Rigging for Beginners: Face Expressions/Blend Shapes in Maya

Hi Creators,
Now that our character can move, it's time to create face expressions! We will be modeling blend shapes which will influence our character's emotions. This is a fun way of bringing your character to life!
Let's get started!
Software used: Maya 2019
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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[@zoybean]

A quick tip, Miss Maya (although I'm sure you already know, its more for people watching). For finer control over moving the blendshapes, go to Windows> Animation Editors> Shape Editor. Then you can see all the blendshapes and move them manually on a visual slider.

[@eobiri]

Thank you for all you do for the 3D Community! Thank you for lighting other people's path!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You are very welcome! Thank you for watching :)

[@ernestoggg4873]

Thanks a lot, Just when I plan to quit, you appear with jewelry like this, never stop doing this! :)

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

So happy to hear that! Never give up, never surrender! :)

[@lovelabproductions]

Your tutorials are literally getting me through animation school right now 💖 my professor isn't the best at showing us himself and your videos explain things in a quick way that I can easily understand

[@phoenix2gaming346]

same haha

[@Sakine-animate]

10:09 Actually, you can duplicate it and flip it! Write this down folks. 'Default' is the separated head mesh which you use to make more blendshapes (like how her character had a separated head). I suggest naming the new meshes as I did to avoid confusion. . - Duplicate another Default without history and move it somewhere (will refer to it as Reflect, you can name it the opposite [left or right] of what you’re reflecting). Once it’s out of the way, duplicate Reflect (call it Wrap).You should have Reflect and Wrap in the same spot. - Select a blendshape you want to reflect, then click Wrap and create a blendshape (Now there’s Reflect with no history, and Wrap with one blendshape). - In the Channel Box of Wrap, change the 1 to -1 in the Scale axis you want it to reflect to (usually X or Z). After testing the blendshape, make sure it is set to 0 so it matches the shape of Reflect. - Select Reflect, then Wrap. Create Deformers>Wrap. Now if you move the blendshape to 1, Reflect will move along with Wrap. - Delete history on Reflect when it’s in the reflected position. - Delete Wrap and any defaultbase layer it may have created in the outliner. - Rename Reflect appropriately. Select Reflect, then Default. (This next part is assuming you already added a blendshape to your Default to test them out. If you end up making new blendshapes after you create one, you can just add to it) Edit Deformer>Blendshape (Edit)>Add>options. Click Specify Node. Under Existing Nodes, select the one associated with your Default (Channelbox, most likely BlendShape1). Now you have a blendshape which reflects another. You can now activate both blendshapes to 1 to see them at the same time (like eyebrows and blinking) . Then of course you can duplicate that Default head and move it over to create a Blink blendshape!

[@bul_bend]

Thanks a lot Sakine. I try to make blendshape with duplicate(ctrl+D) and flip the object for other side but when I edited value on channel box after I blendshape face, my object becomes widened. I enter the number on channel box for right side looks good, but when I doing on left side facial still changed the right side face. What should I do? I want to delete or clear the blendshape that i make before and make new blendshape again, where I should find those setting?._.

[@Sakine-animate]

@@bul_bend I'm not entirely sure I understand what you are trying to do. If you are trying to flip an existing blendshape and add to it, I suggest flipping it first with the steps I listed, then duplicate it and work with the new duplicated one (because it has no history). Then you can make any additions to the blendshape without it messing up.

[@salvadorbeau4415]

You all prolly dont care at all but does anyone know a trick to get back into an instagram account?? I was stupid forgot my account password. I would love any help you can give me

[@roccomarley3411]

@Salvador Beau Instablaster :)

[@salvadorbeau4415]

@Rocco Marley Thanks so much for your reply. I found the site on google and Im in the hacking process now. I see it takes a while so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@Spartaremix406]

Quick question When i do the blendshape the object will return to 8rs original position while changing shape Making the rig impossible to animate because the face just pops off

[@straycatdomain5700]

Thank you for all the great tutorials. Love them ^^ really helped me understand a lot better

[@cncinematic3082]

you are a life saver

[@asherkenyon]

Been going over all these tutorials, for the last couple days. Theyve been so good and so helpful thankyou so much for these! Ill be posting the character im working on soon and i cant wait to animate and pose them :)

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Can't wait to see that! :D

[@brennan400]

Thank you so much! Your content is amazing and helped me a tonne in rigging my character ❤️ please keep it up, you have all our support and continue to inspire youngling like us who dream of becoming animators

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

That is such a wonderful comment. Thank you so much and you're so welcome! 💖 💖

[@dennissabrievski4543]

Aah thank you so much for taking the time to cover all these to teach us it’s one of the best tutorial series ever easy to follow and simplified for us to understand Here are some questions that I want to ask How to edit the pupil and specifically secondary eyes controllers ( not eye darts) and I wonder how they add so much advanced facial controllers around the lips and cheeks and so on

[@pidgezz]

this tutorial series has been super helpful, thank you!!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You are so welcome 😊

[@nitinanumandla3436]

I love u so much for making this so short and clear.. just in time..thank you ...keep up the good work!!!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thank you! Will do!

