How to Animate EVERYTHING with Absolute Shapes Keys

[@mvegaarance]

I think this style of animation is super expressive and dramatic. I would love to see more AAA movies taking this approach.

[@sebastiangudino9377]

This workflow really doesn't scale well for either teams or big projects, sadly. But I could totally be used in self contained instances inside AAA projects?

[@Buenpibe24]

YES. YEEEEAAAAAAH. sad tho

[@timmygilbert4102]

They do, but only where it matter, look movie image by image you'll see

[@sebastiangudino9377]

@@timmygilbert4102 They do squash and stretch. But they use rigging to do it. Not frame by frame retopology and mesh manipulation since they are working with far more detailed meshes for their models. Maya has a lot of tools to performe organic motion without manipulating your models

[@broJakka]

I only know the similar animation is hotel transylvania 😂

[@neonbarnowl]

The Blender community is so creative 😍 love the art style and animation!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks! glad you like it

[@angeld7849]

but they overrate Sculpt mode xD

[@Gingersdad]

im ur thousanth like

[@fireballstreamer913]

Gklip. V vj. N vo l. K

[@PutineluAlin]

This is a game changer for people who like to animate traditionally. I really have to think to start using grease pencil and you're way to forget the rig.

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Mentioning this just in case, shapekeys can still be a very tedious process (sculpting or setting vertices each frame takes time) and for highpoly meshes rigging is often necessary, but you're right this would be pretty useful for traditional animation and I do like it as a alternate approach, best of luck!

[@PutineluAlin]

@@ArsalanHasnain Agreed, recently I saw a from the movie Turning Red how they used a bone cage to create a more flexible rig so advancers are happening.

[@tapiarte]

Feels very natural, it's like modeling every frame

[@MattBixler]

this is so cool, i love how many different solutions there are to any given problem. the process is almost like going way back to the 90s and doing vertex animation. this would be so useful for small objects that only need to animate once or twice in a piece.

[@7anzalaanagy341]

but i think we can divide the big projects wright or wrong ?

[@paperbagman9012]

Ooh I didn’t think about the implications of that!!! Not having to rig something you’re going to use once is a huge game changer

[@cintron3d]

This is how I did my very first animation. It was in some old game engine and I didn't know about bones yet so I animated a run cycle, hit, and death animation for my character by pushing verts 😅

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Lol, I had a similar past eperience, later I joined a game studio and discovered that everyone was just using mixamo for things I had been pulling my hair out over

[@cintron3d]

@@ArsalanHasnain haha nice!

[@valentinanunez3708]

jeesh! I can't even imagine how long that took!

[@Invalourrr-vb3xo]

a very interesting approach. Would it be possible to show a sped up version of the entire process from start to finished animation? I think it would be quite interesting to see.

[@ArsalanHasnain]

I don't have the recordings for this project but Ill try to record the entire process for my future videos cause that does sound like a good approach, thanks for the suggestion!

[@duyviet5801]

@@ArsalanHasnain I would love to watch that !! And follow it to practice hehe

[@Mintteacup_]

@@ArsalanHasnain it would be great if you did that but didnt speed it up

[@Invalourrr-vb3xo]

@RepentandbelieveinJesusChrist5 no ❤️

[@mcandler_the_unscottish]

​@@ArsalanHasnainThis is by far the best way to give 3D a 2D feel. This is how I will do my feature film. Please do a breakdown.

[@Lance_G]

Would "Absolutely" love to see a full process video with a more tutorial based approach, this is an incredible technique!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Sure, I'll work on more detailed breakdowns

[@chicketydee5499]

Thank you so much for this! A friend and I were discussing the exciting idea of using shape keys as the source of animation frames, but we were facing some puzzling aspects. Then you essentially posted a video that for me could have been called "Hey you, do this to get what you want!" I've passed your video on to my friend and I am sure he's going to love it as much as I. I was not even aware of the option of using absolute shape keys so this is a real revelation.

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Lol thats great, I'm glad that I posted this on the right time then, thanks for sharing and best of luck with your project!

[@Redmoa]

Looks hella hard but can't deny the results. Very cool style.

[@FindPlay]

You can achieve the same effect even with Relative Shapekeys but it takes a few more clicks. The advantage of that is that you can combine Relative and "Absolute" Shapekeys on one Mesh: If you want to go from Key1 to Key2 you can simply change the "Relative To" property of Key2 from Basis to Key1 Then if you want to have a thing similar to the Evaluation Time that Absolute Shapekeys have, you can use a driver on Key1 and Key2 values (however keep in mind that this way, editing shapekey that comes before others (in this case it's Key1 because Key2 is based on it) will also edit Key2 shapekey; in case you don't want that it can be solved probably by multiple ways but the one that comes into my mind right now is duplicating the object and after making changes to the original, joining it back as shape and changing the new shapekey's "Relative To" value again) From the 2 min. of googling I just did, there seems to be addon named "BsMax" that helps you with setting this Relative/Absolute shapekeys combination. If you want a showcase of how to set it up once installed, KZbin video named "Blender BsMax Multi Target Shape Key" shows it clearly.

