Creating Faceposer gestures

Faceposer can use any sequence in a model as a gesture, but timing tags (Apex, Accent, Loop and End), thumbnail frames, classification as a posture, etc. must be specified through a sequence's own keyvalues. This page is for creating new gestures or postures designed to be used in Faceposer. If you want to know how to place an existing gesture into a choreography scene, see Creating skeletal animation events.

Note:These are for a sequence's keyvalues, not the model's $KeyValues.

Example

An example of a gesture with Faceposer options. This was found in models/male_gestures.mdl. The rest of the sequence has been removed for easier reading.

 $sequence "b_head_back" {
	...
 
	keyvalues
	{
		faceposer 
		{
			"type" "gesture"
			"tags" 
			{
				"apex" "10"
				"extreme" "42"
				"loop" "43"
				"end" "44"
			}
			"entrytag" "apex"
			"thumbnail_frame" "42"
		}
	}
 }

Options

type <choices>

What Faceposer should classify this animation as.

gesture

Classifies the animation as a gesture, putting it in the "Gestures" category and behaving like a gesture during playback.

posture

Classifies the animation as a posture, putting it in the "Postures" category and behaving like a posture during playback.

Note:Time tag names are not tied to anything at all, meaning you could name them anything you want. The tags listed are just those found in Valve's gestures.

tags { <stuff> }

Timing tags and which frame they are located at. All tags should be subkeys.

apex <int|frame>

accent/extreme <int|frame>

Not used by postures.

loop <int|frame>

end <int|frame>

entrytag <string|tag>

Which of the tags specified in tags should be the "entry tag". Mostly always set to apex

[exittag <string|tag>]

Which of the tags specified in tags should be the "exit tag".

endmatch <string|tag>

Only for postures.

Loops are handled differently :

tags { <stuff> }

Timing tags and which frame they are located at. All tags should be subkeys.

in <int|frame>

loop <int|frame>

end <int|frame>

out <int|frame>

startloop <string|tag>

Which of the tags specified in tags should the loop start. ^[confirm]

endloop <string|tag>

Which of the tags specified in tags should the loop end. ^[confirm]

exittag <string|tag>

Which of the tags specified in tags should be the "exit tag".

thumbnail_frame <int|frame>

Which frame of the animation should appear in Faceposer's animation browser. It is best to set it to the accent or loop frame.

eye_height <float|height>

^[Todo]