@thehandsomeanimator2474]

i saw how you do it but when i'm in actual riging i forgot

[@existentialcrisis8321]

Hey, just wondering if in the future you could make your tutorials include the keys you're pressing? I just find that sometimes I'm not sure how to do something because you didn't include the shortcut you used.

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Hey, I'll see what I can do. I had an old addon that did this, but I'll make sure it's on in the future.

[@DodaGarcia]

Could someone clarify what it means to put the bone in world space? I feel like I might be missing useful rigging information there.

[@ignorantkoi]

I'm having a problem where my vertices are following the bone's movements instead of being constrained to the shape keys. Is there any way to get around this?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Try turning off deform on the bones: www.levelpixellevel.com/uploads/1/1/7/8/117873610/bone-deform_orig.png Let me know if this works for you!

[@ignorantkoi]

@@LevelPixelLevel that did the trick! thank you so much!

[@LM4277]

After I've assigned vertex groups to the shape keys, there's no option to add a driver when I right click. What might I be doing wrong?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

You add the drive to the shape get, not the vertex group. The vertex group is only there to isolate the shape key.

[@MumuMusic]

right click the value of the shape key, not the name.

[@MumuMusic]

like LM4277 below I'm stuck at step 8:30 : when I right-click the shape keys there's no 'add a driver' option (Blender 2.9)

[@MumuMusic]

OK got it : right click the value of the shape key, not the name.

[@TheJobCompany]

9:45 - I really hope that pun wasn't intended!

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Pun not intended haha but turned out well.

[@jkartz92]

can we mix shapekey based and rig based into one?

[@ROCKheir]

So this one's for animation; what kind of rigging is used for videogames?

[@DBZProduction]

Hmmm, whenever I try to get too close to my model, it puts my view inside the model so I can't see what vertice I'm trying to grab. Would anyone happen to know why it's doing this?

[@vind1293]

Hey great video. However at 4:04 you reduce the value from one and the eye lids seem to follow up and down with your value. When I tried that, the lids stayed where they were. I made sure I had the right shape key item selected and checked everything else. What could be the problem?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

hmm make sure you had the shape key selected when you changed the values, I always get lost sometimes with this is I have the wrong shape key selected in the menu.

[@appolity]

How do you make eyelashes follow the eyelid? ( the eyelash is a separate mesh) this has been driving me crazy. Also, the top eyelid doesn’t go over the eyeball, more like it goes inwards. The bottom eyelid works fine, it goes over the eyeballs.

[@LevelPixelLevel]

For the eyelash try adding a surface deform modifier to the eyelash geometry pointing at the main face geo. docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/modifiers/deform/surface_deform.html Yeah, for the top eyelid this is a problem with this style of rigging, you may want to try a more advanced style, like a rigged type: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lWjVnGCwe9uJn9U&ab_channel=LevelPixelLevel

[@appolity]

@@LevelPixelLevel Cool! I'll try that! I ended up using a hook modifier which works somewhat for posing, but making shape keys would be confusing for me aka the eyelids would deform when the eyelashes are moved around (with the hook) in object mode but not edit mode.

[@appolity]

Finally figured out an idiot proof way for now XD. I joined the eyelashes to the main body mesh and made vertex groups for both the eyelids and eyelashes and made shape keys from there.

[@Auguste.Lefort]

Is there some way to add an 'inbetween' shapekey like in Maya to fake the spherical shape of the eye ?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Yeah, you can add an additional shape key for the curvature of the eye. Using drivers in a creative way you can turn this on and then off again through the blink movement. Although this method gets tricky.

[@Auguste.Lefort]

@@LevelPixelLevel Yeah that's what I thought. Thanks, looking forward the others parts ;)

[@hagui4277]

when i right click @ 8:39 there no "add driver" button. please help!

