Improved spline system tools to reduce time needed by splines phase
New tool to select controls based on custom attributes
New UI and workflow of the LipSync Layer
3ds max 2018 support
Note: after release all tools of BonyFace 4.0 will be paid, will be no more separation of basic and extended tools
Reminder: Authorized users will update to any new version for free as always
Users talk
this script will help us very very much. and this script builders worked on it very hard
If you’re a Max user and you have not tried BonyFace plugin - you should... When a Russian invented BonyFace as a Max Plugin, I knew I’d be with Max for life
This is a very impressive plugin! The rig works beautifully, and I can set up a face in about half an hour. That's unbelievable.
I'm really impressed of the functionality. It seemed overwhelming to start with, and I didn't understand anything. But now I'm starting to see how it all works. It's genius!
this is an excellent product. in Max no analogues.
it simply blows FaceRobot out of the water
my teachers are going crazy since I showed it
Why should you use BonyFace Basic Tools?
1. Easiest and fastest way to make professional facial rig, skin, animation from scratch
2. Share the BonyFace rigged model with another CG-artist NOT having BonyFace
3. Intelligent symmetric/asymmetric spline system to map any 3D-face
4. Bone based autorig with smart system of soft and direct controls
5. Fast interactive rig setup through a user friendly interface
6. Autoskin with connection to current skeleton
7. Get UNLIMITED deformations on your 3d-faces
8. Ready to animate on any workstation
9. Ready to create morph targets on any workstation (actually you don't need morphing at all)
We at FX started using BF back in 2009, and since then have not gone to
animating facial expressions using Morph targets, simply because Bonyface
allow us a multitude of expressions by just posing the underlying Bone
Structure to our liking, and even if we wanted to use Morph targets to drive
an animation, Bonyface is still ideal because once you rig a model u can
snapshot several facial expressions and have those as Morphtargets...without
the need of pulling and pushing vertices to have that perfect expression...
But to us one of the BIGGEST Features BF has, is the ability to play with the GRIMACE Tool wich allows the user to blend up to 3 poses at any one time
creating even more expressions just by sliding a controller...
Why should you use BonyFace Extended Tools?
1. Move main controls through Face tool
2. Fast and easy manipulations with facial controls through a very handy Selector tool
3. Create, save, browse and apply hundreds of facial poses, phonemes and animations
4. Interactively mix facial poses to make nice looking natural grimaces
5. Import facial poses, phonemes and animations from one 3d-face to another
6. Create and manage with 4 types of animation layers
7. Two kinds of layers for all or selected controls, include/exclude controls from layer
8. Easily change weight of any controls and/or any layer
9. Create various kinds of repeatedly animation
10. Transfer mocap animation to 3d-face
11. Work with text and phonemes to make animation of speaking character
12. Get all future BonyFace versions for free
1. Common
BonyFace is a complex facial animation system, was written on MAXScript, works in 3ds max 2008 and above. It consists of tools for rigging, skinning and animating facial expressions on 3D-Faces with ease and flexibility
Since it's a script, the user can freely share the BonyFace rigged character with another professional NOT having BonyFace, anyone can load and render the scene with BonyFace-objects without having BonyFace installed like any common 3ds max scene
BonyFace starts facial rig creation from scratch, it's an easiest and fastest way to create facial rig, with BonyFace you can create full face rig in 10-20 minutes!
Basic tools of BonyFace are freeware. You can use basic tools to create rig and skin, adjust parameters of the rig and animate control objects with standard tools of 3ds max without any limitations
Extended tools of BonyFace are available only for authorized users of the script. You can use extended tools to create complex professional facial animation and simplify whole workflow
2. Rigging and Skinning (basic tools)
Spline based system allows the user to properly "map" a 3D-face
Stretchy bones drive the whole face for unlimited facial expressions and deformations
Rig system for head is created automatically based on spline system
Skin phase is performed automatically. It automaticly adds a Skin modifier to the head (or modifies an existing Skin modifier if present) and adds bones of BonyFace-rig to current skeleton. Cat, Biped and Bones are supported.
Skin mechanics works with the internal skin modifier of 3dsmax and intelligentely auto-weights the points of a 3D-Face to provide you with a perfect base on muscle deformation
Intelligent weighting automatically recognizes several regions of a face and applies proper weighting to the vertices according to where they are
After skin phase the user can tweak the envelopes as they normally would, to get an even better deformation for their character, this however in most cases is not necessary
BonyFace automaticly creates rig and skin for tongue and eyelashes
3. Control Mechanics (basic tools)
Using a system of standard max circle shapes, the user gets UNLIMITED deformations on their 3D-face, this is one of the great features that sets BonyFace apart from other available plugins and scripts for 3dsmax
The Direct Controls (blue colored) provide immediate deformation of skin regions
The Soft Controls (yellow colored) have a weight system that globally changes the position of the direct controls
Ability to rotate and stretch the lips is provided
You can adjust any settings of the rig very fast and easy through a very comprehensive UI
4. Face Control Center and Selector (extended tools)
You can select and/or move any control through a very handy UI, even if the control is hidden, actually you don't need to select any control in the viewport in most cases
There are many different ways to manipulate with selection, move opposite controls together or apart using Ctrl, Alt and Shift keys
There are some comfortable and useful tools to manipulate with mouth controls
5. Drive (extended tools)
You can save, load, browse and apply facial poses, phonemes and animations
Two different modes: Mixer and Grimace are provided to interactively mix the poses
Importer of poses and animations - you can use poses and animations were made for one character on another character
You can create and manage with animation layers of four types: Normal (standard keyframe animation), AutoBlink (to create repeatedly animation), Mocap (to transfer animation from any mocap-cloud to bonyface controls) and LipSync (to create animation of a speaking character)
It is possible to change the weights of layers and/or controls in the layers
AutoBlink layer periodically applies the poses, so you can use it to make any repeatedly animation, such as blinking, breathing, laughing and etc.
Mocap-layer can transfer mocap animation from BVH-model to 3D-Face. BVH-model is automatically created by BonyFace when user loads BVH-file, it is possible to interactively adjust controls movement at any frame
