Eyelid Rig - Bone Rig | Blender Rigging For Animation

[@LevelPixelLevel]

This one is a bit longer - but this is very similar to the set up in the rigify auto riggers that ship with Blender! Let me know have any questions!

[@RakusaStudios]

Thanks for the tutorial! The question I have is whether I can copy a rigged eyelid for both eyes to another character model. Or do I have to rerig each character this way starting from step 1????

[@LevelPixelLevel]

@@RakusaStudios You can copy the rigs from file to file, but you might have to move them around in edit mode for the new mesh and add more bones. I do this all the time, for characters I rarely start from scratch. On bigger projects, I'll actually build on character then blend shape the face mesh into a new one. That way I save all my weight painting and the rig targets.

[@RakusaStudios]

@@LevelPixelLevel thanks for the answer!! Do you have a youtube tutorial on this? If not, would you consider making one in the future?

[@r3llydude_________358]

I have a model where I have eyelashes, how do i make then follow the eyelid and change shape after the eyelid?

[@apomaster84]

How can I set up it in Rigify? I did in metarig but after generating it not working... any idea?

[@BrianLife]

woh, that ws way over my head, once you go tinto drivers...dammn.. variables..I was following and its just too much math and things I will forget. Wish there was an easier way.

[@atoaster2070]

FYI, you can symmetrize bones by clicking Armature>Symmetrize while in Edit mode. This also mirrors custom properties, relationships, constraints and custom shapes, so you don't have to redo them manually (although you'll need to redo the drivers). You can even delete bones and replace them using this method without losing vertex weights.

[@michaelbendavid777]

not necessarily redo it again, only edti the driver and reassign the bone targets (bones whether left/right) to the respective side to be mirrored, and that should be done...

[@obscuredtitan2841]

I didn't realize that when setting the bones for my Shantae model. I should try that for my other models after I finish the one I mentioned.

[@KingKong19100]

Thanks for the tutorial, I do have a question though! I’ve downloaded a model and it comes with a very realistic eye rig. By this I mean the eye has one bone, but when it rotates it even rotates the mesh’s eye-lids and surrounding areas. The skin around the eyelids also move ever so slightly whenever the eye moves. Do you know how to accomplish this effect? Thanks!

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Hey, yes for this you'll want to add a lattice to the eyeball parent and when it rotates the lattice will push the eyelid. So the lattice is parent to the eyeball but the modifier is on the eyelid skin mesh

[@Nint3ndraw]

To anyone following this tutorial with a different mesh, LPL seems to have made 6 upper eyelid driver properties for 6 upper eyelid bones. Create more or less based on how many bones you have in the lid.

[@Nint3ndraw]

Something I noticed: It seems you can use Shift+N or Armature > Bone Roll > Recalculate in armature Edit Mode -> +/- Local Z Tangent to auto-align the bone rolls (keeping in mind to align the lower lid Z's curving medially/towards the nose and the upper lid Z's curving laterally/towards the ears, as shown at exactly 6:50. I just learned about this, but it could save time for that step.

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Agreed, I use that tool a lot when rigging bots or machinery, good tip!

[@HammerdownProtocol]

This was the final piece in my facial rig puzzle, and was very helpful. Thank you.

[@tailsfan465]

This is a great tutorial! But you can't deny it looks terrifying when you have X-Ray enabled...

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Haha for sure, it can be haunting sometimes when rigging a character.

[@Anz__]

OMG TYSMM!! I couldnt find a good tutorial for an eyelid rig and i needed thiss ❤❤

[@DCLeadboot]

The idea seems sound on paper, but I can't seem to make this work. I find weight painting to be more trouble than it's worth - either it doesn't add to the area I'm aiming at, or it spreads weight painting to other areas where it shouldn't and messes up my rig! Since each loop of the eyelid needs to spread out as it shuts, rather than stay bunched up, I'm stuck trying to figure out a way of making the gradient do what it's supposed to! Whatever I do, the weight painting just doesn't work!

