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Making ARKit shapekeys...

Tips and tricks for making the 52 ARKit shapekeys for facial mocap

General tips on humanoids:

1. Back up your files!! Duplicate your current save at least once per day/two-three hours of progress. That way, if you mess up really badly, you have something to go back to.

2. DONT edit the BASIS shape key! its ur og model!!!if you notice sth wrong with ur base model you can edit it BUT backup before doing so and if ur model is mostly symmetrical (the face at least) unhide all facial components and edit with x-axis symmetry.

3. While making shape keys, such as eyewideleft/eyewideright or anything that has left-right doubles, you can hide all the components from the other side of the face, so you don't accidentally move anything on the other side. mesh symmetry(mirror) wont work on hidden mesh. Related to pt 2, if you go back to editing the base mesh after having done some edits pls make sure to unhide meshes from both sides, turn on mirror, and then edit. VERY IMPORTANT. if u mess up, u CAN fix the asymmetry. but will lose some progress

4. on actually fixing stuff if u mess up. Say you edited sth based on the left eyelid, but you forgot to mirror it to the right side. You can delete the right one and symmetrise the left one over using mesh-symmetry (also i think it can only do left-right) !!for Frame of reference, left-right refers to the left from the model's pov, which is opposite when ur actually facing the character. So work on the left side and copy over to the right is generally better than doing right first and then copying over to left!! If you have existing eye blendshapes, symmetrizing left to right will also cause left blendshapes to control part of the right eyelash. Instead, delete the left shapekeys until all remaining shape keys that influence the left eye are also symmetrical (eg, cheekpuff) then mirror the left eye over to the right eye, and if you fortunately mess up only part of the eye (such as the iris only, eyelash only, or sth) edit the now fixed eye so that it matches the existing correct parts. mirror the right eye shape key to the left and ur good

Anime-style specific tips:

1. Make special shapekeys first (alternate expressions, accessories, etc)

2. To prevent glitching on eyelids, avoid affecting the eye socket on cheek/face shapekeys so the closed eye shape doesn't glitch. you can also do the same for look up-look down shape keys so that the closed eye shape doesn't glitch(you probably dont have to go this far but i have an expression that hides all facial features and exposing the full blank face)

3. You don't have to place the brow/eyelash/highlights pixel-perfect on top of the face, because the structure of the face is gonna cause tons of clipping when it moves, something like up and left at the same time. make them a little distance from the face is perfectly fine OwO

4. Using proportional editing as much as you possibly can. It smooths out the offsets of each blendshape really well, so mix&match shapekeys actually gets pretty results instead of jagged edges. For mouth deforms use vertex-smooth vertices to get smoother results

#blender
About projectors...

Removing hard edges on projected images

For most modern projectors, the visuals will have hard edge. If you want a more vintage touch to these visuals (or just that hard edges seem too jarring), the easiest method is to utilise *DUCT TAPE* to tape over the edges of the projecting lens on your projecter. keep your eyes on the visual and make sure that the tapes evenly blur out your image. This technique can also be used to cover unwanted headers and footers of the projected image.

#artsAndCrafts
About AutoRigPro...

Rerigging VRM models with AutoRigPro

For those using auto rig pro to re-rig a vrm model(i dunno how many of yall might want to do this), the initial vrm bones need to bend slightly at the joints(ie. kneecaps, elbows) in the direction of natural movement in order for autorigpro to accurately figure out the direction.

Otherwise, the minute you hit "quick rig" the entire armature is gonna bend in all directions and mess up the entire thing

#blender
Exporting to unity...

Blendshape animation lost when using Autorig's FBX export function

The workaround is quite simple, but it took me quite a bit of trial and error to fix. Essentially, u would want to line all the NLA armature animation with the blendshape animation into two strips (one for each) so that all the bits of animation play one after the other.

Then, when you export, under the export settings, animation -- type, switch that to NLA, and then check force bake blendshape (or sth similar to that name) is on. Export and plop it into Unity. In Unity, go through the usual routine of setting up the armature to be humanoid etc

Under the animations tab in that model (Unity), there should be a box that says "Clips", and there would be only one. Just click the plus sign and trim all the separate small bits out one by one in Unity.

#blender #unity
About Kantan Mapper...

App forcequitting while navigating Kantan Mapper

This seems to be primarily a mac compatibility issue. For most cases, kantan Mapper's default settings work and there is no need to change anything. However, from my experiance, the two checkboxes at the end of the Kantan Mapper settings page seems to be the culprit for most force quits. Work on a windows computer if you have to change these settings.

#touchDesigner