Eyebrows are behaving strangly

[jleeglassburn]

Whenever I turn my puppet's head to the left his left eyebrow shoots way up and the right one way down. I can get it a little under control if I put a hand over my eyebrow to hide it from my webcam. The exact opposite occurs when I turn my puppet's head to the right. I've tried increasing the light on my face, positioning the camera to a more direct shot, and getting someone else to be the actor, but the problem persists. Any idea what might be causing this or solutions?

[CoSA_DaveS]

Does this happen with the built-in example puppets (in the Start workspace)?

In the Puppet panel, when you select the different layers that make up the face of your puppet, is the rectangle that shows the size of the selected layer the size that you expect it to be? If not, you may have stray pixels that need erasing in PS/AI.

[jleeglassburn]

Great suggestions! This didn't solve my problem but I have discovered some new information.

Good news! I did not find a stray pixel, but very good suggestion (and I hadn't thought to check) But I see how that could have caused this problem.

I also double-checked that all of my parts (not just eyebrows) were properly labeled in Illustrator ('left' on puppet's left -not my left- and same for 'right' items.) After finding no problems there I followed your suggestion to try the built-in puppets.

Working with the built-in puppets (and some downloaded from Okay Samurai's website) I've learned some things.

I first tried to replicate the problem with "Chloe" puppet. Her head doesn't turn and the problem is most pronounced on the right profile position. so I moved on.

Next I tried "Wendigo". His profile head positions are true profiles and the far side of his face isn't visible so it was hard to replicate the problem there.

At this point I sought out more puppets. I remembered that "Wilk" was available on okaysamurai.com. I downloaded that puppet and "Seth", who is labelled as a head turning puppet.

I was able to replicate the problem with "Wilk!" When I turn my head to my right, triggering "Wilk's" right profile head position, "Wilk's" Left eyebrow raises independently of his Right eyebrow, just like my puppet.

I tried it with "Seth". But didn't get the same results, at first. "Seth's" eyebrows are set to a sensitivity of around 25%. I had to increase that to 150% and I started to get similar results. Except with "Seth" it was his RIGHT eyebrow raising up for no reason. I dug into the puppet and realized "Seth's" eyebrows on the Right Profile and Right Quarter are labelled wrong. (c'mon Okay Samurai, we're counting on you ) So, it makes sense that the problem would be reversed.

So where does that leave me? Well, it's obviously not a problem with my puppet. So, it's either a glitch in the software. (But surely someone else would have noticed it by now.) Or it's a problem with my face.   

I also noticed that even when correctly labelled, as I look at the puppet on my screen and raise just my LEFT eyebrow, the puppet's RIGHT eyebrow raises. This could be intentional. It does feel more familiar (like a mirror) to see the puppet react this way. But it was something I noticed.

Still no idea why my puppet's eyebrows are going rogue

[CoSA_DaveS · Accepted solution]

Yes, it's intentional that the puppet appears to be looking at you from the mirror -- it's much more natural to control movement that way.

When your head is aimed away from the camera, the accuracy of the tracking goes down. You can help this somewhat by making sure the lighting on your face is strong. Another way to help is to adjust the Head Turner's Sensitivity parameter to over 100% so you don't have to turn your head as much to trigger the puppet's profile views.

One more thing just in case: have you clicked Set Rest Pose in the Camera panel while relaxing your face?

[jleeglassburn]

Thank you for addressing this issue. I'm still not able to tame my puppet's eyebrows to my satisfaction. "Maybe I'm just like my mother, she's never satisfied." I've decided to go with putting both eyebrows in the same eyebrow layer. So, when my puppet is displaying Left Profile, he only has a left eyebrow layer. In Photoshop I grouped the left and right eyebrow artwork into one layer called left eyebrow. (the reverse situation for the right profile) They can't be manipulated independently anymore, but I can live with the trade-off. I do like the idea of turning up the Head Turner sensitivity. Even though it didn't solve my eyebrow problem, it does mean I'm able to keep an eye on my screen easier when my puppet isn't looking directly out at me. I suppose it must be a problem with my camera or my face or there's something in my background disrupting the program. Until I have a different setup I'm just going to live with my solution.

[dansmithpukka]

I seem to be having this issue also. when turning to the right my right eyebrow shoots right up. I even get this effect in non head turning puppets.

[dansmithpukka]

I'm also finding eyebrow strength has no affect at all. Is anyone else noticing this?

[oksamurai]

For me, eyebrow issues are usually a lighting issue, especially if it's happening in every puppet. Better light = more accurate tracking (usually).

If you're seeing a consistent issue like only the right eyebrow shoots up when turning one way for a particular puppet, it's possible there's something off in the artwork - maybe something was mistagged. The fact that eyebrow strength doesn't seem to be working seems to point towards this too. Check every eye and eyebrow tag and the original artwork. Compare with an example puppet like Chloe from the start panel.

If it's still happening, maybe share a screenshot or video to show us what's happening and we can try to troubleshoot further...

[CHACHILLIE]

The solution/hack I used is to add a face behavior to the eyebrows THEMSELVES and then adjust eyebrow strength from there. Shouldn't have to do this but just be glad we are getting to use technology that is really still beta for retail.