Words being had (Patreon)

I'm eyeballs-deep in Maya scripting this week, but at least the next comic page is laid out!  Daisy and Mercy have some words, a thing or two get cleared up...  but it's the page after this where we really start to get some answers!

On the 3D front, things got a little more complicated than I thought they'd be, and perhaps more than they need to be right now.  See, in a couple of months it will have been two years since I last worked on Violet's model.  The reason I never finished her, is because I had no idea how I'd rig her face.  Now, though, I may have the answers!

Violet's face is a challenge because she doesn't have a jaw line, and I don't want the contours of her face to change much when she opens her mouth.  The best examples I can think of are the mouths on anime characters, or Despicable Me's Minions.

Normally morph targets might be used, but in Violet's case I don't think it would mix well with the skin weights between her neck and head.  Instead, the bones and controls for her face may ride on top of another, simpler surface.  While I won't be revisiting her rig until sometime after Daisy is finished, I think it's better to plan ahead so that my tools can be designed to be somewhat universal.