[@opsxp23]

Thanks, this series was really helpful!!!!!!!!!!

[@encune]

Still using this video it's so good, thanks!

[@lemonade3532]

Don't know why I laughed so hard when you said: "She is basically done!" Thanks for the useful tutorial!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Glad you enjoyed it, Lemonade!! :)

[@hamidrezaomidi8599]

I had a problem that a lot of people in the comments had. when you use the blend shape the character goes to its original pose and I did not freeze the transformation or delete the history. the problem was that I bind the skin of my character before making my blend shapes. I duplicated the head and made my blend shapes for it then bound it to the joints and copied the weight from the old head to the new one and it was working fine. I hope this helps others.

[@DSHT88]

You can also choose the square menu under "unbind skin" and choose "bake history". Both mesh and joints will be separated without any of them going to their original pose.

[@yeahgirl11]

Thank you so much.

[@yeahgirl11]

@@DSHT88 Very helpful. Thanks!

[@thffkfltm]

thx

[@hussnaingul8722]

Thank You for making this tutorial .

[@CHIFAN2]

Your tutorials are the best I ever seen! :) :) :)

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Glad you like them! Thank you for watching Catalin!

[@Hero_DZN]

youre doing gods work ill be eternally grateful

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

That's very kind 😊 thank you for watching!

[@niloofarnavaei3752]

OMG I'M HAPPY I FOUND YOUR CHANNEL!! By the way can you please teach us how to make controller (like most models) for facial expression? They have a controller near the head and it's very easy to use.

[@psychopathicmustache]

fantastic tutorial is it possible to add some sort of control box similar to the head/eyes? so you don't have to click on the mesh itself

[@racheldan392]

Thank you so much for this! i have a question- for some reason my different blendshapes "fight" each other- like, whenever i use the smile option the eyebrow goes to the default state instead of staying in it's blendshape- any idea how to fix it?

[@koijupiter]

just an update for anyone new coming to these videos, it IS possible to just make a duplicate of a blendshape and flip it. So you dont have to manually make a new blendshape and move all the vertices just to make like... a 'R_Blink' and a 'L_Blink'. Its in the blendshape editor and in the top left, go through the menus, there'll be an option to flip. Really handy and you dont have to waste time

[@deekshithreddyeleti2417]

Thank you miss ☺️ I love u r teaching. And you are tutorials are more help to my future

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You're welcome! so glad my tutorials are helpful. 😊

[@clemencepiriou4812]

hihihi love the way you demystify Maya By adding your little spontaneous comments, Fun and Brain filling at same time ! thank u

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

My pleasure!! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@skydrathik3329]

PS: very helpful video! Does one also need the blendshapes for mouth movement/animation?

[@SumroGaming]

Thank you bab🙏 I'm so glad watching your video.

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thank you for watching! :)

[@DeliriousBlake]

Thanks for your tutorials) You are amazing!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You're very welcome!

[@Biise96]

Can you also make a tutorial about coloring the model, and texturing? I'd love to watch it.

[@skydrathik3329]

Maybe I didn't find it yet - but is there a chance you could do a video on how you shape/attach mouth isides and which objects to keep separate? (like hair, eyeballs, teeth?) or are they all just one mesh? But then wouldn't it be very complicated for skinweighting? Would be an imense help for the face rigging part

[@EmperorsTeeth]

Thanks dude. Been years since I needed to make a blend shape and forgot how to do this.

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Glad I could help!

[@wilhelm992]

So amazing! Thank you so much!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thank You for watching!

[@varmaminds]

Thank you so much sister ❤️

[@hazemmahmoud5774]

I never forget that tip specially working with morphs/blendshapes, if you are one of those fans of cleaning history eachwhile like me, then, only delete (non-deformer)history... I manytimes delete ((All/Full) history just to find out the my blendshpes work is Gone ! O.o

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

I think EVERYONE has done this when they first started rigging. I still haven't found a solution to that, other than starting over..