[@LevelPixelLevel]

You may want to ensure you assign the weight to the head bone for every vertex to 100%. Then you will have weight you can 'pull' from later on. This is also the beginning of a far more complex rig, where there might be multiple rows of these bones to hold the weighting on the eye.

[@DCLeadboot]

I managed to find a method of my own that actually works, using a series of shape keys. For each eyelid, I have four states - quarter, half, three-quarter and fully shut - which I then tied with drivers to a single "slider" bone to control the full action. These act as "key frames" to a full eye-closing action (since I realise going straight from open to shut without waypoints would just have the lids clip straight through the eyeballs).

[@LevelPixelLevel]

@@DCLeadboot Nice good call, I used this method in the past as well.

[@Aaws424]

But why not use 2 bones for each segments and use IK on the second bone and limit it's location to the control That way u can make the first bones rotate and control the mesh and the second bone just be control ik control for the first NO DRIVERS NEEDED It should work. I might try if it does

[@MrWeda2]

It's just some kind of Magic ... :))) Thank you so much for the lesson! Sincerely, Alexander.

[@3duConstantino]

Does this method make the eyelid curve around the eyes bulge? Thanks for the tutorial.

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Yes this helps with that, and is a rig you can reuse on other characters. You can also add extreme open and extreme closed with this. You can do the same thing with shape keys, but it is a little cluncky if you have to update this later.

[@3duConstantino]

@@LevelPixelLevel Thanks a lot. I used shape keys with Customs and so on... it was a mess.

[@apomaster84]

This is amazing, and it's working with a rig - but not when I generate rig by rigify, even if I have controller - it's not working, Does it work with rigify ?

[@beavonmoranga9048]

These are great tips however realistically the lower lids dont move how can you tackle that with bones to make the upper lid to fully close smoothly? Esp if you had your character rigged using ARP

[@caseyv8322]

At 6:48 , the axis (xyz arrows) in my project show in the middle of the eye rather than at the tail ends of the armature. Could I ask how I can fix this?

[@dk-zw6ho]

amazing tutorial, but I have a question when im trying to and a transformation constraint to slightly move the eyelid while eye is rotating the control bone of the eyelid moves but the mesh doesn't respond at all, it deforms as it should separately as in tutorial does this method not compatible with other constraints (eyelids) or im missing something? help me please if you understood what I was talking about thank you

[@benwilliams8252]

Hope you can answer this question for me. When I go to assign the face bone to the part of the mesh I selected in edit mode I see the selected part of the mesh scale to be bigger than the rest of my model. My mesh Is a whole body instead of just the face but I have selected the head parts only when I assigned the vertex group. Should I make the head its own mesh? Or is there a easy solution to this?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Double-check the scale on your bones, make sure they don't have any transforms on them. Meaning in pose mode all the bones should be at 1, 1, 1, and at the object level the rig should be at 1, 1, 1 for the scale. If these are not like this when you assign the vertex to the bones they will scale. Make sure you do all of your changes to the bones in edit mode. Let me know if this helps.

[@benwilliams8252]

@@LevelPixelLevel That worked thanks!

[@serjaoberranteiro4914]

I have a model with rigify face rig, for me to do this eyelid blink rig should I delete the rigify eyes bones or do it together?

[@nicktumi]

"Rolls around the curvature of the eye"!!!!!!

[@nightarcade1]

This is such a great tutorial, thank you! I recently did this one first then rigged the rest of my character's body. Now when I move my characters head to the side, and try the blink, the eyelids are all messed up because of the individual settings on each armature of the eyelid rig. Is there a way around this or can my character only properly blink when the head is straight on? Thank you for your help!! :)

[@JonNancyH]

Hello. Great tutorial, but how do I paste the path for the eyelid control.

[@vulfixevenlapa8179]

This tutorial is great but it seemed super complex for me. How do you manage to store this information in your brain? :D I mean holy crap, I would forget 99% of this information even after 10 repetitions made. It's like I need to make it over and over for weeks, in order to remember all these steps. I followed all the steps and it works perfectly, but how do I remember all this xD It's like I need this video to be with me any time I want to make this rig Thanks though! It's great and it works

[@LevelPixelLevel]

haha thanks, and it comes from lots of repetition and from working with it for many years. There are still tons of things I forget in Blender all the time that I need to lookup.

