Using Rigify's face bones?

[Mickey Ho]

Since Genesis 9 doesn’t have a Face Control Rig, I’m wondering if it’s possible to use Rigify’s face bones when using the “Convert to Rigify” option.

[Alessandro Padovani]

4.1.0.2155

possible bug. G9 face rigs ?

I was under the impression that Thomas added support to G9 for the G81 face rig, but I get an error when trying to do so. As for using the rigify face, it has been asked many times already, but it is not possible because it doesn’t map on the genesis face bones, so it has to be done by hand if one wants it.

steps:

1. in daz studio apply the G81 face rig to G9 and export to blender
2. easy import with facs

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[Thomas Larsson]

Fixed in last commit. I don’t remember ever having tried G9 with face controls, but I might be wrong since I don’t use G9 myself. Anyway G9 with G8.1 face controls seem to work now. However, I haven’t checked that all G8.1 facs names have been correctly translated to G9.

[Thomas Larsson]

As for Mickey’s original question, the answer is no. I don’t think that Rigify’s face rig (or rigs, that may depend on the Rigify version) has any simple mapping to the facs morphs, nor to the genesis face rig for that matter.

[Mickey Ho]

Okay thanks. I wasn’t aware you could use the G8.1 face rig on G9.

[Alessandro Padovani]

@Thomas I found it with a quick search, it is #1344 where you made the G81 face rig to work for G9.

@Mickey I don’t use G9 either, since you’re the one most interested let us know if it works fine, otherwise we can close as duplicate of #1344.

[Alessandro Padovani]

4.1.0.2157

@Thomas note. important. please hide the face bones.

If we use the face rig there’s no need for the face bones to be displayed, because the face rig already drives them all to make expressions. So having the face bones displayed is just a pita in this case, we can assign the face bones to the hidden layer. Also “make bones posable” should be aware of the face rig and skip the face bones, which don’t need to be posable if we have the face rig.

Same for mhx rigify we don’t need the face bones or the custom mhx face rig. If we already have the daz face rig then the mhx face rig should not be generated, they are alternatives to each other.

Let us know what you think.

bug. G9 face rig out of place.

On a quick test the face rig seems to work fine on G9, but the location is wrong, tried with and without apply transforms.

steps:

1. easy import the test scene g9-fc.duf with facs, there the face rig is adjusted to G9 in daz studio
2. check the face rig it’s out of place in blender

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[Alessandro Padovani]

test for G9 face controls

[Thomas Larsson]

The translation is now applied before merging. The plugin used to apply object transforms to all conforming rigs before merging, but for some reason I had commented out that line. Now its back.

The face controls belong to a separate bone group, called “Widgets” first and “Custom” in mhx. It is thus easy to hide the face bones and only have the controls visible.

[Alessandro Padovani]

4.1.0.2158

Works fine for the face rig location thank you for the fix.

As for the face rigs there’s some inconsistency and redundancy which generates confusion and makes the rigs overcomplicated. A possible fix is explained below. Let us know what you think.

daz rig. Since the face bones are collected in a “face“ layer in any rig, we could generate the face layer directly in the daz rig. This allows to easily hide face bones, also eventually to use the daz rig with the daz face controls if there’s one.

mhx. The daz face controls is placed in “custom” in mhx instead of “widgets“ where it should be. Also if we have “widgets“ we don’t need the “head“ layer with custom head controls, again these are alternatives to each other. Perhaps you can add an option to mhx to generate the head controls, so we can turn it off when we use the daz face controls.

rigify. Same as mhx. We use “custom“ instead of “widgets“ for the daz face controls. Here the custom head controls are placed in “face“ instead of “head“, while “face” should be used for the face bones. Then the custom head controls is not needed if there’s “widgets“ so an option would be nice to turn it off.

simple ik. Everything is fine here, we have a “face” layer to hide the face bones, and the daz face controls in the “widgets“ layer. Also this is the only rig which doesn’t generate custom head controls, so the daz face rig doesn’t have an alternative to turn off. This is how the other rigs should be too.

in general. In all rigs, including the daz rig, for consistency and optimization and easy of use. Use a “face“ layer for the face bones. Use “widgets“ for the daz face controls if any. Use “head“ for the custom head controls, and provide an option to don’t generate this so we can turn it off if we already have the daz face controls. Plus “make bones posable“ should skip the face bones if there’s the daz face controls, because we don’t need posable bones for the face in this case.

p.s. Perhaps “make bones posable“ should have an option for the face bones.

[Alessandro Padovani]

The main bug has been fixed, other suggestions don't seem to appeal.