David Palley Covers a Rig Setup Offering Sticky Lips Using BlendShapes and setRange Nodes.

Adding more features into a character rig can elevate its performance for animators. Adding details such as specialized foot rolls, space switching, and a functional face rig can make all the difference. One feature is the sticky lips or the zipper lips setup, but how does a rig like that work?

Answering that question is 3D Artist David Palley, who walks us through his setup of a sticky lips rig that uses a series of blend shapes and range nodes in Autodesk Maya. The set of videos introduces the structure and explains how it moves, as well as the original setup. “These tutorial videos are for more advanced rigging. You should already have a very firm grasp of Maya, character rigging, as well as Python scripting before attempting this setup” Palley warns of his tutorial. Still, it is an intriguing view of how a sticky lip setup can work.