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Yeah youre right, this is a pretty interesting method as well thanks for the input!

[@domolutz]

This is an interesting approach. It works well for shots like the ones you used but if I think about very dynamic shots it would be a real struggle... additionally there's no adjusting arcs like this. The biggest + of CG animation is in my opinion it's flexibility to adjust animation at any point. Changing arcs, retime, layered animation... all these things get lost with an approach like this.

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Yeah you're completely right, this is primarily meant to be time saver on the rigging front or if you want to really break the constraints of using a rig and instead go for a solo frame by frame aniamtion, but I would defo not recommend it on a large scale projects with larger teams because as you said it looses advantages on several fronts

[@midorifox]

it's not just for short shots like these. for facial animations like lip syncing, deformations and even precise movements, these are great. Using both rigs and shape keys is the actual "big +" of CG.

[@domolutz]

@@midorifox Of course blendshapes are good for facial animation. That's what they are used for mostly because it's linear movement. But normally these blendshapes will be integrated into a rig to make it easier to smoothly blend between these shapes.

[@ZigealFaust]

Yeah, doing just keys is like, just working harder not smarter. Even having a basic rig to assist with this method is infinitely more viable.

[@midorifox]

@@ZigealFaust not really. Animating a face or some gestures or some deformations are better done via shape keys, but as OP said "The biggest + of CG animation is in my opinion it's flexibility to adjust animation at any point," and discarding any variation of workflow in favour of whatever is the status quo at the moment, is the dumbest way of thinking imaginable. I'm not saying this is better, nor worse, than rigs, but having this and rigs is what is actually "working smarter."

[@natfig4389]

I’ve always had this style of animation in my mind, I always wondered if it’s possible and if it’s used but this proved it to me

[@flylite]

I never would've considered this level of fidelity on shape keys alone even possible. You have an incredible style and beautiful animations! Excellent work!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks! That's really kind of you

[@PotatoMcFry]

Seems like using absolute shape keys for the face and a rig for the limbs would be a nice middle ground. Cool video.

[@雪鷹魚英語培訓的領航]

That's a beautiful 3D rendition of those characters!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks! glad you like them

[@sottozen]

So inspiring! Thanks for this!

[@cerspence]

Looks incredible

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Love your content, very curious as to why your watching blender tutorials, and thanks!

[@thehyperstar123]

Your animation looks fantastic. What I love is that the movement is very faithful to the original shows, not just a stop-motion look.

[@digitalunity]

"Is this a rigged animation?" "NO! THIS IS SHAPE KEYED!"

[@NoTheRobot]

This is so creative, holy smokes 😮 The CG equivalent to claymation is here!!

[@TheLizardSK]

This is great! I was looking for a way to animate like this for a long time. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks! glad you found it helpful!

[@I-VisiBomb-I]

this is good for specific cases like these. i cant imagine making a minute of animation using this method, making hundreds of shape keys each time feels like a nightmare.

[@chiconube]

dude, ive watched this video like a hundred times, and i still dont get how you got the patrick and aku too look so accurate xD you are amazing!!!!

[@juozaszutautas6757]

This is so cool I didn't even know this was possible.

and i was worried of not knowing how to rig, this is how i animate stuff and it suits me, great video btw! love how you made that patrick

[@AlecLang]

The quality and knowledge in this tutorial is insane!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks! Also you're work is really amazing!

[@guybrush3000]

love this. used to animate like this all the time in Maya, through a slightly different method, but basically the same thing

[@TroubledTrooper]

Feels like a mid point between CG and hand drawn animation. I like it!

[@dissonanceparadiddle]

Thank you so much!! this will make blinking so much more straightforward. I can't believe just how much potential was hidden behind just one checkbox all this time.

[@ArsalanHasnain]

No prob, glad this helps!

[@dissonanceparadiddle]

@@ArsalanHasnain now to see if unity will play nice with this for VR chat.

[@bro983]

this guy gotta be my favorite rigger

[@bigboss9150]

Knowing about absolute shapekeys is perfect for stylized VFX animation. Thanks for sharing

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Great! glad I can help

[@spicytuna3387]

That was one of the most informative, short form pieces of content I've seen! I've seen relative shape keys a ton, but not absolute. Definitely going to be adding this to the workflow. Thank you!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Glad it was useful!

[@johnjoeparrot]

Saweet! This opens the door to traditional animation with todays tech Thanks for sharing, this will be a hoot!