[@animeutpol]

Var*10 not working for numeric number plz solve

[@SeianVision]

If you model have the eyelid closed, I guess that is more simple open it with bone?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Yes! I'll usually start with the eyelid closed and animate to open (although I'll deliver this to the animation team with the eyes open as default)

[@WaterShowsProd]

I was surprised you didn't change -var to var for the lower lids, then suddenly realised that this would allow you use the same custom shape for both upper and lower control. Is that the only advantage to correcting it with the bone roll, or is there another reason in addition to that why this method would work better?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Both methods actually work, what I like to see though is a positive value doing equal things. Meaning if I add a positive value to the joint it should shut they eye, and a negative value will open it more. This also allows you to grab both controllers and hold the alt key and drive them in the positive value together (ie shut eyes). This also reflects how the keys will appear in the graph editor.

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Great question by the way!

[@WaterShowsProd]

@@LevelPixelLevel Thanks. I can see how that would be more convenient for animating.

[@sultonys]

how long i can remember this method

[@saicharanmd8432]

Hey brother.....I always wanted to ask you....how did you learn this ? Like how did able to figure it out?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Hi, I have worked with Blender in game companies, animation film studios and tv studios. Over that time I've come up across a lot of problems, and I usually had to find creative ways to solve the (quickly as well due to deadlines!). I'm trying to share as much as I can with the community!

[@saicharanmd8432]

@@LevelPixelLevel that's really great 😁 I wish I could get to know how you started your career in this industry

[@LevelPixelLevel]

@@saicharanmd8432 that sounds like a great idea for a future video!

[@subhashchandrabose315]

thanks man, for the shape key tuto..... I want to give you my first rigged model, which you can use to show people , "the beginner mistakes"... also it will help me... if you read this . let me know...

[@LevelPixelLevel]

hi, sounds good, use this link to send me the rig: www.levelpixellevel.com/work-with-us.html

[@scritorr]

I turned x mirror on in edit mode pressed g but my bone on right and left are not snapping to each other, yes I am in x axis ... please help🙏 thank you

[@LevelPixelLevel]

check you bone names. Make sure the have .l and .r or _L and _R at the end of the name, and every other character in the bone names must be the same.

[@scritorr]

Yes it worked .... thank you soo much for your time...

[@kaliatrendvlogs]

Mouth lips yns tutorial please

[@bettymac8248]

Did something change? 8:41 , I right click but don’t see option to Add driver. Using 2.91

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Hmm it should still be there in 2.91. Try this, open a new Blender, on the default cube select it, right-click on one of the position options and add a drivers. Then right-click on it again and choose edit drivers. Let me know if the panel shows up.

[@bettymac8248]

@@LevelPixelLevel Thanks!! I figured it out. You had to right-click on the right side of the panel where the numbers are not on where the name labels are

[@daringcuteseal]

Also question: *why everyone of us name a bone like “Name_Location_Role”?*

[@LevelPixelLevel]

This is sort of just my naming convention, I like using underscores between my words instead of spaces. This might come from being a programmers as well as an artist. But blender does add .000 to a name, so that when you duplicate that object it goes to .001, so I usually follow this convention.

[@daringcuteseal]

why was my grammar so bad

[@sfargeri]

how do you enable this mode? 13:40

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Ahh you can find that method here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3iQqXunYp2Wo8U&ab_channel=LevelPixelLevel

[@dill_TV]

What is this music???

[@AristarhSisy]

Sory How to fix this is error? blender error invalid python expression.

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Try saving and reopening the file, if that does not work delete and remake the driver, then is that does not work add the letters . And z to the end of the data path.

[@piotrrywczak7971]

9:03 It just copies a word "location" Ohhh, in the meantime you switched to "pose" mode...

[@abhishekbarai9001]

Driver property showing mute(top right)

[@Salmonwithfeet]

this is so complex bro can u make a more beginner (animation not to blender itself) friendly tutorial

[@Aguslekkk]

11.56 minutes anyone know how ?

[@khonnitran9688]

i need to know too pls

[@Aguslekkk]

@@khonnitran9688 kzbin.info/www/bejne/pl6wlKl5fq6dhbc

[@Sanjay_Chauhan0009]

Bro tell slowly slowly