[@thesdfable]

hi thanks for the tutorial! can you also show how to rig the face with joint/controllers..whit a rigged body as well..I would like to learn how they are all tied up together/ their hierarchy

[@RohanGrg]

Hi.. thanks for the video. But I'm still having the problem with my blenshape. I followed exactly same as you mentioned in this tutorial but somehow, It's not following my original character. it works in the same pose but doesn't work once i make different pose. Can you help me? thanks

[@Sheyper.]

searched for hours and didn´t find any solutions.... watched this video, needed one minute to apply and boom , done . Amazing, have a like :D

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Glad it helped! :D

[@re_Animated]

Would you be able to help me out with a rig that I already have? My main question is that I have an IK handle that I want to delete but I can't because it will completely mess up the Left leg of my mesh. I've tried deleting any constraints related to it but no success.

[@PixelGym]

Hi. LOVE this rigging tutorial series. Thanks so much. BIG problem though, and I can't figure out what I did wrong: When I add the blend shapes to the head they work great, but it unbinds the skin from the skeleton. Where did I screw up?

[@PixelGym]

Actually...I think I figured it out....the skin needs to be unbound when it's applied and the bound again. Worked on my quick test. Let's hope it works on my model! Again thanks. The way you explain things gets down to the root concepts, so it becomes much easier figuring out how to solve my own problems!

[@ShreyThakkar15]

If I deleted the history of the influence, can I do anything to get the blend shapes working?

[@moldusoanimation782]

Why using the old blendshape method if we can use the new shape editor since 2017 or 16 ?

[@raol635]

Hi Monica. Can u please make a tutorial about ''Time Editor '' /how to import and save clips to use them for another rig and... ect...appreciate your efforts in this channel. Thank you.

[@phillipprater9837]

Thanks, this series was really helpful to me! i do have a question though. How would i go about exporting the character i rigged into another maya scene? is there a specific file type i should use?

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

I would recommend using an .ma (ASCII) file. They have less issues with versions. :)

[@clcasanouv3318]

Thank you for the tutorial! I'm having an issue with my skin breaking. I've followed all the steps, but when I go to move the world control, the whole character except the head follows and the head geo moves the opposite direction. How can I fix this?

[@Rajuuken]

Thank you for your time! Very interesting! I have a question though, can you add a blend shape to an existing one?

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Blend a blendshape to another one? You can, using the blend shape sliders. If you are trying to create a blendshape and then blend that one with another blenshape, I don't think that's going to work, but feel free to experiment!

[@Rajuuken]

@@AcademicPhoenixPlus Sorry I wasn't clear, I wanted to say, can you add a "new head" to an already created bend shape ? :)

[@yeremiarudolf979]

thanks for the tutorial you made👍

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You're welcome 😊

[@penokio2610]

Amazing narration.

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thank you! Glad you liked it!

[@ChofniKnol]

Goodevening, I have a question.When you say "she is ready to be animated" how does one go about adding all those facial expressions to be used as one rig ?How do i create the controls that use those expressions to make emotions that blend into eachother ?How do i get the highresolution details onto the rig?I see people manupulating simple meshes but what if its a human with facial features that cannot just be dragged arround quickly to form a smile for example ? I would like to use blendshapes to control speech and other emotions when animating.I can make al those blendshapes but i have no clue how to proceed to make a facial rig with all those expressions.Can you point me into the right direction or make a tutorial covering that part of rigging.This is an awesome series, loving it...

[@DSHT88]

If you do blendshapes via Shape Editor, then you have control over the facial expressions by dragging a bar left and right from the values 0 to 1. If you let's say do a smile at 1, then all the other values from 0 to 0,99999 will be gradual movements till it reaches your smile at 1.

[@wardd5265]

For anyone having the problem where the mesh goes back to it's original pose when activating a blendshape while the character is posed; Select your mesh, hold right mouse button and go to 'Inputs' > 'All Inputs'. A list will appear, middle mouse click and drag these Inputs in the right order: You want the Blendshapes to happen AFTER the deformation by the skinning. (this is typically named something like 'Skin Cluster'. I hope this helps!

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Great tip! It can be avoided if we don't erase history/freeze transformations. But at least there is a fix.

[@lolip0p2009]

if you have eye lashes as a seperate mesh how can we do the blendshapes of the blink?

[@lalitkakde8950]

Thank you for this tutorial

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You're welcome 😊

[@instaiddotcom6799]

Thank You ♥

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You're welcome 😊

[@Anilpv77]

.FML File is a WWE Raw PC & Xbox 3d Model Character File... It consist of 8 different face animations & 20+ different hand animations objects. So My Question is... Which Software is used to Re-Edit that model?

[@BlenderUnreal]

I am speechless. You make easy understandable tutorials for heavy intimidating topics. Thank Youuuuuuu!! :-)

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You're very welcome!

