The cheek areas of the face are influenced by many facial movements and expressions. As the jaw opens and then possibly moves side-to-side or in and out, the cheeks stretch and deform in complex ways as their tension increases and decreases. Any movements of the mouth cause creases and bulges of the cheek area.
Cheek puffing is caused by actions such as chewing with a full mouth, inflating the mouth with air, or pushing the tongue against the sides of the mouth. Any of these actions makes the cheek tissue bulge outward. In a smile or sneer, the zygomatic major or levator labii superioris muscles, respectively, pile up tissue and result in bulges around the cheek bones and wrinkling around the eyes.
When you’re shaping the cheek puffing area, you may want to first adjust the ease-in curve for the Puff deformer to get the general behavior of how this area bulges (see Working with the Region Deform Areas). This curve defines how much the cheek hollows in versus how much it puffs out.
Once you’ve got the behavior as you like it, you can tweak it by painting the puff map, then sculpting the puff deformers, as described in these two sections:
• Sculpting the Cheek Puff Area
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