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mGear 5.0x facial tools

mGear Development
#1

hello everyone, i wanted to find out about facial rigging.
in the current version 5.0.x it says that the facial rigging tools are legacy. Does this mean that these tools are no longer being developed? And what is the current facial rigging workflow for rigging lips and brows? the mouth can be rigged well with the current shifter components. There are also current tools for the eyes and eyelids. but lips and brows are actually missing - apart from the legacy “facial rigger toolset”.

we have of course seen the mGear video documentation on the “mouth slide surface” workflow - but this workflow does not meet our expectations - (compared to advanced skeleton workflows).

So my question is:
is a new facial rigging tool planned in mGear or what is the current official workflow für facial rigging in mGear 5.0x?

many thanks,
Christian

#2

Hi @Christian,

I’m still deciding what to do with these tools. The only one I currently use in production is Eye Rigger 2.0, which is why the others are marked as legacy.

I’m considering either recreating them as components or developing version 2.0 for the mouth and brows.

I’m not a big fan of monolithic facial rig tools, as they often lack the flexibility required for feature film facial rigs. That said, I’m also exploring the idea of creating a simplified, all-in-one version as a quick solution that could be useful across many projects.

Unfortunately, our resources are limited, and there are so many things we’d love to add :sweat_smile:

1 Like
#3

Hi @Miquel ,
thanks for this fast response! If I understand you correctly, there is currently no facial rigging workflow in mGear you would recommend incl. lips and brows that is offered as part of a supported toolset?

and should you decide to launch facial rigger 2.0 - in what time frame would that happen?

this would be an important point in the context of our evaluation.

regardless, thanks for mgear - it really is a great tool.

#4

@christian
There is a facial rigging workflow, but not as a single macro tool.
It’s a combination of components, the Facial Rigging Tools 1.0, Eye Rigger 2.0, and custom steps.

I wish I could give you a clear timeframe, but it really depends on the resources we have available and our current client priorities :sweat_smile:
If your studio is interested, we recently introduced a new service offering that allows studios to sponsor tool development. That could help prioritize and accelerate features like Facial Rigger 2.0.
https://mgear-framework.com/sponsored-development/

#5

@Miquel
sounds good to me - thanks for your support!

I will take a closer look at the workflow via facial rigging 1.0 and eyelid rigging 2.0.

1 Like
#6

Hi @Miquel

I created a component-based facial rig for gear and then some tools to turn that basic rig into a PSD-driven rig with a facial board to work with Unreal Pose Drivers. Meaning we could share animations across all our characters.

Our game’s requirements are more akin to AA game development, not AAA complex facial rigs. However, those top-end solutions are often overkill for a wide range of applications and pipelines.

I’d happily demo the pipeline to you and help drive steer requirements.

3 Likes
#7

Hi @Dave_Moulder

Thanks for the offering! I will send you a DM to coordinate a call. :slight_smile: