■ ZMovie 277
- Using Move Topological
raise the upper lip into a
snarl. You will want to
adjust other parts of the
face as well so the effect
spreads out across the face.
Try to flare the nostrils and
move the lower lip. Be sure
to compress the flesh into
folds where appropriate to
help lend a sense of realism
to the expression when it
animates (Figure 8.19).
- When the snarl sculpture is
complete, turn off Record
and name the layer snarl.
We are now ready to check
the blend shape animations.
Turn on both layers and set
the sliders to 0.
- Set a keyframe for the smile
layer at 0. Move the timeline
up a few frames, and then
set the slider to 100 and set
another key. Move the slider
ahead a few seconds and key
it again with the layer slider
set to 0. This will make the head go from neutral to smile and then back to neutral.
- Repeat the process for the snarl layer. Play back the animation. You will see the head
smile, then snarl. This is a perfect way to quickly test blend shape heads before export-
ing them to a facial animation pipeline. You may also create animations where the blend
shapes are combined. Try setting the smile to 100 and then raising the slider value on the
snarl. The same effect applies to other kinds of blend shapes, such as blink, ear wiggle, or
any other facial deformation you want to create to add character to your figure.
That concludes our look at the timeline in ZBrush. You have learned how to use the
timeline to create animations, test blend shapes and facial expressions, and store camera
positions around your model. The timeline has many more uses as well. You can combine it
with ZSphere rigging, as you’ll see in Chapter 7, “Transpose, ZSphere Rigging, Retopology,
and Mesh Extraction,” for even more animation control. See the accompanying DVD for a
video on using ZSphere rigs in conjunction with the timeline to create complex animations.
When checking your animation, be sure to watch with Polyframe on so you can see the
way the wireframe behaves. When you are sculpting blend shapes for Maya or Autodesk
3D Studio Max, for instance, you want the edges of the wireframe to move smoothly and
softly, maintaining their size ratios to each other. Avoid stretching a few faces out into
larger sizes, as this will cause stretching in the textures and make for bad animation. It’s
generally a good idea to check the wireframe as well just to be sure no random points are
moving when you want them to be still. It’s best to catch problems like that now and not
after exporting 20 blend shapes to Maya.
Figure 8.19 The snarl layer blend shape
