UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
3D Modelling & Animation
Character Animation: Lip-Sync Animation
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
Agenda
Definitions Selection of sub-objects Vertex clusters Blend shapes Using MEL for saving selection sets Workflow Managing audio
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
Definitions
Lip-sync - synchronizing facial animation to audio over time
Facial animation achieved via morph-targets - (metamorphosis) - ‘morph’ general term used in computing for transforming and blending one image into another over time.
Maya uses the term ‘Blend Shapes’ to refer to what other packages and authors may call ‘morph-targets’
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
Aims of Lip-Sync
Ideally convey speech and aspects of emotion Full facial characterisation requires morph targets for
facial shapes (phonemes) associated with spoken dialog and facial expressions associated with emotion and gesture
Time-consuming manual animation craft - an acquired skill
Animation semi-automated in some packages (MotionBuilder) but still relies on manual creation of facial shapes as a basis for lip-sync sequence
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
Facial shapes
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
Blend shape collection of facial shapes
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
Base Shape and Target Blend Shape
Base Target
Target influences base shape
Slider determines amount of influence applied
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
Cluster weights
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
Phoneme Chart
PhonemeExampleAEcatAOfoughtAXalasBbikeDdamFfoxGgateHhatIYheatKcakeKGconcurLlock
MmoonNnewOWgoatPpointSsiteSHshapeTtapUHlookUWlootVveerZzooZHPleasure
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
Creating Selection Sets with MEL
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
MEL procedure made from selection set
Paste procedure into here and press CTRL+ENTER
Call procedure with procedure name in this pane then CTRL+ENTER
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
Creating MEL procedures from echoed commands
proc selectVertices () {
select -r pSphere1.vtx[298] ;select -tgl pSphere1.vtx[297] ;select -tgl pSphere1.vtx[296] ;select -tgl pSphere1.vtx[295] ;
}
Paste procedure into upper pane of script editor - press CTRL+ENTER
Call procedure with procedure name and press CTRL+ENTER
e.g. selectVertices CRTL+ENTER
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
Workflow
Create mouth opening if required Select vertices and create vertex clusters Could use MEL to help re-select vertice sets Modify vertex cluster with paint-weights tool Duplicate base shape to create target shapes Edit target shapes for lip-sync (phonemes) and facial
expression requirements Key-frame expressive dialog using imported audio file Preview sequence as a PlayBlast Composite audio and video in external package (Premiere)
UFCEKT-20-33D Modelling and Animation
Handling Audio
Supported audio formats .wav, .aif, aiff Import audio onto timeline - make sure track set Audio also appears in Trax editor Set playback to real-time to hear and scrub audio Set the playback speed via the Timeline preference dialog Audio rendered into a PlayBlast window Render final sequence in video editor with associated sound
track