[@Okumuramon]

Aku is my favorite character of all!! I did loved your job, keep up!

[@nulcow]

Because Quake 1 was truly the peak of technological innovation.

[@chiggen]

This is brilliant, cant wait to try this

[@Migody]

This was...actually amazing. Thanks for teaching!👍

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks! Glad you liked it

[@PinkPlume]

This is an incredible approach, thank you for the introduction to it.

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Glad you like it, and no prob!

[@quincy3d69]

youre animation got the real feeling ! superb work !

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks man!

[@zedfirenze]

Wow, I was looking for a way to do this a few months back but didn’t think to uncheck relative. So cool!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Yeah accidently came across it myself

[@Dan_Sniper]

wow that is very cool, if there is full animation like that it would be so funny

[@tmyhouse]

This opened my eyes to the power of shape keys, thanks so much!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

No prob!

[@gamheroes]

I always create shape keys for characters that I will use later in video games, especially for simple movements like hand opening-closing, turn necks in all directions, and so on. It helps me later to combine these SK with the full animations in-game engine in a natural way, without having to create a full animation like "walking watching left"... ...Despite using them for years I did not even notice the Relative setting, so I learned st curious from this video, thanks. From my point, it is not so good for production as to create a regular animation, but it is good to know this possibility

[@hpz8136]

REALLY OCOL, IM not used to blender but it seems really fun and organic, im not sure how the model work etc, but from what ive seen it look really nice.

[@piyushnegi307]

Bro its soo smooth never see something like that

[@Y_N_Princess]

Aaaahhh, this is what I was looking for😭😭❤️❤️

[@PikaPetey]

ok this is a really cool use of shape keys!!

[@yesthatpaul]

This is an insanely fun and cool way to approach 3D animation. Kind of brings me back to the old Flash animation days.

[@savannahXYZ]

So cool! Thanks for the tutorial! :)

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks Savannah! Absolutely love your animations and your beard👌:)

[@savannahXYZ]

@@ArsalanHasnain Hey, thanks! I'm growing it out B)

[@tonyaholmes9663]

you're goated in my eyes. i loved both of these shows growing up

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Same

[@wiseman2818]

This is insane!

[@VIIARK]

Great work Bro! luved it!! Blender is getting better day by day.

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks man!

[@steprockmedia]

Good stuff. I've needed this in the past.

[@TheApoke]

Very interesting! You're sort of like doing claymation

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Yup, basically digital claymation

[@mvo9856]

This is such a great idea!😍I have experimented a couple times with using a "Displace" modifier to create simulated claymation boil, but it was always just an idea; I never had anything to apply it to. This is the perfect animation workflow to play with that again.

[@TheLofren]

Ive animated with relative shapekeys, you can totally go from key 1 to key 2 without going to basis, just make it so key 1 goes to 0 on the same frame as key goes to 1, if thats too snappy you can also combine states of key 1 and key 2 so that the transitions are smoother However knowing about absolut keyframes can make this easier in the future

[@StephGV2]

What this technique needs is an additional feature to the Edit Mode that does shape keys without shape keys and a new F-Curve. Call it "Pose to Pose". On a longer production where there might be thousands of shape keys, this is kind of unworkable. But, it could be used side by side with rigged characters for short durations for Bob Clampett/Rod Scribner style crazy between frame transformations.

[@ianvart]

Thanks for this great tutorial !

[@ArsalanHasnain]

No prob! and thanks!

[@johndeggendorf7826]

I LOVE YOU, MAN. ❤ Never heard of “absolute” shape keys, but I love the power & control of shape keys…until they get in each other’s way. This is an alternative approach to all kinds of things. Thanks 🙏 BTW. As you pointed out, if you create your shape keys with a super-low poly framework for subD, life will be much easier. ✊🌏🕊🍷🎩

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Love you to man! Yeah that was exactly the issue I kept running into because relative shapekeys really dont work together, glad you found this useful as well!

[@johndeggendorf7826]

This is the deeper stuff…it’s appreciated. ✊

[@zangrandoprior5690]

Such a cool idea, thanks for sharing. You should do a tutorial on your materials/shading!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Sure Ill try to, also mentioning just incase, alot of the look is dependent the post processing (basically using after effects or davinci resolve for color grading and other subtle improvements) because the raw output rarely looks like this final result

[@cartonks.2492]

from approving your fantastic post in fb group to seeing it in my youtube feed is absolutely amazing and i am feeling quite good seeing such creativity nice job Arslan really apreciate your work.

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks man! I really appreciate you're support

[@ramachiotti8550]

Absolute genius!

[@mdrenders]

wow never heard of it, really helpful video

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks! glad it was helpful

[@josephvanwyk2088]

Whaaaaaaaaaattttt ?? No one ever mentioned THIS? I've watched soooooooooo many animation Blender tutorials and NO ONE EVER mentioned this. What the hell seriously.

