Morpher Modifier

To create the different facial expressions for my character I experimented with the Morpher Modifier. With this modifier I could set up the different expressions that are connected to simple controllers that are found inside the Morpher parameters. The problem I had with this modifier was getting it to work with my eye rig. I connected the helper point between the eyes to my face mesh and that's worked fine. The eyes moved with the head but when I move the Morpher on the face mesh for mouth movement and expressions, the eyes don't move with the face! After a lot of testing I resorted to the fact that there was no way of linking the eyes to move with the Morpher. My only alternative was to manually animate the eyes up and down with the movement of the head.

My Balloon character was nearly complete but I needed to make some finishing touches on him. First I changed the colour of him to a bright blue. This I thought would make the character stand out better and the colour blue is widely linked to boys. To give the balloon a realistic look I gave the balloon some a reflected material. This was achieved by adding an environmental jpeg picture to the Reflection map. I also wanted the balloon to be slightly translucent, so I lowered the Opacity in the basic parameters.

In the picture above Balloon Boy is in his idle state with no facial expressions. I will try and use this state when his face relaxes and not doing anything.

Above is Balloon Boy with his mouth open Wide.



Here Balloon Boy has his mouth open (medium).

The last picture Balloon Boys mouth open at his smallest size. Here you can see the geometry behind the mouth. This is because of the opacity had been lowered. I felt that this looked o.k but any more and the geometry would show through too much.