[@wisesquirrel4986]

Hello. I've been following this tutorial, though I have not succeeded. I copied the data path of the [eyelid_controller], added the driver to the [eyelid], and wrote the same values as in the video (I even appended the [.z] to the end of the datapath field. And now my [eyelid] bone still does NOT rotate in response to the translation of the [eyelid_controller] while I am moving it in [pose mode]. I had a hidden fear that I would fail, and it has come true! How can I learn what I am doing wrong? Or is there some other factor besides myself that is stopping blender from behaving like it does in this tutorial? Note that this is my first time using drivers. I tried asking in discord servers, and google searches, but I have so far found no leads. I am so eager to play with blinking eyelids, that it hurts to not be able to progress.

[@wisesquirrel4986]

First, I fixed it, seconds after my first comment. Thanks for reading. And thank you for the awesome tutorial. Second, this is very embarrassing (damned thee rubber ducky syndrome). And third, the mistake I made was that I copied the data path of my handle's [rotation] NOT its [location] to the eyelid bone's driver.

[@LevelPixelLevel]

@@wisesquirrel4986 Ahh gotcha. :) glad you worked this out, drivers are tricky in Blender, I've created a course from the beginning that reviews this: kzbin.info/aero/PLbjn7kaP877u1sX4zl081V8jUeSHDY18G And keep going :) there will be times where it will be tough when learning this program, but over time you'll find that things compound and that something you learn about drivers will help you with animation or materials :)

[@Jerotero]

20:29 cant you use symmetrize to automatically copy it over?

[@angryteapod1765]

21:00 way faster method will be just select the eyelid bones then press space = symmetrize .. done.

[@obscuredtitan2841]

Thanks for the video, man! I've been having a hard time trying to make an armature set (especially the eyes) for my Shantae model. I'm happy this worked!

[@u.r.specialkelley6390]

Hi Im a subscriber and need some help problem. Example when I bend my character forward. the EYES geometry (spheres) just fall out. like. When I was using MAYA it would be called a double translation(?) Its like the eye balls are NOT parent/constrained to any bones. Note they will pivot and follow the eye contrl in front of the face but they will NOT stay in the head. Thanks for any help. peace

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Hey, it sounds like you have a double transform. Make sure your parent type on the eyes is using an armature deform and note a bone parent. Also make sure you only have one modifier in your modifier stack as well. docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/animation/armatures/skinning/parenting.html?highlight=parent

[@ShadowMakerSdR]

Very nice. Spikey, but nice. Would this rig benefit from using bendy bones? As far as I know you could shape those to follow the eyelids and then just rotate them. You could maybe get away with 1-3 bones per eyelid?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Yeah, that can work as well. I built a method where the bendy bones went down the curvature of the eye, but I also found this was a lot of calibrating to get everything working right. Now I've been using this method combined with shape keys/blend shapes.

[@al3xsilver]

Very nice - really good explanation - I don't do a lot of rigging, but you made the explanation nice and clear and concise - thx!

[@Suisassi]

Amazing, very useful:) Thanks for all your lesson :)

[@AzraelIbliz]

Oh thank you I always struggled with the eyelids best tutorial about those I found

[@studiogreco]

super helpful tutorial!! thanks!! great job!!

[@TheOriginalJehu]

@4:03 When I hit r after duplicating a bone, the bone rotates on from the center of the bone's length, not the base. I worked around this by simple selecting the head of the bone and snapping it over to the next vertex, but I'd like to know if you have a setting selected for rotating from the base. Thanks!

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Hi! Try setting you pivot point to individual origins docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/scene_layout/object/editing/transform/control/pivot_point/individual_origins.html?highlight=individual%20origins Let me know if that helps!

[@FelicianoGC]

Best tutorial I’ve seen in a while, love your style.. Do you recommend this approach for lip rigging? If not, would you consider making a tutorial about it? Cheers

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Thanks! And yes I would do something similar to this for the lips, although I would add a bunch of secondary bones going towards the cheeks to push a muscle system. I'll see what I can do about making a mouth rig tutorial one day!

