Blender Facial Shapekeys
Facial rigs and shape keys in Blender 5.2 - ARKit 52 blendshapes, visemes for lip-sync...
Install
npx skills add EL4CTEO/blender-skills --skill blender-facial-shapekeys -g -a claude-code -y- Repository
- EL4CTEO/blender-skills651
- Category
- Engineering
- Updated
- 5d ago
- License
- MIT
- Context cost
- Lightabout 1,090 tokens
- Runs scripts
- Yes, review before use
What it does
Facial rigs and shape keys in Blender 5.2 - ARKit 52 blendshapes, visemes for lip-sync, sculpting expressions, splitting symmetric shapes into Left/Right, mirroring, corrective and combination shapes, drivers and control rigs, bone+blendshape hybrids, export to engines (Unity, Unreal, Roblox dynamic heads, VRM/web). Use for faces, expressions, lip-sync, or any shape-key work.
Facial Rig & Shape Keys
The execution model is in blender-core. The body rig is in blender-character-rigging.
Choose the approach
| Approach | Use | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Blendshapes (ARKit 52) | games, VTubers, mocap (iPhone/Live Link Face), web/VRM | the industry interchange set; each shape is sculpted |
| Bones (jaw, eyes, lids, brows, lips) | stylized, low memory, mobile | jaw + eyes as bones are almost always right |
| Hybrid | most production game heads | jaw/eye/tongue bones + blendshapes for everything soft |
Rigify face (human metarig) | film-style keyframe animation inside Blender | 100+ face bones, heavy for engines |
Procedure (blendshapes)
- The head mesh needs clean loops around the eyes and mouth (
blender-retopology-uv), with eyes, teeth and tongue as separate objects parented or weighted to bones. scripts/shapekeys.py -- --mesh Head --create arkit(or--create visemesfor the 15 Oculus visemes) creates empty, correctly named keys.- Sculpt each key (live: sculpt mode on the active key,
use_shape_key_edit_mode). Symmetric expressions can be sculpted once, then--split eyeBlinkgiveseyeBlinkLeft/Rightwith a soft blend across X=0 (--falloffm). --mirror browDownLeftbuildsbrowDownRight(topology-independent mirror).--reportlists unsculpted keys, the max offset per key, and missing ARKit names. A shape is done only when every key moves and nothing is left over.- Optional:
--drivers FaceCtrladds a controller with 0, 1 custom properties driving each key, for keyframing in Blender. - Check the extremes and combinations (jawOpen + mouthSmile, eyeBlink + eyeSquint) with
look. Fix them with corrective combination keys driven by the product of two keys.
