How to Add shape keys to VRoid models in Blender

Welcome to the 15th part of my advanced VRoid tutorials. Today we'll be adding new shape keys to our VRoid VRM model In Blender. These shape keys can be used in Unity to create new Blendshapes
I will not cover VRM import/export to Blender in this tutorial so please check my more detailed tutorial about that:
• How to: From VRoid (Be...
For this tutorial you'll need the VRM import plugin for Blender. You can download it from:
github.com/sat...
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[@GaleRazorwind]

For those of you working in Blender 2.91, the "Add as Shape Key" button is hidden inside a little tiny drop down menu just to the left of the X to delete the modifier.

[@Suvidriel]

Oh I definitely need to update my version soon. Thanks~~

[@chickishot8172]

I was literally just looking for how to do this for my VRoid model when this video was recommended. Thank you for the tutorial!

[@usagirocks]

Im making my model from scratch and i still find your tutorials helpful because i dont know blender that well, and I didnt know you could make shapekeys from posemode :0!!!

[@xKumajirou]

THANK YOU!!! I was driving myself insane trying to figure out how to add shape keys.

[@ShujiWakahisa]

I love learning from your channel Suvi it's so easy to understand your instructions! Thank you so much!

[@alwaysyouramanda]

Just stopping in for another lesson!!!

[@Kyoraisuke]

Your tutorials is always awesome Suvi-san I learn alot from it.

[@skullstho3459]

Suvidriel posts, I make time to watch. Thanks so much for this series.

[@SisterRose]

Thanks I haven't used Shape keys before so this was a nice introduction!

[@Marcel2278]

In blender you can select a separated part of a mesh (like the tongue) by selecting 1 vertex or polygon and then press the L key, that or hover your mouse cursor over the part you want to select and press L. This is only possible in edit mode and will select every connected polygon to the part you want to select. For example if your model has fingerless gloves and there is no palm underneath the glove and the fingers are separate, then you can hover over a finger and select each whole finger but if it's just a normal fully connected hand it will select the whole arm or whole body depending on how connected everything is. TLDR: you could have pressed L over the tongue after you hid everything to select the whole tongue.

[@YuKiNaMikoko]

Hello: Can you make an instructional video on how to apply this in UNITY? Thanks

[@PockiFD]

Great tutorial

[@NytPhytr]

Great tutorial :)

[@iamaylacat3935]

I feel like this is kinda an obvious question, but why not create a vertex group for the tongue once you have it retrieved so you can easily reselect it without having to hide everything again?

[@Fogg.ground]

is this what i would do if I wanted my katana to wobble slightly when I turn

[@taxidermyanimals]

this is super helpful but i'm having issue with the blendshapes when it goes to unity.. the tutorial you linked about importing/exporting blender>unity>vrm seems to just override the blendshapes with default VRoid ones? so i'm not sure how to actually keep the new blendshapes i added in blender. unless i've missed something T^T

[@Suvidriel]

The vrm file will get default blendshape clips when it's first created. These are different from the shape keys that you create in blender. Think of the blendshape clips as mixtures of different shape keys. So when you go to the blendshape index in Unity you'll be able to edit/create new blendshape clips and then you'll be able to use the new shape keys there.

[@taxidermyanimals]

​@@Suvidriel oh! thank you! that's makes much more sense, i see them now! :D

[@traditionalsuki8769]

Do you know how to edit the shape of the head and edit all the blendshapes to have the new head shape edit instead of moving back to the default shape when going to make the expressions??

[@Suvidriel]

Not really sure how you edited the face but at least in my test when I moved around face vertices in Blender the shape keys were additive so all the changes worked with the shape keys

[@traditionalsuki8769]

@@Suvidriel I moved around the mesh and vertices in edit mode

[@KitzuArt]

It seems when I make a shape keys for the ear the bone no longer moves the ear. Almost as if the ear parent was deleted from the bone.

[@Suvidriel]

I recommend you use cats blender plugin as it has a button to return after you're done with the shape key

[@LaurArt_UK]

Hey, when I try the first method, I can't make any more shape keys after the first set because when I go back into pose mode, the ears are no longer bound to the armature - when I move or rotate the bones, the ears no longer move. How can I fix this? I'm hoping to make quite a few shape keys as I'm working on bunny ears. Thanks!

