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nux 199 posts
alright, i'm reserving my spot. hopefully i'll be able to find the time for this one.
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nux 199 posts
a little warning ahead of time though, i'm gonna need a lot of guidance and tips, lol, i've never put any kind of sound to an animation, done any character anamation (beyond a walk cycle) so this is completely foreign to me.
but this is a good way to learn. compete for soiled socks!
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ivanisavich 4,196 posts
Hey man, that's what these challenges are all about!
Haven't you heard? Learning = cool
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nux 199 posts
lol, you bet!
i'm actually looking for a few initial pointers, i really haven't got any idea how to even start this.
i'd like to model and rig my own character for this, but i know i won't have the time for that. but even in using one already made..
a friend of mine was telling me he has preset mouth-shapes/poses for his characters that mimic the vowel and consonant sounds, so he can just place these poses on the various frames to achieve approproate timng and such. is thi the best way to go about it. is there an easy way to do this in max?
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ivanisavich 4,196 posts
Yes...that's the easiest way to do it. It's the method that uses morph targets, and in max, you would use the "Morpher" modifier.
Basically, you set out some poses, like "smiling", "frowning", "mouth open" etc etc, and then you animate sliders that transition between all of those facial poses to create movement. Very simple, and the max help files have a nice tutorial on it (with the army dude character).
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nux 199 posts
fantastic. thanks t.
i haven't found a sound clip yet. i'm rolling a few possibilities over in my head but still some narrowing down to do.
i am going to use rig. It's a free one from Peter Starostin. I can't find the original thread i downloaded it from so i'll host it to give everyone here access.
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nux 199 posts
i like clip. i'm not sure if it is good enough though.
feedback? will this do?
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nux 199 posts
alrighty, well i'm going to assume that this clip wil be alright.
i'm likely not going to have any real time to sit down and work on this till the weekend. schools in crunch time now and i'm doing ten hour shifts this week so progress will be slwo over the next few days.
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ivanisavich 4,196 posts
That clip will be fine bro...good luck
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nux 199 posts
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nux 199 posts
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ALi 608 posts
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nux 199 posts
its a *.wav file.
one to be exact.
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nux 199 posts
any thoughts?
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flashmasterfong 238 posts
The wav might be damaged, I used a wav for mine and it imported into max fine.
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ALi 608 posts
I found the problem. It's about codec. I used quicktime export. use my version. it's ok now.
wave file is not allowed here. so, I post a zip.
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nux 199 posts
wow! ali that's fantastic, thank you so much, really appreciate that.
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ALi 608 posts
Happy to hear that!
Go on animating and keep us updated!
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flashmasterfong 238 posts
Yea I actually cant wait to see this one.
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nux 199 posts
alright, i've had a few minutes to sit down today, ploted out what i wanted, and started thinking about how i want my chracters moving and interaqcting. i didn't have a chance to render anything but i'll have lots of updates tomorrow.
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nux 199 posts
alrighty. this image is the scene setup. lighting and character poses and such.
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Richard 1,943 posts
the poses are very nice but i think you could work a little more on your lighting
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nux 199 posts
thanks, what do you think needs to change about it? what would make it better?
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nux 199 posts
this is a little anim test. i haven't done any lip sinking yet. the chaacter on the right will be the one talking. the one moving now is the listener.
i'm going for two guys looking out over a balcony at the scenery, and talking about love. that's the idea anyway.
see the clip .
please, LOTS of help, god knows i need it!
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Richard 1,943 posts
your links is not working. as for the lighting.. have you got any shadows in it? i cant seem to see any...
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nux 199 posts
hey richard, the link works now, i was uploading it while i posted and we haven't got hi-speed here, so it took a little while.
and yeah i'm gonna work on the shdows and such. thanks!
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nux 199 posts
alright.
with this i wass trying just to get the basic movement and interaction between the characters mapped out. i'm aware it is quite awkward, and any suggestions are, of course, most welcome!
looking forward to the c&c.
a couple questions as well, is it best to get the movements and such all mapped out, to get it flowing how i'd like it smoothly first, and then do the lip syncing, or should i be doing both at the same time... or the lip syncing first?
really don't have a clue about a good workflow.
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nux 199 posts
another q.
what's a good way to get a nice decent quality render while keeping the file size small?
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Richard 1,943 posts
what i usualy do is either make the main body movements then the lipsinc the the final body movement touches or i just do the lipsic first the animate the body... its for you to make your choice
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flashmasterfong 238 posts
What I do is after I render, I edit in premiere then export it. After that a I shrink it using quicktime pro.