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Yeah.. I was really surprised when I accidentally ran into it myself

[@vakuolk]

I NEED a full breakdown! You are incredible!

[@rox7319]

I’m just learning Blender today. This is useful. Thank you! I was going to practice more but I am seeing Fast And Furious 10 (Fast X) today, but I’ll watch more videos like these until I’m ready to animate.

[@vincentbayden660]

This tutorial is my rig solution, thanks man.

[@Pleasantries]

this helped me a ton thanks so much!!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

No prob! and glad it helped

[@kaobunn]

im so happy knowing theres a game now where patrick looks as amazing as this

[@daniels571]

That looks so great. Im very thankful for this technique and I would love to see a (full) tutorial on stuff like this

[@salemcut101_animations]

lol i watched this video like a week ago thinking it was a useless, quirky way to animate, but now I find myself coming back because it's a great way to animate cartoon-ish oval shaped eyelids like patrick's eyes. thanks

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Lol thanks and yeah its mostly just a quirky method, but still Ill myself be mainly using this for simple objects

[@wma7271]

"Is this rigged?" "NO!! THIS IS PATRICK!!!!!!!!"

[@jaaanai]

Saw this on reddit, really dynamic!

[@MagicSwordFilms]

Fascinating! This method + a rig for the more complicated stuff would be extremely powerful. I saw a method like this called Frame Sculpting before, where you get your rig based animation and then add shape keys along with the frame, labeled by where they go on the timeline, that help to add that extra hand animated touch like your method here.

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Yeah I think that would be the best approach

[@AnimatorHeadSpace]

Super cool man!

[@MrFabMx]

Its like frame by frame, Great Video Arssalan. Awesome!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Yeah pretty much, and thanks Mr. Fab!

[@owenferny]

Truly inspiring stuff, thanks for sharing!

[@TRINITYROAD]

This is incredibly beautiful

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thankyou!

[@nv7287]

Yay. That was great demo - good, good, good, good. Now I'm too excited

[@jtrevenant1244]

This is seriously amazing!!! Please keep the great work!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks!! I will

[@StuffLIsrael]

Honestly a REALLY good tutorial

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks! glad you liked it

[@mamodokod]

This is freaking glorious

[@GoGo-ze1mq]

Wow. Awesome video and great animations my man! Subscribed immediately after viewing. Cant wait to see more of you!

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks! glad you liked it, sure I'll work on more

[@kamillatocha]

def a nice idea but can't imagine doing a longer animation with 10000 shapekeys

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Yeah neither would I

[@A_Train]

This is so cool.

[@nathanfranck5822]

This is exactly what I've been looking for - I need boneless animation for my low-poly sub-d cartoon characters, this is noice

[@PLUSHii]

this is a really interesting way to animate! I most likely won't try this, since animating without a rig seems like a bit of work for me, but I tend to merge these two methods a lot! I usually have a bunch of shape keys for the face, and I sometimes use shapekeys to fix odd looking mesh deformities. but still this is really cool! I love your style :)

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Yeah it can be a bit of tedious process and thanks!

[@PLUSHii]

@@ArsalanHasnain yeah! no problem! hope to see more of your stuff soon :)

[@tomiwadairo761]

This is just amazing! Thanks for sharing this wonderful technique

[@ArsalanHasnain]

No prob, glad you found it useful!

[@Jordanimate]

Omg. Using the new shape key from mix is awesome! I'm unsure how I feel about the timeline essentially just being in the shapekey menu and not very Visual, but I love how fun this process looks

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Yeah wait till you see the graph editor its literally just a line..

[@MarioRivera-png]

this is life changing

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Glad it helps!

[@cellularshy]

Great animation! Thanks for sharing the process.

[@baffledbrandon3132]

I love how the animation looks like claymation.

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Thanks! I was aiming for that

[@mechagurd]

Amazing insights! In concept, the technique is intuitive and seems to need less set up than rigging. Will definitely try it out. Thanks for sharing!

[@TommyLikeTom]

it's a highly limiting workflow but it would mix well with rigging. Your art-style is amazing. Great topology

[@carlosedubarreto]

Very cool video. Never thought of that 👏

[@Dantti]

Clever way to use Grease Pencil to illustrate your point, good stuff man! :D

[@ArsalanHasnain]

Yeah thanks! it really came in handy, btw you're content is great! :)

[@Dantti]

@@ArsalanHasnain Thank you man! So is yours! Never thought of trying absolute shape keys before ❤️

[@BonnyBaez]

Super Cool! Thanks for sharing

[@digiscience3508]

You are so talented bro thanks for this fantastic content🌹❤️

[@professionalaccount8012]

As an Aku enjoyer- that model is as well made as this entire video. Great work!