• https://pooyadeperson.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-creating-arkits-52-facial-blendshapes/?character=wire
  • contains the specifics of all the ARKIT Blendshapes (other than tongueOut) and what parts of the face move to control it. Also contains information on the muscles involved in the movement, if you find that helpful.
• https://www.ifacialmocap.com/tutorial/blender/
  • iFacialMocap’s files contain a Blender file with a generic face model fully setup for ARKIT. This can be useful to see how vertices are expected to be moved.
  • iFacialMocap contains a python script which allows the Desktop App to connect to the Blender Application, allowing for live tracking in Blender. Blender is not a proper VTubing program, so you may need to restart the connection or Blender itself if the model begins to lag or freeze.
    • Lag can be increased if an armature is being controlled by the app, so sometimes its a good idea to lock your armature into Rest Position or to give iFacialMocap the wrong armature name to prevent it from being tracked. That way you can focus solely on the shapekeys.
    • Whenever you’re done testing your tracking, you can press the “X” icon in the shapekey menu, located to the topright of the Value slider.

ARKIT breaks the face up into 52 different Blendshapes, which can be treated as 31 if you ignore mirrored shapes. ARKIT can be pretty difficult to setup for a model, since the individual shapes can result in clipping or unappealing results if done wrong. Actively testing your model while setting it up in Blender is highly recommended.

Many of the ARKIT Blendshapes are designed to work as composites, fully representing their expression once all the grouped Blendshapes are fully active. To make your life easier and to reduce clipping, you should try to create these matching blendshapes at the same time, and maybe even design the combined shape first, splitting it into separate blendshapes afterwards.

To properly view the composite shape and see the influence that each individual shape adds to the final result, check out the iFacialMocap blender file and play around with the sliders.

• browInnerUp + browOuterUpLeft + browOuterUpRight
• cheekSquintLeft + eyeSquintLeft & cheekSquintRight + eyeSquintRight
• jawOpen + mouthClose
• mouthLowerDownLeft + mouthLowerDownRight
• mouthShrugLower + mouthShrugUpper
• mouthUpperUpLeft + mouthUpperUpRight