Blender 3D: Characters, Machines, and Scenes for Artists

Creating shape keys

In this recipe, we'll set the shape keys to create (even if limited) facial expressions and to fake the stretching and the contracting effect of the character's arm muscles, and we'll add some more shape keys to fix issues in the character's shape.

Getting ready

First, let's prepare a bit the scene and the model:

1. Start Blender and load the Gidiosaurus_skinning_rigify.blend file, which is the same as the Gidiosaurus_skinning_03.blend file but with the rig created by the Rigify add-on (and later edited to add the other bones exactly as explained in the last chapter's recipes).
2. In the Outliner, click on the respective eye icons to hide the Armor, Eyes, and Tiers_simplified objects and the Armature, whose name in this case is rig