VRChat Avatar 3.0 Tutorial - Adding Facial Expressions to your Avatar

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Welcome to my updated tutorial on applying facial expressions to your avatar! This video goes over 3 different ways of activating facial expressions, including the classic way of hand gestures, as well as using toggles or a puppet menu! Hopefully this helps you make your avatar feel more alive!
0:00 - Intro
0:27 - Creating Face Animations
1:21 - Method 1: Hand Gestures
2:38 - Creating FX Controller, Expression Menu & Expression Parameters
3:21 - Method 2: Toggles
5:06 - Method 3: Puppet Menu
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[@CaseFace5]

thank goodness for 3.0 toggles. I never liked controlling expressions with gestures, especially with Index controllers.

[@KyleGK01]

Yeah the gestures are really annoying, I can't tell what my expression is half the time.

[@keeperofdragon409]

Being happy but pulling off a pissed look at your friend or you’re concerned but you’re sticking your tongue out. These were the problems I had with index controllers. Glad to put them on a menu now.

[@YourNormalProgram]

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@keeperofdragon409I remember this time a friend of mine was crying about their dog dying, but their character was happy and it sounded like they were crying of laughter. Facial Expressions were so confusing.

[@okenasmr]

For those wondering. In current versions, the "controllers" are located in Packages > VRChat SDK - Avatars > Samples > AV3 Demo Assets > Animation > Controllers

[@ploppichuuVA]

PSA: If you notice your gestures are working fine, but the normal face is stuck on one, go to the "All parts" Section, then make sure the yellow/orange one is your Idle animation. If it isn't, switch to it. That would be where the switch/toggle starts.

[@Keith-rd2uh]

what is the all parts section

[@ploppichuuVA]

it should be above your hands. Yours might be named differently, but generally it should be: All parts Left/Right Hand Left/Right Hand.@@Keith-rd2uh

[@illythekitty]

life saver. thank you

[@JackieLynn97]

By far, the best VRChat tutorials on KZbin. These have helped me out so much the last couple of weeks. :)

[@Nekotaku_TV]

But why does he skip stuff? And why does it not look the same for me? I don't get it...

[@lilyfaye4216]

@@Nekotaku_TV these tutorials are slightly old so some stuff has probably been updated

[@juliusklein6245]

You're a legend! Spent hours trying to fix get my models face to do what i wanted, couldnt find out what it was. Most tutorials are stupidly long and dont have any awnsers, so i wasnt gonna bother watching them. Then i remembered you tutorials got me through the start of making models when i first started. And now, once again, you got the awnser i needed in a short but complete video.

[@tetherballobsession]

Hey mate really can't thank you enough for your tutorials. I went from being completely afraid of 3.0 to loving it because of your tutorials. The way you teach is really understand and straight to the point so its as least overwhelming as possible and I just really appreciate it. This is my go-to channel for anything 3.0 related and I've come a long way under your wing. Thanks mate! -KawaiiFira VRC

[@KingNoobInc]

reminds me of how i used to think of Chips V2 on the Rec Roon Maker Pen

[@pkmngangsta]

Thank you so much, I spent all day working on this and this video finally helped me do it. I had been using out of date vids and was ready to give up until I saw this!

[@paulblart5358]

Pro tip, make a list of all your facial animation blendshapes you used for each guesture. On each guesture, set the blendshapes you used on all other guestures to zero to prevent artifacting while transitioning to different guestures on your hand.

[@asadd2]

fast, clear, straight to the point, amazing!

[@framexero]

Great tutorial presentation Sippbox, clean and straight to the point!

[@alonsovargasandresrodrigo6319]

Awesome tutorial as always, never seen any that explains the gesture menu

[@TheKomar532]

Thanks for showing Method 2 finally I know how to proper make Toggles

[@maplebrownsgr]

and here we are again, back to this tutorial for maybe the 15th time because i can never remember how to do this lmfao XP your tutorials are the best tho. super easy to follow and understand

[@rushicutie]

These videos are so helpful and simple TYSM 💗

[@Revelationz87]

Thank you! This is the only video actually helped out of a bunch others!

[@MrBlazedFlame]

this was really simple and easy to follow. Thank you for making these!!

[@Leonard_Gray]

Thank you! Expression menu breaks lipsink, but hand emotions controller works perfectly!

[@OurVirtualTime]

Thank you for the friendly and exciting tutorial! Empowering the next generation of 3D enthusiasts.

[@Radaney]

Thank god for your video, I was trying to figure this out on my own and it wasn't going well (Pretty much forgot the FX file on the toggles method). Thanks a lot for your video. Liked and Subbed!

[@JordaNeale]

This dude's tutorials are life savers... my god.

