Moving vector-jaw simultaneously with switch-mouth

[lehtiniemi]

Hi!

Any tips on accomplishing this in a good way:
I have a vector head and on top of that, I have a switch layer that has my different mouth shapes (not interpolated, just switch). When the mouth is open, I need to modify the underlying head vector (to drop the jaw lower).

How can I do this so that it doesn't become cumbersome? I used to do it by creating a new jaw-piece with each mouth, but this makes it hard to stich the jaw to the underlying vector head.

Any tips? (I have the new Moho 12 so it can include those features)

[neeters_guy]

You could make a reference of the mouth switch and put the corresponding head shapes in it (or the reverse). Personally I prefer including the jawline in the mouth switch; it's a simple technique that works with any versions of ASP

[lehtiniemi]

You could make a reference of the mouth switch and put the corresponding head shapes in it (or the reverse). Personally I prefer including the jawline in the mouth switch; it's a simple technique that works with any versions of ASP

Yea I did this as well in some project, had a common upper head and then included a variation of the lower head in the switch. But how do you stitch the heads together, they're in different levels so you can't use Patch layers?

[synthsin75]

I think he's saying to put the whole head shape in each switch, so there's no stitching needed.

[neeters_guy]

Sorry, my reply was a bit vague. Basically, you can
1) put the jaw in with the mouth shapes, but as you mentioned lining up the jaw with the head can be challenging;
2) or as synth says, put the entire head along with the mouth shapes;
3) and finally, use a reference so that the mouth and jaw will synch with each other.

Here's an infographic to illustrate the 3 ideas:


Using references is tricky though, so I suggest doing small tests before committing many hours into this method.

[Greenlaw]

A character I created at work last week actually use method 3 for the front view head, and method 1 for the side view. It was weird but for this character it just worked out better that way.

Regarding references for Switch Layers, yes, that can get tricky. For a long time, I avoided them for Switch Layers because I kept breaking the sync by animating the wrong switch. It was only recently that I learned I can re-sync a switch layer from the timeline.