Hello,
I’m experiencing a lag with my Ribbon Lips rig that I have spent the entire day trying to fix. Could you help me understand what is going on, please?
The Rig
I have a Lip Rig with the following order of operations:
1. 12 bind joints constrained to 12 “minor controllers” by PSR Constraints
2. A polygon “Ribbon” plane bound by a Skin Deformer and 5 bind joints.
3. 5 “major controllers” for the 5 bind joints, constrained by PSR Constraints.
4. 12 minor controllers clamped to a “Ribbon” polygon plane by Clamp Constraints
5. Mouth geometry bound by a Skin Deformer and the 12 bind joints
I am using a Ribbon driver to be able to get twist with falloff on all axes without flipping as is common with IK-Spline. Polygons also seem to do better in the Viewport than Splines. It’s working fine except for the final step: the mouth Skin Deformer. The file is attached.
Object Manager & Priorities
The priorities for the Constraints are all set to Expressions 0, except for the Minor Controllers, which are set to Generators 0.
Questions
1. Why do the minor controllers need to be in Generators priority?
The only generators are the Splines. I tried a version with Null Objects and there was still a lag. I was told on another forum to not use Priority: Generators 0 except in rare cases, so I put them at the bottom of the Object Manager, but they don’t work that way.
2. Is it possible that the Skin Deformer isn’t being executed at Expressions 0, but still at its default, Generators -1?
I was also told that Cinema 4D can’t change the Priority for Skin Deformers. The help manual says Skin Deformer Priority only works with Force enabled, which only works with point objects that are not polygon objects.
3. How can I fix the lag between the rig and the Mouth Geometry?
If the issue is because I need the Constraint expressions to run between the Ribbon and the Mouth Geometry’s Skin Deformers, is there a workaround? I’ve tried Loft and Extrude NURBS. The Loft NURBS allowed for twisting like the Polygon Ribbon does, but the parametric geometry was unstable…its U divisions changed when I manipulated its Splines. The Extrude NURBS provided more stable geometry, but I couldn’t twist the points of the Spline.
I’ve tried so many things. I am now coming to the community for help. Thank you.