1/2

i’m still very impressed with myself. learning blendshapes, and facial animation felt very distant just a while ago, but now, all of a sudden i mostly understand how it works, and i’m capable of recreating those methods that i have learned.

these movements are completely created with shape keys, so no bones at all. the shape keys are driven by the live link data, which was rerouted to blender using the blender livelinkface add-on which was created by nick fisher. so, fortunately, i didn’t have to animate the values by hand!

2/2

these are all of the blendshapes used in the animation. i sadly didn’t have time to create the blendshapes that move the mouth/jaw area, but i’m planning on revisiting this area in the future with stuff like wrinkle, and blood flow maps.

helpful resources for learning:

https://arkit-face-blendshapes.com/
a list of all 52 ar kit facial blendshapes, and an example of each one.

http://filmicworlds.com/blog/solving-face-scans-for-arkit/
a really great article from somebody who actually knows his stuff.

https://www.glaucolonghi.com/facial-setup
great clips of realistic skinslide effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGXSDl-vlVA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMZOAGDbsnk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhBckD-iaRc
videos that I found very helpful!

http://www.youtube.com/@chrisjonestube
an obvious one, but chris jones.

if you are currently trying to learn blendshapes/facial animation, i hope these resources help!