Weight painting is killing me

Lowkey, I’d recommend just having the blinks be shape keys instead of having the eyelids weight painted and rigged, then you could have the shapekey be controlled by a bone with drivers

@purplthenurpl But if I do that wont the bones be left behind in their original position when the shape key is activated? Would I still be able to move the eyelid with the eye closed via shape key?

Could you elaborate a bit more? I'm a bit slow

@purplthenurpl Like, with this set up, I can use the blink controller (which uses an NLR blink action), to make it go into a blink, then use drag the deformation bones to adjust the shape of the blink if I need to. Would I still be able to do that with shape keys?

Maybe? I never use deformation bones when It comes to blink shape keys, though at the same time I'm not sure why you would need those when the shape key itself is doing all the work for you

@purplthenurpl Yeah but especially with the happy closed eyes one may need freedom of movement to make sure they aren't too static or can vary depending on specific emotions or eyebrow movements. I'm setting up the shape keys for the eyes as I speak so I can test it

Now see for something like that you can also have those be shape keys and hook drivers up to those too

@purplthenurpl I mean I'm making this for animation and I want as much freedom as possible. I don't want even further restraint in what expressions my character can do

god this is exactly why i just focus on shape keys, though i wonder if i should finally take a crack at eyelid rigging….

welcome to my world of pain and sufferring. enjoy your stay! seriously tho, it's okay. Weight painting is the most difficult thing you can learn in 3d, it's bound to look messy the first 3-4 times. the more you practice the less ugly the result will be.

Is...is this what im gonna suffer when i make a more complex facial rig. ....fuck

Not necessarily. Big issue in my case is I have almost no experience either modelling or weighting so there is a lot subtle mesh issues that compound to make it look bad or harder ti weight paint. Not to mention the eye being HUGE

shape keys.

How did you make the eyes not perfectly spherical

Theres probably a way to do it like thar so the pupils are actually part of the eyeball (I tried but failed) so instead the pupil is a separate mesh shrinkwrapped on the eyeball

oh, thats actually what im trying for the eyelids, and pupils later i just hope when i start rigging, and port it elsehwere, it doesnt mess up my biggest fear i think your model is very accurate and you deserve a follow

I think everyone hates it, good luck to you and make sure to take breaks 🙏 (PS currently in the same boat)

When you enter our of intermediate stage every thing in blender kills. Here comes a wall,needs only head,s strikes.Stay consistent...