Animating Blend Shapes - How-to? - Simply Maya User Community

# 1 21-03-2011 , 06:48 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jul 2010

Posts: 7

Animating Blend Shapes - How-to?

I've created a blend shape and would like to animate it in a timeline
Problem is I can't key (animate) the position of the slider in the blend shape.
I've searched around and tried to learn and use a set driven key. But somewhere along I missed something and it still wont key and animate...
Is there someone who can point me in the right direction?
Thx
Waldo

Quote

# 2 21-03-2011 , 10:21 AM

Moderator
Join Date: May 2003

Location: London

Posts: 1,001

In your channel editor if you click your deforming object and look down under inputs there will be a blendShape sub section, click on this and it will expand to show two or more attributes, one is called envelope and the rest represent the names of different blend shapes you have.

The envelope is a multiplier for the contributions of the blendshapes, so if this is 0 no matter what you do there will be no effect. If it is 1 you will get the exact result of the other different blend shape sliders added togeather. If it is two you will get double the result etc etc.

So first of all make sure the envelope is set to 1 to get predictable results, then as you animate the other sliders the orignal object will change.

You can animate all you blend shapes this way, or you could use set driven key if you want some kind of non-linear result.

If you just want to have an attribute on a controller / your mesh to drive the blendshape for you instead of having to always dig around your geometry to animate it, just make a float attribute in the attribute editor on the object you want and give it a range of 0 to 1. Then load this object into the connection editor on the left hand side, then select your blend shape node (you can do this by graphing your deforming mesh in the hypergraph and selecting the blendshape node, or by navigating to it and clicking select in the attribute editor) and load it into the right, then simply click you custom attribute on the left and then the blendShapeName under weight> 'blendShapeName' on the right.

FX supervisor - double negative

Quote

# 3 21-03-2011 , 04:33 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jul 2010

Posts: 7

.........
So first of all make sure the envelope is set to 1 to get predictable results, then as you animate the other sliders the orignal object will change.
You can animate all you blend shapes this way, or you could use set driven key if you want some kind of non-linear result.
.....

Originally Posted by LauriePriest

Wow-wow

I'm just a beginner.
I've found the envelope, and the number is already set to 1. So that's good.
And from there on you lost me...
what I want is at 0 sec. blend slider down, At 3 seconds slider up, 6 slider down...
It's a simple pulsing animation, but I can't key it...

What I did was this:

- draw a nurbs circle
- Add attribute
--- Iv'e entered 5/0/0 as values
- Set driven key
--- Hit Load driver
------ select nameNurbsCircle
- In Blend shape (slider down)
--- Hit Select
- In Set driven key
--- Load driven
------ I select the blendshape object in the list of 2
- I hit Key
- I enter 5 in the channel box
but here the slider jumps up before I can key it in the set driven key window...

I still miss something here... I was trying to use the NurbsCircle as controller, but that failed...

Waldo

Last edited by Waldo3D; 21-03-2011 at 04:47 PM.

Quote

# 4 21-03-2011 , 05:02 PM

Moderator
Join Date: May 2003

Location: London

Posts: 1,001

It sounds like you've added a vector (3 value attribute), you just need a float since your driving one value and not somethign that needs 3 like color or position.
Here is an example:
You make a cube called cubeOrig- this is the object your going to deform with a blend shape.
-duplicate the cube and move its verticies around so its different call this cubeMod.
-create a nurbsCircle to use as your controller call this controller.
-select cubeMod and then select cubeOrig and create your blend shape.
-now with cubeOrig selected and looking in the channel box and expanding blendShape1 under inputs you will be able to adjust your blend shape slider (as long as your envelope is 1)
Now your blend shape works!

To have an external controller drive this blend shape :
-select the circle named "controller"
- in the attribute editor add an attribute, make sure its a float and give it a range of 0-10 (this can be whatever you want with set driven keys).. name this attribute blend
-load the set driven key interface load the controller as the driver selecting your blend attribute as the driving attribute.
-load the blendShape1 node (not the cubeOrig - this doesnt hold the blend shape controls on it) to do this open the attribute editor with cubeOrig selected .. on the tabs at the top navigate to the blendShape1 node attributes, click the select button on the bottom left of the attribute editor.
-select the cubeMod as the attribute to drive
- press key
-select the controller and set your blend attribute to 10
- select the blend shape node and set the cubeMod attribute to 1.
-press key

Done

FX supervisor - double negative

Quote

# 5 23-03-2011 , 07:26 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jul 2010

Posts: 7

Still no succes. I will try later and will come back on this.

Quote

# 6 20-08-2012 , 08:24 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2012

Posts: 1

blend shape weight not visible in connection editor

Hi - found this info very helpful from laurie - the only thing I'm not following is the final step - I've made a shape to drive my blend shape weights, given it a float attribute called blendShapeDriver, and loaded that shape in the connection editor on the left. Then I selected my mesh in the hypergraph:connection editor, chose the appropriate blend shape weight slider, and loaded this on the right. Then I select the float attribute on the left, but on the right I dont see weight > blendShapeName. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for your help.

In your channel editor if you click your deforming object and look down under inputs there will be a blendShape sub section, click on this and it will expand to show two or more attributes, one is called envelope and the rest represent the names of different blend shapes you have.

The envelope is a multiplier for the contributions of the blendshapes, so if this is 0 no matter what you do there will be no effect. If it is 1 you will get the exact result of the other different blend shape sliders added togeather. If it is two you will get double the result etc etc.

So first of all make sure the envelope is set to 1 to get predictable results, then as you animate the other sliders the orignal object will change.

You can animate all you blend shapes this way, or you could use set driven key if you want some kind of non-linear result.

If you just want to have an attribute on a controller / your mesh to drive the blendshape for you instead of having to always dig around your geometry to animate it, just make a float attribute in the attribute editor on the object you want and give it a range of 0 to 1. Then load this object into the connection editor on the left hand side, then select your blend shape node (you can do this by graphing your deforming mesh in the hypergraph and selecting the blendshape node, or by navigating to it and clicking select in the attribute editor) and load it into the right, then simply click you custom attribute on the left and then the blendShapeName under weight> 'blendShapeName' on the right.

Originally Posted by LauriePriest

Quote

Animating Blend Shapes - How-to?

blend shape weight not visible in connection editor

Posting Rules Forum Rules

Similar Threads

Topics

Free Courses

Full Courses

VFX News