Adding eye and head control

00:03

We want to give the animator the option of making the eye controls

00:07

follow the head control or stay in world space as they are.

00:11

Now,

00:13

this is essential for allowing the creature to lock its eyes onto something.

00:18

We already have an offset group

00:20

and the world space locator.

00:23

So let's select the locator first

00:26

and then the head control

00:29

and then finally add the look at control offset group to the selection.

00:34

Let's create another parent constraint with

00:37

both translations and rotations enabled.

00:40

And there we have the two weights which we could control.

00:44

So let's go back to the node editor

00:47

and clear it

00:49

and bring in the look at control

00:51

down here. We have the follow attribute which can be set to world or head,

00:57

bring the parent constraint node into the node editor now

01:02

and connect follow to the constraints world space locator white.

01:07

So that's updated. Now,

01:11

we now need another reverse node. So we can invert that value.

01:15

Let's use an existing one. Instead of creating a new one,

01:20

we can use the head tilt, reverse node because we only used one of the values before

01:26

bring that into the editor

01:30

and open it.

01:31

So we use the X channels with the head.

01:34

So let's use the Y channels this time

01:37

connect follow to input wi

01:40

and then output Y to the head control weight attribute.

01:45

There we go.

01:46

Let's test this to make sure we got these the right way around.

01:50

So if we set follow to head,

01:53

the head weight should be worn.

01:55

Ah No, we connected these the wrong way around.

01:58

OK. Let's swap these.

02:01

So output Y from the reverse node goes to the world space locator white

02:06

and the follow attribute goes directly into the head control white.

02:12

That's better.

02:14

So the eye control should now stay in world space.

02:19

Let's move the cog.

02:21

Yep, it does.

02:23

Let's change the head. So it follows the neck.

02:26

OK. Let's change this to head now

02:29

and the eye control now snaps back to the head

02:33

and follows it.

02:35

OK. Good.

02:38

So we are just trying to give the animator more freedom and more options.

02:41

When they animate.

02:43

As another option, you could always change the follow attribute.

02:47

So it's a float instead of an enum.

02:51

This way, the head would blend from one position to another.

02:54

Much like the orient neck attribute does with the head.

02:59

So again, this may offer the animator a nicer animation option.