Luis Tech and Leadership

 Need things to be fast and good, not optimised. More efficient way of RnDs to prove higher rewards in the long run. But here's the thing.. if they don't learn whatever I have learnt.. we will never be on the same page, or the same spirit. Being a lead that works under a person who doesn't really know more than I do is really hard to appreciate what are the efforts about.  I guess, I will need to put down my ego a little bit more. But nonetheless, resignation is imminent.

 Facial rig: - Simplicity is the key. A key joint on key component, and pre-bind matrix + hand-sculpted blendshapes. Then how do we capture accurate blendshapes? This is very difficult, should take note. The first thing that comes to mind is that, bind a duplicate of the geometry, skin it, and deform it. Then once you reach the optimal deformation, move the individual joints and duplicate the deformed mesh. Since they are all sharing the same vertex IDs, it should be easy breezy - For most accurate deformation, sculpted blendshapes is the best. Nuff said. Blending between puffed cheek from smile expression to eye squeeze, flawless. Attitude: - Determine. Determine. Don't forget where you wanna go. Work hard for it. This is part of the process, don't doubt it.  - Focus. Focus and focus more. - Take some time to rest, take more time to invest.

Some quick Maya modeling tip.  I did a few quick rigging test, but I noticed it has performance issue where you have multiple meshes running simultaneously and its too heavy for Maya to compute. Yikes. Maybe I need more studies on this

 Communicate often. Even if its the slightest and tiniest bits. Especially now that we don't have a system, things are going to require more delicate handling method. Also. CHECK CHECK CHECK CHECK. Trust only your own hand.

 - Consistency Need same UIs. Need same constructions. Need some workflow. - Anatomically correct.  - Shape oriented. - Expressive. - Too heavy. Need lighter tech. But we have no tech. - QC QC QC QC. I have to do this. Sighs. 

 So in Maya, every time you apply a deformer on a mesh, you'll immediately get an extra shape node of that new mesh, called "xxxxxShapeOrig". This is Maya to tell you that your deformed mesh is based on this "original" mesh, and it took it as their own delta.  What you can do with it?  - Transfer new UVs without affecting the rig. - Pre-deform certain mesh. (but this is slightly irrelevant because you can blendshape stacks. Creating extra nodes tho) 

- Must be non-destructive.  - Games or production? Speed vs Quality? Predictable or Experimental? Games: Joint based. That would mean scaling is something we should take note about.  Production: Shapes fidelity is priority. That means stacked/layered blendshapes for great shapes. 1. joint based simple rig. Jaw, teeth, tongue, head, eye balls. 2. Blendshapes expressions. All lips, all cheeks, all eyelids, all eyebrows etc. 3. Non-linear deformers add-on. Lattice, squash/stretch. 4. preBindMatrix. <-- important. This is how to tweak with onMesh controllers. Speed: Use auto rigging solution like Advanced Skeleton. Quality: Worth throwing resources for some RnDs.  Predictable: Use auto rigging solution like Advanced Skeleton. Experimental: Anything goes. RnDs.