1 Tutorials LightWave 3D Animation Basics: Eyes Setup Qua Jan 26, 2011 2:21 am
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Admin
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I've had a chance to talk with many LightWave® users in the past few weeks, and one question keeps coming up when character animation is talked about. "What's an easy way to setup the eyes on my character?". I hope this tutorial answers that question and also gives you an idea of quick and easy solutions for animation. Like to hear it? Here itgoes! |
Modeler: |
Step 1: Start with your character model in Modeler. Here I have chosen to use this foxy lady. Step 2: What we need to do is create 3 Weight Maps. For the first Weight Map select a polygon on the Face of the model and use "Display/Sel Connect" to select all the polygons that make up the head. Note: Make sure that no polygons in the eyes are selected. Step 3: Choose New From the Weight Map Pop-up menu located in the bottom left corner of the Modeler Interface. Step 4: The Create Weight Map panel comes up. In the Name field type in "Head". Keep the Initial Value checked and keep the Value set to 100%. Step 5: Switch the ViewPort Display to Weight Shade to see the results. Step 6: Follow the same steps as above to create Weight Maps for each eye. Right_eye Weight Map Left_eye Weight Map You should now have the 3 Weight Maps you need for this set-up. Now We need to Create 3 Skelegons and we will be ready to send our Object to Layout. Step 7: Switch your Viewport to Right, and Choose Wireframe as your Display type. Step 8: Put Layer 2 into the foreground and Layer 1 (The Layer with the Head) in the background. Step 9: Using the Skelegon tool (Create/Elements-Skelegons), create a Skelegon for the Head. Step 10: Switch your Viewport to Top. Step 11: Create 2 more Skelegons for the eyes. Place the base of the Skelegon in the center of the eye. Step 12: Switch to Front in your Viewport and line the Eye Skelegons up with the pupils of the eye. To make it easier on ourselves, let's name the skelegons. Step 13: De-select the Eye Skelegons and select the Head Skelegon (the large one we created in the side view). Choose "Detail/Other-Rename Skelegon" and name the Skelegons the same as below: Step 14: Copy the Skelegons from the 2nd layer and Paste them into the first with the Head object. Step 15: Save your Object and send it to Layout. |
Layout: |
Step 16: Now that we have our object in Layout we need to Convert the Skelegons we created into Bones. Choose "Add/Bones/Convert Skelegons into Bones". A Dialog box should come up telling you that 3 bones were created. Click OK. Step 17: We need to apply the Weight Maps to the Bones. Choose Bones and then choose Item Properties to bring up the Bones Item Properties Panel. Step 18: Assign the Bone Weight Map for all three Bones. Bone: Head = Head Bone: Right Eye = Right Eye Bone: Left Eye = Left Eye Select "Use Weight Map Only" for each Bone as well. Step 19: Create a Null object. Add/Objects/Add Null. and Move it out in front of the Head Object and Keyframe it in it's new location. Step 20: Set Each of the Eye bones Target Item to the null object. This is located in the Motion Options Panel. (Item/Motion-Motion Options). Your scene should look something like this: Step 21: Move the null and watch the eyes follow! That wraps up a basic eye setup. If you want to take it a few steps further, you can create three nulls instead of one. Have one null for each eye and have each eye Target a null. Then have each of the eye nulls parented to the third null. That way you can move each eye separately by moving each of the eye Nulls, or move both eyes by moving the third null. The image below shows this in action. |