[@MrShrum]

PSA: If you happen to have an animation controller component in your Body mesh, it will forcefully switch the animation tab to interacting with that, preventing you from selecting it while recording animations in the root avatar. Furthermore, if there's a controller in that animator, creating animations from there will index the animations as Body > Blend Shapes, which when put in the avatar controller, will cause it to look at the Body as if it were the Blend Shapes themselves, and be unable to interact with it, causing it to do nothing at all.

[@zachgaming3458]

Thank you, I was wondering why it kept cancelling.

[@activemotionpictures]

I am so glad I subbed to this channel. Great video. Fantastic insights.

[@kit5537]

this video introduced me to boneworks via me liking the background music in this so much i looked it up on its own. it also taught me how to expressions. moral of the story is... bone works? i sure hope it does. 10/10 tutorial thank u for this

[@Larrysprincess]

genuinely my biggest saviour tysm

[@appleaivr1543]

This was so fast but omg thank you for this! You are awesome

[@KyleGK01]

Thank you so much. This helped a lot!

[@RamTGoat]

Thank you!

[@sionhall]

everytime i wanna explain to someone how t o do this stuff i always use ur tutorial vid to show them thanks for making this

[@berithpy]

this was great, thanks

[@Capt_Lucy]

I did this differently but it worked out, so in case anyone else is having trouble and wants to try a different way: Write defaults are off. start goes to idle (this is an animation that sets all blend shapes to either 0 or their default state for resting face [don't make changes to the blendshapes that start with "vrc."]). Then idle goes to an empty wait state with no transition condition. Duplicate the idle animation to create every other animation for the face because each animation should include the instructions to set all blend shapes back to default, not just change the ones you want to use for that animation! Now set up "any state" to go to each of the gestures except for idle, and give them all a transition to exit on the condition that the variable no longer equals whatever represents that gesture (basically the same as the transition from any state except with the notEqual condition). I may have added an unnecessary step here, but I also created an avatar mask and called it head and just only selected the head. Then I applied the mask to both the left hand and right hand layers. I moved the right hand layer below the left hand in the animator and gave them both the same weight making the right hand take priority unless it's in the idle state bc it will have transitioned to the wait animation which does nothing giving the left hand a chance to shine. Lastly, I decided I didn't like that sitting my right controller down made the left hand useless (bc the animation would play until the right hand changed and left hand only matters when the right hand is idle), so I made the open hand gesture (I use for cute sleeping face) only trigger on both layers if both the left hand and right hand are open at the same time and set the right hand open hand to transition to the wait without any conditions instead of the exit. Might want to turn off or set exit times to 0 too. Sorry this comment got so long. Hope it helps someone.

[@BeeBN]

You are a chad among mortals for doing this

[@Its_A_Gundam]

Just bought an avatar on Gumroad. Your tutorials are a lifesaver. Thankyou

[@QWERTYCommander]

To anyone having a problem with Method 2, where the animations loop despite "Loop time" being disabled on them: Try unchecking "Can transition to Self" when clicking on the transitions in the animator. This fixed it for me

[@Pyrefaerie]

Your comment helped me fix the twitchy eyes! I have a separate blink animation. Thank you!

[@TimeWisely]

FOR THOSE STRUGGLING WITH TOGGLES: If you have multiple animations, that don't rely on an int you *MUST* put them on a NEW LAYER. Create a new layer, name it accordingly, set weight to 1, and repeat the steps. It isn't possible to add multiple toggles that are booleans to 1 layer. I was stuck on this for the longest time.

[@_unreel]

This is extremely helpful advice. Saved me a lot of headache.

[@brandonwalker5970]

this dude is super helpful..

[@antfr1993]

Interestingly enough, vroid models imported into uniy via vrm converter actually come with the 3rd method pre-added

[@ReedzRat]

i love you omg

[@thebigredsky]

thx a bunch, my avi now has faces :3

[@LekroPower]

make sure to toggle "Saved" and "Synced" in your VRC Expression Parameters Object - otherwise others will not see the expressions (but you will as it is local only, took me some time to figure out)

[@45makemebad]

This was the perfect tutorial, it taught me how to use 3.0 and it's super easy to follow.

[@Nekotaku_TV]

Not perfect, he skipped whatever you do after recording. My Unity isn't even showing the same after I hit record button again.

[@TheLofren]

Also dont forget that if you set your layers and transition parameters right you can have all 3 methods in one avatar

[@jackusertester0015]

legit me after 1 vid of Sippbox: "*i know everything about unity*"

[@xxwarmouthxx]

i wish you went in depth more with the expression parameters, as idk how to make the parameter thing if my avatar doesnt have one liked to it at all yet... method 1 hasnt been working at all for my avatar for some reason either

[@ct3000]

So I am modifying an existing model but changing all the expressions, this tutorial works great for all of them except the default expression. my model looks kinda dopey in neutral but when I try to override the idle it as expected overrides all the other expressions.

