MODO 10.2: 2D Faces on 3D Characters Workflow
Over the years I have worked on several projects that involved 2D animated faces on 3D characters. It’s a popular style that can be found in use on shows on Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and many popular Anime series and films. We used this style to mimic Minimate faces over ten years ago on the animated film Batman: New Times. You can watch the short film below.
While in New York I worked on a kids sports-themed project called Fun-Go-Play which used Flash animated faces on 3D characters. An example of some of those characters can be seen in the image below.
Both of these examples involved pre-rendered faces mapped onto 3D meshes. While this workflow allowed us to accomplish the look we were after, it wasn’t ideal, as it involved too much back and forth between multiple applications and no real-time feedback during animation.
Fortunately, creating a 2D face on a 3D character is made simple with procedural operators available in MODO 10.2. The video below walks you through the process.
