If you’ve ever wondered whether MGear can handle cartoony facial rigs, the answer is yes — it absolutely can.

Recently, someone asked me on YouTube if MGear supports stylized or cartoony face setups. It does, through its Facial Rigger tool. While this tool hasn’t seen major feature updates since around 2018 (aside from Maya compatibility updates), it’s still very usable today with a few small fixes and workflow adjustments.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through:

• How to set up the MGear Facial Rigger
• A required code fix for newer Maya versions
• Recommended build settings
• Common gotchas
• How to integrate it into your Shifter pipeline
• Game-export considerations

If you’re working in Autodesk Maya and using MGear, this guide will save you hours of frustration.

Continue reading, or watch the video here.

What Is MGear?

Maya is a professional 3D animation tool used in film and game development.

mGear is an open-source rigging framework for Maya. Because it’s open source, you get full access to the code — meaning you can modify modules, extend tools, and fix issues yourself when needed.

That flexibility is exactly what makes this facial rigger still viable today.

Step 1: Create a Proper Parent Joint (Critical Fix)

Before running the facial rigger, you must define a proper parent joint.

If you don’t, you’ll likely encounter build errors.

What to do:

1. Create a new joint (this will act as your lip root).
2. Your You can use the Jaw and Head joint if you have them

This joint becomes the parent for all generated lip joints.

Without this step, you’ll run into hierarchy-related build failures.

Step 2: Fix the DAG Path Error (Required Code Update)

If you attempt to build the lip rig, you may encounter an error related to:
DAG path / long name issues

Why This Happens

Older versions of the facial rigger used:

pm.listRelatives()

Here, pm refers to PyMEL. However, modern MGear uses its own PyMaya module internally, and that older call can fail.

The Fix

Replace the problematic pm.listRelatives call with a Maya-cmds-based alternative that does not rely on PyMEL. You can find this at line 133 in scripts/mgear/rigbits/lip_rigger.py

#geo = pm.listRelatives(edge_loop[0], parent=True)[0]


edge0 = edge_loop[0]

# If it's a PyMEL edge/component, get the mesh shape then its transform
if hasattr(edge0, "node"):
geo = edge0.node().getParent()
else:
# Fallback: treat it like a string "pCubeShape1.e[12]" → "pCubeShape1"
geo_name = str(edge0).split(".")[0]
geo = pm.listRelatives(geo_name, parent=True)[0]

This makes the code:

• PyMEL independent
• Compatible with newer Maya versions
• More stable overall

I recommend keeping this snippet saved with your rig tools so you can reapply it when updating MGear.

Step 3: Select Your Edge Loop

Now for the actual build process.
How to Select the Lip Loop

1. Select your mesh.
2. Switch to Edge Mode.
3. Shift + Double Click an edge to grab the full loop.
4. Click the button in the Facial Rigger UI to load the edges.

This edge loop determines where lip joints will be created.

Step 4: Define Upper and Lower Vertices

You must also select:

• One upper lip vertex
• One lower lip vertex

Why?

Sometimes lips overlap. The tool uses these vertices to determine:

• Center placement
• Mirror behavior
• Control orientation

Select each vertex and press the corresponding button in the UI.

Step 5: Create a Face Root Group

I recommend creating a dedicated face root group.

In a typical Shifter rig:

• Parent it under something like neck_C0_head_ctl_cnx
• Ensure it follows the head control
• Confirm the IK system properly drives it

Set this as your Static Rig Parent in the Facial Rigger UI.

This ensures your lip rig:

• Moves with the head
• Maintains proper hierarchy
• Exports cleanly for games

Step 6: Build Settings Explained

Here are the important options:

🔹 Compute Topological Autoskin

• Automatically skins the lips.
• I turn this OFF.
• I prefer manual facial skinning for better control.

🔹 Rigid Loops & Falloff Loops

• Controls joint density.
• More loops = more joints.
• Good for cinematic rigs.
• Overkill for most game rigs.

Interestingly, the tool appears to base joint count on the number of edges in your selected loop. If true, that’s actually powerful — it could allow near 1:1 joint-to-vertex setups.

Step 7: Export & Import JSON Config

You can:

• Export build settings to JSON
• Reimport later

I save these next to my rig files.

This makes rebuilding extremely fast.

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Step 8: Automate With Shifter Custom Steps

mGear Shifter allows pre and post build scripts.

You can:

1. Open the Shifter Guide Manager.
2. Go to Guide Settings.
3. Add a Pre or Post Custom Step.
4. Load your JSON.
5. Auto-build the lip rig during rig compilation.

This is ideal for production pipelines.

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Step 9: After Building – Cleanup

mGear Shifter allows pre and post build scripts.

Once built, expect to:

• Reparent some controls properly
• Adjust corner control placement
• Parent lip joints under head/jaw for export
• Clean up naming

The tool hasn’t been actively supported for years — minor cleanup is normal.
Joint Naming Fix (Recommended)

I rename all lip joints after building.

Why?

When skinning:

• Clear names save time
• Old generated names are not descriptive
• Game exports benefit from consistent naming conventions

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Density Observation (Important)

No matter how I adjusted joint settings, I noticed the tool sometimes built the same number of joints.

This suggests it may be calculating based on:

• Edge loop density

If that’s true, that’s actually powerful:

• More edges → more joints
• Fewer edges → fewer joints
• Potential near-per-vertex control

That dramatically simplifies skinning.

Skinning Results

After light cleanup and skinning:

• Lip motion is solid
• Jaw separation works
• Upper lip follows head
• Lower lip follows jaw

For a quick facial rig solution, this is surprisingly effective.

Would I polish it further for cinematic work? Absolutely.

But for:

• Stylized characters
• Game production
• Quick prototyping

It works very well.

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Final Thoughts

Even though the MGear Facial Rigger hasn’t been fully updated in years, it’s still a powerful tool if you:

• Add a proper parent joint
• Patch the PyMEL call
• Clean up hierarchy after build
• Rename joints for clarity

If you’re building stylized characters and need a fast lip setup in Maya, this is a great solution.