[@Natillumi]

good tutorial! my avatar has an idle blinking animation. how do i disable that for when i toggle my expressions on?

[@jayyyd2056]

could you make a video on how to do this with the body blend shapes, instead of just expressions

[@hannahyasuko9850]

One of my toggles is already activated when I open the menu; when I select anything in the submenu, it just takes me back up a level and doesn't activate the toggle.

[@jjbionicle]

If i'm just doing hand gestures for face animations what do I do with the duped avatar after i assign the animations?

[@craindemolik7231]

Following his tutorial my Model is in the floor now

[@AlizaBunn]

Everything works perfectly! But one issue, when I click down on a face in the menu, it goes back to the default one. Any way to fix this?

[@Catzeproduction]

does with work with blender models with no fx layer? and if not how do i make one

[@eggleg9655]

(I used method 1) My facial expressions get stuck/mix together and don't change unless I spam it until it falls back to idle

[@ItsPuppy]

Can you make a tutorial on how you made your avatar?

[@elviraeys]

спасибо, дружище

[@ItsKinley109]

This video is really helpful! I do have a question though. In parameters, what type of parameter is gesture left and left gesture weight?

[@ShadyWulf]

I know it's a year late but... Gesture Weights are the parameter measuring the strength of the gesture being applied. Think of these values like triggers on an Xbox controller (LT/RT) or PS controller (L2/R2). 0 is nothing, 0.5 is a half-press and 1 is a full press on the trigger. That's the weight being applied. If a single expression you wish to pull off has multiple animation states that adjust on a scale from one to the other (like eye blinking = 0 for wide open, 0.5 for half-closed and 1 for fully closed), you can use the Gesture Weights to control it on a scale of 0% to 100%.

[@World_Theory]

What do you do with the duplicated avatar after you make the expression animations? Delete it? Leave it?

[@TheTakUser]

This worked very well mostly. For some reason though visemes don't seem to work with the hand gesture method shown here.

[@MrShrum]

Be sure to check if you accidentally created the animations in an animation controller present in the Body mesh itself. If you did, the index for the animations will be off and it'll be trying to interact with the Body as if it IS the blend shapes, and will be unable to do anything.

[@Kobalt2772]

Is there a way to make a toggle face animation override gesture faces? I'm making a boop with the new receivers and the eyes are not affected by the animation I want it to play when booped

[@Hana-jc6sz]

Can we use the toggle option and hand gestures like my base avatar can do?? When i switched to toggle, my hand gestures no longer work

[@Stormvix]

When I follow this for the hand gestures the hands dont move to do the hand gesture when I put the animation for the expression there. Also the right hand controls both hands expressions

[@oppaidah]

How do I give priority to the right hand expressions, so that the left hand does nothing when the right hand is making an expression?

[@starseekerspixel]

Hey there, I love this tutorial it's super helpful. I am running into an issue currently where my character clips into the ground when I'm creating experessions using the Unity animator method with my blendshapes, is there a way to avoid this? Hope someone can help

[@SippsAvatarBox]

That's normal. The "motorcycle pose" that happens when recording the animation wont affect anything

[@ltsmithneko]

Question how do you get your "animation tab" looking like that? Clicked through mutiple things n' can't seem to get that

[@aidanfreienmuth006]

Okay for the first way of doing expressions, what if I already have an FX controller? what am I supposed to do then?

[@chengergo9485]

you talk so fast but that's what the pause buttons for, great tutorial 10/10

[@neutralguy2428]

Is there a way to make one facial expression play at a time without being able to do multiple at a time?

[@dissonanceparadiddle]

So I'm having an issue. I have a character with textured eyes so I'm wondering if i can animate the uv's instead of using bones somehow.

[@ian-exe7531]

Im stuck now with the main body stuck in the weird bike riding pose and no idea how to fix it and even stays that way in VRchat

[@cypoux]

Hello! Great video! I was hopping someone would have an answer to a couple issue. The first one is that i dont have the VRCSDK folder and i have to go the the Avatar 3.0 Manager to find the gesture controller. Dont know if its an issue or if it creates my other issue which is: My avatar does the gestures just fine but the hand is frozen and i cant figure out how to have the hands and the facial expressions work in sync. Its one or the other. Hope someone can help :) Thanks!

[@_PannieCake_]

When I make the faces, It wont let me make more than 1 expression even though i have multiple animations.

[@LexifromZargon]

my issue is i already have an fx layer but im atry mergin both

[@muddycat3626]

this exact method has worked on past avatars I've made and I love your tutorials but for some reason when I do this on my new avatar it doesn't work, is there a different method I can use?

