Rigging for Characters in 3ds MAX - Facial Morphs and Spline UI (Part 1 of 2)

Hi guys,

As an animation, 3D modeling and character rigging instructor at WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)'s Interactive Media & Game Design department, I've always felt the urge to help people bring their (3D) character to life.

This tutorial is oriented mainly towards animation for film (as created in 3ds MAX), and will hopefully demistify some of the concerns and ideas you may have about the complexity of facial rigging.

I realized that a lot of people were having trouble finding information or tutorials on this subject, so I decided to create one for you guys! I had to split the video up into two sections.

In this first installment, you'll learn how to:
the dos and dont's for morph target animation within 3ds MAX
create morph targets in Zbrush for your character mesh in 3ds MAX (through the use of GoZ)
create spline controllers for animation purposes (spline UI)
how to link your morph targets so that spline controllers drive the morph animation (reaction manager)

In the second video, part 2 (of 2), we delve deeper into the CAT system. In this video we go over how to go about rigging a full character using a custom CAT rig, adding smaller CAT bones for facial control, using a mesh that is split into separate components and combining them into one Skin Modifier.

Watch it here:
   • Rigging for Characters in 3ds MAX – F...  
I hope you enjoy this video and that learning this will make you a better artist! Please do not forget to like and subscribe! More coming soon!

Ralph

Software used:
Autodesk 3ds MAX 2014
Pixologic Zbrush 4R6
FRAPS