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nux 199 posts
well it looks like i'm going to have to rethink some of this. i've started the ipsync and it turns out that SOME of the facial movements on the merged character are linked to the controllers of the native character....
so, maybe i'll have to choose a different rig for the silent lad... not sure how i'm going to fix it yet.
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flashmasterfong 238 posts
Try renaming that character.
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nux 199 posts
all that was in the scene when i merged the character was the original one, since they are the same model, it asked me what do do and i selected auto-rename all.
so it has all been renamed...
i think though that i might just try playing with camera angles and movemens to avoid there being a problem with the second character.
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nux 199 posts
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Global 1,589 posts
HOw weird is that?! Just nipped in to check out the other contestants and found that you're working with the same soundfile!
[Humphrey Boggart voice] Of all the soundclips, in all the movies, in all the world... and he walks into mine! [/Humphrey Boggart voice]
Anyhoo... I like the lipsync you have there... BUT... please don't use that camera shot to solve your problems! Don't let a technical hitch dictate your creativity!! One very important part of animating is 'framing' the shot correctly. The first image you posted made me want to download and look at the anim, because it is framed well, and had very strong poses. One way around your problem would be to seperate it into two files.., since these guys aren't interacting it shouldn't be too technically challenging to animate and render them seperately, then bring them together in compositing.
Also, re, your question about lipsync... I'd say the best method would be to animate the body gestures first. That way you can concentrate on communicating the emotions through body language before you try communicating emotion through facial expressions. NB lipsyncing dialogue is not just about getting the mouth in the right shape, at the right time... it's about getting the emotional content through those shapes!
Hope that helps.
ps. check out
http://www.keithlango.com for a great tutorial on workflow and lipsync
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nux 199 posts
wow, ha ha, that is a real coincidence eh!
and no i'm not going to use that camera placement, lol, god that'd be aweful eh! i just wanted to make a short close-up render so the lads and lasses here could have a look-see.
i am still going to play with camera movement and such, but i'm going to stick quite closely to the pose picture i posted earlier.
and thanks quite kindly for that link as well, i appreciate the tut.
looking forward to see what you come up with for the sound clip.
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nux 199 posts
alrighty, heres another .
this isn't the camera setup or anything, i just rendered it from this angle to get some feedback on the lipsync. this is the whole scene synced up.
remember i'm TOTALLY new to this so i need all the c&c i can get!
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ALi 608 posts
Hey, great lipsync.
I think working on eyes, eyebrows and eyelids will make his face more dynamic. altough, I like it.
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nux 199 posts
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nux 199 posts
for this i've animated the eyes. trying to give hima a bit more life.
and i'm having trouble animating the eybrows. i'm using auto key to try to get them to move but the jeys aren't holding the new positions. anyone know what's wrong?
and please, lots opf c&c.
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Richard 1,943 posts
could you compres your video next time you upload, because i don't always wanna spend 15 minutes before i can see anything?
i would work on the head movements and make the mouth a bit tighter and make it open a bit more...
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nux 199 posts
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nux 199 posts
i'm gonna be away for the wqeekend, but any additional c&c on what i have would be much appreciated.
talk to yall in a few days!
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ALi 608 posts
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nux 199 posts
well folks, i'm going to post a final render over the next day or two... hopefully i'll have a t least a little time to do something more with what i've got already, but, who knows...
this is the last week of the course i'm taking right now so i have an essay and a test this week. might not be able to get anything else added...
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nux 199 posts
alrighty, the t man was just over aaaannd informed me that the deadline has been extended which works out PERFECTLY. so, next week i'll defanitely be doing some major tweaking.
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nux 199 posts
hey yall, man oh man, what a dissapoiuntment these past two wees have been, so busy with wor and my course finishing up that i've had no time to come bac to this.
that means i'll be posting what will probably be my final post for this challenge. maybe, just maybe i'll be able to get bac to it briefly before the deadline, so i'd still really appreciate feedback on everything.
(maybe)
PLEASE loads of c&c.
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ALi 608 posts
Nice one nux!
I have no major crits on it. simply like it.
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Global 1,589 posts
Time is always a killer when you are working around work and other things (life in general). What you have is ok, though it is a shame you had to ditch the initial setup and posing.
The lip sync is good, though it seems to be a little too 'rounded' - as in, there are no really distinct shapes when the words are stressed. The same goes for the facial expressions. You certainly have the right idea about the general expressions (limited though they are on that rig) but they seem to blend too smoothly from one to the other, where sometimes a really quick change is necessary.
One other thing I noticed is that there is no inbetweens on the blink... goes from open to close in one frame.
Hope the above helps.
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nux 199 posts