[@Nint3ndraw]

@@LevelPixelLevel I would second the interest in a full mouth rig tutorial someday. I make anime-style characters who don't usually have to move the cheeks when talking, but I would love to see your take on this method!

[@ampmodclips]

Level Pixel Level love the tuts man I'd be hard pushed to find any other tuts this useful across the board cheers ! Just one question is it possible to have the eye deform the eye lid when it passes over the eye ? cheers again:)

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Hello Paul, yes this is possible. One way to achieve this is with a dynamic lattice attached to the eye control or a cast modifier.

[@cg_lexus]

You are GENIUS!

[@morin6661]

Hi, First of all thank you the tutorial. Your material really helps a lot. I have one Question or ist more like for a Setup which is similar to Maya and much more flexible. Some Thing like this vimeo.com/ondemand/sobelfacerig Is it possible to connect two meshes as blendshape and do a live update on the target mesh. I mean that, after connecting both mesh, when I do changes using armature on one mesh, source mesh shows changes.

[@LevelPixelLevel]

You can sort of do this in Blender, but it is no where near the function that Maya allows. Blender does not have the blend shape method that Maya has, as such I find I have to work with different methods. While this is technically possible in Blender it is fairly complicated and a bit unpredictable, so I tend to go with the simplest method that gives the nicest shapes.

[@maciejbolec8888]

You saved my project

[@rendellvalles6749]

How do you limit the rotation of the eyelid bones? I managed to limit the eyelid controls using the limit location constraints but if you keep pulling down the eyelids also follow even if you have the limits on the controls.

[@Nint3ndraw]

Anyone happen to know if drivers export well into other programs? I opted to do this method for my character's eyes because the deform and control bone setup plus roll/axis reminds me of extant bone rig setups in my animation program (MikuMikuDance; all models here have a move (not rotate) butt bone that bends the knees), but I DID previously try to rig the character with Rigify, which would not export.

[@LevelPixelLevel]

You might have to bake the drivers either to the bones or two the mesh: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rHWviaZ-fNWhmas&ab_channel=StevenScott Usually for a game engine I'll make two rigs, one deform and one control. The control rig will have all the cool mechanics that filter down to the deform rig. I talk about that a lot here in this series: kzbin.info/aero/PLbjn7kaP877tIyvo7zxExzSJQTDStwOjU

[@Nint3ndraw]

@@LevelPixelLevel I figured it out! There was no need to make a second rig. The odds of anyone coming here from MMD like me are prooobably low, but the "roll axes" translate to MMD's "local axes" (Bone tab -> MMD Bone Properties -> Load (local axes)); and the "custom properties" translate to MMD's "bone append -> ratio". MMD doesn't strictly require drivers or moving control bones (which are probably equivalent to IK control bones), though they'd make the rig much more user-friendly. Thanks to your tutorial, I have a kickass eye rig, so thank you very much!!

[@MondyTS]

This is a great tutorial! (As always). I have a question (I'm a beginner in rigging). Is there something to achieve "sticky lips" in blender?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Yeah, you can achieve this, although you have to build everything manually with constraints and drivers.

[@MondyTS]

@@LevelPixelLevel yeah, as I thought.. thank you for the answer :)

[@IvanMax33]

Thank you!

[@KamauKianjahe]

This may seem like a dumb question, but is there any way to make a system like this while still having the eyelid's deform bones still rotatable along the axis the driver controls? Like maybe having the driver bone "add" it's influence on top of the deform bone's pose. Having the control bone and individual bones would be useful for expressions.

[@gold_twisted]

I love your video! I have a question though. What if you have a non-spherical eye? Is this method still applicable? If so, how? Or if not, what other methods are applicable?

[@commenting000]

Wondering this too. I don't have a sphere where I can center the main bone joint.

[@SsnakeBite]

Hello! I've been following the tutorial, but I must have done something wrong at some point as while weight painting the lids, activating X-mirror (or "SYmmetry" as it is not known) painted on both sides of the mesh at the same time, but assigned all the weight paint to the same bone. Would you know how to fix this? Did they change how things work in the nwer versions of Blender?

