Face Stretching While In Walk/Run Cycle

[andycarpenter]

I can't seem to get my character's face to stop stretching during a walking/running cycle. The head and neck are tagged in the same place at the base of the Head layer. The Walk behavior is placed on the parent character, and all handles have exactly 1 tag. There are no issues listed in the Rigging Issues panel. The screenshots show how the face looks normally, and then how it looks when stretched long, and when stretched short. Any ideas on how I can fix this so his face maintains its shape as the head bobs up and down during the walk cycle?

Thanks!

[alank99101739 · Accepted solution]

i normally suggest the neck handle to go at base of the neck and the head to go between the chin and mouth. I have seen quite a few having problems using the same handle for both.

To stop the head warping I have two alternative approaches. 

1. Put sticks along the jaw line (two sticks angled along both edges of the face), meeting at the chin. The idea is to reduce warping from the neck affecting the head as much. Sticks are useful for this - it reduces bending, so the neck will flex instead of the face itself.

2. Make the head independent. The are other side effects of this, but it guarantees the warping of the body/neck will never affect the face shape. You draw the neck up behind the body a bit so the head has something to attach to.

[andycarpenter]

Thank you very much for the response. The sticks definitely helped. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better. Making the head independent had some very weird side effects, as you mentioned. Also, separating the head and neck handles, and positioning as you described made the problem much worse for me, so maybe I did something wrong? Either way, thank you again for the help.

[jawdoe]

I had this issue also thank you for the help :P...

[Caricaturedan]

Putting handles on the jawline definitely helped.  I also switch the "Behavior Interaction" setting to "Override," but this doesn't work well if you're wanting to customize the animation while they walk, like if they're walking and talking and stuff.  If all they're doing is walking, "Override" does it perfectly.  

[andycarpenter]

Interesting, I'll have to try the "override" thing next time and see if that helps. Thanks!

[alank99101739]

I have another deep theory of puppet design. If you got something working as you like, don't touch it!  😉