Rigging a mesh head

[pepper Mocha]

I am trying to rig a mesh head I made in Zbrush. Ive looked at several tutorials but couldn't find any that described the process of rigging a mesh head. before I attempt it myself, could those who are knowledgeable on this topic give me a simple guide to the steps involved so I could understand it clearer? 

[Nalates Urriah]

Wow... you are opening a can of worms.

The Lab is currently in the process of completing Project Bento. They have added new bones and attachments points to the SL armature. So, EVERYTHING is changing.

Next, the current avatar in use in SL has almost no bones in the head. Facial animation is handled by morphing shape. There no way to load in an animation or script that controls the morphing. All the 3D modeling programs provide ways to handle morphs. But, there is no way to get morph information into SL.

The Lab's solution to this lack of user morph control is Project Bento. See the SL Wiki: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Project_Bento_Testing

The first link to Bento goes to my blog. I have videos of some of the Project Bento user group meetings. Inara Pey at Living in a Modem World has audio and written summaries of the meeting discussion.

For information on yur to rig in SL, refer to YouTube. Look for Gaia Clary and/or Medhue. They have video tutorials on rigging and related SL issues. Gaia is the maker of AvaStar and has the Machinimatrix.org site. There are free and retail classes offered. It is Blender oriented. But, rigging is rigging no mater the modeling program. It just becomes a mater of where the tools are in which menu.

Cathy Foil makes MayaStar. I don't know if she has made any tutorials.