Talking Head with Anime Studio

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 4:55 pm

Although I own a copy of AS Pro, I'm curious how easy it is to only use the tools and functions available in the non-pro version. There are no group layers, so those have to be replaced with bone layers.

Here is an example movie file I made of a talking head. I didn't use real lipsynching with mouth shapes, but rather used the wave file as switch data and three mouth shapes (open, half open, and closed), to keep things simple.

Talking Head

Not too difficult, only I really missed the Render function when I designed the head (in fact, I used it intensively). IMHO the Render function should have been included in the non-pro version. Without rendering you are working more or less working in the dark. Here is the archived source file, and the movie on YouTube**.

Take care.

** Note: The YouTube file misses a few of the finer details that are present in the original .anme and in the Flash Video file.

bushi · Post by **bushi** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 8:09 pm

I've had the non-pro version of AS for only a short time. Thanks for the tip on using bone layers as group layers, that's very useful. And you're right about the render function. I find myself having to export the animation a lot to check separate layers where being able to render it would work much better. The talking head looks good. Could you explain a bit about what you mean by "switch data".

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 9:48 pm

That is my abbreviation of Source data in a switch layer (in this case the switch layer of the face, which contains three vector layers with an open mouth, a half open mouth, and a closed mouth).

Click on Source Data... to select and load the wave file.

After selecting the file and clicking OK, this appears:

The source data is used to select vector layers inside the switch layer, for loud passages in the sound file the top layer is used and for softer bits lower layers.

bushi · Post by **bushi** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 8:18 pm

Thanks for the info. I tried doing a simple switch layer and it worked just fine. That's a really powerful tool. One odd thing though, when I first set it up I didn't click the "Interpolate sub-layers" box. When I'd export the animation, AS would set the output to the digital audio output rather then the analog out for the speakers. This effectively turned off the audio on my Mac (OS X 10.3.9). I'd have to go to the control panel and reset the audio out. After checking the Interpolate box, everything worked fine. Strange. Anyway, thanks again.