[@Mr.Render]

thanks mam perfect tutorial for maya blendshapes

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Welcome 😊

[@SahilBhagat2711]

Thankyou miss very greatfull

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You are very welcome!

[@rhettpeter83]

I followed this and when i get to the final step creating the blendshape under the deform menu i get an error msg //error:line 0: no deformable objects selected, but they're all selected the way you've selected them in the tutorial :/

[@sidsmh]

How do you export this rig in an FBX format? When I try to export it, the attributes that was added like fist and such do not transfer over.

[@falshop6412]

I m having problem when i do the face expression its ok in the original shape of the body the pose we put expression on. but when i change expression in any poses it changes depending on how main body is translated rotated or scaled from blended shape or its original shape(sorry for my bad english)

[@Education10NE]

Very helpful...thank you

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thank you for watching!

[@GuYuXuanFeng]

love you

[@thealiengamer_04]

thanks for this

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You're welcome! :D

[@artkiko4460]

hey Monica - I'm being tasked to create blend shapes for FACS but I'm a novice. to be clear, this approach typically does not involve a rigged face, right? they're two different forms of facial rigging? thanks

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Yes, there are two forms of facial rigging... blendshapes or joint driven. Usually rigs will have both. I hope that helps!

[@agaraspberry2950]

HI, great tutorial. I am running into problem though, when i move the body of the character and then switching on the blend shapes, the body comes back to original T position... is there a solution to this?

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

It sounds like you froze the transformations of the character's blendshapes. Try recreating them and see if that works. Good luck!

[@ferdinthomas]

Where can i get this calico Model?

[@russelrealeza990]

Hey Monica! I have a problem, when I use the blendshapes of the expressions I have create it works really well, but when the face and body is moved together with the global controller for starting my walk cycle animation, any kind of blendshape snaps back, I don't know what do to with this, please I need your help. Thanks in advanced Monica!

[@yubapofan]

I am also having this problem. Have you found any solution?

[@russelrealeza990]

@@yubapofan Repeat the blendshape process man, starting from the head itself, duplicate then create blendshapes for each duplicated mesh. Also better to create it on Shape Editors Tab, in my experience it worked. Hope this works for you as well!

[@fabiansilvapilipich3095]

Hey Monica! Nice video as usual, im having a little problem which i coldn´t fix, when i blend a face to the original model, it does work (mouth opens) but it also moves the original face to the position of the blended one. Any idea how to approach that issue? Transforms are frozen btw. Thx

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

It sounds like you froze the transformations to the blendshape heads. When that happens, the original geo will go to it. Try recreating a couple of blendshapes again and see if they won't (don't delete this history, and especially don't freeze transformations). If it works, you'll have to recreate the blendshapes. Not the best thing to hear, but it is fixable :)

[@fabiansilvapilipich3095]

@@AcademicPhoenixPlus Yep! You were right, freezing transforms messes things up when blend shaping. Luckily i had only 2 or 3 blends going on so nothing to worry about. Keep this amazing channel going!

[@sudarshansaikia4559]

East or west you are the Best monika

[@gradumic]

Hey im currently having this issue, whenever I turn a blendShape on. The head doesn't follow the joint, but it does when blendShape is turned off. Any troubleshoots?

[@carolineveiga2724]

Hello. I'm facing the same issue. Did you find any solution?

[@gradumic]

@@carolineveiga2724 your inputs for the nodes

[@Yukina286]

Same I have this problem

[@EliaForce1984ita]

I have a problem: when I create a blend shape on an already rigged mesh, the mesh moves towards the blend shape's model location when I use the slider

[@Sakine-animate]

Make sure you have Check Topology turned off in the Blendshape options.

[@grahamhiggins1816]

My rig - is done in quick rig. soon. as I blend shapes, my rig stops working.?

[@SivaRanjani-dx5lo]

Thank you mam

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Most welcome 😊

[@erinyadel3556]

Thank u ❤️

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

You’re welcome 😊

[@Quinn_2623]

Are blendshapes done after weight painting? Or it came be done before?

[@japaneseextremme3811]

Wondering the same thing. Did you ever find an answer?

