animated mouth on top of a photo

rogermate · Post by **rogermate** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:13 am

I'm going to use a photo as the face of a character. I'll need the character to talk so I'll need to create mouth positions for each phenome.

Which approach is best?

Should I create image files using Gimp?
Or should I use draw tools in AS to have vector based mouths
on a layer in front of the face?

My guess would be since I'll be constrained with the photo image, might as well build the mouth positions in a graphics package into a switch lawyer in ASP. But I'm curious if anyone has points why the other approach might be better, or has other suggestions.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:27 am

Depends on the style you want. A drawn mouth won't match as well. In my opinion it would look pretty cool to use images of the mouth the same as the photos of the face If you have access to the actual "model" or person you use for the head you could photograph the phonemes. Or you could photograph any ones mouth and match them up.

-vern

rogermate · Post by **rogermate** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:00 am

heyvern wrote:Depends on the style you want. A drawn mouth won't match as well. In my opinion it would look pretty cool to use images of the mouth the same as the photos of the face If you have access to the actual "model" or person you use for the head you could photograph the phonemes. Or you could photograph any ones mouth and match them up.

-vern

I don't have access to a model, but I could shoot images of someone else mouthing the phonems in a pose which lines up with the source photo.
Then do some sort of color-tone matching, sizing and trimming in Gimp.

Are .png files the best to use for this purpose?

Conan O'Brien's late night show used to do a lot of that as live video, they would have some actor talk lines and just his mouth would be superimposed on the image of a famous person on a TV screen. Not animation, a video trick, but some of it was pretty funny.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:07 am

Yes, you would probably want to use PNG so you could have an "irregular" transparency around the phoneme shapes.

If you use this technique you won't be able to do "video" or smooth motion. To get that "smooth" interpolation you would want to use vectors for the phonemes. Of course it won't match as well.

The image switch layer effect would be "step" key frame.

-vern

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:11 am

You can use vectors and a texture of the current lips and skin for the shapes. Then warp them with bones.

rogermate · Post by **rogermate** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:47 am

heyvern wrote:Yes, you would probably want to use PNG so you could have an "irregular" transparency around the phoneme shapes.

If you use this technique you won't be able to do "video" or smooth motion. To get that "smooth" interpolation you would want to use vectors for the phonemes. Of course it won't match as well.

The image switch layer effect would be "step" key frame.

-vern

Even with vector characters, the animation of the mouth that I've seen with AS & Papagayo seems to jump from phenome shape to shape. I haven't perceived smooth motion between mouth positions.

Is there a setting other than the default?

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 7:32 am

To get smooth interpolation in a switch two things must be done.

1. Set that option in the layers switch properties
2. All layers in the switch must have identical points

Usually you would draw a base moth shape then duplicate it over and over and change it for each of the other shapes to keep the layers the same. When you do this and set smooth interpolation on the switch layer you will then get that smooth motion.

-vern