Talking Head Using Bones, Help Please

[Tvick]

I am using Anime Studio 5, in the tutorials (4.3) you work through an example on creating lip syncing using bones and a script. However that feature is only available in Anime Studio Pro ( I think). I am very new to this all and basically all I am doing is trying to make a talking head animation of my sister as a practical joke, what is the best way of accomplishing this task? I will be importing a custom audio file from audacity for the soundtrack. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[mkelley]

Actually, the dead solid simple way of animating a head talking is to use switch layers and Papagayo.

Read through the example using that and I'm sure you'll get the idea -- you can have your sister say whatever you want! <bg>

[Tvick]

Thanks for the reply! Will it still work if I am using an image (.png) that I imported when using switch layers? Am I on the right track by opening the mouth in several different positions varying from open to closed using bones and saving each position as a different layer? Thanks!

[shoepie]

Depending on the quality you want have a look at tutorials 5.1 or 5.2. That's lip synching using switch layers not bones which might be easier.

In the 5.1 tutorial the layers called "wide, 4,3,2 and closed" don't have to be vectors they can be different .PNGs you've created.

[Tvick]

Thanks for the reply! Well I guess the part that is confusing me is that when I import the image file, it imports as a single layer. All of the examples in the tutorials are already composed of multiple layers. I messed with it enough create bones in the mouth where I could open and close it but then realized I was working in a tutorial for anime studio pro.

So the problem is I import it as one layer. I need several layers in order to use papagayo, right? What is the best way to create multiple layers with the mouth in a different position on each?

I may be making no sense, this is day 1 for me. Ha
Thanks for all the help guys!

[heyvern]

An image layer is just one layer. You would need to have multiple image layers (one for each mouth shape) in one switch layer. Using bones with one image would require duplicating that bone/image layer grouping for each different mouth shape. This sounds... a bit like overkill to me. It would be so much easier to create the different images in an image editor and load each one in as a separate layer into the switch.

If you have access to video of your sister you could grab different frames of her speaking. Crop the mouth from different frames for different mouth shapes.

If you want to use bones your best bet would be to skip the switch layer lip sync and just use the bones to distort the image layer for the speaking. It's going to be almost the same amount of work anyway doing it with a switch layer and you won't need so many copies of the same layers.

You could just copy/paste the bone key frames for each mouth shape and apply them to the bone layer as needed.

-vern

[mkelley]

So the problem is I import it as one layer. I need several layers in order to use papagayo, right? What is the best way to create multiple layers with the mouth in a different position on each?
!

I assume what you are saying is that you have ONE image of your sister, and you're wondering now how to get all those mouth shapes. As someone wrote here, you could grab different mouths from a video of her, but in reality it doesn't need to be her mouth, or even a human mouth. Which is to say you could use one of the cartoon mouths already supplied and it would probably look good (funny, but good).

However, there is also a human mouth supplied (it's just called "Mouth" in the resources -- do an import and you'll get it), and you could also use this. You may need to do some editing in Photoshop to make the skin color match (and perhaps the lips as well) but it will only take you a moment or two. The Mouth images aren't the full phoneme set (so the sync won't be as good as if you used that) but should be enough for your own purpose (of course, making the phonemes yourself from your sister's mouth in Photoshop would be excellent practice for some critical animation work).

[Tvick]

Thanks guys!

[SlatersGarage]

He's referring to the "Reagan" Tutorial, and I'm having a spot o' trouble with it myself... I can't seem to get the bones to behave on my image in the same way that they behave in the Reagan Tutorial... The whole image distorts when I try to manipulate the bones, instead of the bones moving together like in the tutorial... And I do have the frame bones around the outside of the pic as well...

I have all the bone constraint settings the same as in the tutorial, but do the bones in the mouth have to be parented to the key bone, or does that not matter?

BTW, I don't have Pro, just AS... I know I can't use the Audio Bone Wiggle feature without Pro, but I was hoping to keyframe it out, but the bone constraint issue still has me puzzled...

[SlatersGarage]

Never mind... I just got it.

Damn, I hate when I post a question then answer it myself, especially when it's 2 seconds later.

[Tvick]

How?