A little belated, but it is still Saturday:
This is more or less the last part of my Tutorial on how to make an expressive rotatable head.
I'll go more in-depth on controls and animation process in the weeks ahead. Please refer to previous tuts concerning track mattes and hooking up expressions to controllers - In the interest of keeping these short I'm not repeating myself.
The parts are a face plate, nose, bangs, hair, and a buckle - some bit of hair that connects with the bangs in front and the hair at the back of the head. It is not necessary to color or texture the hair, maybe tint them differently to know which is which when adjusting, but the only thing that is important is their shape.
The pieces are simple, but must be designed with some care. However the process is not at all mysterious just expect to go in and out of After Effects until you achieve the desired effect. This is also true when it comes to displacement maps (we'll get to those later).
First be sure to duplicate your eye comps from the last tutorial. Be sure to flip and rewire it, so it works like the original, but separate from it. You will then have both the left and right eye.
Make a composition for the head and place all your parts inside. Select the parts pertaining to the face and pre-compose them. Example: (face, nose, eye_lt, eye_rt, and mouth)
Simply arrange your face how you'd like it to be. After that it is time to go back to the head layer to apply FreeForm to the parts of the head. Be sure to have your displacement maps in the same composition with its visibility turned off. If you made your displacement map in the same comp within After Effects be sure to pre-compose it (explained further below).
Here's a short run down of FreeForm's attributes:
You can make domes, half-domes, and saddles easily enough with displacement maps. Don't try making a sphere with FreeForm. Now what in tarnation is a displacement map? You may be wondering - well they look generally like this:
There is only one rule: white advances, black recedes.
If you get tired of going back and forth from Photoshop like me you can make a map within after effects. Just be sure to pre-comp it so FreeForm can read it as a flat image. With this knowledge you can also make waving flags and turbulent surfaces.
Once you think you understand the above you get this:
Our last problem is how to overcome FreeForm layer stacking issue. FreeForm still obeys the layer stack of your composition. Unlike After Effects' default 3D layers that can obscure other layers no matter the layer order. Freeform does not recognize other layers with FreeForm on it. Now how do we solve this pesky layering problem within FreeForm?
Simply upload a small PNG file with nothing on it save for 100% glorious transparency.
Place it in the head composition and reference it in FreeForm's backside controls. There the ugly unwanted backside is gone!
If you happen to want a bit of the backside wrapping around the face just duplicate - the bangs for instance and put it behind the face.
The last step is inserting a few flat gradient layers. Make them into alpha mattes and the hair should blend seamlessly together. Doing this will also reduce how flat the character looks.
There isn't a real cut and dry step by step theory of getting this right - only through patience and perseverance can you get this working. These tips should guide you in the right direction.
Till next time!
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