A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to take a stab at creating the “Sticky Lips” effect. I saw a few tutorials out there, but they were only for Maya and didn’t translate too well to 3DS Max. I decided to play around a bit and try to come up with a method for Max on my own.
After a bit of RnD time I came up with a method for getting the sticky effect. I think the solution is a pretty good one, but I am still working on getting the sticky effect to only be active when the lips are opening. I got something working for the example below, but its not as good as it could be. I plan to continue developing that aspect to try to get something nice and solid.
I found an old thread on CGTalk a few weeks after I did this that sounded somewhat similar to the method I came up with. I am not sure how similar our approaches are though, as the links in the thread are now dead.
I am thinking of possibly sharing this technique in the future, but it won’t be the near future. I want to finish developing the open/close detection first, and then use it in production a few times. Trust me though, the setup so far is very quick and easy :).
Haha! Looks pretty cool, Mat. It’s definitely not quite there yet, but it’s a solid start. The key to using something like this will be subtly as well. Not enought o draw away from a performance, but enough the make the whole thing feel real. ;)
Thanks for commenting Dan. Still just RnD at this point, and the effect is exaggerated for the example. I’ll have something up on the site eventually showing a finished version of the effect. I did another quick test, shortly after this one, on an actual character. It was much more subtle and added a lot to the character.
This looks really promising so far. I’ve been trying to find a sticky lips solution for 3D max for a few weeks now. I’ve been doing my own set of tests but they seem too difficult and round about. What you have looks great so far.
I really hope you put up a tutorial or just some clues as to how to achieve the effect!
-Julz
Interesting thoughts here. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with us all. It’s people like you that make my day :)
Hi, very cool effect, but it seems to stick all over the lips no matter what point it start to unstick at. The key is to start to unstick from the first unsticking point towards the rest, BUT what your have achieve is AWESOME nontheless. Congratulations.
Thanks Jorge! I think the technique actually does do what you’re describing, but given the examples in the video it just isn’t too obvious.
The method is proximity based, using a volume select modifier, so as soon as the lips open past a certain distance, whether by jaw rotation or morph target deformation, they will “un-stick”. Naturally, once that point has passed the threshold, the surrounding points follow suit and create a sort of peeling effect away from that initial separation point. This is the case no matter where the initial separation occurs. If instead of rotating the jaw straight down you were to rotate it to the side, it would initially “un-stick” from the corner of the mouth where the separation point is the greatest and then gradually grow from that point out. (I was actually able to create a cool looking cartoony “rolling effect” with the mouth, very similar to the three-eyed aliens in Toy Story when they go “oooOOoooOOooo”, using this sticky lips technique and rotating from side to side).
Of course, when using jaw rotation the farthest point front the rotation pivot will always travel the greatest distance. This makes the “un-sticking” occur at the front a lot more often since it is the farthest point from the pivot.
Hey Mathieson I came across your site through Script Spot. This sticky lips technique has been something I’ve always wanted to figure out and get to work properly as the way you have describe here in your post. Would you be able to post your scene so people like me who are wanting to help further develop this could take a stab at it. I’d greatly appreciate it and would love to collaborate with you on this.
Great work!
JokerMartini
Hi Joker. I’ll consider posting the method. I am definitely interested in seeing if others can take it further. I haven’t really had any time to look back into it since I initially posted this (the need has never come up). Hopefully anybody who decides trying to take it further would remember to credit where it started. I may post it sometime in the near future, and if I do I will send an email over to you letting you know.
I’ve posted a write up and sample file at this link here: http://www.mathiesonfacer.com/featured/sticky-lips-how-to-sample-file/