Live Characters Set: do they already have facial expressions (smiling etc.)?

[Josh]

Hi all

We have the complete Live Characters Set. I need my avatar to express two facial emotions: smiling and frowning.

Now I wanted to know: are such emotions somewhere already implemented in the Live Characters Set? Or do I have to model them myself?

Thanks a lot
Josh

[Jeff]

Those morphs are not included with the Complete Character set, you would need to add those yourself.

[Josh]

OK, thank you for your information.

[Josh]

So, I still didn't succeed in creating these morphs. What's the easiest way to do this? I don't really have a big idea about 3D Studio Max and its possibilities, I tried to model some emotions by moving single vertices, but it looks horrible...

Is there any way to make this easier and more realistic? Some sort of "facial emotion modelling tool" or something?

I'd be really, really thankful for help.
Josh

[Veleno]

Hi Josh,

The morph targets that are included with the characters (raise eyebrows, blink, talk) were done by moving the verticies individually, and with soft selection. It may sound obvious, but the quickest way to get experessions to be more realistic is to set up a mirror (or webcam) at your workstation so you can use your own facial expressions as a reference.

[Gladsomebeast]

You can also use some avatar creation software tools and replace the Complete Characters' heads. They have many expresions included.

Facegen is probably the coollest.
http://www.facegen.com/

Evolver's not bad:
http://www.evolver.com/

[Josh]

Thank you, guys.

@Gladsomebeast:
Can one export 3D models using facegen? And with Evolver?

[Gladsomebeast]

FaceGen Workflow:
FaceGen can output VRML files with different emotions which you
can load into Vizard's PeopleMaker tool. PeopleMaker allows you to
setup the morphs/expressions for use in Vizard. You then apply the face to a
Vizard avatar with the "setFace" function.

Evolver Workflow:
Need to export the avatar to 3ds Max to get facial expressions with Evolver created avatars. Evolver avatars are $70 a piece with facial
expressions. A free Evolver avatar is included in with the
Vizard development license.

[Josh]

Thanks for this very helpful reply. I got it to work with FaceGen, but I'm a bit disappointed that there's nearly no options for hair textures...? There's only one single brown hair option...?

[Gladsomebeast]

Definatly the one problem with FaceGen: hair.

There are a few hair models, aka shapes, included with facegen that you can change the color on. Definaly more than just one brown one.

You could create hair in 3ds Max and link it to the head of your avatars for customized hair shapes.

3dMeNow, another option avalible from WorldViz actualy does hair alot better.

[pkhoosh]

I exported my FaceGen model to VRML 97 and saved it as a .vzf in PeopleMaker. I imported the vcc_male avatar and setFace on him to use the FaceGen vzf file, but the vcc_male no just appears without a head.

Any suggestions?

[Jeff]

It may be that the scale is off. Did you try using the auto scale button in Peoplemaker?

[pkhoosh]

When I auto scale in PeopleMaker, the grid and face get so small that I'm not able to properly choose the neck vertices, even if I zoom to the highest level.

I inadvertently found that after auto scaling, I needed to close PeopleMaker and reopen it so it would display everything at a reasonable size.

[Don]

If you press space the view will auto zoom.