Advanced Facial Animation with Region Node Execution Graphs

Overview

The Region Node Execution Graph is a very powerful feature that allows you to make meshes deform together with a designated deforming parent mesh. This enables a variety of sophisticated effects. In particular, animations like blinking eyes that turn and follow the parent face mesh with their own independent animations are possible. You can combine this with Animation Controllers to create your own custom Face Animation Rig. This is the recommended way to fully exploit the power and flexibility of such a feature.

To run, go into Animate Mode, then click Region Node Execution Graph. Please make sure that your meshes have either the Mesh Grid Motor or the Mesh Poly Motor installed in order for this to run.

Please watch the video tutorial here.

Creating a Region Node Execution Graph

Available regions with either Mesh Grid Motor or the Mesh Poly Motor installed will be listed in the regions listbox. Pick a region you care about then click the Add button. A new region node will show up in the window. You can drag it around to alter its visual placement on screen.

Assigning Deformation Children

Click on the Children slot of your node, drag out a line and assign it to the Parent slot of another region node to assign a new child. Once this relationship is established, the child node will base its deformation from its parent before compositing its deformation on itself. This will also make the child node not be affected by any skeletal/bone animation. It will be purely driven by the deforming parent mesh and its own local deformations.