I'm working on a game in Unity that uses this model as a base, allowing players to create their own character using sliders. I know Unity has support for Blendshapes which I intend to use for facial expressions. In older games I noticed that some used their armature to change the characters, though I'm not sure if that's still the case these days. Others have a few base shapes and interpolate between them, I think even Fallout 4 does this but then again it's Bethesda's using the same engine since last millennium.
Should I create the sliders for the face and body using bones in a rig or blendshapes? Is there a standard practice for this?
If I should use a rig, should I keep it separate from the animation rig or integrate it into the skeleton?
Here are some screens of my current rig, I don't have any facial bones yet besides some for the eyes.
>>505416
If we're talking mmo level character scaling and customization, then armature/bones woulb be best. Breasts are probably gonna need a mix of both bones and blendshapes. As long as the base skeleton rig for each body has the exact same number of bones and hiearchy then you should be fine.
>>505434
I almost forgot. yes, keep the animation rig separate from the base/scaling rig. like i said, as long as the hierarchy and the number of bones are the same you should be fine. you should ask at the blender or unity forums on how to get everything set up.
this was the first result for "blender shared rig"
http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/10523/many-models-sharing-the-same-animation-sequence
>>505434
Jeezus fuck, her hip-bone is split in two, look at those ass-cheeks slide by eachother.
>>505434
>>505435
Thanks for the advice, though I'm not that worried about male/female models but more the practicality of setting up and using Blendshapes versus bones. The model in the OP is currently at 17.5k tris but I might subdivide it up to 60k (Only a maximum of 10 will ever appear in a scene). I want more control than your average mmo character, more along the way of Skyrim (50 sliders at least) but also featured in the body.
I read Blendshapes take more planning and work than simple bones because it's more accurate, basically you'll have to tweak the mesh for every individual shape hoping they won't conflict somehow. Bone deformations are easy to setup but difficult to reflect any accuracy and you cannot create specific shapes such as default mouth or nose types.
>>505457
well I would suggest trying all the methods and see which ones work best. make a low poly model, like under 2k, and make various body types by copying then modifying it. this will let you create a quick but usable demo for yourself and also allow you to gauge how much work it might take for high poly models.
>>505452
Sliding ass cheeks look better aparently.
TIL
>>505434
The part that annoys me the most about this animation is that it doesn't loop perfectly, can't tell if its because of the gif or some error in the animations.
