Rain - File 3: Expression Tests

This file includes a rough retopology of the final head sculpt, 3 stages of sculpting the expression tests and the merged final head & full body. Just like in the previous file it includes a simple Eevee lighting setup for the viewport.

The first 3 collections in the outliner include the original rough expression sculpts, the refined results of the expression sculpts and lastly the animated expression sculpts with added asymmerty. Each expression is 30 frames apart. The bounding-box object next to the head called "HLP-expression_selection" will help you to scrub through each by selecting it and pressing up/down on the keyboard to switch between keyframes in the timeline. The last key of frame 421 usually switched to the unaltered head model, since I adjusted areas like the eyes, eyebrows and teeth heavily during the expression testing.

The animation is achieved by blending between different shapekeys and rigging the objects with a 2-part bone chain for the head & neck. I also added 2 empties in the origin of the eyes to parent to the bones instead of the eyes. The eyes are then constrained in their location to those empties to avoid the eyes rotating with the head and instead always staring forward.

I also included some helpful annotations with some "expression guides" to give a breakdown to the refined expressions and individual annotation layers for the main facial muscles.

The last collection in the outliner includes the merged final sculpts of the head & body now that the design is finished.