[@Suvidriel]

I recommend you get CATs blender plugin for the easiest way to leave the pose mode. That plugin will add a button that you can click to save shape keys and then leave posing mode which will reset the original bone poses

[@lucasgintoki]

Hi is there anyway to get this to work for mouth movements? as in shapekeys only affected by sound

[@Suvidriel]

Yes. VRM files use specifically named blendshape clips for lipsync. Just edit those

[@lucasgintoki]

@@Suvidriel Yey got lucky and accidentaly stumbled on them finally while going through unity, was easy as after that, tyvm chief

[@alwaysyouramanda]

Could I make multiple poses with my ears? When I try, the bones stop moving the ears after one shapekey is made. The bones also stay in their awkward position.

[@alwaysyouramanda]

I added the bones to the ears like in your other tutorial. Maybe I didn’t do it right- it seemed to work fine when I went along with the vid lol I must be making a mistake!

[@Suvidriel]

I recommend you get CATS blender plugin. That one has a "Stop pose mode"-button that resets the bones to their original positions

[@restushlogic5794]

You can select part of the mesh by press L.

[@ReiigaduWolf]

Bro, I had no idea. Just tried it. This saves me so much time instead of selecting every single vert on an object when you have multiple separate meshes in one object.

[@lewdia]

when you use the first method, after you apply the shapekey and the pose resets, the bones don't reset to their positions and moving them no longer moves the mesh. how do you fix that?

[@Suvidriel]

I recommend you get CATS blender plugin. It has the "Stop pose mode"-button that will reset the bones to their original positions

[@lewdia]

@@Suvidriel thank you! I'll try this 😅 also thank you for all the tutorials, I've learned so much from you 💚

[@janina.3796]

Osaatko yhtään sanoa et mikä meni pieleen kun tein shape keyn Blenderissä (niin, että korvat liikkuu alaspäin) ja se toimi siellä blenderissä ihan hyvin, mut kun importtasin sen modelin Unityyn ni mun hahmon koko naama ja korvat katos enkä pysty käyttää mitään blendshapeja? Ne näkyy kyllä kaikki siellä Blendshapes listassa unityssä, jopa se ite tehty, mut naamaa ei näy että voisin testailla niitä mun modelilla... X'DD

[@Suvidriel]

oho... ööh siis puuttuuko siltä modellilta siis pää kokonaan vai vaan siinä blenshapen esikatselussa?

[@janina.3796]

@@Suvidriel Vaan siinä blendshapen esikatselussa puuttuu pää. Hiukset kyl näkyy mut naama kadonnu jonneki :O

[@Suvidriel]

Mitä jos lataat sen trackkeriin niin onko pää harteilla ja blendshapet toimii vai onko pää sittenki hukassa? Se esikatselu bugaa melko usein, joskaan en o kyl tommoseen törmänny ennen

[@janina.3796]

@@Suvidriel Kokeilin nyt vaan exporttaa sen hahmon ja vein Vseefaceen niin sen naama on yhtä vertexmössöä ja tekstuurit levii minne sattuu. XD Blenderissä kun tein sen shape keyn ni liikutin korvien vertexejä ku en saanu luita toimimaan ni se varmaan vois johtuu siitä?

[@Suvidriel]

@@janina.3796 Hmm.. mitäs jos teet ne korvat erillisenä accessorynä ja liität sitte hahmoon unityssä? Mul pitäs olla tutoriaali sitä varten kans

[@sleepylunaart]

for me ctrl and J doent work how do I combine my hair to one mesh?

[@Suvidriel]

In that case I recommend you google the hotkeys for the version of Blender you're using. It's possible it has different keys

[@YourLocalTentacleMerchant]

I don't know if anyone has told you yet in comments but you can select vertices by their textures. But also if you can find one vertices of the mesh you want pressing Ctrl L will select all the linked parts of that mesh. So if you select one part of the tongue, then ctrl l you'll select the entire tongue. :) (This mostly works normally, but if the mesh is not joined then it only selected the joined meshes.)