[@DTTArt]

With the first method I have the problem of my avi for some reason switching rapidly between it's "default" state and the idle animation, do you have any idea what could caause that because I find no one talking about this.

[@sirvontex8933]

Can someone tell me how to apply the facial animations to the avatar after I recorded them with the animator

[@emibondo]

I'm having an issue where when I open my faces submenu in-game, it plays the first face in the menu and trying to select any other expression causes the submenu to close and go back.

[@doveselette]

okay so my model has blendshapes and everything and adjusting the bars when not recording works fine, but once i press record adjusting the bars doesnt do anything

[@AlienDude51]

Running into a weird issue where the last state I add to the Face Toggles Layer at 4:10 becomes the default state. Anyone have any advice?

[@LakesGeek]

Based WriteDefaults=on. I've been trying to do things the official way (off) and it's driving me absolutely INSANE, I don't know why it's preferred. Impossible to understand, unpredictable, and much more work.

[@sammypanda3474]

for some reason when I click on the fist or any other animation I do not get the options that you get in the inspector. Do you know how to fix that??

[@Qusefoof]

after adding the gesture expressions the intensity of my lip sync visemes was almost brought down to nothing, my mouth barely moves when I talk now...any idea why?

[@legofanguyvid]

I don't see a blendshapes bar anywhere underneath bounds

[@WhiteAsperagus]

But how do you save those facial expressions so you can add them to your avatar at 1:10 ?

[@TigaKiryu]

okay thats cool and all but im still having trouble so my model does have the value but when im unity it still doesnt have it idk what to do and what if its mmd?

[@knittedwarbler]

How do I do this with write defaults off? I don't see the video in the description :c

[@somenerdygirl4696]

Do we delete the duplicate after or do we put the fx in the duplicate?

[@crossroads6160]

Im new to editing and unity as a whole so if this question is stupid please dont bully me in that regard, for hand gesture animations, is there a way to make it where the animations dont overlap? Say i have my right hand on fingergun, and my left hand on peace sign, is there a way to prioritize one over the other instead of the two mixing?

[@bigcowboy6725]

were you ever able to figure this out ?? im having this exact issue currently

[@BaeronBubba]

Ah, now It's just finding out how to mix the two together. Pull an item via the menu, then activate it via a hand gesture. I've got a 1.0 avatar that I'm moving chunks into the 3.0 workspace... still... Anyway, very handy!

[@BaeronBubba]

Edit: I thought I had broken something but NO it WASN'T ME Poyomi's (public) shaders prevented the upload from working! I deleted them from the project and the avatar functions just suddenly started properly going.

[@PrizmLabs]

Are the VRCFaceBlend Paras Necessary For Gestures To Work?

[@rigel2112]

I can't get the gesture or the toggle method to work. The animations work and I followed exactly but nothing happens when I use gestures or toggles.

[@juliangator8735]

i need help with just one thing i want to be able to controle my jaw ... like opening and closeing without actually needing to speak

[@lukeavery7174]

I'm having a problem, when I use the hand gestures the animation plays, but when I stop doing the gesture it still plays and doing other gestures don't fix it. I've disabled looping, that doesn't fix it. Can somebody help me with this problem?

[@moppypuppy781]

How do you create new animations to import?

[@GMAuraeon]

I was having trouble modifying a hand gesture on an avatar I bought. One hand works just fine while the other does not. It never did this by default, so I'm extremely confused... any help?

[@ShukitaShipper05]

Im so confused, Ive seen a lot of ppl put their expressions controller in the FX layer OR they put their toggle controller in the same FX layer. If you have both expressions and toggles for your avatar, where do I place them if they can both go in the FX layer??

[@Imalliee]

Thiss omg I’m struggling

[@grimmestcreaper2212]

My only concern with this, at 4:41 it says you're editing Monaca without it being the duplicate "(1)", yet mine says it's the duplicate. Does that matter?

[@WolfNMusic]

For some reason, my avatar gestures works perfectly, however the facial expressions don't. The facial expressions works fine in other avatars with the same 3D model but this one is different, idk why

[@kotori2593]

So like I was on vr chat and it won’t let me go on exspressions and idk what to do I powered my vr off and everything so-

[@saphiraluxray9606]

Can this work if I put this in the Base Gestures? I already have something in the FX Folder and I really don't want to redo all my toggles....

[@FarronAnimations]

So about that video you said you'd make with dealing with "write defaults" being checked on, where can I find that?

[@SippsAvatarBox]

It's not made by me, but it's in the description

[@cryppi1510]

I tried this recently and the radial menu shows up in-game, but actually selecting the emotes doesn't work. I'm assuming a recent update broke/changed how this works from the amount of recent comments saying it doesn't work for them either. Does anyone know an updated method? I followed this tutorial a few months ago with a different avatar and it worked perfectly, but having trouble now ^^"