[@flyingarepa]

Great tutorial. I’m following along in Blender 2.93.2, but Ctrl-left mouse isn’t letting me select the bone in weight paint mode. Any updates? Thanks!

[@WaterShowsProd]

Rather than playing with the prop dials to make additional expressions, and then having to remember the exact value they were set to initially, would it make sense to add another layer of expression controllers to move those deform bones? Or, would that cause some parenting conflict and break the rig?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

You are totally right! This method can be built on top off to make it easier for the animator. With another layer of control, you can remove the rigging defaults from the animation side! This is something I would do on a production rig!

[@WaterShowsProd]

@@LevelPixelLevel I see. Thank you so much.

[@dcarchdesign6393]

Excelente contenido amigo, muchas gracias, un abrazo desde Venezuela !!!!!

[@cybermonkey8573]

This tutorial has been great but when I get to the bottom lid driver, I got the red text and can’t seem to get rid of it. Any idea what I might be doing wrong or how to potentially fix it?

[@nedomenya739]

Here 11:02 you could simply assign a name to the selected bones to the left or right in Pose mode using the "Pose> Names> L / R" option. And after that, in the bone Edit mode, you could press RMB> Symmetrize.

[@suparnachakraborty9801]

lovely

[@zundergiles5099]

Is it just me or in lastest Blender version (2.90.1 at this time) the "auto-normalize" option is totaly bugged ? I do assigned the 'head bone' with every vertices, so it's all red. The "auto-normalize" option do substract weight from the 'head bone', so it's becoming more and more blu. The "auto-normalize" option do paint the vertices for the selected bones... BUT The weight is somehow stop at something between 0.065 and 0.075 (of course the brush settings is : Weight = 1.000 / Radius = 106 px / Strength = 1.000) If it's not a bug what did i do wrong ? Is there an option somewhere that limit the weight of this "auto-normalize" tool ? Please i need some help :)

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Hmm so I did not have this issue, a couple of things, make sure you are not on the mix option. Also check to make sure that all of your vertex groups are unlocked, if not you will run into some issues with this. docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/meshes/properties/vertex_groups/vertex_groups.html 2.90.1 might be a little early, maybe try out 2.90, and 2.83 to see if you have a similar issue.

[@robertherlet]

Thank you for the tutorial! Rigging beginner here. If I wanted to move the head with your rig inside, how would I set up the bones?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Hey, thank you :) I would just add a bone an attach all the eye bones to this, then I'd weight the other pieces of face to this bone as well.

[@robertherlet]

@@LevelPixelLevel Thank you very much for your answer!

[@sanderdevries7718]

Thank you for this tutorial!! This is my first time digging into drivers and I feel like I have a solid foundation thanks to you.

[@justinjames3883]

this is by far the best tut of its kind out there! so happy with this thanks so much

[@valleybrook]

Why not just use bendy bones?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Do you mean a curve bone going across the eyelid and constraining a bone to this using the location and curve offset feature? I have tried something like this in the past, but I found it far to difficult to transfer to multiple characters. That being said it is another method for rigging eyelids, I just haven't had the best luck with it.

[@valleybrook]

Yes, that is what I mean. Anyway, it’s very good that you show different methods of doing eye rigging, thanks for that!

[@syam.k.yenubari]

Tell me how to save a rig and reuse or make a video . Can we sell and buy rigs online just like 3d model .if you know what is best source for rig ?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Yeah, you can sell rigs on Gumroad, Turbo Squid and Blender Market.

[@syam.k.yenubari]

@@LevelPixelLevel thank you

[@sirrjansingh]

Awesome tutorial but it almost put me to sleep 😂

[@LevelPixelLevel]

haha yeah, this is a longer one.

[@gorillacels3834]

this is so helpful, i got a question, so i can attache the eyelashes to the same bones?

[@LevelPixelLevel]

Yes you can, or you can use a shrink wrap of a mesh deform modifier!