I'm new to facial expressions and not clear on the best way (or pros/cons) for creating expressions using bones (as described in this backroom tutorial) or morphs.  Or, maybe use bones to create morph targets - then remove the bones?  My goal is a poser poser/daz compatible character.  Thanks to Kixum (and/or cckens ) for the great tutorial.

It really depends how much time you plan on using the character. Simply put, Morph targets force you to premeditate/plan ahead for all expressions you might ever use - Bones do not. So, Morph targets require much more development time up front but you can recover that time, and your sanity, by easily implementing them downstream in your production cycle. Bones are a incredible flexible and perfect for short term needs but lack the predictability and uniformity of Morphs but you can start making expressions right away. My personal preference is for Morphs. For me, turning dials is faster and easier once I'm in production than tweaking bones. It's just that you have to be really patient and develop them all at the beginning. Mark

I'll just add my 2 cents: I've used bones to move the mouth and eyes in the face, and morphs (later) to fine tune the expressions. You can even use a morph to add more change after a bone has done all it can do to create the gross motor movement. Now with Carrara's painting of bone weights, it is easier to use bones for smaller, flesh/muscle movements. Oh yeah, eyelids are something a bone could manage, vs. a morph. Here is what I've noticed with morphs: Morphs move directly from one state to another, and the change is sometimes drastic. Imagine an eyelid wink, but he lid goes through the eye and back out again, because it takes the fastest route to the end position, vs. a bone that rotates an eyelid as one piece. If you want to add to the bone enabled eyelid, add a wrinkle after it is closed with a morph from the top brow, and maybe the sides overlapping down to cause visible lines. Just some thoughts. Robert

Never Give Up!

Thanks for the feedback/ideas.  I was wondering if there was a way to morph along a path but I guess not based on your eyebrow example.  Tho it makes me curious since Daz characters seem to use morphs for this.   I'll probably use a combination of bones/morphs.

I could really use a tutorial on creating facial expressions...primarily with morphs since that does seem to be the way most users want to see their models.  Are there any 'facial expressions' tutorials around?

Alias,

When I wrote that tutorial (gods, it was that long ago?!?), it was intended for carrara 3.  Morph targets hadn't been implemented yet and it was a way to get cheap effects from the program.  A-kuro Digital came out with the Multi-morph plug-in, then Eovia came out with C4Pro and that tutorial became semi-obsolete.  It does still have it's points in teaching deformations by bones, but for the most part Mark is right.  Morphs are the better way to go.  Dial spinning is infinitely preferable to manual movement of bones for facial animation. 

As for the path morphing,  give a specific example.  We're pretty resourceful here and we can surely come up with a way to help you out with a specific problem.

Ken

Attached Link: MorphTest1.zip

Re an example of the morph along a path question... the attached zip/car has a simple horn object with a morph.  The morph looks (as expected) like it is being scaled.  Can the morph be made to look as tho the horn is being pulled/pused from the tip (vertex) ? I don't know poser well or if there are any differences in the way morphs are handled...but if someone knows how to achieve this effect in poser I'd be interested.

thanks

Sure, just add another morph target or two to the mesh. Within any given morph mesh, you can have multiple morph targets.

Thanks.  yet another simple solution which I never thought of .-)

BTW your C5 training looks great...I'll be subsribing.
For anyone interested.....  http://www.vtc.com/cd/carrara5.htm