ICE for face shapes and custom parameter set

[colour]

Hi

My Shape Manager <-> Custom Parameter Set workflow is breaking constantly so I've deleted the Custom Shape Combiner and set up a basic ICE system for controlling face shapes using gShapeCombiner and Arc Interpolation where needed. I'd like to link a custom parameter set to the various shapes for 'neatness' and it also allows me to easily access all the shape fcurves at once, as this is my favourite way to quickly make multiple changes.

Do I use the standard 'Create new parameter set' tool and link to my shapes in ICE or is there a way to have this all neatly housed in ICE and be more robust?

I asked this last year on xsibase but never got around to testing it based on answers I received before it closed.

Thanks

[EricTRocks]

In my experience creating a custom parameter set with the sliders for each shape and pulling each of them into the ICE tree and hook it up is the best way to do it and makes keying for animation a lot easier.

Also if you setup your blend shape tree as needed and ensure that the parameters use the "this.model.myControl.myParameter" format then you can package that ICE Tree into a custom compound and reuse later and have everything hook up on your next mesh. That is if your naming of blend shapes and sliders stays consistent (which it should).

I'm about to dive into building a new system at work that will use this method.

[colour]

Great, so I'm on the right track. Not quite as far as re-purposing the entire compound, but its a start. Thanks Eric

[EricTRocks]

You should definitely look into re-purposing if you do a bit of character work. It's like magic, you apply the ice compound and your face just works. It makes you standardize your workflow and maintain naming conventions as well.

[colour]

Ok I do have two new issues though,

1. The one character's shapes work perfectly in the shape manager, but when I set them up in ICE, the correct points move, but go off into all sorts of directions, basically resulting in a messy jumble of points.

2. Using the parameter connection editor, I want to connect a slider to 2 shapes at different points. eg a blink. I want to set it up so that from 0->1 = blink and 1->1.3 = squish on cheek. The issue comes in when the link with seems to create a spline curve to blend the shapes instead of a linear one. When I go into the fcurve editor for the link, how do I access that specific fcurve (if it is an fcurve in this case)? I've tried viewing all sorts of various options in the fcurve editor but battle to find the correct one. Its easy enough when linking something like a bone to a controller to access the fcurve for the link and change it to linear. How would I do it in this case?

[colour]

Ignore my first issue of the ICE shapes not working. I eventually extracted the head mesh, gatored the weights and shapes back onto the new clean extracted mesh and ICE now behaves when I start setting up the shapes. I'd still like someone to help with the second issue if possible.

Thanks

[EricTRocks]

Why do you need the parameter connection editor at all? Everything you need is in ICE. The Value port of the node representing the scalar slider will plug into the blend port of the blend shape node. You can then do any of the math in between to get the control you're looking for.

[colour]

My ICE skills are limited to say the least. In my original question I mentioned linking the sliders in a parameter set to the sliders of Shapes in ice, so as to access them all in one organised place. My ice tree is very simple (see attachment for simple example. I'd link the sliders to the slider in each 'multiply by scalar' node). The next question about linking one slider to two in ICE is a separate issue.

Could you perhaps show me what you mean Eric?

This is why I use software like Species and Gear. I prefer to animate the characters, not set them up

Thanks

[mattmos]

Drag and drop the parameter from your custom pset into the ice tree, then connect that to the multiply by scalar.

[colour]

Aha. Like this?

[colour]

I would use Gshapecombiner without the need for Custom pset but it only seems to give a list of sliders called factor 1, 2 etc and not the relevant names. This is probably simple to add in ice, but I don't know how, and a Face shape-pset with sub-sets eg. eyes, mouth, brows is quite a nice workflow.

[Mathaeus]

If you want a list of parameters in one PPG, you just create ICE compound, expose parameters, edit compound, give names to parameters.
Regarding your previous post. If you're in ICE tree, for taking the parameters: in explorer, find the parameter. drag and drop it into ICE tree, that's all. Imho you should not go with parameter connection editor, as it creates expressions, and expressions don't playing very well with ICE - for example, single threaded expression could drag ICE multi-threading, down to single - threading.

[EricTRocks]

Tracking animation on ICE compound parameters is not advisable. Hard to deal with and manage. You'll still want your animation to live on actual parameters that are separate from the ICE compound just in case that compound gets blown away.

[colour]

Ok so would my last screen grab be a good combination then?

[Mathaeus]

Tracking animation on ICE compound parameters is not advisable. Hard to deal with and manage. You'll still want your animation to live on actual parameters that are separate from the ICE compound just in case that compound gets blown away.

...and custom parameter set will live forever Just personally, I'd use animated nulls, as it is somehow easier to figure out, than long list of params. Anyway, personal preferences.. are personal preferences, aren't they...

[colour]

I don't animate with the parameter set either, but it makes animating in the fcurve editor a breeze with all the shapes showing up neatly there together. A workflow I brought across from lightwave that allows me to work quickly and tweak easily.