[@japaneseextremme3811]

Instead of trying to mirror weights to get an identical eye blink. Make a reference mesh. In other words, Duplicate and mirror your closed eye mesh, then move it with another duplicated mesh. Then just move the vertices individually and use vertex snapping to get all the vertices in the right position. To make it easier visually, use 'Shading > Xray' to make it easier to see where the vertices should move to and turn on wireframe on shaded. If you only need to match certain vertices, duplicate your reference mesh again and delete all the unnecessary vertices

[@jackpeach4162]

After I apply the blend shapes, when I morph into a pose the head will revert back to it's original position facing straight.... When I need the mesh to deform but hold my rig positions :(

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

That happens when you delete the history and freeze transformation of the blend shapes. I hate to be the barer of bad news, but you'll have to create the blend shapes again. but DON"T delete history/freeze transformation! Try it, and I hope it works this time. :)

[@bearbones7913]

can you make a face where it can blink with both eyes and another that close one eye? so that they wouldn't interfere with eachother

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Yes, Bear Bones. You'll just have to make another blendshape with both eyes blinking. They will interfere if you have all 3 blendshapes active.

[@ankhlife7977]

I just have a question, as its something I've been stuck on for a few weeks that I need to figure out, but as I've searched through these tutorials and other ones I cant find the solution. I have a model, made the skeleton, and have gone on from Binding to making Blendshapes. The difference that is giving me issues is that the character is merged into one object (Head, body, hair), rather than separate objects (instead of just the head for blendshapes, its the whole body). This is causing me to have the body forced back into a default pose every time I activate a Blendshape, which obviously isn't what is wanted. But when I try to apply the Rig to the model while it's a few separate objects the skin weights glitch out and it doesn't work. I cant quite find the medium here. I know it has something to do with me using the full body for the Blendshape rather than the head, but having them as separate objects caused the rig to not even bind properly.

[@amanaswani1692]

Did you find any solution to it? I'm facing the same issue

[@amanaswani1692]

I got a solution to it. Select the faces in your mesh which are of your character's face, select edit mesh>extract>go to options, make sure seperate extracted faces is checked on. the extracted faces will make up a seperate mesh, you're good to go.

[@Sakine-animate]

@@amanaswani1692 Yes, and use this as the default head which you can duplicate so you only need to separate the head once.

[@Yukina286]

Do I need to cut the head from body to apply the blendshape?

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

No, just duplicate the model. My character's head was separated, but if your character's head is attached to the body, just duplicate the whole thing.

[@pehnutbota]

@@AcademicPhoenixPlus i follow the order but it seem that my whole body lagging.... is it because of i didn't go unbind first?

[@zafirmohamed1040]

Hi, how head only selected after rigging, it's too confusing me, help me sister

[@rhettpeter83]

im having the same problem

[@aaryamansharma8907]

i love you(r contentand your voice)

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Thank you so much!

[@GoopyGoblins]

the eyeless human skulls reminds me of a horror movie

[@harikrishnanvs5327]

When i move my charecter the expression goes out

[@Yukina286]

Everytime I use blendshape the body move out from skeleton

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

you might have deleted the history/froze transformations of the blendshapes. That information needs to stay on the blendshapes. You'll need to recreate them. Sorry!

[@scurvy786]

Maybe your deformation order is incorrect and its applying the skeletal deformation first, google blend shape deformation order for a solution.

[@reemyahia5448]

What if the face is combined with the body?? What can i do?

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

That's a good question. Just duplicate the complete body. You'll just have an army of bodies instead of just heads. :)

[@reemyahia5448]

@@AcademicPhoenixPlus hhhhhh cool thenn i’ll do so thank you so much♥️

[@pehnutbota]

i really wish that you are my lecturer... hmmm i can only wish

[@hipersonicc9736]

0:33 wait... is your face NOT joined to the body??? That would mess up the rigging proccess, no?

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Nope it doesn't mess it up at all! As you can see by the video, it works just fine. Now, if the whole character is attached and you make blenshapes by separate the head, then yes that's a problem. It won't work. You'll have to keep the whole body of the character to create blendshapes. I hope that makes sense!

[@devam7780]

Academic Phoenix Plus I had the same question! So you just attached your head to the body? Not welded or merged the vertices?

[@7_of_1]

@@AcademicPhoenixPlus If you seperated the head, duplicated it to use as blendshape base, then re-weld original back to body would not blenshapes just for face work as the vert order for the face would be the same?

[@keithyakouboff8755]

Geez girl, what DON'T you do? LOL You got tutorials for everything. What do you do for a living, if I may ask?

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

Hi Keith! Thanks for watching! I teach 3D full time and my tutorials help my students. :) I also do freelance

[@keithyakouboff8755]

@@AcademicPhoenixPlus Well, I believe God has given you a teaching gift. You are unbelievably engaging, personable, and easy to follow.

[@Education10NE]

You show us eye rigging but we miss mouth rigging...

[@AcademicPhoenixPlus]

It's the same concept! Shape the mouth by moving/pulling vertices. :)

[@hazaonly]

You can always DELETE "Non Deformer History" if you are trying to avoid deleting the weights of your joints of Character Rig.