MorphTargets

This is the peak of tediousness ;)
To be able to animate the face of the torero i chose finally to rely on morphtargets.
Morphs are "tweaked" versions of the object. A target-mesh so to speak. When i drag a slider, i want the toreros face to go towards that target-mesh

Originally i planned doing this more parametrically by rather skinning the lips etc to point that where floating over a nurbssurface to always retain volume and art-direction... but i costed more than it tasted in the end. Specially since max is operating with a somewhat outdated (hah! its a decade old, for sure!) morph-system. I ended up having nightmare about points not moving linearly in XYZ-space. And i wasted two good days.
-lesson learned: The way that is best is the way that works.

(a third of the shapes needed)
One shape just tweaks a little exclusive part
of the face. e.g.
-upperlip-upwards
-eyelid-down
-Eyebrow-inwards
etc etc etc.


this picture shows the facial-control-panel(!)
in action. Those small yellow dots represents a
specific area of the face. When they move, the
corresponding area shapes with that movement.